Women’s Hundred game ends in tie

The Oval Invincibles needed two off the last ball to beat London Spirit at Lord’s. When Danielle Gibson pitched short, Ryana MacDonald-Gay hooked and ran.

As the ball soared towards deep mid-wicket, Charlie Dean had two choices – to make a dash for it and try to win the game, or accept a tie and deny a win. She chose the safer option, fielded the ball, and threw it to wicketkeeper Georgia Redmayne. MacDonald-Gay fell short, and the match ended in a tie.

It was a fitting conclusion to a record-laden game that seesawed through the course of the day. On air, Stuart Broad compared the finish to the last ball of the 2019 World Cup final.

Kapp laids world record foundation

An injury prevented Marizanne Kapp from bowling in recent past, but she seized the opportunity to hone her batting skills. However, she returned to bowling during The Hundred, and was at the home batters from the very onset after Lauren Winfield-Hill won the toss and opted to field.

Kapp started by bowling Meg Lanning with a peach. She set up Lanning by bowling a ball outside off that held its line, but the next ball came back in through Lanning’s defence to hit timber.

Kapp also clean bowled Cordelia Griffith, Georgia Redmayne, and Heather Knight to finish with 4-11 from her four overs. This was her third four-wicket haul, the most in the history of the tournament. She surpassed Amanda-Jade Wellington and Lauren Bell’s count of two.

MacDonald-Gay got Gibson and Wellington dismissed Dean, leaving the hosts reeling at 72-6. Only Deepti Sharma (44 in 34 balls) provided some resistance before MacDonald-Gay got her.

At this stage, the Spirit were 109-7. The first seven batters in an XI were all bowled for the first time in the history of any franchise-based women’s T20 cricket (The Hundred qualifies as one). This has happened twice in T20Is before – bizarrely, in the same game, between Cambodia and Philippines at Phnom Penh in 2022/23.

Eva Gray’s 12-ball 18 not out helped London finish on 113-9. Sophia Smale took the last two wickets, off consecutive balls, to finish with 2-22, while MacDonald-Gay had 2-26.

Deepti rises to the challenge

The tourists ran into early trouble at well, losing the openers to be reduced to 14-2 after 19 balls. But Kapp (47 in 32 balls) came to the rescue again, with Alice Capsey (27 in 18) for company, and the pair added 55 in 29 balls to keep the Invincibles in the hunt. Then Deepti (3-18) yorked Capsey.

Dean had earlier helped Deepti put on a stand of 25. Now, when Paige Schofield hit the ball in the air off Deepti, Dean leapt in the air at mid-wicket and took a one-handed stunner – two years after a dismissal involving the two at the same venue had caused unnecessary furore.

Despite that, Kapp and Joanne Gardner kept the asking rate well under control. From 30 in 30 balls, the target came down to 21 in 25, 15 in 20, 12 in 15, six in 10...

With the match all but over, Knight summoned Deepti for her last set. Kapp mistimed her sweep but still got two, but Deepti yorked her with the next ball – and denied MacDonald-Gay a run for the rest of the set. With four to defend in five balls, Gibson then sealed the tie.

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