Sunrisers Leeds 187 for 5 (Marsh 69, Lawrence 51*, Rickelton 37, Rashid 3-21) beat Southern Brave 182 for 5 (McKinney 44, Stubbs 43*, Abrar 2-33) by five runs
Having made 41 on his debut on Tuesday, Marsh smashed 69 from 34 balls on his first home appearance to set the platform for Sunrisers before Lawrence’s 24-ball half-century took them to 187 for 5, a total they were able to defend despite a late flurry from Tristan Stubbs (43* from 20).
Marsh shared an outstanding opening stand of 111 in 56 balls with Ryan Rickelton which was finally broken when Rickelton (37 off 27) top-edged to Dan Worrall to give Adil Rashid the breakthrough.
The England legspinner struck again three balls later when Marsh, who hit six sixes, drilled a catch to Chris Jordan at extra cover, and Zak Crawley immediately succumbed to a 43mph floater from Rashid, falling for a golden duck.
Harry Brook soon followed him after, cleaned up by Marcus Stoinis for 3, as Brave dragged themselves back into the game but Lawrence responded by launching successive sixes off Jofra Archer, who leaked 47 runs from 20 wicketless deliveries.
Lawrence finished unbeaten on 51 after sharing a partnership of 67 in 30 deliveries with Tom Alsop (21 off 10) to set Brave 188 to win.
Ben McKinney began the chase at electric speed, crunching 44 from 23 before falling to his Durham teammate Matt Potts, and Jamie Smith also showed real aggression in his 18-ball 30, striking three sixes.
Smith’s innings was ended by Matthew Revis, caught at long-on by Brook, but Stoinis took on Brydon Carse and Revis to leave 72 required off the last 40 balls on a true surface.
But Abrar Ahmed, expensive in his first 10 balls, produced a game-changing intervention. He had David Miller caught slicing to point before Stoinis reverse-slapped him straight to Alsop to fall for 31 off 16, vindicating captain Crawley’s decision to give Abrar consecutive overs.
Victory appeared within the Brave’s reach when Stubbs hit Revis for successive sixes and then dispatched Potts for back-to-back fours but Nathan Ellis was superb at the death, conceding just nine from his final 10 deliveries and claiming the wicket of Nikhil Chaudhary.
With 21 required from Potts’ final five, the Sunrisers held on for a five-run victory despite the best efforts of Stubbs.
“The way we bowled there towards the end was exceptional,” Marsh said. “It was a great win to kickstart our season. Headingley is a beautiful place to bat. It feels quite small. I love batting here.”
