Spirit Season ends as Originals win for the 1st time

At Lord’s, Manchester Originals defeated London Spirit to earn their first victory of The Hundred thanks to outstanding performances from Phil Salt and Fazalhaq Farooqi.

London Spirit set a target of 136 after Meerkat Match Hero Salt struck 58 off 41 balls; Originals defended the target well, with Farooqi taking 3 for 24 from his 20 deliveries.

London Spirit’s season came to an end as a result of the match; they were unable to advance to the knockout stage and were forced to join the Originals who had already been eliminated and were now at the bottom of the league.

Following Michael Pepper’s dismissal for nine by Farooqi and Ollie Pope’s for zero, Spirit appeared to be the favourites until Dan Lawrence was run out by wicketkeeper Salt.

Keaton Jennings made 61 not out from 50 balls, but he was dropped twice, so his total of 61 was 12 short of Originals’ total.

Shimron Hetmyer, who reached 44 off 35 balls before he skied Scott Currie to Salt, and he had a 96-run partnership off 74 balls.

With Spirit needing 28 runs off 12 balls after Hetmyer was dismissed, big-hitting Andre Russell came to the crease. But, when Russell fell cheaply, picking out Wayne Madsen at extra cover to give Farooqi his third, the home team had too much work ahead of them.

Originals played poorly on the pitch, but they got away with it in the end because to a slew of missed opportunities.

Richard Gleeson and Olly Stone both claimed two wickets during the Originals’ innings, which was highlighted by Salt’s four-for-two and two-sixes innings.

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“The results haven’t gone our way,” Salt stated. Now that we have the opportunity to be the party spoilers, we believe we will enjoy playing that role, especially given our recent success in the competition.”