A crowd of 20,540 watched local boy and new captain Sam Curran mark his first game in charge with two wickets and an unbeaten 60, sharing a brutal unbroken stand of 93 with Nicholas Pooran to guide MI London to a seven-wicket win in the opening match of the 2026 men’s Hundred.
Having taken over the captaincy from the successful Sam Billings, Sam Curran, whose MI London team has potentially been through the most extensive rebrand of all eight sides in the competition, won the toss and as is commonplace at The Oval decided to field.
Formerly The Oval Invincibles but now under the Mumbai Indians umbrella, having compiled a side that appears to cover all bases, they are once again strong favourites to take their fourth title in a row.
After watching the women’s side romp to victory earlier in the day, the SunRisers went out to bat looking to complete the double. In all probability they would surely need to set a score in excess of 160 to pose any real challenge to the home side’s powerful batting line up.
Ryan Rickelton quickly found his range, racing to 25, the South African dealing almost entirely in boundaries. But Sam Curran, whose sub-50mph moon ball have become something of a trademark, brought himself on and had Rickelton trapped in front, the ball nipping back off the seam.
Six and Out for Brook
That brought Harry Brook, a man who for the right or wrong reasons is never too far away from making headlines, to the crease. Having been retained for a reported figure of £465,000, the England men’s white ball captain who skippered the Northern Superchargers for the past two seasons will need to have a sizeable impact with the bat if the SunRisers are going to make a bid for their first title.
His short innings, eight from seven balls, was perhaps a good summation of his career to date – a swaggering six down the ground off Rashid Khan followed immediately by a holed-out attempt at the repeat shot, Nathan Sowter taking a good diving catch running in from the rope to give Khan his first wicket of this year’s competition.
Caught Curran Bowled Curran
Tom and Sam Curran, who made their senior debuts for Surrey in 2013 and 2015 respectively, know more about this ground and each other than anyone, and it was that understanding which produced one of the game’s defining moments. Sam brought his older brother – whose first five deliveries cost 14 runs – back into the attack. The move paid off immediately, the dangerous opener Mitchell Marsh, affectionately known as ‘The Bison’ in Australia, inexplicably hung his bat wide outside off stump and chipped the simplest of catches to Sam, who moved to his right to take it at mid-on.
Not for the first time, the scorecard reads caught Curran, bowled Curran, Marsh dismissed for 41 as the SunRisers slumped to 95-6, having been 84-2 only a few overs earlier.
Richard Gleeson then ripped through the SunRisers’ middle order, removing captain Zak Crawley and Benny Howell in successive balls but his hat-trick ball was later flicked for six by Abrar Ahmed. Gleeson still finished the pick of the bowlers with standout figures of 4-25.
Requiring 143 to win, MI London got off to a surprisingly poor start, Will Jacks was dismissed for just 2, a composed Benny Howell took a great high catch, the birthday boy Jason Roy soon followed to Carse’s bowling as well. Roy, potentially the bargain buy of the auction for £31,000 came in in great form having scored a blistering hundred on the same ground just two weeks prior, once again the short format of the game showing its fickle nature.
When you think of James Vince, you may think of his long association with Hampshire and since the start of The Hundred the Southern Brave, who he captained to victory in the competitions first season. However, he decided to enter the inaugural hundred auction and was sold to MI London for £190,000, a price tag that considering his white ball prowess was probably justifiable but, on this occasion, the 35 year old couldn’t live up to his billing, bowled by Nathan Ellis for 17.
Curran and Pooran seal victory
Nicholas Pooran joined a well set Sam Curran at the crease with MI London marginally behind the required rate. The pair batted beautifully, cautious in the early stages of the partnership before taking control, plundering 33 runs from consecutive five-ball sets bowled by Benny Howells and Dan Lawrence
West Indian Pooran was at his brutal best, racing to 31 off 11, in the time it would have taken you to visit one of the many bars littered around the Oval, the game had gone from in the balance to firmly in the home sides grip.
The two left handers both reached 50, Pooran’s coming off just 19 balls, which was the fastest for the MI London franchise. The SunRisers bowling attack was very good up top, Carse the pick of the bowlers with 2-18 but the change bowlers were put to the sword, surprisingly the spin of Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed went for 30 in 10 balls.
MI London reached their target with 16 balls to spare, a fantastic run chase that leaves the rest of the competition in no doubt as to who the favourites are this season. For Curran, its another match winning performance at his home ground.
