1:39 AM IST, 9:09 PM Local Time: A target of 182 in the Hundred does come across as challenging, particularly given the quality of the Manchester Super Giants' pace attack. But not only have the Sunrisers Leeds' top-order succeeded in chasing it down, they made an absolute mockery of it. Zak Crawley and Harry Brook actually took a bit of time late in the chase, and yet, the Sunrisers Leeds got there with ample time to spare.
Having been sent in to bat, the Manchester Super Giants got off to a decent start courtesy their openers. Tim Seifert did most of the damage, almost single-handedly taking them to 29 in the first four sets before holing out off Brydon Carse in the fifth. Jos Buttler walked in, and along with Aiden Markram, looked to pace his innings steadily. There seemed to barely be any dots in those middle overs as the duo kept rotating strike, finding the boundary every now and then.
Markram's wicket in the 11th set brought Heinrich Klaasen in. The burly South African played himself in nicely, and with a well-built platform to capitalise on, both batters went absolutely bonkers going into the last five sets. 21 came off the 16th set from Carse, Buttler got to his fifty the following delivery after the set, Heinrich Klaasen got in on the action, and the course of the innings was completely altered. Klaasen himself got to his fifty in the final set before holing out, and the Manchester Super Giants ended with 181 in their 100 deliveries, with 84 of them coming in the last 6 sets.
The Sunrisers Leeds absolutely raced off the blocks, mainly thanks to Mitchell Marsh. Gus Atkinson and Sonny Baker got in a couple of good overs, coming in with thrilling pace and getting the ball to move around quite a bit. Rickelton struggled against it, he did find and clear the boundary once each, but found Tom Moores at mid-off in the 4th set of the chase. Marsh, having played himself in, switched gears, and the runs came along thick and fast.
Pace, wrist-spin, finger-spin, nothing seemed to work against 'the Bison'. 22 runs came in the 9th set off Josh Tongue as Marsh reached his fifty in just 22 deliveries. Zak Crawley got in on the act having played second fiddle for a while, and the Sunrisers were on top of proceedings at the halfway stage of the chase.It took a searing yorker from Sonny Baker in the 12th set to get rid of Marsh for 63. Harry Brook came in, and proceeded to pick up where Marsh left off.
Brook proceeded to tonk four sixes in his first nine deliveries, three of them in the 14th set off Dawson. Zak Crawley then went on the charge again, bringing up his own half-century. Having brought the equation to well under a run-a-ball, Brook and Crawley could then bide their time and get their team past the line, which they did.
A thoroughly dominant performance, this, from the Sunrisers Leeds, largely dominated by batters. Stick around for the post-match quotes...