Southern Brave crowned champions of the men's Hundred: Key stats
Southern Brave were crowned champions of the inaugural edition of the men's Hundred. The James Vince-led side defeated Birmingham Phoenix by 32 runs to win the 100-ball competition. Paul Stirling's spectacular 61 laid the foundation of their win. While the Irish player was adjudged the Player of the match, Liam Livingstone was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP). Here are the key stats.
Southern Brave staged a brilliant comeback after losing their first two games in the tournament. They won seven back-to-back encounters thereafter, including the final. Brave thrived under head coach Mahela Jayawardene, who has had similar success with Mumbai Indians at the Indian Premier League. Under him, Mumbai have won three titles (2017, 2019, and 2020), having lost the tournament opener in each season.
Despite being on the losing side, Livingstone inspired hope in the Phoenix camp. He smashed 46 off 19 balls (4 fours, 4 sixes) before getting run-out. Livingstone finished as the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 348 runs at 58.00. He registered a strike-rate of 178.46 and slammed most fifties (3). His incredible 92* (40) against Northern Superchargers had powered Phoenix to the final.
Another Birmingham Phoenix player ruled the roost in the tournament. Fast bowler Adam Milne took two wickets in the final and gave away just eight runs in 20 balls. He delivered as many as 14 dot balls. Milne emerged as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament, having scalped 12 wickets at just 10.75. He recorded a brilliant economy rate of 5.73.
For Southern Brave, Chris Jordan was among wickets (9) in the tournament. As per Opta, he took four wickets via short deliveries throughout the tournament This is twice as many as any other bowler. Notably, no Birmingham Phoenix player picked up more than one wicket through this method. The likes of David Willey, Matthew Carter, and Ben Stokes took two wickets each.
Trent Rockets' Samit Patel racked up 179 runs from nine matches at 29.83. He also accounted for eight wickets with a best match haul of 3/20. With this, he became the only player to register more than 150 runs and five wickets in the tournament.
Livingstone's 92* turned out to be the highest individual score of the men's Hundred. In fact, he remains the only batsman to smash over 20 sixes (27) in the tournament. Only two players recorded five-wicket hauls in the inaugural edition (M de Lange: 5/20 and Imran Tahir: 5/25). The final of this edition (men's) was attended by nearly 24,556 people.
