Sophia Dunkley stars with bat and ball as Welsh Fire attain play-offs
Welsh Fire 161 for 4 (Dunkley 68) beat London Spirit 138 for 7 (Ghosh 34, Knight 34, Dunkley 2-15) by 23 runs
England star Sophia Dunkley led the way in which with 68 and a pair of for 15 in opposition to London Spirit, as Welsh Fire certified for the Hundred finals weekend for the primary time.
The workforce which didn’t win a single match final 12 months, and solely two the 12 months earlier than, is now assured a minimum of a spot within the Kia Oval eliminator, whereas they’ve one sport left to attempt to high the rankings and go straight by the Lord’s Final.
It was additionally a report attendance for a Women’s Hundred sport in Cardiff of seven,069, who loved watching the house aspect attain 161, a complete no workforce has topped on this 12 months’s competitors aside from Welsh Fire themselves.
London Spirit got here into the sport realizing their very own qualification hopes had gone, however a partnership of 68 between Heather Knight and Richa Ghosh, who each scored 34, gave them a flicker of hope earlier than the ultimate wickets tumbled below stress. They completed 138 for 7.
Welsh Fire head to Northern Superchargers subsequent for a straight shootout for the prospect to complete high, if Southern Brave don’t win their final sport at Manchester Originals.
Beaumont was coming into the sport on the again of her record-shattering 118 final day trip, and appeared to select up precisely the place she left off taking 20 from the primary 10 balls bowled by Danielle Gibson and Sarah Glenn, after Spirit opted to bowl first.
Dunkley joined within the assault because the 25-ball powerplay yielded 53 runs for the house aspect.
The first wicket got here as a little bit of a shock as Spirit captain Heather Knight turned to her seventh bowler after 50 balls and Sophie Munro opened with a crazy, in-swinging slower ball which clear bowled Beaumont.
Better was to comply with subsequent ball when Laura Harris went for a drive and edged behind to Richa Ghosh. She reviewed the choice, however extremely edge confirmed a faint contact and she or he needed to go first ball leaving Munro on a hat-trick.
Hayley Matthews hit that supply by backward level for 4, the West Indian again within the aspect after recovering from a shoulder damage.
Dunkley and Matthew introduced up the 100 in 64 balls. Dunkley additionally hit the non-public landmark of a half century off 35 balls, lastly dismissed for 68 off 48.
Matthews hit a helpful 36 within the closing phases. Bryce hit her first ball for six, tipped over the deep midwicket boundary by Danielle Gibson, the primary six with simply three balls of the innings remaining.
Gibson wasted no time in clearing the boundary, hitting two sixes in her opening flurry earlier than being trapped LBW to Shabnim Ismail for 18 off seven balls. Amelia Kerr quickly adopted, a pointy catch at additional cowl by Beaumont off the bowling of Claire Nicholas.
Grace Harris was LBW to Ismail earlier than Ghosh and Knight placed on 68 in 52 balls. Ghosh was caught by Matthews making an attempt to reverse sweep Dunkley. The essential wicket of Knight fell quickly after, an inside edge onto the pad after which the stumps off Dunkley.