Livingstone leads from front to keep Birmingham Phoenix in hunt

A classy all-round performance from skipper Liam Livingstone took Birmingham Phoenix to victory against an off-colour London Spirit in a statement victory that breathes new life into their campaign.

Starting the day at the foot of the table, the Phoenix knew defeat would effectively end their hopes of progressing and they played with the requisite urgency of a team fighting to stay alive.

A run-rate enhancing demolition of Spirit with 35 balls to spare puts them back in the mix ahead of a defining week for the tournament. They now join their opponents in a four-way tie on eight points, with three teams above them on 12. This competition is wide open.

This was Livingstone's match. After Trent Boult squeezed a yorker under Jamie Smith's bat to remove the Spirit dangerman for a duck in his first set, the skipper took centre stage, demonstrating his range of skills to induce a mishit from David Warner with an offbreak, and then outfoxing Ollie Pope, on the sweep, with a legspinner.

Boult, leading his Kiwi cohort of quicks, then slipped back in to upend Ashton Turner's leg stump just as the Australian was looking to open up; tellingly, Turner hit one of just two sixes across the whole of the Spirit's innings.

When Will Smeed was yorked by Luke Wood from the second ball of the Phoenix innings, the pressure could have suffocated the batters to follow, but instead the occasion galvanised them. Ben Duckett was again subdued, departing for just 11, but Joe Clarke was immediately into his stride, careening to his maiden half-century for Phoenix in a blaze of clean hitting, notably down the ground.

Clarke took Spirit for nine fours and two sixes to break the back of the chase, leaving Livingstone and Jacob Bethell to enjoy themselves in front of a typically boisterous Edgbaston crowd, smashing an unbeaten partnership of 63 in just 25 balls, with Livingstone launching five sixes to leapfrog Jos Buttler at the top of this year's men's run-scoring chart.

Livingstone, who was named the Meerkat Match Hero, was thrilled with the performance and result. "We needed a win, but we had some confidence coming in to this one having played really well last game here at Edgbaston. The crowd are amazing, they get behind us every time we go out and play, so it's always nice to put on a show for them.

"Our seam bowlers were phenomenal. I don't think they missed a single yorker at the end, and then we managed to see it home with the bat. Sometimes it can be quite difficult going in after an early wicket and getting the tempo right, but Joe [Clarke] was brilliant today.

"We brought him in through the draft to do that role, to take bowlers on at No. 3 and give us some momentum, so he's been fantastic, and he broke the chase for us.

"Back-to-back wins now. We know we're up against it, all we can do is win our remaining games and see where we are."