131/6 (20.0)
CR : 6.55
138/9 (20.0)
CR : 6.90
Manchesters Super Giants won by 7 runs 🏆
Player of the Match
L Livingstone
2/1469(40)
19.5
W
Sonny Baker to James Coles
OUT!!! TAKEN!!! THAT'S IT!! Sliding in, full, and around middle and leg. Coles walks across and tries to pick it up. Rolls his wrists and looks to whip it, but doesn't get the desired elevation. Ends up mistiming it behind the square on the leg side towards deep backward square leg, where Moores judges it nicely and snaffles it before tumbling down on the ground. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT AT THE HALFWAY MARK THAT THE MANCHESTER SUPER GIANTS WOULD DEFEND THIS? BUT HERE IT IS! THEY HAVE DEFEATED LONDON SPIRIT BY 7 RUNS!!!
J Coles 1(3)
c T Moores b S Baker
4s/6s
0/0
SR
33.33
Over 20
London Spirit 131/6
James Coles1(3)
Jamie Overton1(1)
Sonny Baker2-29(20 b)
MSG won by 7 runs
1:53 AM IST, 9:23 PM Local Time | Sonny Baker picks up two wickets and defends 12 off the last set to help his team, Manchester Super Giants, snatch victory by 7 runs! They defeat the hosts, London Spirit, at Lord's to take the points back to Manchester and kick off their season with a victory!
London Spirit won the toss and elected to bowl first. Their bowling attack produced an effective display, but thanks to Tim Seifert's 67 runs off 45 balls, Manchester Super Giants were able to register a par score of 138/9 after their 100 balls.
Liam Livingstone bowled the difficult slog overs and got rewarded with the figures of 2/14 from 20 balls. Adam Zampa got 2 wickets as well, with Willey, Milne, and Coles picking up a solitary wicket each.
Come the chase, like Manchester, London got off to a slow start, and just when it looked like Lhuan-dre Pretorius was finding his groove, Atkinson intervened and cut short his knock in the powerplay for 12 runs. James Rew was quick to follow with a silver duck as he sent one flying to short third man for a sharp catch off Tongue.
Liam Livingstone came in at no. 4 and, along with Kiran Carlson (19) and Dewald Brevis (22) created partnerships that kept London Spirit in the game. The London skipper smashed his way to 69 runs off 40 balls but fell short of his mark as he was not able to take his team home.
Gus Atkinson was the pick of the bowlers with 2/15, Sonny Baker produced a double-wicket final set to defend the total, and the duo of Tongue-Dawson grabbed a wicket each to round up an incredible bowling effort from the visitors.
A positive start for the team from Manchester, and they will be delighted with that. Plenty of work to be done for London Spirit, as they came close, but could not get over the finish line. Come to think of it, if it were not for the dropped opportunities, Manchester Super Giants would have closed out the game much sooner.
London Spirit won the toss and elected to bowl first. Their bowling attack produced an effective display, but thanks to Tim Seifert's 67 runs off 45 balls, Manchester Super Giants were able to register a par score of 138/9 after their 100 balls.
Liam Livingstone bowled the difficult slog overs and got rewarded with the figures of 2/14 from 20 balls. Adam Zampa got 2 wickets as well, with Willey, Milne, and Coles picking up a solitary wicket each.
Come the chase, like Manchester, London got off to a slow start, and just when it looked like Lhuan-dre Pretorius was finding his groove, Atkinson intervened and cut short his knock in the powerplay for 12 runs. James Rew was quick to follow with a silver duck as he sent one flying to short third man for a sharp catch off Tongue.
Liam Livingstone came in at no. 4 and, along with Kiran Carlson (19) and Dewald Brevis (22) created partnerships that kept London Spirit in the game. The London skipper smashed his way to 69 runs off 40 balls but fell short of his mark as he was not able to take his team home.
Gus Atkinson was the pick of the bowlers with 2/15, Sonny Baker produced a double-wicket final set to defend the total, and the duo of Tongue-Dawson grabbed a wicket each to round up an incredible bowling effort from the visitors.
A positive start for the team from Manchester, and they will be delighted with that. Plenty of work to be done for London Spirit, as they came close, but could not get over the finish line. Come to think of it, if it were not for the dropped opportunities, Manchester Super Giants would have closed out the game much sooner.
