MI London's opening Hundred fixture at the Kia Oval will be remembered for the manner in which they absorbed an early crisis and then overpowered Sunrisers in the back half of their run chase. Chasing 144, they lost two wickets in the first ten deliveries and a third with the target still distant, yet closed out a seven-wicket victory with 16 balls remaining — a result shaped as much by composure and structural batting as by the explosive finish that sealed it.

A Damaging Start

The chase began poorly for MI London. Will Jacks, opening alongside James Vince, fell to Brydon Carse in the sixth delivery of the innings for 2, caught at cover off a ball that seamed away after angling into the stumps. Jason Roy, celebrating his 36th birthday, lasted two deliveries before edging Carse to slip for a duck. MI London's top order had contributed 8 runs in aggregate from 10 balls, and the asking rate was already above two per ball.

The damage might have been more severe. Carse was bowling with real hostility — 88 and 90mph deliveries, testing bounce and seam movement — and for the first fifteen balls of the innings, MI London's batters were largely confined to defensive shots and scrambled singles. The scorecard read 9 for 2 after 15 balls, with Curran and Vince tasked with steadying the ship.

Curran and Vince Rebuild

Sam Curran, coming in at number three, immediately set about normalising the innings. His approach through the early and middle phases was measured — rotating the strike, taking singles where available, and waiting for the right ball to attack. His first boundary, a four carved through backward point off Carse, came in the tenth ball of the chase, and he progressed carefully from there against Potts, Ellis, Howell and Abrar Ahmed as Sunrisers used their full range of bowling options.

Vince provided capable support at the other end, surviving a period of seam bowling from Carse and Potts before finding some timing with back-to-back fours off Potts — a pull in front of square leg and an inside edge that dribbled past the stumps for four. The pair added runs steadily through the middle phase, and by the midpoint of the innings, the equation had moved to a reachable 86 from 50 balls — still demanding, but within MI London's capability.

Vince's dismissal — bowled by Ellis for 17, beaten comprehensively by a delivery that nipped in to take off stump — brought the target back into sharp focus. At 51 for 3, MI London needed Nicholas Pooran and Curran to produce something significant.

The Decisive Partnership

What followed redefined the match. Curran, already in his stride with 26 from 21 balls at that point, shifted through the gears as Pooran arrived and began attacking immediately. The two left-handers found a rhythm that Sunrisers could not disrupt. Curran struck Abrar Ahmed for a six over straight midwicket, then added a boundary and two more sixes in the same phase as Pooran was plundering at the other end.

In one critical over from Howell, Curran picked up singles and then launched a Potts full toss over wide long on for six when 11 were needed from 20. His 60 not out from 39 balls — five fours, two sixes — stood as the innings' backbone, the consistent scoring presence around which Pooran could express himself freely.

The winning partnership of 93 runs was completed in just 40 balls. Curran had contributed more than half those runs when the ball was being rotated, and his presence at the crease throughout the back half of the chase gave MI London the platform and the composure that the situation required. MI London's final total of 144 for 3 was reached with 16 balls unused — a margin that reflected not just Pooran's power but also the structural solidity Curran had provided from the third ball of the innings to the last.