By Huzaifa Yousafzai from Lords
Hayley Matthews displayed her flare and prowess as the Bajan’s unbeaten 78 from 46 balls took the Welsh Fire to a comfortable 6 wicket win over the London Spirit.
Having defeated the defending champions Southern Brave and then Birmingham Phoenix in their last two games, Spirit were unable to prevent Matthews and co from ending their unbeaten streak.
Having lost their fast bowling spearhead to injury, the Welsh Fire were able to put the absence of Shabnim Ismail behind them as they came out victorious in a contest dominated by the batters from both sides.
Fire’s seamers justified their skipper Tammy Beaumont’s decision to bowl first when some early swing in the morning sunshine at Lords, led to a Beth Langston inswinger knocking back Georgia Redmayne’s leg stump.
Meg Lanning then unleashed four consecutive sweep shot boundaries against Hayley Matthews before picking up Langston for a six and a four over the legside as Spirit ended their powerplay on 37 for 1.
Cordelia Griffith was the next batter to be dismissed when she charged down the wicket to the off spin of Georgia Davis before being stumped by Sarah Bryce.
Spirit’s captain, Heather Knight only lasted four deliveries when she picked out Georgia Elwiss at cover before Lanning followed her back to the pavilion with Davies picking up two wickets in the space of three balls.
Halfway through their innings, the home side were 73 for 4 having lost Knight and Lanning but the new batters Dani Gibson and Deepti Sharma continued to push the innings forward at a fast rate.
A 67 run partnership for the fifth wicket included a brutal 41 off 25 balls from England all-rounder Gibson and an unbeaten 39 from Sharma as the Spirit posted a strong first innings total of 150.
Sophia Dunkley and Tammy Beaumont started the run chase perfectly; scoring 10 runs from the first set of five as both batters hit Charli Dean for four with sweep shots that pierced the infield.
Beaumont was the first wicket to fall for the visitors when Tara Norris struck the opposition skipper on the pad with an in swinging delivery; initially given not out, a successful review from London Spirit had the decision overturned.
Gibson was next to strike when she claimed the big wicket of Dunkley caught behind for just 17 before a pair of Matthews boundaries ended Welsh Fire’s powerplay on 42 for 2.
Despite the loss of their openers, Matthews and Sarah Bryce stitched together a partnership as the Welsh Fire continued to hunt down the target, needing another 80 runs halfway through their innings.
Once again it was Dani Gibson who provided the breakthrough for the Spirit when Bryce was caught at point as the result of an excellent low catch from Tara Norris.
Despite the fall of Jess Jonassen late in the chase, Matthew’s powered on and finished the game by hitting Sharma for back to back boundaries to end on 78 not out and take her side across the line with 5 balls still remaining.
