The Analysis: London Spirit and Trent Rockets Women serve up a bit of everything

NICK HOWSON AT LORD'S: Spectacular hitting, dropped catches, bizarre run-outs and misfields - the opening game of the double-header was entertaining if not high-quality. And that's ok.

Sanjay Patel admitted in the days leading up to The Hundred's grand opening that equating what constituted a world-class cricket tournament was difficult, despite it being among the ECB's chief measures of success for the opening year of the 100-ball tournament.

While high-calibre cricket will be important to improving and shaping the England teams in the years to follow, there is something hollow about faultless sport.

In amongst brilliance, you need moments of entertainment and vulnerability. If The Hundred is all about bringing new eyes to the sport, you have to accept that those viewers won't always be able to appreciate a slower ball out of the back of the hand, a front-foot cover-drive or a one-handed pick-up on the boundary.

The women's contest between London Spirit and Trent Rockets was exactly the kind of match a competition condensed into just over four weeks needs. It was the sambuca chaser alongside your pint of bitter, the plate of chips with your roast dinner. Dua Lipa on Question Time. Sir Trevor McDonald on Love Island. Sometimes it didn't work but we all had a lot of fun.

Rachel Priest provided the fireworks. It took one set of five for the New Zealander to determine that this hybrid pitch had fewer demons in than a Goosebumps first edition. By the time Chloe Tryon came into the attack, Priest had found her range and began peppering the short midwicket boundary.

No sooner does a set of five begin than a bowler or batter can want them to end. Priest smashed 16 from Tryon's first, 10 when Charlotte Dean returned and the carnage continued when Naomi Dattani came back. Even the more-reserved Sammy-Jo Johnson got in on the act.

It was not without good fortune of course, with Tammy Beaumont putting her down on the boundary and watching the ball roll towards the rope. The returning England batter made amends with a fine low catch to deny Priest the competition's first century but by then the game had probably gone.

"I started off a bit nervy but once I got a few away it turned into my day," he said. "When you have those kinds of days just keep swinging the bat.

^{Deandra Dottin's innings had a bit of everything}

"I try not to look at the scoreboard too much, it's just see the ball, hit the ball.

"I was a little bit scrambled in my first two innings. I've come off a short pre-season and I felt slightly underdone. I felt clear today and I spoke to the coaches about having a clear mind and not premeditating too much. It was definitely fun out there today."

The Spirit reply was a patchwork quilt of an innings. At times, Heather Knight and Deandra Dottin looked a class apart. But once they'd departed just after the mid-way point in the innings the chase was forlorn.

Rockets gave them plenty of encouragement. Lucy Higham put down Knight on 11, Abbie Freeborn shelled Dottin on 19 and Johnson spilt Danielle Gibson on four. Higham and Sarah Glenn were guilty of some poor ground fielding. Michaela Kirk took a tumble at deep midwicket. It was a bit of a circus at times.

^{Lord's was resplendent on a glorious Thursday}

Dottin's run-out provided the cherry on top. She charged down the wicket looking for a single only to be sent back so close to Knight she could have whispered the refusal. Glenn demolished the stumps and Spirit were done.

"No one means to drop catches, no one means to misfield," said Freya Davies, whose 20 balls included 10 dots and just 19 runs. "It is a big competition for some of the girls in the squad. Mistakes happen and we're all human. We know where want to be as a team and we're much better than that."

This match won't make the tournament greatest hits but that isn't important. While this event needs to improve players, it also needs to be one that people like. There is something fascinating about watching elite sportspeople look fallible, not in a cruel way, but because it makes them look human when so often they dazzle.

And when it comes to engagement, entertainment v quality is a no contest.