Wickets tumble as Perry and Molineux's Phoenix miss finals

An extraordinary match in the women's Hundred at Lord's has ended in a mix of misery and joy for half-a-dozen Australians, two of whom were watching from afar, probably peering through their fingers at the television.

Alana King and Elyse Villani remain on course to feature in Friday's eliminator with their Trent Rockets franchise after a London Spirit team featuring Beth Mooney and Megan Schutt pulled off a dramatic victory over Ellyse Perry and Sophie Molineux's Birmingham Phoenix.

That kept Rockets in third place ahead of Phoenix on net run rate (NRR) with both having completed their group stage matches.

Rockets needed Phoenix to lose, and at the halfway stage Villani and King will have been optimistic after the Birmingham side – who would have qualified themselves with a win – were bowled out for 82.

But Spirit slumped to 6-26 only for a seventh-wicket partnership from Naomi Dattani and Grace Scrivens to turn the tie around and seal victory with three balls to spare.

The winning runs came off Molineux, scant reward for a good bowling display of 1-11 off 17 balls. She was outshone, though, by Schutt who took 2-14 off 20.

Image Id: 3AE8CEBD55A8468E8D60D3DF0BE224C1 Image Caption: Beth Mooney was run out for one // Getty

The Aussies were less impressive with the bat, Molineux (3), Mooney (1) and Perry (0) making four runs between them and Schutt not coming to the crease.

Put into bat, Phoenix lost wickets steadily, their best partnership being 25 between Evelyn Jones (24) and Georgia Elwiss (14) for the fifth wicket.

No other batter reached double figures with Perry, caught behind by Mooney off Schutt, dismissed for a golden duck.

"We finally put it all together," Schutt said.

"There's been games where we have bowled well and not fielded well, today we had the complete package."

However, the batting was not in the package.

Molineux had Danielle Gibson caught by Sophie Devine off the fifth ball for a duck and the Kiwi then ran out Mooney with a direct hit.

Amelia Kerr followed two balls later and Spirit were three down for two runs. That became 6-26 after 43 balls with Spirit in deep trouble.

But English duo Dattani (28no) and Scrivens (26no) batted smartly scoring 57 off 55 balls to gain Spirit's second victory of the campaign.

"We made it a little bit interesting, but we got over the line and that's what counts," Dattani said.

In theory, Northern Superchargers and Manchester Originals could catch Rockets if they win their remaining group matches, but they are well-behind on NRR and would need big wins respectively against Southern Brave on Wednesday, and Oval Invincibles on Thursday.

Brave and Invincibles are first and second on the ladder with first place qualifying straight into the final.

Australians at The Hundred 2022

Women

Birmingham Phoenix: Sophie Molineux, Ellyse Perry

London Spirit: Beth Mooney, Megan Schutt

Northern Superchargers: Heather Graham, Alyssa Healy

Southern Brave: Tahlia McGrath, Molly Strano, Amanda-Jade Wellington

Trent Rockets: Alana King, Elyse Villani

Welsh Fire: Nicola Carey, Rachael Haynes, Annabel Sutherland

Men

Birmingham Phoenix: Kane Richardson, Matthew Wade, Tanveer Sangha

London Spirit: Nathan Ellis, Josh Inglis, Ben McDermott

Manchester Originals: Ashton Turner

Oval Invincibles: Hilton Cartwright

Southern Brave: Tim David

Trent Rockets: Daniel Sams