The Hundred men’s competition, Lord’s
Manchester Super Giants 138-9 (100 balls): Seifert 67 (45); Livingstone 2-14
London Spirit 131-6 (100 balls): Livingstone 69 (40); Atkinson 2-15
Manchester Super Giants won by seven runs
Manchester Super Giants beat London Spirit by seven runs in The Hundred at Lord’s as Liam Livingstone’s big-hitting innings came in vain.
The home captain’s 40-ball knock of 69 from number four, preceded by bowling figures of 2-14 in Super Giants’ innings, kept his side in contention as they chased 139.
Coming in after James Rew was dismissed for a two-ball duck, Livingstone put on 37 with Kiran Carlson (19) and 68 with Dewald Brevis.
South Africa international Brevis played junior partner, scoring 22 off 23 balls, before being caught and bowled by Gus Atkinson, who took 2-15, in the penultimate set.
Needing 12 off the final five balls, Livingstone faced England seamer Sonny Baker, who had conceded 25 runs from his first 15 deliveries.
Livingstone had already struck five sixes in his innings and was looking to go big again.
It was 23-year-old Baker who came out on top, though, conceding just four more runs, bowling Livingstone and then having James Coles caught from the final delivery of the match as Spirit finished on 131-6.
Having been put in to bat earlier, Super Giants captain Aiden Markram made a slow start, scoring one off 10 by the time he was trapped lbw by Adam Milne, but opening partner Tim Seifert fared rather better.
The New Zealander struck 67 from 45 deliveries, sharing partnerships of 49 and 40 with Jos Buttler (16) and Heinrich Klaasen (17).
However, no further batters made it to double figures, with Spirit losing seven wickets for 35 runs as they tallied 138-9.
Seifert’s wicket was the seventh to fall when he was caught at mid-wicket by David Willey off Coles, but he had ultimately helped set a winning total for the visitors.
