Brave vs Phoenix, Final at London, Men's Hundred, Aug 21 2021 - Ball by Ball Commentary

9.11 pm So the Brave Women fall short in the final, but the Brave Men make sure the south coast franchise doesn't go home emptyhanded today. Stirling, Whiteley, David, Garton, Jordan, Lintott, Mills... no shortage of heroes today in the winning side. A true team effort. Phoenix got off to a terribly slow start in the Powerplay but Livingstone was making up for it until David's sharp-thinking runout caught Livingstone with his head in the clouds and that just about sealed the final in favor of Southern Brave.

Here's Southern Brave captain James Vince: "Firstly I want to say well done to Birmingham Phoenix. They played really well and made it tough for us. Last night I said it was our most complete performance. We haven't batted first much in the competition to get a score like that was good and Paul Stirling got us off to a good start followed by Whiteley. It's been a different person in each game. Ross when he's got a chance has been terrific in the tournament and Stirlo, I told him to convert one of those quick starts he gets us off to and to get us a matchwinning innings was exceptional. Any way you can get Livy out at the moment, exceptional fielding and a bit of luck to get rid of him but it came at a crucial time. I think the squad has gelled together well in a short period of time and that's been a key to our success. To get the opportunity to play here in a full house tonight on a Saturday evening is amazing, the perfect end to a competition."

And now James Vince will raise the gold-plated H-shaped championship trophy. Brave squad has left the stage and is now soaking up the winning moments with the crowd.

Match Hero is Paul Stirling: "I think it was a brilliant team performance. Everyone chipped in since I've been involved. Another good day for the lads and we finished it off well in the end. I think it was a trickier start than we've had in the recent games. It was two-paced at the start and we saw that in both innings. We needed an injection in the second half of the innings and I'm glad I was able to do part of it before the boys finished it off. We try not to put too much pressure on ourselves playing in front of a full house at Lord's. I was watching the first half of it on the couch on TV but when you get here, it's magnificent."

Men's Hundred MVP decided by PCA MVP rankings formula is... Liam Livingstone: "Obviously very disappointed [we couldn't win] but to play in front of a packed house at Lord's is a great day. We were beaten by a great team. You don't play in finals every day so you want to soak it all in and we were beaten by a better team. I think it's been years of hard work traveling around the world to get better at my own game playing in different franchise tournaments and now it's great to have our own here. To see so many kids here today, it's been great. It's been brilliant. We didn't really know what to expect at the start of the tournament but it's gotten stronger and stronger. Selling out grounds is great and hopefully it can keep growing for the future. Ultimately we were beaten by the better team on the day but it doesn't take away that we played some really good cricket through the tournament."

Well that wraps up our coverage of the inaugural tournament of The Hundred. We hope you've enjoyed ESPNcricinfo's coverage of a daily barrage of women's/men's doubleheaders. For Matt Roller, Andrew Miller, Alan Gardner, Valkerie Baynes, Varun Shetty and the rest of the Hundred coverage team, I'm Peter Della Penna. Take care!

Jordan to read the last rites to Phoenix.

Mills has put on a yorker/death bowling clinic in that spell.

Mills to bowl his final five now.

Jordan has 10 left he can bowl. In he comes around the wicket to the right-handed Benjamin.

Magnificent set there by Mills. Just one run off the five balls.

Mills back with 20 balls left. He can bowl 10 of them.