Harris shines again as Spirit maintain perfect run

For the third match in a row Grace Harris has steered London Spirit to victory in the Hundred, maintaining the defending champions' 100 per cent start in the English competition.

In the tournament's opening match she scored an unbeaten 42-ball 89, in Spirit's second she bowled the death over, successfully defending six runs with two to spare, and now she has hit an unbeaten 32-ball 50 to guide Spirit to victory at Old Trafford.

Chasing Manchester Originals' 7-122, Spirit won by three wickets with two of their 100 balls remaining, thanks to a late flurry of boundaries by the Queenslander.

"I just thought it was a bit of a trickier wicket to start on, and then once you got in, you could try and cash in at the back end," said Harris. "When we got to about needing 26 runs, I thought 'we're pretty good'. We'd got wickets in hand; we could try and take the game on a little bit more.

"I'm delighted with how I'm going. I think a lot of the principles that I've been working on within my game are paying off, and I just keep summing up conditions and whenever I'm injected into the game, I'm seeing what impact I can have."

Put in to bat Originals were 2-10 off 12 balls, including Kathryn Bryce out to a brilliant leg-side catch by wicketkeeper Georgia Redmayne, standing up to pacer Tara Norris.

Skipper Beth Mooney (26 off 20) counter-attacked creating a platform for West Indies' Deandra Dottin (36 off 30) to lift the home side to a potentially defendable total.

Kira Chathli got the reply off to a good start with 34 off 30 after Redmayne perished for 11, but Spirit slid to 5-97, needing 26 runs off 16 balls.

Harris brought that down to nine from eight with a pair of sixes but Bryce took two wickets in two only for Sarah Glenn to edge, then drive boundaries to ensure Harris's half-century was not in vain.

Harris is now the highest run-scorer in the competition with 157 followed by fellow Australians Meg Lanning (141) and Mooney (97). She also has the highest strike-rate (178.4) followed by another Aussie in Ash Gardner (175), and most sixes (9) followed by Lanning (6).

Meanwhile, David Warner has made a second successive half-century but this time failed to take London Spirit to victory.

Having hit a 45-ball 70 not out on Saturday the former Australia Test opener went one better at Old Trafford, but his 51-ball 71 could not help his side overhaul Manchester Originals' 6-163, closing on 6-153.

Warner did, however, get a very close look at a bowler England have huge hopes for, who could be a wildcard Ashes pick.

Sonny Baker may be 22 but due to injuries, notably to his back, the imposing pacer did not make his first-class debut until this year, taking 3-60 against Australia A in Sydney.

He now has seven first-class matches and 27 white-ball ones behind him, a thin catalogue, but he's quick, swings the ball both ways, and gets bounce. Bazball England have picked players on less evidence.

After the Originals' innings, built around England batters Jos Buttler (46) and Phil Salt (31), Baker was given the new ball.

Baker's opening two sets of ten balls were all between 137-142 km/h. Warner faced seven of them and struggled to lay a bat on it, scoring two singles.

But he also avoided being dismissed as Baker swung the ball across him, then occasionally brought it back in.

Josh Tongue, who will be in the Ashes squad, bowled next from the other end and was just as quick, but Warner drove his third ball for four, then hooked the following one for six in the fashion of Rishabh Pant.

Warner was off and blazing, two off nine became 18 off 18, then 51 off 35. He played some superbly inventive shots on a difficult pitch.

And when Warner went to Tongue, strangled down the legside, Manchester's first win of the season was all but secure.

Tongue finished with 3-29 off 20 balls, Baker 1-21 off his 20, Ashton Turner being his wicket, skiing to mid-on.

Both will be on the plane to Australia, Baker probably with the England Lions, close at hand should one of the other quicks break down.

Australians in The Hundred 2025

Birmingham Phoenix: Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Georgia Voll

London Spirit: David Warner, Ashton Turner; Grace Harris, Georgia Redmayne, Charli Knott

Manchester Originals: Beth Mooney

Northern Superchargers: Phoebe Litchfield, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

Oval Invincibles: Jason Behrendorff; Amanda-Jade Wellington, Meg Lanning

Southern Brave: Hilton Cartwright

Trent Rockets: Marcus Stoinis; Ash Gardner, Alana King, Heather Graham

Welsh Fire: Steve Smith, Riley Meredith, Chris Green; Jess Jonassen