The Hundred 2024 Finals: London Spirit and Oval Invincibles take the trophies
The Hundred 2024 concluded yesterday at Lord's, with two London sides snatching glory. London Spirit took the women's title and the Oval Invincible's got gold in the men's competition closing an incredible and historic tournament. 540,000 Tickets were sold with 30% of spectators being new to the sport and attendance records for the women's matches being broken at six out of eight venues games were held at, including the Emirates Old Trafford.
The Hundred Women's Final
London Spirit claim a 4 wicket victory over Welsh Fire in the Hundred final after a tremendous final shot from Deepti Sharma. The game saw the women take centre stage and break records with the match bringing in a crowd of over 22,000 to Lords to watch the battle go down.
After winning the toss, Spirit elected to bowl reducing the Fire to 115 runs. Jess Jonaseen saw her first 50 of the tournament but early breakthroughs from Tara Norris and Sarah Glenn saw Sophia Dunkley depart for just 2-5 and Tammy Beaumont for 21-15, giving the Spirit a fighting chance.
The Fire didn’t go down without a battle with superb performance from Shabnim Ismail (3-24) with the ball led the Spirit’s chase down to the wire. Ismail took out the dangerous Meg Lanning (4) and Heather Knight (24) before they found their rhythms, breaking important partnerships before they developed.
However, a final push from Sharma who needed six runs from the last 5 balls took London Spirit over the line in the end. The final runs came from a massive smack of 6 from Sharma with a last ditch effort from Ismail to stop the ball ultimately fall short.
The Hundred Men's Final
Oval Invincibles became the first team in Hundred history to take the trophy two years in a row with a confident 17 run victory over Southern Brave.
After winning the toss, Brave’s James Vince elected to bowl reducing the Invincibles to 147 runs for 9 wickets. Highlights with the ball came from Akel Hosein (5-34) and Jofra Archer (2-36) saw early dismissals of Dawid Malan (7), Sam Billings on his first ball and Donovan Ferreira (5).
The Invincibles came back with a fighting spirit, taking out gunners Vince (24) and Alex Davies (35) in the prime of their game. The game’s ultimate wickets were taken by Imvincible’s Saqib Mahmood, taking 3 key wickets (du Plooy, Evans and Pollard) in just 4 balls. This saw the Brave’s batting attack start to crumble securing the Invincibles’ defence of The Hundred trophy and become champions once more.
