Indian all-rounder Deepti Sharma played a crucial role with both bat and ball as London Spirit lifted their first ever Women’s Hundred title, beating Welsh Fire by four wickets in the final at Lord’s here.
Deepti took one wicket and gave away 23 runs, and then scored 16, including the winning six runs off Hayley Matthews, as the Indian and England’s Charlie Dean jumped into each other’s arms in celebration.
Two years ago, Deepti had controversially sacked Dean after leaving her at the non-striker’s end during the third ODI against England in 2022, triggering a debate over the spirit of the game.
It was ecstasy for Deepti and despair for Dean that day, but here the two were on the same side, engineering the first win after chasing a victory target of 116 in 98 balls.
Apart from Deepti, Eva Gray (2/26) and Sarah Glenn (2/17) took two wickets each while Tera Norris (1/18) also chipped in with a wicket to restrict Welsh Fire to 115 for 8 in the stipulated 100 balls, which was built largely on Australia’s Jess Jonassen’s 41-ball 54.
In reply, Georgia Redmayne anchored the chase with a 32-ball 34.
Heather Knight (24) and Danielle Gibson (22) also chipped in with useful contributions even as Shabnim Ismail threatened to derail the chase with figures of three for 24 off her 20 balls.
But Deepti took responsibility and scored the only maximum of the match in the last moment to take her team home.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 19, 2024 | 11:57 am IS
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