Crawley, Rashid star as Superchargers crush Spirit

Northern Superchargers returned to winning ways under the lights at Lord's to romp home past hosts London Spirit and climb to third in the table in The Hundred men's competition.

Zak Crawley took most of the plaudits for 38-ball 55, but it was a batting effort that owed a debt of gratitude to his colleagues with the ball - the Superchargers attack impressing as they limited Spirit to just 135 for 3 batting first.

The win takes Superchargers to 16 points, level on points with defending champions Oval Invincibles and Trent Rockets, with a gap threatening to open up underneath fourth-placed Southern Brave on 12 as the race for qualification hots up.

The Lord's faithful might have hoped to see a performance from Aussie superstar David Warner but it wasn't his night, departing for a four-ball duck. Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope scored 41 and 52 respectively but no Spirit batter was able to get away and really open their arms, and at the interval the visitors would have fancied their chances of chasing down the total.

Crawley lay a marker down immediately, demonstrating his class against Dan Worrall's opening salvo with a couple of stand-and-deliver boundaries through the off-side and that was much the story of the reply, with Spirit never able to build sufficient pressure with the ball.

It was left to Crawley's captain Harry Brook to slap the winning runs over mid-on, with 18 balls still remaining, to signal a comfortable win and keep Superchargers right in the hunt for qualification.

Meerkat Match Hero Crawley said: "It was an important game for us to get a win tonight, so the boys are very pleased with that win and it was a good all-round performance.

"I try and keep the fundamentals the same whether playing red-ball or white-ball cricket and then maybe premeditate a little bit more in white-ball cricket than I would in a red-ball game, but I try and play similar shots. I think that's what I've done a bit better this year than I have done in previous years.

"When you've got great players coming behind you, you can just be a bit free at the top and today it wasn't as easy after the powerplay. It felt good in the powerplay - really good - and then definitely got harder. So it was nice to have that cushion behind with those boys coming in.

"I'm surprised to be standing here, to be honest, I thought Rash [Adil Rashid] would be the Meerkat Match Hero. He bowled unbelievably tonight and so did all the other lads to keep them to 140. We felt like we could chase that and it definitely got easier under lights."