Hero of the Match: Liam Livingstone
Liam Livingstone (London Spirit captain and Hero of the Match): "(On being unable to get his team past the line) A little disappointed, thought it was a really good game of cricket to be honest. A pretty good cricket wicket, just a shame that we fell short.
(On bowling himself at the death and what stage was that a plan) It was never a plan. Because a left-hander came in, I thought I'd just try and get a couple of dot balls in early. It came out nicely, so I thought whatever was working, to stick with that, and it looked like hard to hit to be honest, just stuck with it.
(On the nature of the wicket) It was obviously up and down, the wicket, it was one of them pitches where the score was just about par but we just got ourselves too far behind the run rate to catch up at the end. A little bit disappointing, a little bit rusty, hope we can come off this.
(Positives from today's game) We bowled some really good stuff in the middle, dragged them back really well towards the end, and we nearly chased it down. The stats don't necessarily favour chasing here at Lord's. Pretty decent start, hope we can build on it."
(On bowling himself at the death and what stage was that a plan) It was never a plan. Because a left-hander came in, I thought I'd just try and get a couple of dot balls in early. It came out nicely, so I thought whatever was working, to stick with that, and it looked like hard to hit to be honest, just stuck with it.
(On the nature of the wicket) It was obviously up and down, the wicket, it was one of them pitches where the score was just about par but we just got ourselves too far behind the run rate to catch up at the end. A little bit disappointing, a little bit rusty, hope we can come off this.
(Positives from today's game) We bowled some really good stuff in the middle, dragged them back really well towards the end, and we nearly chased it down. The stats don't necessarily favour chasing here at Lord's. Pretty decent start, hope we can build on it."
Sonny Baker (Manchester Super Giants): (On defending the target in the closing stages) "We were in a really good position when they needed around 60 runs from the last 30 balls, but they kept getting closer and closer. Normally, I'd bowl yorkers at the end, but because it was a tricky wicket and the ball was holding on the surface, we felt bowling a hard length would be much tougher to score off. The only times the batters really got away were when the ball was too full or too short, so that was the thinking.
(On staying calm while bowling the final five balls) I always backed Gus to leave me with enough to defend. The nice thing about bowling the final five is that you get a bit more time between deliveries to think, whereas if you're bowling the 19th set, everything happens much quicker. I was pretty calm because I trusted Gus to do his job.
(On communication within the bowling group) The communication out there was brilliant. Aiden is a fantastic captain, and Gus and Tongue were talking to me the whole way through. As a bowling unit, communication is something we want to pride ourselves on and keep at a really high standard. It definitely makes a big difference. Sometimes your go-to option might be yorkers, but if the conditions say hard lengths are tougher to hit, then you've got to adapt.
(On the flexibility of the bowling attack) I think adaptability is one of our biggest strengths. Tongue, Gus, and I can all interchange our roles depending on the wicket, the batter, the match situation, or who has the better match-up. Having that flexibility gives us a lot of depth and allows us to adjust to whatever the game demands."
(On staying calm while bowling the final five balls) I always backed Gus to leave me with enough to defend. The nice thing about bowling the final five is that you get a bit more time between deliveries to think, whereas if you're bowling the 19th set, everything happens much quicker. I was pretty calm because I trusted Gus to do his job.
(On communication within the bowling group) The communication out there was brilliant. Aiden is a fantastic captain, and Gus and Tongue were talking to me the whole way through. As a bowling unit, communication is something we want to pride ourselves on and keep at a really high standard. It definitely makes a big difference. Sometimes your go-to option might be yorkers, but if the conditions say hard lengths are tougher to hit, then you've got to adapt.
(On the flexibility of the bowling attack) I think adaptability is one of our biggest strengths. Tongue, Gus, and I can all interchange our roles depending on the wicket, the batter, the match situation, or who has the better match-up. Having that flexibility gives us a lot of depth and allows us to adjust to whatever the game demands."
That's it from this match, folks! Join us back tomorrow as the Hundred bandwagon rolls on with both Women's and Men's matches!
Until then, I am Anirudh, signing off along with my colleagues, Dev, Rajarshit, and Paras! See you at the next one.
Until then, I am Anirudh, signing off along with my colleagues, Dev, Rajarshit, and Paras! See you at the next one.