155/6 (20.0)
CR : 7.75
163/5 (20.0)
CR : 8.15
London Spirit won by 8 runs 🏆
Player of the Match
David Warner
70(45)
19.4
6
L Wood to J Bairstow
SIXXXXXXX!! Hammered away with a horizontal blade. Shortish delivery on off-stump. Bairstow goes deep into the crease and then pulls it hard over deep mid wicket for a six.
Clean hit! But a little too late. All Wood needs to do is keep his foot behind the line.
19.5
0
L Wood to J Bairstow
DOT! Welsh Fire, oh my dear lord. They tried. Bairstow gave it all. But London Spirit are the ones who get over the line in this nail-biter. The visiting team has won this cliffhanger by 8 runs. Back of a length, darted on middle and leg-stump. Bairstow stands tall and punches back to the right of the bowler.
Over 20
Welsh Fire 155/6
Jonny Bairstow86(50)
Chris Green32(21)
Luke Wood1-35(20 b)
LS won by 8 runs
1:30 AM IST, 9:00 PM local time: London Spirit win by 8 runs.
For the last 45 minutes or so, Jonny Bairstow — along with Chris Green — teased a heist, keeping us at the edge of our seats. However, in the end, they could not break the 'Spirit' of the team from London. Williamson and co. register first points on the table, while Welsh Fire's wait continues.
The pitch was a sluggish one for the better part of the evening. Hence, you saw renowned dashers too struggle to find their rhythm and timing. But as we have seen in cricket over the years, the best ones find a way. Earlier David Warner showed us that. His start was sedate. At times, he even looked scratchy. But his will to fight it out, which by now has almost become instinctive, spurred him on. The crowd gave him a hard time. Even booed when he got to fifty, but the southpaw kept fighting and helped his team post a competitive total.
Cameos from Jamie Smith and Ashton Turner too proved to be vital in the end. For Welsh Fire, the troika of their frontline pace bowlers — Meredith, Payne and Hull — impressed, but the second line of attack ended up getting carted.
But Spirit one-upped the home team in that regard. The new ball bowlers bowled probing lines and length, used whatever movement was on offer and made run scoring tough for the Welsh Fire batters. The pressure was kept building through the middle overs as well as the bowlers executed their plans right and found wickets at regular intervals.
At 55/6, result seemed like a foregone conclusion. But then, Chris Green walked into the middle. His effervescence ignited the hopes of flame, before Bairstow — who had been unusually quiet until then — flipped the switch on. The duo scored 82 runs off the last 35 balls to bring the team to the doorstep of a win. However, Luke Wood held his nerve in the final set to ensure that the Spirit came out on top.
For the last 45 minutes or so, Jonny Bairstow — along with Chris Green — teased a heist, keeping us at the edge of our seats. However, in the end, they could not break the 'Spirit' of the team from London. Williamson and co. register first points on the table, while Welsh Fire's wait continues.
The pitch was a sluggish one for the better part of the evening. Hence, you saw renowned dashers too struggle to find their rhythm and timing. But as we have seen in cricket over the years, the best ones find a way. Earlier David Warner showed us that. His start was sedate. At times, he even looked scratchy. But his will to fight it out, which by now has almost become instinctive, spurred him on. The crowd gave him a hard time. Even booed when he got to fifty, but the southpaw kept fighting and helped his team post a competitive total.
Cameos from Jamie Smith and Ashton Turner too proved to be vital in the end. For Welsh Fire, the troika of their frontline pace bowlers — Meredith, Payne and Hull — impressed, but the second line of attack ended up getting carted.
But Spirit one-upped the home team in that regard. The new ball bowlers bowled probing lines and length, used whatever movement was on offer and made run scoring tough for the Welsh Fire batters. The pressure was kept building through the middle overs as well as the bowlers executed their plans right and found wickets at regular intervals.
At 55/6, result seemed like a foregone conclusion. But then, Chris Green walked into the middle. His effervescence ignited the hopes of flame, before Bairstow — who had been unusually quiet until then — flipped the switch on. The duo scored 82 runs off the last 35 balls to bring the team to the doorstep of a win. However, Luke Wood held his nerve in the final set to ensure that the Spirit came out on top.
Hero of the Match: David Warner
David Warner (Hero of the Match): "They took it very deep, Jonny (Bairstow) gave it all, a lot of credit goes to him. It got a bit easy under the lights, but we executed our plans as well. I am enjoying this format; finally, I am getting the hang of his format. When you get out there, there are sometimes 5 balls and 10 balls after which you rotate the strike. So, it's nice. Loving the crowd here (in The Hundred). Now, we have another away game in Manchester. We have a great energetic bunch of boys."
It took 6 matches, nearly a week and a "Spirit"ed bowling performance for us to see a total being defended in The Men's Hundred this year. But more importantly, it was a thriller that went down the wire, entertaining us all. That's the main part, isn't it?
We hope you enjoyed the coverage as much as we did bringing it to you. The commentators were Darpan Tikiya and Arjun Bhalla. The scorer was Bishal Mandal. Join us tomorrow for another double header. Goodbye for now!
We hope you enjoyed the coverage as much as we did bringing it to you. The commentators were Darpan Tikiya and Arjun Bhalla. The scorer was Bishal Mandal. Join us tomorrow for another double header. Goodbye for now!