Lord’s was once again the setting for a fraught finish featuring Deepti Sharma and Charlie Dean, but this time both were smiling when the game was decided.
The narrative could hardly have been more perfect: Just as in a contentious ODI at the Home of Cricket two years ago, India’s Sharma supplied the match-winning blow, with England’s Dean at the non-striker’s end, but both were celebrating, joining forces for London Spirit to guide Heather Knight’s side to their maiden Hundred title, men’s or women’s.
Each watched nervously as the strike kept Shabnim Ismail on the rope interested, but the South Africa speedster couldn’t quite haul in the chance, tipping over the boundary to spark raucous scenes.
Back in 2022, celebrations were more muted as India wrapped up a series whitewash. Chasing 170 for a consolation win, England slipped to 65-7 before Dean stitched together a succession of salvaging stands, guiding her side to within 20 runs of their target. As the winning line hoved into view, Sharma took matters into her own hands, spotting Dean trying to steal a few yards at the non-striker’s end and whipping off the bails.
The dismissal was legal, but still sparked controversy. Dean was inconsolable on the day, but made light of the incident the day after, shaping as if to pull of a pre-delivery run out herself as she ran into bowl in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy final. Still, the drama rolled on, as each side put forth competing versions of events over whether Dean was warned, Knight accusing Sharma of “lying” as tempers threatened to boil over.
As is the modern way, it wasn’t long until they found themselves on the same side, for London Spirit in the Hundred. Tensions had clearly cooled, but there was still an irony as Knight watched on hoping that Dean’s steel and Sharma’s smarts, each in clear evidence during that fateful ODI, could guide Spirit to victory. They could, and after failing to make the playoffs in each of the first three seasons, a third-place finish had become a first title win.
In truth, London Spirit should never have let the game get so close. Despite a fifty from Jess Jonassen, Welsh Fire’s 115-8 looked under par, and when Dani Gibson hit five consecutive boundaries to leave 28 needed off the last 30 with seven wickets still in hand, the game seemed sewn up. Then the winning line hoved into view, and things got tense. From that point until Sharma’s winning hit, Spirit would notch just one more boundary.
Gibson was bowled by a ripper from Ismail, Georgia Redmayne - anchoring as she did in the eliminator - was pinned lbw by Freya Davies, and Abigail Freeborn ran herself out to bring Dean in to partner Sharma. Six were needed from five which became three from two. Then Sharma sealed the win, any lingering sentiment from two years hence swept away as she did so.
Updated outro: Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
