West Indies captain Hayley Matthews produced an excellent knock to spearhead the Welsh Fire in their six-wicket win over the London Spirit in action in the Women’s Hundred at Lord’s on Thursday.
The Spirit first posted 150-5 from their 100 balls after Fire captain Tammy Beaumont won the toss and put them in to bat.
Danielle Gibson led the way with the bat with a 25-ball 41 while Deepti Sharma made 39* off 26 balls in support.
Freya Davies took 2-19 from her 20 deliveries for the Fire while Beth Langston, Jess Jonassen and Georgia Davis shared the other three wickets.
Needing 151 off their 100 balls for victory, the Fire lost skipper Beaumont for 6 off the 11th ball of the innings bringing Matthews to the crease.
The Bajan batted through the rest of the chase on her way to 78* off just 46 balls as the Fire reached 151-4 off 95 balls.
She hit 11 fours and two sixes in her 59 minutes in the middle. Sarah Bryce provided the most support for Matthews with 21 off 18 balls including three fours.
Danielle Gibson completed a good all-round performance with 2-28 off 15 balls.
This was the Fire’s second win in three games and moves them up to third in the eight-team table with four points, the same as the Spirit in second and the Oval Invincibles in first.