A century partnership between Grace Harris and Cordelia Griffith achieved a victory for London Spirit in the opening match of the hundred women’s hundred in Lord’s.
This was the 10th partnership of 100+ in five years of the women’s competition (full list here) – And the first ever for London Spirit.
Despite a somewhat quieter last 10 balls (2 wickets lost for 12 points), the pair of spirit took to 175, which is well above a typical score in the hundred of the ladies, as Syd’s “Ghost” appears. To say it in context, the highest total of last year in the entire Comp was 158.
The total of Spirit today was particularly impressive considering that Georgia Redmayne-Hun player of the game left in the final of 2024-To a duck, in prison after a straight from Marizanne Kapp.
Grace Harris was her usual self and rolled to an undefeated 89 of 42 balls. A week ago she didn’t stand out 63 when Surrey shouted in the final of the inaugural T20 explosion: this was an even more impressive knock, including back-to-back sixes against Sophia Smale.
Harris missed a hundred of the hundred before Spirit when she rehabiled from a calf injury, but had a certain reason to want to return to England this time. Her recent dominance on English pitches this season, both in the explosion and the hundred, can prove to be strategically important as Australia thinking about their team selection for the World Cup 2026 (including a final on this ground).
“I thought I might not make the ODI World Cup team from 2025 for Australia,” Harris recently told me. “So I thought it would be great when planning ahead to be able to play a little more and perhaps better in England. To get here and play in English circumstances against a few English players and with England players is a good challenge and I will get better insights.
“I take my international career one game at the same time, but I look at the future and I think I can get the best out of myself.”
In the meantime, Griffith, whose 50 of 29 balls are her highest score ever in the hundred, coupled Harris Ball-For-Ball until she was caught on long with 20 balls to follow the spirit innings. “I felt there in a groove,” Said cords afterwards, describing batting with Grace Harris as “A nice smile”. That is an unusual compliment, but maybe having someone in the middle who can bring a little light in the procedure during a pressure game at Lord’s is not a bad thing.
Someone who is not much smiles is Marizanne Kapp, whose 77-run partnership with Meg Lanning from 48 balls Invincibles Hope gave in a gigantic Run-Chase. As Syd’s graph shows, the most profitable phase of the competition for both sides was actually the late center phase of Invincibles:
This was the point at which Lanning and Kapp really started, because they focused strategically on the shorter limits on the big standard of the ground. “We didn’t talk about numbers at all. It was literally about where our boundaries were and which sinks we would focus on. It was quite difficult with the slope and the wind and the larger limits, you only had to beat one side of the ground,” Lanning said afterwards.
But Invincibles had been too slow to get started – Lanning started with 12* from 17 – and it was that slow start that cost them this opening match of the hundred ladies hundred. A lesson, maybe, while watching their next game on Saturday in The Oval.
#Spirit #Invincibles #Harris #Cords #Lords