Sunrisers Leeds didn’t quite match the heights of their record-breaking six-hitting fest against London Spirit, but still posted their highest away total of the Men’s Hundred 2026 to dismantle Birmingham Phoenix at Edgbaston, eliminating them from the knockouts race. Ryan Rickelton was the star again with a 37-ball 65, before Brydon Carse bagged three wickets to break the back of the Phoenix batting line-up. The win took the Sunrisers to second on the points table with their fourth win, only net run-rate separating them from MI London and Welsh Fire.
The Sunrisers lost the toss and were asked to bat again, but the Mitchell Marsh-Rickelton pair picked up from where they left off at Headingley a few evenings ago. Both openers put on a clinical boundary-hitting display as the Sunrisers raced to 46 in the Powerplay, 33 of which came off Marsh’s bat. Usman Tariq broke the 52-run partnership, cleaning up Marsh who stayed too leg-side of the ball.
Rickelton then took charge as the set batter and Harry Brook got in on the act himself after the halfway mark, launching Scott Currie over extra cover before ramping him next ball. Tariq struck again though with Brook playing all around an attempted paddle to be trapped leg before for 19. Captain Zak Crawley chipped one to long on, but Rickelton notched up his second consecutive half-century, keeping the Sunrisers on course for a big score. He even took on Tariq, who was comfortably the best of the Phoenix bowlers on display.
Fresh off a Test recall, Dan Lawrence could only manage 14 runs and in the quest for quick runs, the Sunrisers lost four wickets in the space of 13 balls at death. Two of those wickets, including Rickelton’s, were run outs, and the boundaries dried up considerably. But Matthew Potts and Liam Patterson-White combined for two sixes off the last three balls of the innings to catapult the Sunrisers to a solid total of 169.
Carse bowled ten on the trot first up and was hit for three boundaries by Mitchell Owen. The seamer eventually bounced Owen out though, extending the Australian’s poor form in the competition. Hitting the deck worked wonders for the Sunrisers, as Potts had Will Smeed slashing behind before Carse bounced Rehan Ahmed out too for a duck.
Joe Clarke and Sean Dickson led the recovery with a 44-run stand. While Clarke took on Potts, Dickson began slowly before he hammered Nathan Ellis for a six. But Phoenix were never on par with the eight-ball curve, mustering just 63 at the halfway mark as the spin duo of Abrar Ahmed and Patterson-White kept things tight. The pressure of that asking rate eventually told as Clarke holed out, before Carse returned to land the killer blow in the form of Donovan Ferreira’s wicket as he outfoxed him with a slower delivery.
The writing was on the wall, even as some late hits from Dickson and Jordan Thompson kept the home crowd hopeful of a miracle. But Phoenix were always chasing a few runs too many as wickets kept tumbling. Potts took two in as many deliveries to finish with a three-fer of his own, while Ellis did not concede a run off his final set of five. That no boundary came off the last fifteen balls of the innings summed up a stellar evening for the Sunrisers, consigning Phoenix to their fifth successive loss of the season as the curtains came down on a disappointing campaign.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Leeds 169/7 in 100 balls (Ryan Rickelton 65, Mitchell Marsh 34; Usman Tariq 2-28, Tom Helm 1-25) beat Birmingham Phoenix 124-8 in 100 balls (Sean Dickson 34, Jordan Thompson 25*; Brydon Carse 3-17, Matthew Potts 3-22, Abrar Ahmed 1-19) by 45 runs.
