London Spirit 146 for 5 (De Klerk 41, Kelly 39, Harris 37) beat Trent Rockets 142 for 7 (Gardner 34, Kapp 3-12) by five wickets
After a wash-out between Manchester Super Giants and MI London in Manchester earlier in the day, the capital’s second side in The Hundred, London Spirit travelled north to Nottingham, where they snuck past Trent Rockets with three balls to spare in a close-fought match. This was Spirit’s first ever win against the Rockets.
Sophie Luff went one run better but it was Australian Ash Gardner who did the bulk of the scoring, hitting five fours in her 34 before England’s vice-captain Charlie Dean got the better of her.
It was left to Bess Heath to get the Rockets up to a par score, her unbeaten 32 containing five crisp boundaries as the Rockets totalled 142-7. Dean was economical and pulled things back brilliantly for the visitors as they threatened to get out of hand but, not for the first time, the miserly Kapp was the pick of the attack, snaring three wickets for just 12 runs in her 20 balls.
When Spirit batted, Grace Harris – who hit three muscular sixes in a 20-ball 37 – and Amy Jones were in command, putting on 54 to break the back of the chase. They fell in quick succession and when Kapp and Sterre Kalis also departed, four wickets had gone down for 12 runs and the Rockets were perhaps favourites.
Kelly said: “Hitting straight was not working so we went much squarer, stepping across and sweeping, when we needed 60 off 37 or so and it worked. My role was to kick on and we know we bat down to 11 so we just thought we should get on with it.
“The wind was so strong that hitting straight was not working – that is the importance of comms with the coaches.”
