A pair of close defeats for Welsh Fire against London Spirit has left both teams with catching up to do after a winless start to The Hundred 2025.

Jonny Bairstow’s score of 86* from 50 balls almost steered the Fire home in the men’s contest, as the England batter took the game down to the wire.

Having fallen to 55-6 from 47 balls in a chase of 164, the game looked beyond the home side, but Bairstow’s 100 partnership with Australian overseas Chris Green (32 from 21) brought them close.

In the first innings, David Warner anchored a strong London Spirit innings, scoring 70 from 45 balls, ably supported by quick runs from Jamie Smith, Ashton Turner, and Sean Dickson.

Bairstow’s 50-ball innings contained six sixes, and saw 74 runs plundered from balls 66 to 95, leaving 17 required off the last five of the innings.

As the Sophia Gardens crowd belted out “Wales, Wales, Wales!” it appeared that Bairstow would pull off the comeback but Luke Wood got Spirit over the line, winning bby eight runs.

Fire lose final-ball thriller

Earlier in the day, Welsh Fire women suffered a two-run defeat to Spirit, to continue the Welsh sides’ poor start to the competition.

Having been bowled out for 124, Spirit were staring down the barrel with Welsh Fire well set on 73 for 1 in reply, but the home side stumbled as the finish line approached and ultimately fell short.

With just 24 runs needed from the last 20 balls, and eight wickets in hand, the result seemed a formality but Sophia Dunkley and Jess Jonassen fell as Spirit inched their way back into the contest, and Grace Harris held her nerve with ball in hand to defend seven runs from the final five balls.

Spirit remain unbeaten after two matches as they look to defend their title, while it is a morale-sapping defeat for Fire as they remain winless.

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