Sunrisers Leeds 116 for 5 (Winfield-Hill 37, Deepti 28*, Wong 3-21) beat Southern Brave 114 for 7 (Lee 32, Baker 2-13) by five wickets

Winfield-Hill’s home comforts

But Winfield-Hill – who called The Oval home in the first five seasons of the Hundred – anchored the chase expertly with a run-a-ball 37. She started slowly before running down and launching Molineux just over Lauren Bell’s head at mid-off, and took the equation from 30 off 29 to 22 off 27 with consecutive boundaries off Tilly Corteen-Coleman.

She could not get Sunrisers over the line, losing her leg stump to Wong, and Dani Gibson fell first-ball looking to haul Wong across the line. But Jonassen survived the hat-trick ball, watched Deepti strike two leg-side boundaries, and then belted the winning boundary through the off side to take them home.

Deepti only batted twice in the group stage, but vindicated the decision to promote her to No. 5 in a knockout game. “I was keeping it very simple,” she said, before paying tribute to the team’s environment under head coach Adi Birrell. “I like the way they are creating the environment, especially with Adi,” she added. “He’s always funny, and doesn’t put pressure on us.”

Not Brave enough

Brave arrived at The Oval on a three-match losing streak after starting the season with five consecutive wins, and it showed in their approach with the bat. They have only reached 130 once this season, and lost the reliable Jemimah Rodrigues to a hamstring injury towards the end of the group stages.

Lizelle Lee made a fast start, successfully overturning an lbw decision off Jonassen and hitting the only six of the innings off Kate Cross as she reached 27 off 20 in the powerplay. But she was smartly stumped by Winfield-Hill when she dragged her back foot out of her crease, and was the only Brave batter to score a strike rate above 120 (min. five balls).

When Laura Wolvaardt and Maia Bouchier fell in quick succession, Molineux and Charli Knott batted like players who knew there was precious little batting to follow. They added 33 in 29 balls for the fourth wicket, and even three late front-foot no-balls could not help them get up to 120.

Sutherland took two in two at the death when she had Jodi Grewcock caught at deep midwicket and Naomi Dattani miscuing to short fine leg, but Gibson could not cling onto a tough chance at deep midwicket off the hat-trick ball.

Baker’s dozen

Baker won two ODI caps when England fielded a second-string side in Ireland in late 2024, but could soon come into contention for a first-choice squad. She has outperformed Glenn, the other main English legspinner, in the Hundred, and is Sunrisers’ second-highest wicket-taker leading into Sunday’s final.

She was outstanding in the Eliminator, keeping the stumps in play throughout and conceding only 13 runs – fittingly, a baker’s dozen – from her 20 balls. She had Lee stumped early in her spell and held her nerve when Knott jumped across her stumps on the sweep, sticking to a very straight line to knock back off stump.

Keeping it tight

Lee has struggled behind the stumps all season, and the contrast between her and the excellent Winfield-Hill was emblematic of the two teams’ precision. Sunrisers conceded only three extras – all front-foot no-balls – compared to Brave’s 18, which included eight wides and two sets of four byes.