After a Sikandar Raza masterclass, it was MI London who came away with the spoils to jump up to second in the table and condemn the home side to an early departure from this year’s competition, the first side in the men’s or women’s competition to be eliminated.
Spirit, after their mauling at the hands of SunRisers Leeds on Tuesday, made three changes but came up short in front of a reported record group stage crowd of 27,721.
MI London brought in Raza for their star leggie Rashid Khan, away with Afghanistan on international duty, and the Zimbabwean all-rounder was part of a smart bowling performance, the visitors largely keeping the ball away from the short side as Spirit’s innings flickered without bursting into life, despite a half-century from Lhuan-Dre Pretorius.
The South African’s innings was ended by an outrageous boundary catch from Will Jacks, who overbalanced on the edge, threw the ball up and then dived full length to complete the dismissal one-handed.
David Willey bristled and muscled his way to 31 but the earlier dismissals of power-hitters Liam Livingstone and Dewald Brevis meant that Spirit were always struggling to post the kind of score they would have liked.
It was only due to Jamie Overton and James Coles’ belligerence at the death – Coles playing his first innings of substance for Spirit – that they reached a serviceable 160-5, meaning MI London would need to make the highest successful chase in the The Hundred men’s competition at Lord’s to take the points.
Matt Fisher, earlier in the day picked in England’s Test squad, saw his first ever ball for Spirit disappear back over his head for six from the bat of Jacks but he had his Surrey teammate’s wicket next ball, Adam Milne pouching the skier.
Nicholas Pooran, playing his first ever game at Lord’s, was quickly up and running but Mason Crane, in for Adam Zampa, bowled a brilliant first ten on the bounce, getting rid of his former skipper James Vince with his first ball and conceding just three runs.
Pooran and skipper Sam Curran moved things along but in an increasingly spicy affair Willey then intervened, a brilliant run out where he released the ball mid-air on the dive, got rid of the Trinidadian. But that only served to bring in the recently arrived white-ball specialist Raza and give MI London a right-left combination. Raza smashed his first, fourth and seventh balls for six to turbo-charge the run chase and leave 29 needed off 20 after a partnership of 41 off 18.
The pendulum swung again as Curran slapped Overton to deep point for 33 and Sherfane Rutherford went second ball but James Coles conceded 18 from his only five balls, including a 105-metre six from Raza that almost went out of the ground, and although he went with 10 balls left, Ollie Pope completed the job.
The two London sides exchanged words with each other as they exited the field after a somewhat tempestuous affair, but ultimately for Spirit the fight to progress further in the competition is over.
Meerkat Match Hero Sikandar Raza said: “Four days ago I was in Sri Lanka and I’m not really sure what day or date it is but it’s nice to be part of The Hundred and have a debut like that. I couldn’t have asked for a better start – really I just closed my eyes and swung as hard as I could!
“It was nice to get a few out of the middle and you need to remember the complexion of a game can completely change in 10 balls.”
