Southern Brave Beat London Spirit to earn back-to-back wins

Figures of 4-9 from England ace Jofra Archer saw Southern Brave bowl out London Spirit for 105, the home side losing their last five wickets for just two runs, as the Brave set up a five-wicket win at Lord’s to keep their season very much alive.

A battling 56 from Jonny Bairstow was the only innings of note for the Spirit as Marcus Stoinis continued his fine tournament with the ball, finishing with 3-17 to take his wicket tally to nine in four matches and see himself top of the wicket-taking charts.

Inserted by Chris Jordan, the Spirit reached 52-2 at halfway with Bairstow struggling for fluency on a tricky wicket for a run-a-ball 25. Adil Rashid had Liam Livingstone caught at deep cover to go past Tymal Mills and become the leading wicket-taker in The Hundred men’s competition’s history as he finished with figures of 2-17.

Bairstow reached his half-century from 40 balls but was then part of a spectacular Spirit collapse, with Archer and Stoinis both bagging two-in-two to wrap up the innings with eight balls left unused. 

With just 106 required for victory, the Brave were obvious favourites but the chase wasn’t an easy one. They lost Ben McKinney and Nikhil Chaudhary to David Willey early, the former for a first-ball duck. Despite the loss of wickets, Jamie Smith dominated the early exchanges, motoring to 36 and launching a maximum into the scoreboard, before falling lbw to James Coles.

Adam Zampa was economical through the middle and saw the back of Moeen Ali – who’d come into the Brave squad to replace the injured Thomas Rew – and then Stoinis was run-out at the non-striker’s end to leave the score 60-5 with 46 still required from 48.

The South African duo of David Miller and Tristan Stubbs came together and steadily chipped away at the remaining runs, Miller clearing the ropes to finish 39 not out as the Brave got home with three balls to spare.

It was a crucial win for the Brave, who are still right in the mix for a spot in the Eliminator, while for the Spirit, a lot will have to go right now for them to progress into the knockout stages.

Meerkat Match Hero, Archer, said: “I’m delighted that we got the win today. It’s the first time I’ve got more than two wickets for the tournament. Everyone’s been bowling well. We’ve not been getting huge amounts of wickets but we’ve definitely been keeping the runs down.”

On chasing a small total, he added: “You always think that it’s going to be an easy game, but we seem to always make it hard for ourselves.”