Deandra Dottin 50* leads London Spirit chase as Northern Superchargers slump to first defeat

Deandra Dottin's highest score of the Hundred kept the London Spirit's qualification hopes alive and inflicted a first defeat of the season on the Northern Superchargers despite Jemimah Rodrigues' third fifty in four innings.

Dottin had struggled for form early in the tournament, making 54 runs in her first four innings, but found her range after shuffling down to No. 4, bringing up an unbeaten 34-ball half-century by hitting Kalea Moore for consecutive boundaries over cover to seal a seven-wicket win with two balls to spare.

Rodrigues' 57 had held the Superchargers' innings together on a used pitch which offered some assistance for the spinners as she extended her lead as the leading run-scorer in the women's Hundred, but their total of 126 was no more than a par score. They had scrapped hard in the field as well as with the ball to defend 109 against the Oval Invincibles on Saturday at Headingley, but could not pull off a similar heist despite Linsey Smith's miserly spell of 2 for 15 in 20 balls.

Tammy Beaumont anchored the chase with 42 off 36 balls, adding partnerships of 38 with Heather Knight and 56 with Dottin, but holed out to deep square leg with 20 more needed off the last 13 balls. But Dottin had found her groove, clearing mid-off to take the equation down to eight off six before taking her helmet off and crashing Moore through - and then over - the covers to seal the win with a broad smile.

Destructive Dottin
Dottin admitted she was "a bit nervous" coming into this game - the Spirit's final home fixture - after a run of low scores at the start of the tournament, in which she had failed to live up to her billing as one of the Hundred's high-profile overseas recruits.

She started slowly, reaching 11 off 13 balls, but crashed Phoebe Graham for three boundaries in four balls to remove the scoring pressure in the second half of the chase and began to time the ball sweetly, rotating the strike with Beaumont before thumping the winning boundaries in the final set.

"It's been a bit of a struggle for me but I knew I had to dig in and find a way and bring this one home for the team," she said at the post-match presentation. "I had to find a way to adapt really quickly, but I'm in the groove now so you'll see a lot more from me."

Rodrigues' run-fest
With every innings she plays in the Hundred, it seems increasingly remarkable that Rodrigues was given only two opportunities during India's tour of England and was left out of the T20I side for all three matches.

Rodrigues' power from a low base is remarkable for a player of her stature, and her ability to play shots all the way around the ground means it is difficult for fielding teams to make plans to bowl at her. In this innings, she was particularly adept at clearing or piercing the infield and hitting into gaps, with her natural timing helping the ball to race away down the slope. Rodrigues was particularly strong on the sweep, both orthodox and paddled, and playing inside-out through or over cover: her shimmy down the pitch to loft Knight over the infield was narrowly pipped by a drilled extra cover drive off Danielle Gibson as the shot of the day.

"It wasn't an easy wicket to bat on, slightly on the slower side," she said at the interval. "I'm loving this competition and I just want to continue. I'm striking the ball well and getting good runs, and when you're sitting out or not scoring runs, you know the value of these runs and being in form. This is just the beginning."

Kimmince wasted
Laura Kimmince has developed into a specialist finisher for the Brisbane Heat in the WBBL and today showcased her talent in that role with 15 not out off six balls at Lord's, swinging Freya Davies back over her head for six and then four in the final set of five balls to lead the Superchargers up to 126, which looked close to par.

She has now scored 51 runs off the 22 balls she has faced across the Hundred, giving her a remarkable strike rate of 231.81, albeit from a small sample size. The fact she has faced so few balls in the tournament reflects the Superchargers' strong start to the tournament, but they must be keen to get her in slightly earlier in the innings to maximise her boundary-hitting potential.