The second match of the new season of The Hundred takes us to the Utilita Bowl in Southampton where the former champions Southern Brave go up against a London Spirit side who are looking for their best campaign to date.
The Brave have been touted as genuine title contenders this term while not many are talking about the Spirit but the London side have the chance to show that they should be in the conversation when it comes to potential champions.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Mix channels with the build-up to the game beginning at 6pm ahead of the first ball at 6.30pm.
Southern Brave
The Southern Brave were the inaugural winners of this competition and although they haven’t been able to hit the heights since then, they reached the playoffs last term where they lost out in the semi-final and they will be looking to go a couple of steps better here. They have done some excellent work in the draft and their forward thinking in terms of retaining Jofra Archer looks like it is going to be rewarded this term so there is a lot to like about the Brave.
You would imagine that the Brave will improve into the season because Finn Allen and Kieron Pollard are finishing their commitments in the Major League Cricket competition before they join up with the Brave so it will be interesting to see if their batting depth can get them over the line in this match. The one positive for them is that they are unlikely to need an emphatic score because their bowling unit looks like the best in the tournament on paper.
London Spirit
The London Spirit have had an up and down time of it in the first three seasons of The Hundred. They were bottom of the pile in the first go at it when they were badly let down by overseas players not arriving due to Covid, made the semi-final in the second season and then reverted back to being poor again last term. They will hope that trend continues and that this is a campaign where they are on an upward curve and a win here would certainly boost those aspirations.
The Spirit are another team who might improve as the competition goes on because they have Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley away on international duty with England while Andre Russell will probably miss the first game having only just concluded his Major League Cricket stint. That is going to test the depth of the Spirit batting against a very good bowling unit and they will need to bat well because on paper their bowling looks less impressive of the two.
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Key Players
Jofra Archer has missed the last two seasons of the competition but the Southern Brave quick was on the BBC coverage on Tuesday evening and looked to be chomping at the bit to get involved here. Expect some rockets from him.
Only Daniel Hughes and Sam Hain have more runs in the Vitality Blast than Michael Pepper and with some key batters away for the London Spirit it is imperative that the Essex big hitter can deliver the goods for his team here.
Betting
I took the Southern Brave outright this season and I have to back them to win their opening match even at 8/11. I would have liked them anyway but with the London Spirit missing three international batters for this one that is significant. The Brave are also missing a couple of overseas batters but they have true class in their ranks in the likes of James Vince while players like Laurie Evans and Leus du Plooy add decent quality to the batting order.
Where there is a real contrast between these two teams is with the ball. The potential seam quartet of Craig Overton, Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills is as good as you get in this country while Danny Briggs returns to the Utilita Bowl where he had plenty of success with Hampshire in the past. There is no let up from this Brave attack whereas a couple of Spirit bowlers could go round the park and in a match of just 100 balls each that could be the deciding factor.
Tips
Back Southern Brave to beat London Spirit for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
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