England captain Heather Knight, unbeaten with 65 runs from 31 balls, led London Spirit to a thrilling six-wicket win over defending champions Southern Brave women’s team in The Hundred.
Knight came to the crease with Spirit on 78-3 from 57 balls and needed a further 74 from 43 deliveries to surpass Brave’s total of 151-6 at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton.
However, the England captain hit nine fours and a six, with her final boundary, against last year’s leading wicket-taker Georgia Adams, seeing Spirit home with three balls to spare.
Knight’s England team-mate Danni Wyatt (59 from 35) was the Brave’s top scorer, having also scored a fifty in her side’s win over Northern Superchargers in last year’s final.
Sixteen-year-old Braves spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman then made former Australia captain Meg Lanning (12) her first wicket in The Hundred on debut, catching the opener off her own bowling.
But Lanning’s compatriot Georgia Redmayne chipped in with 45 runs from 31 balls at the top of the order, before Knight’s match-winning innings inflicted a second home defeat on Brave in The Hundred.
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The youngest player in the history of the Hundred, 16-year-old Tilly Corteen-Coleman, got off to the perfect start on her debut by dismissing Meg Lanning off her own bowling
Player of the Match – Heather Knight
“I tried to get in and then I flipped the switch on the back. Beating the Braves here is really hard to do, so I’m really happy with how we did.
“They probably had 10 or 15 too many, we dropped a few catches and Danni Wyatt played a remarkable innings – she’s so hard to field. But I knew if we had a steady batter, with a fast outfield, we could catch up quickly.
“I didn’t have much at first, but once I got into it, I really felt like I could put my foot down. The scoreboard sometimes gives you no choice but to do it. It paid off.”
And after?
The Hundred continues on Thursday as Manchester Originals take on Welsh Fire at Emirates Old Trafford.
Both matches are being shown live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event, as well as a free live stream on skysports.com, the Sky Sports app and the Sky Sports Cricket YouTube channel.
Originals Women vs Fire Women airs live from 2:30pm (3:00pm first ball), with Originals Men vs Fire Men on air from 6:00pm (6:30pm first ball).
Sky Sports will be showing all 68 matches of The Hundred live this summer, while you can also watch selected matches via free streams on Sky Sports’ digital platforms and the Sky Sports Cricket YouTube channel.
