Jofra Archer marked his 100th debut with a wicket and a win as Southern Brave comfortably beat London Spirit in the men’s match on Wednesday night in Southampton.
The England bowler – who missed the first three sessions of the tournament with back and elbow injuries – dismissed Andre Russell one ball after the West Indies man smashed a six in Brave’s seven-wicket win at the Utilita Bowl.
Archer took 1-24 off 20 balls as the Brave restricted the Spirit to 138-9, with Craig Overton taking 3-16 off 20 balls and Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills taking two wickets each.
The Brave easily reached the target in 89 balls, with captain James Vince (56 off 35 balls) and opening partner Daniel Hughes (45 off 30 balls) adding 95 runs in 58 balls.
Earlier Liam Dawson had top-scored for Spirit with an unbeaten 45 off 19 balls, including a six and two fours off the last three balls of the innings bowled by Jordan.
Spirit lost the wicket of Adam Rossington off the third ball of the match, caught by Overton off left-arm spinner James Coles, and were 95/7 off 80 balls before Dawson arrived.
Archer: Small steps towards the end of the year
Archer said, BBC On Tuesday he said he was hoping to be part of the Ashes series when England tour Australia in 2025/26. Sky Sports Talked about his fitness ahead of Brave’s win over Spirit.
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Archer said his return to full fitness by the end of the year would be ‘baby steps’
“Hopefully all the talk about the body is behind us,” the 29-year-old said.
“I just want to put in some good performances. I want to take small steps towards the end of the year, continue playing and become a regular again.”
England Cricket managing director Rob Key had earlier said that Archer would not play Test cricket until at least 2025.
Player of the Match – Craig Overton
“It was a pretty good surface, it troubled us a bit with the new ball and we wanted to make it as difficult as possible, bowl without width, and it worked.”
Craig Overton took 3 wickets for 16 runs in 20 balls for Brave
“Our players have good pace, so I knew their batsmen would come at me a bit more. I knew I had to be cautious and hit my length.
” Vincy [James Vince] He’s an amazing player and he’s done that for years in the Vitality Blast, he’s carried that form into The Hundred as well and it’s good to see him back in form.”
What will happen next?
The Hundred will continue on Thursday Manchester Originals will take on Welsh Fire at Emirates Old Trafford.
Both matches will be live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event, as well as a free live stream on skysports.com, the Sky Sports app and the Sky Sports Cricket YouTube channel.
Originals Women vs Fire Women will air at 2.30 pm (1st ball at 3 pm), while Originals Men vs Fire Men will air at 6 pm (1st ball at 6.30 pm).
Sky Sports will broadcast all 68 matches of The Hundred live this summer, while you can also watch selected matches via free streams on Sky Sports’ digital platforms and the Sky Sports Cricket YouTube channel.
