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Mitchell Marsh blazed 69 off 34 balls and Dan Lawrence finished unbeaten on 51 as Sunrisers Leeds posted 187 for 5 at Headingley, before Abrar Ahmed’s crucial double strike and Nathan Ellis’s cool death bowling denied a late Tristan Stubbs charge of 43* to seal a breathless five-run victory over Southern Brave in The Hundred Men’s Competition 2026.
Leeds: Mitchell Marsh and Dan Lawrence struck brutal half-centuries as Sunrisers Leeds overcame Southern Brave in a tight encounter at Headingley to register their first win of the season. Having made 41 on his debut on Tuesday, Marsh emphatically announced himself to the Headingley faithful with a 34-ball 69 — a knock built on power, timing and the kind of self-belief that has defined his white-ball career at international level. That Lawrence then added an unbeaten 51 to take Sunrisers to 187 for 5 made this a contest Brave were always chasing. In the end, five runs was all that separated the sides.
Marsh and Rickelton Open the Floodgates
Marsh shared an outstanding opening stand of 111 in 56 balls with Ryan Rickelton — the kind of partnership that wins matches before the halfway point. Rickelton’s contribution of 37 off 27 was impressive in its own right, but it was Marsh who commanded the stage. Marsh reached fifty off 26 balls — four fours and four sixes — a half-century that arrived in the blink of an eye and took everything with it. The strategic timeout arrived at 63 for 0 from 36 balls, and Headingley’s crowd knew they were witnessing something special.
The opening stand was finally broken when Rickelton top-edged to Dan Worrall to give Adil Rashid the breakthrough, and the leg-spinner then came into his own. Adil Rashid took three wickets in five balls — a stunning spell that checked Sunrisers’ momentum just as they threatened to post a total beyond reach and gave Brave reason for optimism heading into the second half of the innings.
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Lawrence Finishes the Job
With Marsh gone and Rashid in the wickets, Sunrisers needed a finisher. Dan Lawrence delivered emphatically. Lawrence finished unbeaten on 51 after sharing a partnership of 67 in 30 deliveries with Tom Alsop (21 off 10) to set Brave 188 to win. Lawrence’s 24-ball half-century — a blend of clean striking and intelligent placement through the off side — pushed Sunrisers past the 180-mark, and his presence at the crease until the final ball ensured nothing was left on the table. Sunrisers finished on 187 for 5 — a total that required a near-perfect Brave response to overhaul.
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McKinney Fires, Rashid Tightens the Screws
Ben McKinney began the chase at electric speed, crunching 44 from 23 before falling to his Durham teammate Matt Potts. The powerplay yielded 48 runs without loss from the first 25 balls — Brave’s reply matching the intensity of Sunrisers’ start and briefly suggesting the chase might be more straightforward than the target implied. Jamie Smith also showed real aggression in his 18-ball 30, striking three sixes, the wicketkeeper throwing his bat at everything in a cameo that had Brave on course.
Smith’s innings was ended by Matthew Revis, caught at long-on by Brook, but Stoinis took on Brydon Carse and Revis to leave 72 required off the last 40 balls on a true surface. The strategic timeout arrived at 116 for 2 from 60 balls — Stoinis on 29, David Miller on 9, the game still very much alive and in the balance.
Then Abrar Ahmed produced the moment that turned everything. Abrar Ahmed, expensive in his first 10 balls, produced a game-turning spell with two wickets — the Pakistan mystery spinner finding something in the Headingley surface that his earlier deliveries had failed to locate, removing both set batters in quick succession and leaving Brave’s death batting exposed. With 72 needed from 40 balls becoming 50 from 20 becoming something far more daunting, the ask had moved from difficult to extreme.
Stubbs — Too Late, Too Brilliant
A late flurry from Tristan Stubbs (43* from 20) gave Brave and their supporters one last reason for hope. The South African — one of the most destructive finishers in The Hundred — launched Abrar and Ellis for boundaries that briefly made the arithmetic look manageable. But the equation always remained just slightly beyond reach. Nathan Ellis, operating at the death with control and variation, conceded just enough to ensure Sunrisers held on. Five runs — the smallest possible margin of victory in a match of this scale — separated the teams when the final ball was bowled.
For Sunrisers, the win ends their losing start and confirms the quality that their squad always possessed. Marsh’s 69 was the centrepiece, Lawrence’s 51* the insurance policy — and Abrar and Ellis the closers who delivered when Brave’s chase threatened to derail the evening. For Southern Brave, Stubbs’s 43* is the performance to build on — and the knowledge that 188 was always a stretch on any surface, even one as true as Headingley’s.
Sunrisers Leeds had won the women’s match earlier in the day by — wait, they hadn’t. Southern Brave’s women had beaten them by five wickets thanks to Rodrigues’s reverse sweep with four balls to spare. At Headingley on Saturday, the genders swapped their outcomes: the men gave Sunrisers a first win, the women gave it to Brave. It is, in every sense, a competition in perfect balance.
Result: Sunrisers Leeds Men won by 5 runs
Player of the Match: Mitchell Marsh (SRL-M) — 69 (34)
Attendance: 11,628
Scorecard:
Sunrisers Leeds Men 187/5 (100 balls) — Marsh 69 (34), Rickelton 37 (27), Lawrence 51* (25), Alsop 21 (10); Rashid 3/21
Southern Brave Men 182/5 (100 balls) — McKinney 44 (23), Smith 30 (18), Stubbs 43* (20); Abrar 2/33
