Welsh Fire (WEF) pipped London Spirit (LNS) by three wickets in a high-scoring thriller at Sophia Gardens in the final league stage game of the Hundred. Batting first, London Spirit set the Cardiff-based team a target of 163 thanks to Josh Inglis’ 72. Despite losing three wickets early, Glenn Phillips’ fantastic knock of 80 and Josh Cobb’s unbeaten 28 helped them avoid finishing bottom of the points table.
Cobb, Matt Critchley, Ryan Higgins, and Matt Milnes returned to the Northern Superchargers’ playing eleven. They left out Ian Cockbain, Graeme White, James Neesham, and David Payne. London Spirit made only one change as Joe Denly made way for Jade Dernbach.
After a slow start, Inglis and Adam Rossington picked up the pace. They were 38/0 at the end of the powerplay. Cobb and Luke Fletcher conceded just six runs in the opening ten balls of the match, but the opening duo targeted Milnes, who gave away 23 runs in his first two sets of five. Inglis hit two sixes, while Rossington scored two fours in three balls
Critchley ended the partnership as Cobb took a brilliant diving catch at long-on to remove Rossington for 16. The dismissal slowed down the scoring rate. However, Joe Cracknell cracked a six and a four off Qais Ahmad. He repeated the same in Milnes’ third set of five. London Spirit moved to 90/1 after 60 balls.
Inglis smacked a six off Critchley to bring up his fifty and London Spirit’s 100. He hit a hat-trick of fours in Cobb’s third set. Meanwhile, Higgins broke the 75-run partnership with the wicket of Cracknell, who departed for a well-made 35. The new batsman Eoin Morgan punished poor bowling from Fletcher by hitting two sixes and a four.
London Spirit lost the wickets of Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Inglis in the final ten balls of the innings. But the visitors managed to post their highest total of the tournament.
Blake Cullen made early inroads by removing Tom Banton and David Lloyd for a duck. Adding misery to the run-chase, the ever-reliable Ben Duckett departed in the 15th ball. Brad Wheal, who gave away 11 runs in his first four balls, grabbed the wicket of the Welsh Fire stand-in captain. The home side plunged to 20/3.
Leus du Plooy got off the mark with a four, while Phillips scored ten runs in Cullen’s second set of five. The New Zealand batsman struck David Wiese’s first ball for a six, and Mason Crane, too, bowled an expensive opening set of five. Phillips dispatched Cullen for a six to register his fifty. It took him only 21 balls to bring up a second half-century in the tournament.
The carnage continued as Crane conceded successive fours in his third set, and Bopara was taken to the cleaners by Phillips. Welsh Fire were 93/3 at the halfway mark, needing 71 from 50 balls.
Phillips and du Plooy added 18 runs off Crane’s 10-ball spell. However, the stadium went quiet when Phillips was caught at deep square leg by Crane for 80. With 41 needed off 27 balls, Crane trapped du Plooy in front of the wicket. Cobb eased the pressure with a six off Roelof van der Merwe’s second set of five. Welsh Fire required another 30 runs from 20 balls.
Cullen claimed his third wicket of the evening after Bopara took an excellent catch at the boundary. Higgins departed for eight. Meanwhile, Cobb struck a boundary off Wheal’s first ball in the third set. But new man Critchley, who came down the track, edged the ball behind to Rossington. Qais joined Cobb at the crease.
The Afghanistan spinner dispatched a low full toss from Dernbach to the boundary. Cobb, in the same set of five, edged the ball above the short third man for another four. They collected 11 runs and needed seven off the last five balls. Qais finished off the match with consecutive fours off Wheal. It was a thrilling win for Welsh Fire, and they managed to put a smile on the face of the home fans.
LNS 163/5 in 100 balls (J Inglis 72, J Cracknell 35; R Higgins 3/21)
WEF 165/7 in 98 balls (G Phillips 80; B Wheal 3/30, B Cullen 3/37)
Player of the Match
Welsh Fire fans could have had a deja vu feeling when Banton and Duckett fell in the powerplay. A few of them would have given up, imagining a sixth straight defeat and a bottom finish. But Phillips, who only managed two 25-plus scores in the tournament, took charge. The 24-year-old unsettled the bowlers with a six or four in the opening ball of a set.
He fell 20 runs short of a three-figure mark. Out of the 80 runs, 62 came from sixes and fours. If Phillips had batted another 10-15 balls, he could have become the first centurion in the 100-ball tournament and would have wrapped up the match well before the 98th ball.
Top Fantasy XI
G Phillips (111 pts), J Inglis (97 pts), R Higgins (90 pts), B Wheal (79 pts), B Cullen (77 pts), J Cobb (45 pts), J Cracknell (45 pts), A Rossington (38 pts), M Crane (37 pts), E Morgan (34 pts), L du Plooy (33 pts)
Parameswaran Sankaranarayanan
Parameswaran Sankaranarayan is a sports enthusiast who has worked in print, website, and other digital platforms. He was part of the editorial team of first-ever Indian football-based website - IndianFootball.com (now defunct) - and passionately follows the latest happenings in world football. During his time as a journalist, he had the opportunity to interact with some of the iconic personalities in Indian sports and witness some memorable moments in Indian football.
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