David Warner made his first half-century in the Hundred to see London Spirit take the spoils against Welsh Fire in Cardiff, despite a thrilling, unbeaten 86 from Jonny Bairstow in response.

Like a boxer on the ropes, Bairstow sat back and absorbed the blows as his Fire team fell to 55 for 6 at the halfway point of their reply, before launching a high-octane counterattack that took them close to a famous victory.

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 – ably supported by Chris Green – would pull off the comeback but Luke Wood got Spirit over the line.

Warner’s innings was a different affair, but was equally effective in driving the visitors – the Australian legend using his experience and nous to work out a defendable total on a track that had something for the bowlers.

With the ball, before the Bairstow show, Liam Dawson and Richard Gleeson were both parsimonious and though they may briefly have feared that their hard work would be undone it was runs on the board that emerged victorious in the end, Kane Williamson and Justin Langer getting off and running and consigning Fire to a second defeat in two.

Warner, the Meerkat Match Hero, said: “That got very close at the end, and credit to the way Jonny and Greeny batted. They were absolutely superb. The partnership they built was fantastic, and what it did do was what we’re trying to do here – entertain the crowd and hopefully everyone was excited by that game.

“I think what the guys were saying there was that across the last 25-30 balls it wasn’t that stoppy. It skidded, but it was still slow in the wicket. We tried to execute as well as we could but Jonny was on fire there, he was hitting the ball cleanly and obviously we got over the line but it was a good effort by them.

“When you’re out there batting, the five balls and then 10 balls from one end – you think you have to change ends as a batter. I’m getting used to it, but what I am loving is the crowds. It’s fantastic. It’s all about the kids, and us trying to put entertainment on the TV – credit to everyone who came out today, thank you.

“This is a really important win for us. We lost our first game at home but we’ve got an away game in Manchester coming up, and hopefully we can tick that off.”

Brief scores:
London Spirit 163 for 5 in 100 balls (Kane Williamson 14, David Warner 70*, Jamie Smith 26, Ashton Turner 24, Sean Dickson 14; David Payne 1-28, Riley Meredith 1-26, Josh Hull 2-36) beat Welsh Fire 155 for 6 in 100 balls (Jonny Bairstow 86*, Luke Wells 12, Chris Green 32; Luke Wood 1-35, Daniel Worrall 2-31, Richard Gleeson 1-25, Jamie Overtone 1-38, Liam Dawson 1-25) by eight runs

[Cricinfo]