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Annabel Sutherland’s unbeaten 37 off 21 balls — sealed with a match-winning six — powered Sunrisers Leeds Women to a five-wicket victory over London Spirit at Headingley in Match 20 of The Hundred Women’s 2026. Grace Harris’s 51 off 25 balls set up what looked like a match-winning platform for Spirit before a rain interruption triggered a collapse of six wickets for 47 in the final 50 balls.
Grace Harris had 51 runs from 25 balls and London Spirit Women looked on course for a total that would have taken the match away from Sunrisers. Then it rained. When play resumed, Spirit managed only 47 runs from their final 50 balls, losing wickets in a cluster that turned a platform into rubble. Annabel Sutherland won the game with a six.
Leeds, England: The rain at Headingley on Tuesday afternoon arrived at precisely the wrong moment for London Spirit Women and precisely the right one for Sunrisers Leeds. Spirit, inserted by the hosts and batting with the confidence that Grace Harris’s blistering half-century had generated, were 91 for 1 and sailing towards what looked like a match-winning total when the downpour forced the players from the field. They never quite found their way back.
Sunrisers chased 137 with the composure of a side that has learned — the hard way, across a difficult campaign — exactly how to pace a target. They reached it with two balls to spare, five wickets down, Sutherland unbeaten at one end and Jess Jonassen at the other. The victory keeps them in the conversation for the Eliminator, though only just.
Harris Blazes, Rain Interrupts
Sunrisers won the toss and put Spirit in — a decision that looked questionable within the powerplay as Grace Harris took the attack apart. The Australian opener, who had scored just 57 runs across her four innings before this match, arrived at Headingley in a different frame of mind entirely. She hit two sixes and seven fours in a half-century that arrived off just 25 balls, the joint-fastest in this year’s Hundred Women’s competition. Spirit were 89 for 1 at the point of interruption, and the Headingley surface was playing flat enough to suggest a total of 150 or more was within reach.
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Sunrisers had managed to take one wicket before the rain arrived — Amy Jones miscuing a Dani Gibson delivery into the hands of Kate Cross at 68 for 1 — but Harris had powered on regardless, reaching her fifty before the heavens opened with Spirit at 91 for 1.
The rain changed everything. When play resumed, Spirit’s batting lost the rhythm and fluency that Harris had established. Wickets fell in a cluster — Harris among them — as Deepti Sharma and Rachel George tightened the screws with the second new ball. Deepti finished with 2 for 18, George with 3 for 25. From 91 for 1 at the rain break, Spirit managed only 47 more runs from their final 50 balls, losing six wickets in the process. They finished at 136 for 7. On the evidence of the first 50 balls, they had been on track for something considerably higher.
Litchfield and Sutherland Anchor the Chase
Sunrisers batted under bright sunshine and never appeared to be playing catch-up from the first ball. Phoebe Litchfield and Bryony Smith enjoyed themselves at the top of the order, the pair accelerating in a manner that made 137 look eminently manageable. Then Spirit hit back with three wickets in six balls — Litchfield, Smith and Lauren Winfield-Hill all falling to pull the match back into the contest with Sunrisers still needing 78 from 59 balls. The Headingley crowd, which had been expecting a procession, suddenly had a match.
Dani Gibson steadied with a handy 25, her composure through the middle phase preventing Spirit from pressing home the advantage the cluster of wickets had briefly created. When Gibson fell, Sutherland arrived with the game still requiring calm application and the occasional boundary, and she provided both in exactly the right measure. Her 37 not out from 21 balls — five boundaries in total — was the innings the chase needed: neither reckless nor overly conservative, reading what the moment required and delivering it.
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A tight Charlie Dean run-out decision mid-chase briefly threatened to complicate matters for Spirit’s bowlers, but the review confirmed the batter short of her ground and the momentum never shifted. Nadine de Klerk, Spirit’s most dangerous bowler on the day, took 1 for 30 but was unable to find the consistent threat that might have changed the match.
Sutherland sealed it in the manner befitting a Player of the Match performance — hitting the winning runs for a six off the 98th ball of the chase, two deliveries to spare. Jonassen finished unbeaten on 13 alongside her.
“It’s nice to get the win,” Sutherland said in her Meerkat Match Hero interview. “Jess came out with real clarity, and she’s got a beautiful swing of the bat. It was nice to see a few go to the rope from her. Personally, I just feel pretty level. I feel like I’m coming into different situations and adapting pretty well. But ultimately, you want to be part of winning performances, and hopefully we can win the next few and build some momentum.”
Where This Leaves Both Sides
For Sunrisers Leeds Women, the win moves them up to fourth in the table — their third victory of the competition — though they trail third-placed Manchester Super Giants by six points having played the same number of games. The qualification path is narrow but it exists, and Tuesday’s performance showed a side finally combining its batting depth with controlled bowling at the right stage of the competition.
For London Spirit Women, the result is a painful missed opportunity. Harris’s 51 had given them every platform to post a match-winning total, and the collapse of six wickets for 47 after the rain break — on a surface that had been batter-friendly all evening — will be difficult to explain. They drop to sixth and their hopes of advancing to the knockout stages are all but over. They face MI London next and need wins from every remaining fixture while hoping other results align.
The Hundred Women’s table is tighter than it has been at any stage this season — and Sunrisers, for now, are in it.
Scores: London Spirit Women 136/7 (100 balls) — Grace Harris 51 (27, 2×6 7×4); Deepti Sharma 2-18, Hannah Baker 2/21
Sunrisers Leeds Women 142/5 (98/100 balls) — Annabel Sutherland 37* (21), Phoebe Litchfield 30 (17), Jess Jonassen 13*(5); Katie George 3/25, Nadine de Klerk 1-30
Result: Sunrisers Leeds Women won by 5 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)
Player of the Match: Annabel Sutherland (Sunrisers Leeds Women) — 37* (21), 1-31 & 2 catches
Venue: Headingley, Leeds
Key moment: Spirit 89/1 at rain break; only 47 runs from final 50 balls, losing 6 wickets; Sutherland wins match with a six off ball 98
