Birmingham Phoenix vs London Spirit Match 28 Full Commentary

Welcome back for Spirit's reply with the bat. The players of Phoenix spring out to the middle and take their fielding spots. And two hard hitters of the ball - Jonny Bairstow and Lhuan-dre Pretorius - walk out to open for London Spirit. Saqib Mahmood has the new ball and is raring to go. Nasser Hussain on air informs us that Joe Clarke hasn't taken the field due to a possible muscle strain. So it's Laurie Evans who is keeping for the Phoenix. Right, there's a slip in place wth Pretorius taking the strike. Off we go again...

... THE RUN CHASE ...

Time to turn the page - Alright then, 163 is the target, and on this surface, it is not that easy to hunt it down. And if Phoenix's bowlers can match the discipline shown by the opposition early in the innings, they will certainly reap the rewards. As for Spirit's batters, the message is simple - to forget the first innings and focus purely on their defence ahead. Yes, that total could have been reined in tighter, but this isn't the moment to dwell on what's already happened. Stay tuned, as the second chapter unfolds shortly.

In conversation with Sean Dickson - On his innings, Sean Dickson calls it a good one. He adds that it felt fascinating out there, and while last week had gone fine too, he simply made the most of his chance today. Says that he enjoyed building a good partnership alongside Clarke, something he's very happy with. Asked about his scoring areas on a tricky surface, he shares the plan was to look for twos, work those pockets on the bigger side of the ground, and trust his swing on the shorter side, hoping the fielders got it wrong. Ultimately, he notes, it was all about building that partnership and making sure Phoenix put something competitive on the board. When asked whether he thinks the total will be enough, Dickson admits it's a tough pitch to judge, and reckons Phoenix may have fallen just short, somewhere around 15 runs shy of where they wanted to be. He then adds that they will simply have to wait and see how it plays out.

Choke and cheese - Even after a cautious start from Phoenix's openers, Milne found a way to draw first blood and set the tone for his side. The pacers kept their lines and lengths tight throughout, keeping the pressure firmly on the opposition batters. Phoenix could only manage 25 runs in the Powerplay, proof enough of just how disciplined the bowling unit was through those opening sets. Boundaries weren't coming at regular intervals, and that only piled on the pressure for the batting side. By the halfway mark, Phoenix sat at a modest 53/3. But the picture changed dramatically past the midpoint, Joe Clarke opening his arms once the ball softened up and found the fence with regularity, backed up nicely by Sean Dickson at the other end. The pair stretched things all the way to 138 before Clarke finally fell to Henry Crocombe. Dickson, though, batted right through to the end, bringing up his own half-century and helping push Phoenix's total to 162.

Advantage Phoenix? Well, well, well, folks, are you entertained? Just 53 runs came from the first 50 balls of this innings, and a staggering 109 from the next half. The credit for that swing belongs entirely to Joe Clarke and Sean Dickson. The calm and composure they brought to the crease was worth noting. Spirit's bowling unit, so impressive through the first half, simply had no answer to it in the second.

Adam Milne will bowl the final five. 1/21 in 16 balls.

The 92-run partnership is broken at last. Donovan Ferreira is in at number 6. Another bloke who can strike the ball mercilessly.

Last 10 balls to go. 160 looks really on for the Phoenix. This partnership is worth 89 runs. Henry Crocombe is introduced very late into the attack.

NEW BALLS, PLEASE! The ball seems to have been lost in the empty stands. One gentleman is on a search mission. He looks for it under the chairs, but cannot retrieve it. But we have got another ball anyway, as the previous one is still being searched for. Good to continue.

Not a bad set at all from Coles as he is done with his spell. 1/25 in 20 balls are his figures. Liam Livingstone is back on.

Onto the next one - Well then, that's a wrap on this one-sided but thoroughly entertaining clash at Lord's. It's crunch time now in The Hundred, with the final week getting underway from tomorrow. Action shifts to Trent Bridge for the 29th match of the league phase, as table toppers Trent Rockets take on Southern Brave, who are already eliminated and are placed sixth on the table. A win will ensure a direct entry to the final for the Rockets. That match will be played on Monday, 10th August, and the first ball is scheduled for 5.30 PM GMT, but do join us ahead of time for the build-up too. Cheers!

