Bairstow's assault in vain as London Spirit open account

London Spirit managed to open their account in the Men's Hundred with a tight 8-run win over Welsh Fire on Saturday (August 9). Following their shoddy batting performance in the tournament opener, London Spirit came up with a remarkable turnaround with the willow, led by veteran David Warner, who batted through to remain unbeaten on 70. Welsh Fire's opener Jonny Bairstow also remained unbeaten in the run chase and scored more than half the runs made by his team but they still faltered.

Warner got going quite early in the innings but Kane Williamson at the other end stuttered. He finally broke the shackles with a six down the ground but didn't last long enough as Josh Hull sent him packing. The innings received a massive push at the halfway mark when Warner and Jamie Smith combined to take down Chris Green as they hammered him for three sixes. The onslaught continued as Smith took on Hull for another big one, followed by a four before the bowler brought an end to the cameo.

It was then the turn of Ashton Turner to chip in with a useful cameo as well. Warner, at the other end, kept going and pushed the score beyond the 160-run mark and that meant a solid start was the need of the hour for the chasing side. While Steve Smith and Bairstow did put on 62 for the opening wicket in their first game, that wasn't the case this time as the Australian found the third man while attempting a scoop early.

Unfortunately for Welsh Fire, that kickstarted a procession as the wickets kept tumbling. The middle order caved in for the second game in a row as London Spirit ran through the line up to dismiss the likes of Luke Wells, Tom Abell and Tom Kohler-Cadmore to reduce Welsh Fire to a stunning 39/5. In a matter of few deliveries, that became 55/6 as the writing was clearly on the wall.

However, the fact that they still managed to lose by only 8 runs was a remarkable feat in itself as Bairstow, running out of partners at one end, led the revival alongside Green. The England opener kept finding the boundaries at regular intervals to keep the hunt alive. When 31 runs were needed off 10, Bairstow smashed Jamie Overton for back-to-back sixes to bring the target down to a gettable 19 off 8. However, Overton staged a strong comeback and Luke Wood backed up those efforts to ensure only one six was hit from the remaining deliveries to deny Welsh Fire their first points of the season.

Brief scores: London Spirit 163/5 in 100 balls (David Warner 70*, Jamie Smith 26; Josh Hull 2/36) beat Welsh Fire 155/6 in 100 balls (Jonny Bairstow 86*; Daniel Worrall 2/31) by 8 runs