London Spirit skipper Heather Knight admitted that London Spirit had their hearts in their mouths when Deepti Sharma was struggling to find her rhythm in the Hundred Women final against Welsh Fire at the Lord’s. On Sunday, the final went right down to the wire as the Spirit needed four runs to win off their last three balls, chasing a tricky target of 116.

Failing to hit a single boundary off her first 15 balls, the pressure was on Deepti to take the team past the finish line. But then she charged down the track and hit Hayley Matthews for a six down the ground. Shabnim Ismail tried her best at the long-on boundary, but the ball sailed over her head. The Spirit beat the Fire by four wickets to lift the trophy.

‘Deepti kept us on tenterhooks’

Knight said that she was tensed in the death overs. The skipper also had words of praise for Danni Gibson, who played a quick-fire knock of 22 off nine after the Spirit lost their mainstays, including the captain and Meg Lanning.

“It was tense, I’m an awful watcher, feeling sick for last 20-30 balls, Deepti made a meal of it in the end, kept us on tenterhooks… I’m worried about the trophy lift, it’s quite heavy! Dani Gibson, you little beauty, changed the game!” Knight said after the match.

On her knock, the 26-year-old Deepti said that she was confident of pulling off the six under pressure.

“To hit the six to win the game, a great feeling, I was not nervous, I had confidence I could do it. I think positive!” Deepti said after the match,” Deepti said.

Deepti also played a critical role with the ball after she finished with impressive figures of 20-8-23-1, also affecting a run out. Overall, she scored 212 runs at a strike-rate of 132.50 and picked up eight wickets at an economy rate of 6.85.