In-form Manchester Super Giants consolidated their third-place position in The Hundred in south London. Despite a late wobble induced by the leg-spin of Melie Kerr, they beat MI London by the margin of six wickets with 28 balls to spare.
MI London lost the toss and were asked to bat, and it was imperative that they got off to a decent start in the absence of Danni Wyatt-Hodge.
After just eight balls, however, the home side were well behind the eight ball. Sophie Ecclestone, opening the bowling for the first time this season, had hit the stumps of both Alice Davidson-Richards and Hayley Matthews and MI London were 1-2. In a masterly spell, the England left-arm spinner went on to concede just seven from her 20 balls.
Ecclestone also took two catches and effected a direct hit run out but this was not a one-woman show by any means. All of the Super Giants bowlers stepped up and MI London were squeezed incessantly, the visitors expertly marshalled in the field by Meg Lanning, who took three catches in what was an excellent all-round fielding display.
Grace Ballinger, Maitlan Brown and Ryana MacDonald-Gay all played their part, bowling a good length and commendably straight on a pitch where run-scoring seemed tricky.
Smriti Mandhana and Meg Lanning showed their class, opening the batting and easing through the gears, watchfully accumulating just seven in the first 10 balls and 35 in the powerplay before giving the crowd a masterclass in how to chase down a small target. Mandhana went for a typically classy 34, her slog-sweeping a thing of beauty, with the score on 73 but by then it was a matter of when, not if.
Kerr did her best to pull off a miracle, snaring both Richa Ghosh and Paige Scholfield but there was only one further alarm as Lanning was lbw for 43 late in the piece. Mady Villiers then hit the winning boundary to make sure that the Super Giants’ efforts resulted in four points.
