Daniel Bell-Drummond made an immediate impact for London Spirit with 46 in his first game as they defeated Southern Brave; Ross Whiteley's 52 was not enough to help the Brave across the line
Saturday 13 August 2022 07:14, UK
Daniel Bell-Drummond’s 46 from 33 balls on debut for London Spirit and some impressive bowling helped the visitors to a nine-run victory over Southern Brave at the Ageas Bowl…
Bell-Drummond had clocked 46 to help Spirit to 147 from their 100 balls before Hampshire's Liam Dawson, Brad Wheal, Mason Crane and Nathan Ellis produced the type of defence that won the Hawks the Vitality Blast earlier this summer.
Dawson, Wheal and Crane all picked up a wicket apiece, along with non-Hawk Jordan Thompson's 2-32, and Ross Whiteley's 52 was not enough as Brave fell nine runs short.
Spirit are three from three in the tournament, having taken home the wooden spoon last year, while holders Brave lost their 100 per cent record at the Ageas Bowl over the two editions of the competition.
The intrigue around the Brave chase was how James Vince would go against his Hawks bowling attack. That remained unanswered as another former Hampshire team-mate, Glenn Maxwell, bowled him first ball - the unlucky 13th golden duck of his T20/Hundred career.
Brave's start got worse when Quinton de Kock and Alex Davies met in the middle of the pitch with the stumps broken for a clumsy run out to leave the hosts 4-2.
Davies got the scoreboard moving upwards with a four-six combo off Dawson, with Marcus Stoinis striking through the covers and straight before running past spinner Dawson to be stumped.
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Davies departed for 36 when Crane tempted him to slog to long on, while Wheal got Tim David skewing to extra cover.
Whiteley, another Hampshire player, had quietly made his way to a 32-ball 50, brought up with a perfectly timed clip to the leg side, but was bowled by Thompson's next ball.
Brave needed 27 runs off the last 10-ball end. But despite James Fuller pulling that down to 12 off three, Thompson had him slicing to deep point as Spirit's 12-month turnaround continued.
Earlier, Spirit chose to bat and were indebted to Maxwell, Bell-Drummond and Kieron Pollard's contributions to get them up to 147 for six.
Maxwell, who survived being caught behind with his review, and Bell-Drummond were joined at the crease after Adam Rossington had lifted Michael Hogan to mid-off and Zak Crawley swung to deep square leg to leave Spirit 29 for two.
The duo's 39 together got rolling with a pair of Maxwell fours, the first an effortless drive through the covers before opening up the offside again two balls later. He then used his upper-body strength to dispatch Jacob Lintott over deep midwicket.
The Australian pumped three more boundaries before hitting straight at mid-off, with Eoin Morgan run out backing up at the non-striker's end.
Bell-Drummond, now in a 53-run partnership with Pollard, had struggled to get going with 18 off 21 balls and been dropped twice, albeit both very difficult chances.
The sluggish start eventually led to five fours and a towering six over long-on before he fell for 46 off 33 balls when he was run out. In the last 13 deliveries, Thompson was yorked by Hogan with 24 runs coming.
"It was good to get a game and I thoroughly enjoyed my debut for the Spirit. Once I got going, I felt good out there and would have loved to have carried on but was happy with that.
"It's early days, but it's a great start and we're three from three. Whatever we do first, we back ourselves and we're happy with the win."
London Spirit captain Eoin Morgan: "I'm really proud [of the bowlers]. We got an under-par score by a long way…to have something to bowl at was nice, but our bowlers are outstanding.
"We're going to ride this for as long as we can. Confidence is hard to come by, so we'll try to stick to the process as much as we can and hopefully it takes us where we want to be."
Southern Brave captain James Vince: "We're in the same position as last year where we lost the first two, so we know pretty much every game from now on is a must-win game.
"But that's the beauty of this tournament, every game has got something on it and I back the guys to do it at the Oval on Sunday."
Both teams are away in their next matches on Sunday, with the London Spirit making the trip to the Northern Superchargers for a match at Headingley which gets under way at 2.30pm.
Meanwhile, the Southern Brave travel to London for a showdown with the Oval Invincibles later in the day. That match begins at 6pm.
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