Okay! A terrific win for London Spirit keeps them alive in the race to the playoffs, with only one spot remaining as Oval Invincibles and Northern Superchargers go through to the next round. We have another doubleheader coming up on Sunday, with all eyes being on the game between Welsh Fire and Trent Rockets, because a win for the David Willey-led side will lock in all top three spots.
For now, this is me, AkshayaKrishna Polya, signing off on behalf of my co-commentator, Karthik Raj, scorer/analyst Paras Yadav and statistician Aman. We will meet again. Until then, it is cheers!
Jamie Smith (Hero of the Match):"Great to get a win on the board in front of the home fans. Reasonable to bat out there and one very short boundary. That was the blueprint but it hasn't come off sometimes so far.
It is great to have these sort of overseas players in the team. (On David Warner) He has played some ridiculous shots throughout the tournament. The skipper (Kane Williamson) played a fantastic knock tonight. They have got fantastic players, a lot of power especially with the short boundary like I said but we kept taking wickets. It is a tough one to defend."
Jamie Smith has been named as the 'Hero of the Match'.
1:11 AM IST and 8:41 PM Local Time: A comprehensive 47-run win for London Spirit keeps their hopes of finishing in the top three alive, with it diminishing Southern Brave's chances! With this win for the Spirit, we have two teams officially qualifying for the playoffs, as Oval Invincibles and Northern Superchargers attain a 'Q' in front of their names on the points table.
Earlier in the game, the Brave won the toss and decided to bowl first. Jamie Smith set the stage on fire with a whirlwind 44 off just 18 balls and had David Warner supporting him with a 20-ball 25 as the Spirit's openers added 66 runs for the first wicket. Michael Bracewell got rid of both the well-set openers in a single set right after the strategic time-out.
Kane Williamson (53 off 28) led from the front and put on a classy show, hitting his first half-century in the tournament. He was well supported by Ashton Turner (22 off 15) and Sean Dickson (18* off 13), before Jamie Overton (16* off 7) came in and hit a good cameo, propelling London Spirit to a daunting 186/4 in 100 balls, which was the third-highest innings total at Lord's in the Men's Hundred.
Southern Brave's bowlers were all over the pace, with Craig Overton, Jordan Thompson and Jofra Archer having a rare off day, while the spinners - Bracewell and James Coles - tried to resist the hosts.
There was no real flow in the Brave's run chase as they lost both openers cheaply yet again. Jason Roy (37 off 23) hit a few clean strikes, but Liam Dawson bowled a ripper to knock him over. Coles (18 off 10) looked good for a brief period.
At one stage, the Brave were reeling at 71/4, before Laurie Evans (37 off 21) took the attack to the spinners to give a glimmer of hope for the visitors. However, the hosts regrouped and came up with a better strategy post the time-out as they derailed the Brave with a big middle and lower order collapse, saw them getting all-out for just 139 in 92 balls. Reece Topley didn't walk out to bat as he sustained a right shoulder injury while bowling.
For the Spirit, Dawson (3/23) and Gleeson (3/30) picked up three wickets each, while Jamie Overton (2/35) finished with a couple of wickets, including the 9th and final wicket to fall of his older twin, Craig. Luke Wood bowled a terrific spell, too, and finished with 1/20.