London Spirit’s women’s team has secured a spot in the Hundred final against Welsh Fire at Lord’s after an impressive eight-wicket victory over Oval Invincibles. The Spirit’s triumph marks their first final appearance in the competition’s history and ensures that all eight teams from both the men’s and women’s divisions have now reached the Hundred final.
Opting to bowl first, the Spirit bowlers put in a disciplined performance, restricting the Invincibles to a modest total of 113 for 9. Charlie Dean led the bowling attack with impressive figures of 3 for 24, while Sarah Glenn and Deepti Sharma also contributed with economical spells.
Invincibles captain Lauren Winfield-Hill made a promising start, hitting three boundaries in the second set, but was dismissed for 21 by Dean. Alice Capsey top-scored for the Invincibles with 30, but her innings was cut short by Danielle Gibson. Marizanne Kapp also made a valuable contribution of 26, but the Spirit bowlers kept the pressure on throughout the innings.
Chasing 114 for victory, the Spirit openers, Georgia Redmayne and Meg Lanning, got off to a solid start, reaching 33 for 0 after the powerplay. Lanning was eventually dismissed for 22, but Redmayne continued to anchor the innings, finishing unbeaten on 53 from 47 balls.
Heather Knight, the Spirit captain, provided excellent support with an unbeaten 36, and the pair shared an unbroken stand of 74 to guide their team to victory with 18 balls to spare.
Redmayne, who was named the Meerkat Match Hero, expressed her delight at the team’s performance: “It’s really special. We came into this game in really good spirits. We knew if we did the simple things right that we’ve got the team to be able to win the game and get to a Lord’s final at home which is going to be incredible.”
