Kieron Pollard blows, Jordan Thompson four-for see London Spirit to second win
Kieron Pollard blows, Jordan Thompson four-for see London Spirit to second win: London Spirit defeated Manchester Originals by a score of 52 runs to claim their second victory in a row and go to the top of the table. Jordan Thompson turned up the greatest bowling stats for a hundred of the entire season.
The previous week at The Oval, Seamer Thompson grabbed two wickets. This week at Lord’s, he followed that up with an amazing 4 for 21 from 20 balls to steamroller the Originals for just 108 runs.
He was ably followed up by the rest of the Spirit attack to secure a second consecutive defeat for the Manchester side as the home side’s total of 160 for 6, with Zak Crawley leading the way in scoring with 41 from 34, proved to be more than enough to win the match.
Result
The result continued a stunning turnaround for Eoin Morgan’s team, who have now registered more victories than they managed when they finished last in the inaugural event a year ago. The competition was held last year.
After making the decision to bat first, the Spirit quickly lost Adam Rossington for a duck on the first ball of the innings, leg before to Sean Abbott. Despite some powerful knocks to the boundary by Crawley, the Spirit struggled to get much momentum.
The home team’s chances of posting a respectable total were improved as a result of his partnership of 54 runs from 33 deliveries with Morgan. Meanwhile, the captain hit both Tom Hartley and Matt Parkinson over the boundary to reach 37 runs from 26 deliveries.
However, the team that was batting was unable to capitalize on Paul Walter’s nagging line and changes of pace, which resulted in the left-handed bowler for the Originals finishing with pitiful figures of 2 for 18 from his 20 deliveries.
Morgan eventually mistimed a drive off Walter that went into the hands of long-on, and another two quick wickets left Spirit in a little precarious position with a score of 120 for 5. They were brought back to life by a brash cameo performance from Kieron Pollard, who slammed 34 runs off of just 11 deliveries, including two savage sixes off of Fred Klaassen’s penultimate set, to send his team above the 160-run barrier.
Buttler
Jos Buttler was expected to get off to a blistering start for the Originals, but he was out for just six after skying Thompson just as Mason Crane was racing from short third to make a difficult diving catch behind the keeper, Rossington. Originals had been expecting Buttler to have a big start.
The visitors continued to lose wickets at regular intervals as the seamers for Spirit made sure there were very few and far between boundary hits at the beginning of the game. There were just three recorded from the first 37 deliveries.
The most notable dismissal was that of Andre Russell, who was run out at the bowler’s end by Liam Dawson’s direct hit from point. Thompson foxed Wayne Madsen with a slower delivery and then had Walter caught at point, but the most notable dismissal was that of Andre Russell.
Phil Salt, who was watching the carnage at the other end of the pitch, did his best to keep Originals’ innings together by scoring 36 runs out of 34, but when he was bowled by Dawson, any lingering chances of a comeback were extinguished.