THE MEN’S HUNDRED, 2025
Zak Crawley enroute to his 50 © Getty
London Spirit slumped to their fourth defeat of the season as Northern Superchargers brushed them aside in a one-sided game at Lord’s. Despite losing just three wickets, London Spirit made just 135 and that eventually cost them the game as Superchargers chased it down with 18 balls to spare.
Superchargers made an excellent start after opting to bowl first as they sent down seven dot balls within the first two sets that also saw the departure of David Warner. Skipper Kane Williamson did begin well with a couple of boundaries but he failed to kick on and that meant the onus was on Jamie Smith to keep the scorecard ticking alongside the middle order.
Smith did get off to a very good start as he made use of the short square boundary to fetch the first six of the innings just before Williamson’s dismissal. However, just when he looked in good touch, Smith found the fielder at deep midwicket around the halfway stage of the innings. From thereon, Spirit didn’t lose a wicket as Ollie Pope and Ashton Turner batted out the innings. Ashton Turner in fact got off to a flier as he found the boundary thrice off his first six deliveries. Despite that bright start, Turner just didn’t find the boundary at all for the rest of the innings as he finished unbeaten on 28 off 22. More worryingly, the boundaries had dried up at the other end too as not even a single four or six was hit in the final 20 deliveries as Pope too relied on running between the wickets to finish unbeaten on 52 for which he took 38 balls.
On the contrary, Zak Crawley walked out with intent in the chase and found the boundary four times off the first six deliveries to set the tone. Dawid Malan’s presence in the middle did turn out to be scratchy as he took 21 balls for his 22. But that didn’t bother the chasing side at all with Crawley getting things done at the other end. After Malan’s departure, Dan Lawrence gave the innings more impetus. Both Crawley and Lawrence hit a six each over midwicket as Spirit looked clueless out in the field. Lawrence’s cameo eventually came to an end with his team just 17 short of the finish line but Crawley hit another six to bring up an excellent fifty. Harry Brook wasted no time as smashed two boundaries in quick succession to put Spirit out of their misery.
Brief scores: London Spirit 135/3 in 100 balls (Ollie Pope 52*, Jamie Smith 41; Tom Lawes 2/34) lost to Northern Superchargers 138/2 in 82 balls (Zak Crawley 55*, Dan Lawrence 37) by 8 wickets
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