LS vs NS | Zak Crawley and Tom Lawes power Superchargers to thumping eight-wicket win over Spirit

‌Northern Superchargers kept themselves in the hunt for a playoff spot in the Hundred Men’s 2025 campaign with a dominant eight-wicket away win over London Spirit on Thursday. Zak Crawley scored his second fifty of the tournament to make light work of the chase as the visitors rose back to third in the points table with 16 points from six games. Meanwhile, the Spirit’s indifferent campaign continued as they suffered their fourth loss of the season to be second from bottom in the points table.

The Superchargers had the perfect start after putting the home side in, as pacer Matthew Potts dismissed in-form David Warner in his first over, with the score reading just one. The home side, however, managed to keep the scoreboard ticking as Jamie Smith hit two fours and a six in two overs from Jacob Duffy, while skipper Kane Williamson scored two boundaries off Potts as they reached 33/1 after the mandatory powerplay. The Spirit were pegged back again with Williamson’s dismissal in the very next over. Smith also left the scene after the halfway mark after scoring 41 off 27 balls, a knock that included four fours and a six. Though Ollie Pope and Ashton Turner (28*) added an unbeaten 65-run partnership, there was no urgency in proceedings as they failed to find a single boundary in the last four overs. The home side’s innings ended at 135/3, with Pope top-scoring for them with a 38-ball 52, a total which would prove below-par during the chase. Medium-pacer Tom Lawes picked up 2/34 for the Superchargers, while Potts ended with a solitary wicket.

As expected, opener Zak Crawley came out aggressively with three consecutive boundaries off Daniel Worrall in the first over. That set the pace of the run-pursuit as the visitors ended the first 25-ball phase at a dominant 44/0. There was a slight lull in the proceedings as the Superchargers managed to make just 28 runs in the next 30 balls, with Liam Dawson pushing in some quiet overs and Jamie Overton ending Dawid Malan’s struggling innings. However, Dan Lawrence brought back the spark that had gone missing as he smashed Luke Wood through covers to score the team’s first boundary in 38 balls. From then on, there was no looking back as Crawley and Lawrence added 56 runs from 32 balls for the second wicket to take the visitors to the doorstep of victory. The latter was dismissed by Richard Gleeson for a 22-ball 37, but it was too late as Crawley saw off the chase with 18 balls to spare. He hit five fours and two sixes to remain unbeaten on 55 off 38 balls as the side sat at a dominant 138/2 at the end of the proceedings. It was an uneventful day for the hosts’ bowlers, with Gleeson and Overton ending with 1/26 and 1/22, respectively, in their 15-ball spells.