Men's Hundred 2026, LS-M vs MIL-M 23rd Match Match Report, August 06, 2026

MI London 164 for 6 (Pooran 39, S Curran 33, Raza 32) beat London Spirit 160 for 5 (Pretorius 52, Willey 31, Coles 30*) by four wickets

Nothing less than a win would do for London Spirit in the local derby but after a Sikandar Raza masterclass, it was MI London who came away with the points. They jumped up to second in the table, and made the Spirit the first team – men’s or women’s – officially ruled out of the knockout race.

Spirit, after their mauling at the hands of Sunrsiers Leeds on Tuesday, made three changes but came up short in front of a record group-stage crowd of 27,721 at Lord’s.

MI London brought in Zimbabwe allrounder Raza as a replacement for Rashid Khan, away with Afghanistan on international duty, and he was part of a smart bowling performance. Their bowlers largely kept the ball away from the short side as Spirit’s innings flickered without bursting into life, despite a half-century from Lhuan-dre Pretorius.

Pretorius’s innings was ended by an outrageous boundary catch from Will Jacks, who overbalanced on the edge, threw the ball up and then dived full length to complete the dismissal one-handed.

David Willey muscled his way to 31 but the earlier dismissals of power-hitters Liam Livingstone and Dewald Brevis meant that Spirit were always struggling to post the kind of score they would have liked.

It was only due to Jamie Overton and James Coles’ efforts at the death – Coles playing his first innings of substance for Spirit after signing for £390,000 in Marchs’ auction – that they reached a serviceable 160 for 5, meaning MI London would need to make the highest successful chase at Lord’s to secure the points.

Matt Fisher, earlier in the day picked in England’s Test squad, saw his first ball for Spirit disappear back over his head for six from the bat of Jacks but he had his Surrey team0mate’s wicket next ball, Adam Milne pouching the skier.

Nicholas Pooran, playing his first-ever game at Lord’s, was quickly up and running but Mason Crane, who replaced the out-of-form Adam Zampa, bowled a brilliant first ten on the bounce, getting rid of his former Hampshire skipper James Vince with his first ball and conceding just three runs.

Pooran and MI London captain Sam Curran moved things along but in an increasingly spicy affair Willey then intervened, pulling off a brilliant run-out where he released the ball mid-air on the dive to remove Pooran.

But that only served to bring in the recently-arrived white-ball specialist Raza and give MI London a right-left combination. Raza smashed his first, fourth and seventh balls for six to turbo-charge the run chase and leave 29 needed off 20 after a partnership of 41 off 18.

The pendulum swung again as Curran slapped Overton to deep point for 33 and Sherfane Rutherford went second ball but Coles conceded 18 from his only five balls, including a 105-metre six from Raza that almost went out of the ground, and although he went with 10 balls left, Ollie Pope completed the job.

The two London sides exchanged words with each other as they exited the field after a feisty affair, but ultimately for Spirit, the fight to progress further in the competition is over.

“Four days ago I was in Sri Lanka and I’m not really sure what day or date it is but it’s nice to be part of the Hundred and have a debut like that,” Raza said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better start – really I just closed my eyes and swung as hard as I could!

“It was nice to get a few out of the middle and you need to remember the complexion of a game can completely change in 10 balls.”

Source link