PLAYER OF THE MATCH - LIAM LIVINGSTONE receives the award for his entertaining 66 (30), which included 7 fours and 4 towering sixes. On the halfway chat, Liam Livingstone says the group felt it was a decent wicket to bowl on, and that Phoenix finished a touch under par. He admits that Spirit went for slightly more runs than they'd have liked with the new ball. But he is quick to praise their Powerplay efforts. He points out the opposition were 40 off 40 balls at one stage, which had Spirit ahead of the game. Batting on that surface, he adds, was certainly below par. When asked whether taking the game on in the powerplay was a planned approach, he confirms it's something the group has spoken about consistently, looking to get ahead of the game early and put the opposition under pressure while only two fielders are out, and he's glad it came off tonight. On his partnership with Dewald Brevis, Livingstone doesn't hold back the praise, saying he loves batting alongside him. He calls Brevis a clean striker of the ball as anyone in world cricket, and adds that watching him from the non-striker's end is a genuine pleasure. When he is asked about the support from the home crowd, he says the support has been amazing all year. Adds that this was a new franchise for him this season, and reflects that tonight's crowd may have technically been the smallest of the campaign, yet it still felt close to a full house, hoping the team has done its bit to entertain everyone who came out.

... The Presentation ...

Plans grounded - Phoenix made a few genuinely eyebrow-raising calls in their defence too. Top of that list has to be the way Usman Tariq was managed, a bowler who sent down such a tidy opening set only to be taken out of the attack and not brought back until the game was already gone. He has built a reputation as a proper partnership breaker, someone who thrives in crunch moments, and not using him smartly here cost Phoenix dearly. Number two on that list, Phoenix simply couldn't make the most of the new ball. At Lord's, that opening phase almost always causes batters problems. But barring Mahmood removing Bairstow in the very first set, they couldn't find another way through. What followed was pure carnage, one the bowlers had no answer for, and almost every one of them, barring Tariq, took a proper beating in the process.

Battering the bowlers mercilessly - That's precisely what Brevis and Livingstone did this evening. Spirit found themselves 43/2, with both openers back in the hut and still a sizable total to chase down. But then came a blizzard, one that quite literally blew the Phoenix bowling attack clean away. Dewald Brevis and Liam Livingstone settled in nicely at the crease, taking a handful of balls to get their eye in before unleashing pure carnage through effortless ball striking. A couple of those were launched clean out of the park, and a monstrous 104-metre hit from Livingstone made headlines of its own. They formed a match-winning alliance of 103 runs, which just extinguished whatever little hope the Phoenix had.

Clarke and Dickson turn the screws - The Phoenix ended up scoring the second-highest score at Lord's this season, and on a pitch Dickson himself called tough in the mid-innings interview, all signs pointed to 163 being a genuinely stiff target for Spirit to chase down. For a while, though, it looked like the hosts had things well in hand, with Phoenix trundling along at little more than a run a ball through the first half of the innings. Joe Clarke changed all that, launching a solid counterattack once the ball softened up. He raced to his fifty off just 30 balls, with Dickson keeping him good company at the other end, and together the pair put on 92 for the fourth wicket off a mere 47 balls, Clarke eventually falling for 73 before Dickson carried on to his own half century, steering Phoenix to 163. Coles and Crane were the pick of the Spirit attack, but the rest took a fair bit of punishment, particularly at the death.

Bossed up at home - Quite literally, and quite ruthlessly too. Both the men and women have handed Phoenix a crushing defeat at Lord's. And with the men romping home in a canter, they have ensured Phoenix finish the season with the wooden spoon to show for it. And for another feel-good moment for Spirit, this marks their first-ever win over Birmingham Phoenix in the men's competition. Unfortunately for Donovan Ferreira and his men, nothing, absolutely nothing has gone their way this year as they stay rooted at rock bottom. This is their sixth defeat on the trot and have just one win to show, which they won in their season opener against the Rockets.

Final set of the game, then? Just 5 needed from 20 balls. Rehan Ahmed is back on. He has had a pretty rough day as his figures read 0/23 in 10 balls so far.

Just a matter of two hits now as the Spirit need 7 runs from 25 balls. Usman Tariq will bowl out.

Usman Tariq returns for his third spell with the game pretty much done and dusted. 0/5 in 10 balls so far.

Too little too late for the Phoenix. James Coles is in at number 5.

Just 25 runs needed from 35 balls. Tom Helm is back on. 0/19 in 10 balls so far.