Australia T20 skipper’s Sunrisers Leeds and Matt Short’s Welsh Fire posted victories in Saturday’s double header
Aussie captain Mitch Marsh struck a brutal half-century as his Sunrisers Leeds opened their Hundred account with a tight five-run win over Southern Brave at Headingley.
Having made 41 in his Hundred debut on Tuesday, Marsh smashed 69 from 34 balls in his first home appearance to set the platform for his side before Dan Lawrence’s 24-ball half-century took the hosts to 5-187.
It was a total they were able to defend despite a late flurry from South African Tristan Stubbs (43no from 20) as the Brave closed on 5-182.
Marsh shared an outstanding opening stand of 111 in 56 balls with Ryan Rickelton which was finally broken when the latter (37 off 27) top-edged to Dan Worrall to give Adil Rashid the breakthrough.
The veteran leggie struck again three balls later when Marsh, who hit six sixes and four fours, drilled a catch to Chris Jordan at extra cover, and Zak Crawley immediately succumbed to a 69kph floater from Rashid, falling for a golden duck.
Harry Brook was then clean bowled for three by Aussie allrounder Marcus Stoinis before Lawrence’s efforts and a rapid 21 from Tom Alsop helped the Sunrisers finish strongly.
Ben McKinney led Brave’s response with 44 from 23 deliveries, while fellow opener Jamie Smith hit 30 from 18 and Stoinis plundered 31 from 16.
Stubbs kept the visitors in contention with successive sixes off Matthew Revis and then consecutive fours of Matthew Potts, but Nathan Ellis was superb at the death, conceding just nine from his final 10 deliveries and claiming the wicket of Hobart Hurricanes teammate Nikhil Chaudhary.
With 21 required from Potts’ final five deliveries, the Sunrisers held on despite the best efforts of Stubbs, who cleared the rope for a third time.
“The way we bowled there towards the end was exceptional. It was a great win to kickstart our season,” said Marsh after being named player of the match. “Headingley is a beautiful place to bat. It feels quite small. I love batting here.”
In Saturday’s later match, New Zealander Rachin Ravindra posted the joint fourth-highest score in the history of the Hundred men’s competition to propel Welsh Fire to a 15-run victory over MI London.
The Oval-based franchise have won the men’s competition in each of the last three summers but their star-studded bowling line-up had no answer to Ravindra, whose 44-ball 98 left a record home crowd in Cardiff purring before he claimed a stunning caught-and-bowled to take the pivotal wicket of James Vince.
The Welsh side’s Aussie opener Matt Short was bowled for eight as they started slowly before Ravindra and Joe Root (29) combined for a 116-run third-wicket stand.
Kiwi quick Lockie Ferguson bowled exceptionally for his 4-27 as the Fire restricted MI London to 6-152 in reply to their 5-167.
– Main image courtesy of ECB
The Hundred 2026 men’s standings
Team
Matches played
M
Wins
W
Losses
L
Ties
T
Drawn
D
No results
N/R
Net Run Rate
NRR
Deductions
Ded.
Batting Bonus
Bat
Bowling Bonus
Bowl
Total points
PTS
1
WFM
2
2
0
0
0
0
0.527
0
0
0
8
2
BPM
1
1
0
0
0
0
0.5
0
0
0
4
3
MSG
1
1
0
0
0
0
0.35
0
0
0
4
4
MLM
2
1
1
0
0
0
0.293
0
0
0
4
5
MSM
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
SLM
2
1
1
0
0
0
-0.609
0
0
0
4
7
SBM
2
0
2
0
0
0
-0.282
0
0
0
0
8
LSM
1
0
1
0
0
0
-0.35
0
0
0
0
9
TRM
1
0
1
0
0
0
-0.5
0
0
0
0
Legend
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
D: Drawn
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
Bat: Batting Bonus
Bowl: Bowling Bonus
PTS: Total points
Australians in the Hundred
(* denotes bought in auction)
Birmingham Phoenix
Men: Mitch Owen £130,000 (A$244,000)
Women: Ellyse Perry £100,000 (A$187,436), Alana King* £37,500 (A$70,000), Lucy Hamilton withdrawn
London Spirit
Men: Adam Zampa £190,000 (A$357,000), Andrew Tye
Women: Grace Harris £70,000 (A$131,000)
Manchester Super Giants
Women: Meg Lanning £95,000 (A$178,000), Maitlan Brown* £40,000 (A$75,000)
MI London
Women: Nicola Carey* £95,000 (A$178,000)
Southern Brave
Men: Marcus Stoinis £150,000 (A$282,000), Nikhil Chaudhary* £31,000 (A$58,000)
Women: Sophie Molineux* £47,500 (A$89,000), Lizelle Lee £27,500 (A$53,000)
Sunrisers Leeds
Men: Mitch Marsh £200,000 (A$376,000), Nathan Ellis £145,000 (A$278,000)
Women: Annabel Sutherland £130,000 (A$244,000), Phoebe Litchfield £120,000 (A$225,000), Jess Jonassen* £110,000 (A$206,000)
Trent Rockets
Men: Tim David £350,000 (A$658,000)
Women: Beth Mooney* £210,000 ($A394,000), Ashleigh Gardner £100,000 (A$187,000), Kim Garth £42,000 (A$79,000), Sam Bates £15,000 (A$29,000)
Welsh Fire
Men: Matt Short* £75,000 (A$140,978)
Women: Georgia Wareham £100,000 (A$187,000), Georgia Voll £80,000 (A$150,000), Heather Graham* £27,500 (A$52,000)
