‘The Hundred’ Leeds Sunrisers v Southern Brave Men at Headinley July 25th

Neil Whitaker reports

SUNRISERS Leeds beat the Southern Brave  by  five runs at Headingley to get their first win in this years Hundred competition. 

Aussie Mitchel Marsh hit 69 for the Sunrisers  and put on 111 for the first wicket with Ryan Rickleton. They  didn’t bother with running singles it was  a matter of seeing the ball and hitting the ball to the boundary .  Marsh clipped Dan Worrall off his feet and into the Western Terrace for a huge six and Rickelton despite having to reach for the ball eased it to the cover boundary.  Their fifty partnership came off 27 balls when Marsh whipped Chris Jordan over the deep mid-wicket boundary. 

On 23 Rickleton swept Adil Rashid to   David Miller short fine leg but he dropped a dolly. He threw the kitchen sink at Luke Wood and launched him into the Howard stand 

Marsh greeted the arrival of Marcus  Stoinis to the attack by thrashing him over the square leg boundary.  He reached fifty off 26 balls and he top edged  a flat batted drive of Wood for  a six into the Howard stand. 

Head coach Daniel Vetori said: “For  a group coming together it was a really pleasing performance against  a good team under tough conditions.  I thought  Nathan Ellis controlled  the game when he bowled on a ground a small ground which is hard to control.  

The Sunrisers were on course to break 200 but they lost three  wickets for one run in five balls.  The opening partnership was broken when Rickleton got too far under a drive and the ball went up the ladder to  Worrall   at square leg.  Three balls later Marsh followed Rickleton back in the hutch when he pulled Rashid to Chris  Jordan.  Sunrisers captain Zak Crawley pushed his first  ball  to  David  Miller  at mid-off.

Worse was to follow 10 balls later when Harry  Brook went for a big drive off Stoinis but played over the ball and the ball crashed into his off stump. 

As  a big collapse looked on the cards Dan  Lawrence and Tom Alsop rescued the Sunrisers innings with a stand of 67 in 30 balls.  Lawrence  swivelled and pulled archer over square leg for a six into East stand.  He smashed the next ball straight for another six.  He drove Jofra Archer to the mid- wicket boundary.  A full toss from Archer was despatched by Lawrence into the Western Terrace.

Alsop creamed Jordan for  a straight six into the Howard stand. He flat batted Jordan to the long-off boundary.   He was caught off the last ball of the innings by   Tristan Stubs at mid-off.  For Southern Brave Rashid took three wickets for 29, captain Jordan and Stoinis took a wicket each for 29 runs each. 

In their chase Ben McKinney  smashed the Pakistan leg spinner Abrar Ahmed for the biggest six of the match.  In the next over he creamed Matty Potts to the extra cover boundary.  He late cut Ellis to the third man boundary  after his previous fours went to the mid-wicket boundary. On 43 McKinney drilled Ellis to mid-off who dropped  a sitter. But it didn’t prove to be expensive. He added another single when he sliced a drive and Lawrence running in from the cover boundary took the catch. 

Jamie Smith swung Abra Ahmed for a six over long-on, the next ball went straighter but had the same result. He  planted Lawrence over the long-on boundary for another six. But when he tried repeating the shot to Matty Revis’ first ball it didn’t have the legs but found Brook on the boundary edge who did well not to cross or touch the boundary edge.

15 came from Revis second set and a victory for the Southern Brave looked on.  But when Miller had to reach for one from Abra Ahmed and top edged it with Revis running  in from cover to take the catch and then  Stoinis reversed swept Abra Ahmed to Alsop at short third man the victory was the Sunrisers. 

Brave’s captain Jordan said: “It was a tight game for the neutral and unfortunately we came out on the wrong end of it.  At the  start  of their innings we didn’t take our catches.  They were looking to get 200 and I thought we did well to restrict them to less than 200.  Rashid is a quality player and got us back in the game.”

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