Alice Capsey fifty leads Invincibles to victory over Fire

Invincibles won by 6 wickets (with 12 balls remaining)

Oval Invincibles 118 for 4 (Capsey 59) beat Welsh Fire 116 for 5 (Dunkley 35, Jonassen 32*) by six wickets

England star Alice Capsey followed up her opening-day 51 with a well-made 59 as Oval Invincibles defeated Welsh Fire by six wickets at Cardiff.

Capsey hit seven boundaries in her 48-ball knock before she was brilliantly caught at long-on by Hayley Matthews off Freya Davies with 27 runs still required.

All-rounders Marizanne Kapp (26*) and Mady Villiers (11*) then took the reins to extinguish any Welsh Fire hopes, guiding Invincibles home with 12 balls to spare.

The Invincibles’ chase got off to a far from ideal start as they lost Lauren Winfield-Hill on the second ball of the innings, caught at cover by Tammy Beaumont off Shabnim Ismail for a duck.

Paige Schofield (11) and Capsey didn’t let this early loss faze them, playing fluently to move the score along to 37 for 1 after 20 balls, the latter crucially being dropped at long-on by Ismail off Jess Jonassen two runs later.

Capsey overturned an lbw decision on 43 off the bowling of Jonassen and went on to bring up her fifty from 42 balls.

Welsh Fire won the toss and elected to bat, losing Beaumont for four to the eighth ball of the innings, an outswinger from Kapp which drew an edge behind to Winfield-Hill.

After 25 balls, Welsh Fire had laboured to 17 for 1 and they soon found themselves 20 for 2 when Amanda-Jade Wellington struck first ball to remove the dangerous Matthews for just 6, caught brilliantly by Kapp running in from the cover boundary.

Sophia Dunkley made 35 from 26 balls before skying Wellington to Ryana MacDonald-Gay at long-on and Jonassen, who took over Dunkley’s role as aggressor, played enterprisingly for 32 not out from 22 balls as Welsh Fire closed their innings on a below-par 116 for 5.

Meerkat Match Hero Capsey, said: “Pace on was really nice, so capitalising on that up the top in the powerplay. When it got a bit harder, they were bowling really well with change-ups and bowling a bit slower, me and Kappy built a partnership and knew the longer it went on, the easier it would get for the others coming in at the back end.

“I’ve been feeling in really good nick but I think the most pleasing thing for me is my calmness. I think last year I was a bit frantic. So, it’s nice to be back in this space where I can contribute to team wins.”

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