Crawley in form again as Superchargers beat Spirit

Lord’s and Hundred Men’s competition

London Spirit 135-3 (100 balls): Pope 52* (38) Smith 41 (27), Lawes 2-34

Northern Superchargers 138-2 (82 balls): Crawley 55* (38), Lawrence 37 (22)

Eight wickets separated the Superchargers.

Northern Superchargers won by eight wickets over London Spirit at Lord’s, continuing their strong form.

With 18 balls to go, Superchargers eased back into third place after being pushed down to fourth by Southern Brave’s tense win at Welsh Fire earlier in the day.

Crawley and Dawid Malan shared 63 and 56 with Dan Lawrence, and he came out on top with his second fifty of the tournament, which placed him at the top of the organization’s run-scoring charts.

England’s Test opener hit four elegant fours in the first six balls of the chase and two sixes over the leg-side as he kicked for home. The opener has stated that he remains eager to play at international level in all formats.

Crawley told Sky Sports, “I try to keep the fundamentals the same, but I anticipate more shots than I do in a red-ball game.”

“That’s what I’ve changed this year, and it’s worked.”

That made it easy for the visitors to defeat Spirit at 135-3 on a slow and difficult pitch, led by England legend Andrew Flintoff and led by England’s Harry Brook, the visitors’ coach.

Jamie Smith hit four fours and a six as he fell, and Ollie Pope needed 38 balls to get his 52 not out. In Spirit’s final 33 balls of innings, there was only one boundary.

Spirit must win their final two games and appoint a series of positive outcomes in order to achieve a top-three finish, not by mathematicians.

Sophia Gardens’ Hundred men’s competition

Southern Brave 129-8 (100 balls): Cartwright 51* (19), Henry 2-5

Welsh Fire 125-8 (100 balls): Kohler-Cadmore 25 (28), Archer 3-20

Brave won by four runs.

After three straight losses, Southern Brave won by four runs over Welsh Fire at Sophia Gardens, which was previously unavailable.

The hosts’ hopes were shattered when Tom Kohler-Cadmore was caught off James Coles for 25 after Fire needed 16 of the final 10 balls to win the match.

Chris Jordan held his composure, with Fire finishing 123-85 and Jofra Archer taking 3-20, before Matt Henry was only able to get a six from the final ball.

After Brave’s innings had been struggling at 71-5 from 71 balls when he came in at number seven, Hilton Cartwright’s unbeaten 51 off just 19 balls proved the difference.

With just one win out of five matches, Cartwright’s five sixes in his knock reduced Brave to 129-8 on a slow surface against Fire, whose hopes of qualifying for the knockouts are almost over.

With a score of 2-5, New Zealand seamer Matt Henry’s second-most-efficient bowling performance in The Hundred men’s competition made a positive first impression with the ball, with Brave coming up to 18-1 after the powerplay.

Chris Green and David Payne both took two wickets each for Fire, making James Vince’s 29 the only notable addition from the top order.

Jonny Bairstow aggressively started, whacking 22 from 10 balls before being dismissed by Craig Overton, and Fire started with a 46-3 lead from their first 25 balls.

As Fire’s middle order buckled under the pressure, Archer added Luke Wells and Paul Walter to his list, then removed Steve Smith for 13.

As the women’s teams play at The Oval at 15:00 BST, Trent Rockets and Oval Invincibles will both be hoping to recover from defeats in their previous games.

The men’s game follows at 18:30 BST, and it becomes the top of the table contest there.