Spirit dugout

CEAT Cricket Rating Awards: At the Lord’s on August 18, London Spirit needed four runs off the last three balls to beat Welsh Fire in the final and win the fourth edition of The Hundred. The Spirit’s wish to win the title came true when India all-rounder Deepti Sharma smashed a six over a leaping long-on off Hayley Matthews to win the trophy for her team.

That match-winning six, also the only maximum of the final, summed up Deepti’s fantastic tournament with the bat. She amassed 212 runs in six innings and was dismissed just once, with her strike rate being an impressive 132.5.

“With four runs needed off three balls, I thought that the match has to be finished at this moment and on this delivery, instead of dragging it to the last two-three balls, as the mindset was to finish off the game as quickly as possible.”