London Spirit and Oval Invincibles played out an exciting derby to the bitter end in front of a crowd of 17,810 at Lord's at The Hundred.
As Liana McDonald-Gay and Joe Gardner went for two game-winning goals on the last ball, the ice-cold Charlie Dean came on to score the winner as the visitors, who had only recently looked set for a comfortable win, finished the game chasing a target of 114 points.
Both teams were inspired by the outstanding all-round performances of their overseas superstars. South Africa's Marizanne Karp of the Invincibles took 4-11 to score 47 runs, while India's Deepti Sharma of the Spirit was the top scorer after taking 3-18 to score 44 runs.
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The drama continues until the very end in the final between London Spirit and Oval Invincibles!
Unbeaten captain Lauren Winfield-Hill's decision to bowl first proved to be the right one when the captain struck out Australia star Meg Laning with just the fourth ball of the over.
Cordelia Griffiths and Georgia Redmayne responded well to push the score to 30, but Cap threw out both batters on either side of the power-play restriction.
McDonald-Gay kept the momentum going for the team by bowling Daniel Gibson for two runs, before Cap struck again on the final ball to dismiss captain Heather Knight with a clean ball for the fourth time in the innings.
That left Spirit's total at 57-5, but Sharma led the recovery with six fours in her 34-ball innings and, with excellent support from Dean and Eva Gray, helped the home team to a total of 113-9 despite a string of late wickets, including two for two from Sophia Smaleh.
In response, Spirit dismissed both of Invincibles' openers early. Chamari Athapaththu was caught off the bowling of Tara Norris and Gray stumped Winfield-Hill thanks to Redmayne's quick hands. Redmayne kept the wicket impressively.
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Kapp led the way with incredible performances for the Invincibles.
Cap led the charge for the Invincibles with 47 runs off 32 balls and formed an impressive partnership of 55 runs with Alice Capsey (31 runs off 19 balls) before Sharma bowled the latter.
Dean soon took a stunning catch off Sharma's bowling to dismiss Paige Scholfield, and the Invincibles' chase became trickier when the England off-spinner dismissed Mehdi Villiers before Sarah Glenn cleverly dismissed Amanda-Jade Wellington, leaving the visitors needing to get to 32 for 32 with four wickets remaining.
Cap, who had formed a solid partnership with Gardner, was bowled out by Sharma for 4 out of 8, but the undefeated looked set to cross the finish line.
And that proved key as McDonald-Gay and Gardner struggled to keep the team from winning. Gibson held the ball and kept his composure while Dean sent a good pass deep to Redmayne, who was well short of his grounder, giving McDonald-Gay a much-needed double on the last pitch.
Player of the match: Marizanne Kapp
“It was good until I left, but I'm very disappointed to lose the game,” she said.
“The plan was to stay there and dig as deep as possible. We knew they were going to bowl their best bowlers, so I just tried to get the ball rolling.”
Chargers win Northern Derby
Annabel Sutherland lasted less than 50 years at Northern Superchargers.
Northern Superchargers won the northern derby against Manchester Originals to make it two wins in a row for the home team and two wins from their opening four games.
In front of a record 11,061 Headingley crowd, the Originals decided to take the coin and put the home team into bat first. England fast bowler Lauren Filer was the best bowler for the visiting team, taking 2-16, including two first sets.
Holly Armitage and Phoebe Litchfield put on a 47-run partnership for the second wicket. Australian duo Litchfield and Annabel Sutherland continued their fine form at Kia Oval on Friday but both fell short of 50, top-scoring with 43 runs off 25 and 44 runs off 26 respectively for the Superchargers as they led the hosts to 138-4.
The Purple team looked set to go past the 150-run mark early in the chase, while the Originals would have been content to get their scoring back on track in the latter stages of the innings.
Manchester Originals started strongly but lost both openers Laura Wolvaard and Beth Mooney within the first 30 balls.
Superchargers seamer Kate Cross took the key wicket of Wolvaert, who was superb in helping the Originals chase 136 runs in the utility bowl last week.
As Wolvardt and Mooney returned to the pavilion, the visitors struggled. They lost regular wickets thanks to excellent bowling from the Superchargers attack, and had five other wicket-takers. England international Cross finished with best figures of 4-20.
Man of the Match: Annabel Sutherland
“It was a perfect team performance. I thought we did really well with the bat. We came out strong on a very good wicket and the bowlers did the job,” Sutherland said.
“It was a good wicket, you could trust the line of the ball and swing it. Our bowlers also made it look like there was more to it than there actually was, so I'm really proud of that group.
“I thought we might have been a little underwhelming at half-time. It was a really good wicket. But I thought we could defend the way we usually bowl in the powerplay and we did that today.”
What are your future plans?
The Hundred continues with two games on Monday. Wales fires and Brave of the day The women's match starts at 3pm, while the men's match starts at 6.30pm. Both matches will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket. Stream The Hundred and other sports now.
