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By James Skeldon
Welsh Fire men’s nightmare campaign in The Hundred continued on Wednesday night as they were defeated by London Spirit at Lord’s
The latest loss means they are without a win in six matches and hopes of progressing to the next stage in the tournament are long gone.
Tasked with chasing Spirit’s total of 156, Fire made a pedestrian start to the opening powerplay with both openers, Joe Clarke and Jacob Bethell, struggling to find the middle of the bat.
Fire had it all to do approaching the last quarter, needing more than four a ball at one stage, but a late flurry of boundaries from Leus Du Plooy and Matt Critchley gave the visitors hope.
Critchley’s rapid 21 from seven balls put Fire in a winnable position but he was dismissed late on.
“It’s obviously disappointing, trying to turn it around and get a win on the board,” said Critchley.
I reckon Welsh Fire would be brilliant in the 1000 🏏☹️
— Phil Steele (@philsteele1) August 24, 2022
“I’m sure individuals can take a few positives out of that, the way Ish (Sodhi) bowled and the way Leus (Du Plooy) batted.
“We’re not far away as a team.”
Critchley was confident ahead of the chase and backed his batting line up. But a slow start from Fire halted their momentum.
“At Lord’s there’s one short side which is fairly favourable and the outfield’s pristine here. I think we thought we kept them to a good score. But we didn’t quite have the momentum at the top.”
The right-hander was dispatching boundaries to all parts and put Fire in an unlikely winning position.
“I think sometimes it’s the hope that kills you,” he added.
“We kept staying in there but unfortunately there was just too much to do and they executed well at the times that they needed to.”
Critchley credited the crowd at Lord’s and described the venue as an “amazing place to play.”
This was incredible fielding from Ben Duckett! 😲
But it just wasn’t to be for Welsh Fire in #TheHundred…
Read ⤵️ #BBCCricket
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 25, 2022
“The Hundred is fantastic to play in with the amount of kids that are here before the game wanting to speak to you.
“It’s a brilliant atmosphere considering it’s a midweek game.”
It hasn’t been the season that Welsh Fire would have hoped for but they have the opportunity to finish on a high in their last two matches of the campaign.
“Hopefully, we can get a couple of wins to try and finish the competition and at least salvage something from it as a team.”
“At the end of the day you can’t get away from the fact that we’re not playing well as a team.
“We’ll take the positives from it and try and be better for the experience but it’s just not quite clicking at the moment.
Trying to think of some pun on Welsh Fire that sums up how shit they are, but nothing quite goes far enough to cover it.
Truly dreadful stuff.
— Dan Pearce (@Pearcey149) August 24, 2022
“This competition is about momentum. All the teams are as talented as each other, they’ve all got international and domestic stars in the team, and unfortunately the momentum isn’t on our side.”
“Hopefully, I the last two games we can turn it around.”
Welsh Fire will take on Northern Superchargers at Sophia Gardens on the 26th and then conclude their tournament on the 29th away against Trent Rockets.
