Cricket Highlights, 30 Aug: The Hundred 2022 (Match 30) – London Spirit vs Birmingham Phoenix

London Spirit vs Birmingham Phoenix (Match 30) – Highlights

Matthew Wade’s devastating innings gave Birmingham Phoenix an incredible 1-wicket victory over London Spirit in the 30th match of The Hundred 2022 at Lord’s in London. Wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade was selected as the player of the match after playing a match-winning innings of 81 runs off 42 balls.

Birmingham Phoenix captain Moeen Ali won the toss and elected to field first, sending London Spirit to bat. Coming down to bat, London Spirit was able to score 139 runs by losing 6 wickets in 100 balls due to the bowling canon of the Birmingham Phoenix bowlers.

Tom Helm struck first in the London Spirit camp. He sent one of the openers of the opposition’s, Adam Rossington (6) to the dressing room for 13 runs. London Spirit made a pair of 37 runs for the 2nd wicket, but Tom Helm again gave a blow to them. Zak Crawley got out with just 20 runs off 29 balls.

After losing two consecutive wickets for the team’s 74 runs, London Spirit fell into danger. Set batsman Ben McDermott returned to the pavilion with 36 off 29 balls and captain Eoin Morgan departed after scoring 8 off 10 balls. But Ravi Bopara and Daniel Lawrence pulled the team from there. On the 5th wicket, these two made a partnership of 50 runs. Where Lawrence added only 10 runs.

Thanks to this pair, London Spirit finally got a fighting capital of 139 runs. For the team, Bopara scored the highest 45 runs off 20 balls smashing 2 fours and 5 sixes. Besides, Liam Dawson hit 1 six in the last ball and remained unbeaten for 6 runs. Tom Helm took the maximum number of 4 wickets with 17 runs off 20 balls for Birmingham Phoenix. Also, Kane Richardson and Moeen Ali took 1 wicket each.

Chasing a challenging target of 140 runs, Birmingham Phoenix was under pressure from the beginning of their innings. They lost 2 wickets for only 2 runs. Wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade and skipper Moeen put on a 32-run partnership for the 3rd wicket. But they did not earn any benefit from this either. As the team lost two consecutive wickets for 34 runs, Birmingham Phoenix was knocked out of the match.

Moeen returned for 11 runs and Chris Benjamin for zero runs. However, Wade was holding into one end of the wicket amid the arrivals and departures of the batsmen, he was leading the team towards the port of victory. In the end, he played a brilliant innings of 81 runs off 42 balls with 11 fours and 2 sixes. The team score was 118/8 when he got out.

Birmingham Phoenix needed 22 runs off 16 balls. In the end, thanks to a brave innings by Tanveer Sangh (9 balls 13*) and Tom Helm (12 balls 11*), Birmingham Phoenix reached the port of victory. Mason Crane took the highest number of 4 wickets for London Spirit with 24 runs off 20 balls. Besides, Liam Dawson took 3 wickets and Jordan Thompson took 2 wickets each.

By winning this match, Birmingham Phoenix has risen to 3rd place in the points table. On the other hand, London Spirit is now at the 2nd position in the points table after losing two matches in a row.

London Spirit vs Birmingham Phoenix Scoreboard

London Spirit – 139/6 (100)

Birmingham Phoenix – 140/9 (100)

Result – Birmingham Phoenix won by 1 wicket

Player of the match – Matthew Wade

London Spirit vs Birmingham Phoenix Playing XIs