Reece Topley leads southern brave to thrilling win

Reece Topley and Craig Overton of Southern Brave celebrates their teams victory

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In a thrilling finish at The Hundred 2025, Reece Topley struck the winning runs as Southern Brave edged past Manchester Originals by one wicket in a dramatic contest.

Match Analysis

Reece Topley carved his first ball and the penultimate ball of the match for four to take Southern Brave to a dramatic and unexpected one-wicket win against Manchester Originals in The Hundred.

Last man Topley walked out with three runs needed from two balls, after Craig Overton (18 off 8) and Tymal Mills (8 off 4) had wrestled the game back from the home team’s grasp with a vital 25-run partnership.

Before the duo came together, the equation was 28 needed from 13, and the smart money would have been on Manchester Originals; indeed Phil Salt might wonder how his team didn’t get over the line, across an innings that saw both 42-year-old Jimmy Anderson and 17-year-old Farhan Ahmed make their debuts in the competition.

Mills was awarded Meerkat Match Hero partly for his efforts with the bat, but he had earlier taken 3-22 as Originals put together 131-4. Salt was the stand-out with the bat for the home team, making a 41-ball 60 and becoming the leading run-scorer in The Hundred men’s competition as he did so.

Mark Chapman added some late impetus to the Originals batting effort and the home faithful would have been confident throughout much of the Brave’s reply that their total would be enough to see them to a winning start, but they weren’t counting for the late intervention of Overton, Mills and Topley.

Meerkat Match Hero Mills said: “We managed to somehow get ourselves in a position where it was in our hands, one hit away. Credit to Manchester Originals, they bowled really well for the best part of the innings but Craig pulled out some big hits at the end. It’s always good to win close games like that and it stands us in good stead for the rest of the season.

Jason Roy of Southern Brave bats during the The Hundred

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“Bat on ball was the main thing. We needed to hit every ball and scamper as best we could, and obviously we managed to get a couple of boundaries in there as well – that was a brilliant knock from Craig. We just wanted to take it as deep as we could and Toppers finished it off brilliantly.

“I think it was a wicket that rewarded you for hitting the pitch hard. We saw in the powerplay that we were perhaps a little bit full, but once we dragged our lengths back and hit the pitch hard there was a little bit of bounce there and we saw that when Manchester Originals were bowling as well. We were happy halfway with that score, and we were confident of chasing it, but we probably made a little bit more hard work of it than we would have liked.”

Tymal Mills of Southern Brave poses for a picture after receiving the player of the match

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Men’s The Hundred 2025 – Manchester Originals Men vs Southern Brave Men – Cricket Betting Tips and Match Predictions: 6th August

Match Prediction – Manchester Originals v Southern Brave

Manhattan

Worm

Partnership

Player vs Player

Runs

Wickets

Extras

Runrate

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