In an impressive display at Lord’s, Zak Crawley led Southern Brave to an eight-wicket victory over London Spirit in The Hundred men’s competition. The Brave’s complete victory process them back into the top three of the league table. The match unfolded with Southern Brave restricting London Spirit to a score of 129-8 in 100 balls, setting the stage for a comfortable chase.
Crawley confirmed his superlative touch, ending the game with a glorious 55 not out to his name. He opened his innings with panache, cracking four beautiful boundaries in the first six deliveries itself. Then he went one step further and had the crowd gasping with two huge sixes over the leg side. His aggressive batting was no small part in Southern Brave’s comfortable chase of the paltry target.
Crawley really was a stud on the field. Dawid Malan and Dan Lawrence gave him terrific backing, adding important third and fourth-wicket stands of 63 and 56 runs. Their cumulative contributions kept the chase consistent and well within Southern Brave’s reach on the regular.
Ollie Pope was similarly impressive, scoring 52 not out off just 38 balls. Though the middle-order performed well there was no doubt that Jamie Smith’s early dismissal was a key moment in the innings. Smith scored 24 runs with four boundaries and a six before his exit, after which scoring proved difficult for the Brave batters.
Jofra Archer stole the show with the ball for Southern Brave. He had an unprecedented run – taking three wickets for just 20 runs. He bowled out Steve Smith for a mere 13 runs. Then, he brought fellow Lukie Wells and Paul Walter into the mix, blowing up the London Spirit’s batting order to smithereens.
London Spirit just couldn’t build any momentum on their innings. James Vince was the only significant innings from the top order, scoring just 29. Chris Green and David Payne were the stars of Welsh Fire’s bowling attack. Each of them grabbed two scalps ratcheting up the pressure and forcing Southern Brave to work hard for their runs.
Looking ahead to Matt Henry’s incredible bowling display in The Hundred men’s tournament. He ultimately ended with unbelievable figures of 2-5, the second-most economical spell in the tournament’s history. His tight bowling helped maintain pressure on the London Spirit batsmen, contributing to their low total.
After the match, Crawley spoke about how he wants to go about batting in this format.
“I try to keep the fundamentals the same but I anticipate more shots than I do in a red-ball game,” he said. “That’s what I have done differently this year and it has paid off.”
His remarks are illustrative of a sweeping preoccupation with adjusting to this novel, more concise, pattern of play. This approach has already been successful in The Hundred.
Southern Brave’s dominance with both bat and ball was further emphasised as they chased down their target with ease in the final match. Crawley’s performance was one of the tournament’s all-time great moments, punctuating his victory lap as the best player of the tournament so far.
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