Meg Lanning’s London Spirit have sent a trio of her Australian team-mates packing with a seven-wicket win in The Hundred that eliminated the Northern Superchargers.
In a match Superchargers had to win Phoebe Litchfield failed to fire with the bat, and Annabel Sutherland and Georgia Wareham were unable to make inroads with the ball.
After Lanning launched Spirit’s pursuit of 100 in their 100 balls with a pair of sixes England’s Heather Knight and India’s Deepti Sharma guided the Lord’s-based side to a win at Headingley that probably secures a place in the three-team knockout stages.
The pair put on an unbeaten 77 to take Spirit up to second in the table and they will now keep an eye on Wednesday’s match at Trent Bridge with the Trent Rockets (Ashleigh Gardner, Alana King and Heather Graham) and Oval Invincibles (Laura Harris, Amanda Jade-Wellington) fixture deciding the final make-up of the top three.
For Superchargers, a win would have guaranteed their place in the last three for the second successive season but their campaign is now over.
The damage was done by Spirit’s bowlers up top. When Litchfield went for an eight-ball one they were 3-14 off 21 balls. Sutherland attempted to rebuild but when she picked out long-on off Sharma for a 17-ball 24 hopes of a formidable total for the hosts fell away.
Alice Davidson-Richards’ 33 and 18 from Wareham ensured they had something on the board but 7-99 felt below par.
Lanning dispatched a couple of sixes in an 11-ball 20 to get Spirit ahead of the chase.
Linsey Smith (3-16) had Lanning caught by Wareham in a spell of three quick wickets that reduced Spirit to 3-28 but that brought Knight and Sharma together and they were not to be separated.
Source Agencies
