Welsh Fire vs London Spirit, Sophia Garden
Welsh Fire 95/9 in 100 balls (Redmayne 35; Gibson 2-10) lost to London Spirit 96/3 in 58 balls (Knight 34*, Gibson 34*; Mathews 2-18) by 7 wickets with 42 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Danielle Gibson.
London Spirit registered their fourth win of the season. They chased down a target of 96 with seven wickets and 42 balls to spare. However, they still failed to advance to Playoffs as Birmingham Phoenix finished third on higher net run rate.
Put into bat, the Fire never gathered momentum as they kept losing regular wickets. Freya Davies dismissed Bryony Smith with the eighth ball. Georgia Redmayne kept the scoreboard ticking, while Hayley Matthews struggled to get going.
Matthews was on 7 when Deepti Sharma trapped her leg-before. The Fire lost a flurry of wickets from thereon. Skipper Sophie Luff walked back without opening her account. Piepa Cleary’s dismissal reduced them to 50/5 from 45/1. Heather Knight then got the better of Redmayne on 35.
The Fire could only add only 24 runs in the next 32 balls as they finished on 95/9.
London Spirit lost their openers on 23, and Deandra Dottin’s dismissals reduced them to 36/3. But Knight and Danielle Gibson ensured a seven-wicket victory for the Spirit. Both of them struck an unbeaten 34 off 19 deliveries.