Liam Livingstone’s brilliance was in vain as Sonny Baker held his nerve to give the Manchester Super Giants victory by 7 runs at Lord’s.
Having won three of the four previous encounters between the sides, the Manchester Super Giants, formerly known as Manchester Originals, look to be a very strong outfit and arrived at the home of cricket as slight favourites. The London Spirit have made significant changes to their squad since last season and now boast a strong blend of youth and experience.
Up against an imposing Super Giants batting line-up, Livingstone chose to field first, and his decision was vindicated early on. David Willey and Adam Milne bowled tight opening spells as Super Giants captain Aiden Markram, playing in the competition for the first time, struggled badly for rhythm before being put out of his misery, LBW to Milne for one off ten deliveries.
Tim Seifert, making his Hundred debut, fared better than his teammates, striking early boundaries as he looked to take his side towards a defendable total. Jos Buttler didn’t last long alongside him, though, bowled by Adam Zampa after going back to a ball he really should have met on the front foot.
The Super Giants Collapse
The Super Giants reached the halfway mark at 75-2, Seifert the key wicket on 39, before David Willey struck to have the dangerous Heinrich Klaasen caught at cover. That breakthrough sparked a collapse: Tom Moores was run out for a duck, and the Super Giants slid to 116-5.
From there, Spirit’s spin trio took over. Zampa, Coles and Livingstone shared the bulk of the deliveries at the back end and bowled immaculately. Seifert fell, top-edging a sweep and was caught by Willey off the bowling of Coles. Livingstone finished with figures of 2-14 from his 20 balls, as wickets continued to tumble and the Super Giants were restricted to a below-par 138-9.
Josh Tongue, who starred with 3-26 in this fixture last year on his way to becoming the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 14, was immediately into the action, dismissing the recently test-capped James Rew out for a duck, well caught at backward point by Atkinson.
That left the Spirit struggling at 14-2 on a surface that was evidently tricky to score on. They perhaps should have been three down soon after, but a mix-up as to whose catch it was between Jos Butler and Liam Dawson meant Kiran Carlson survived.
With 100 runs needed from 64 balls, Livingstone and Carlson needed to get into their stride. As spin had proved so challenging to face, that is where Markram turned to the experienced Liam Dawson. Dawson, having played for the London Spirit throughout the competition’s history, was perhaps best placed to keep the pressure on the pair who, having got themselves set, needed to go on.
Dawson made the breakthrough, bowling Carlson and atoning for his earlier indiscretion. With the Lords crowd perhaps expecting James Coles, the most expensive pick in the History of the Hundred to come out (£390,000), the Spirit opted to send out the known quantity, South Africa’s Dewald Brevis.
Much like his South African teammate Markram, Brevis was also making his Hundred debut. With 78 from 44 balls required for victory, Liam Livingstone should have been caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Tim Seifert, but the Kiwi dropped it; the ball fell on the boundary sponge for six undeserved runs.
At a crucial juncture, Josh Tongue was then brought back into the attack. Brevis managed to squeeze a wide delivery down to the third man boundary as the partnership climbed to 29.
Livingstone Counter Attacks
In amongst rotating the strike, Livingstone counter-attacked, slog sweeping Noor Ahmad for six before cutting him behind point; the momentum had turned in the Spirits’ favour, but with 36 required from 18, the game was honours even.
Dawson, who up to this point had been superb, had his figures spoilt by Livingstone as the Lancashire man took his final five balls for thirteen. The Super Giants did, however, get the breakthrough: an Atkinson caught and bowled, and Dewald Brevis out for 22 meant James Coles came to the crease.
The game was in the balance with 12 needed off the last 5 balls, and Sonny Baker, who had been expensive to this point with the ball in hand, came on to bowl. Livingston’s innings came to an end with 9 needed from 3 balls; he was bowled for 69 by a 90mph delivery from the youngster.
Baker did brilliantly to hold his nerve to complete a very good victory for the away side and a double on the day.
