Liam Livingstone stars in convincing Phoenix victory

Starting the day at the foot of the table, the Phoenix knew defeat today would effectively end their hopes of progressing and they played with the requisite urgency of a team fighting to stay alive

ECB Media | 17/08/2025 at 21:10

Edgbaston: London Spirit 126-6, Birmingham Phoenix 131-3 - Birmingham Phoenix won by seven wickets

A classy all-round performance from skipper Liam Livingstone took Birmingham Phoenix to victory against an off-colour London Spirit in a statement victory that breathes new life into their campaign.

Starting the day at the foot of the table, the Phoenix knew defeat today would effectively end their hopes of progressing and they played with the requisite urgency of a team fighting to stay alive.

A run-rate-enhancing demolition of the Spirit with 35 balls to spare puts them back in the mix ahead of a defining week for the tournament. They now join their opponents in a four-way tie on eight points, with three teams above them on 12. This competition is wide open.

This was Livingstone's match. After Trent Boult squeezed a yorker under Jamie Smith's bat to remove the Spirit dangerman for a duck in his first set, the skipper took centre stage, demonstrating his range of skills to induce a mishit from David Warner with an off-break, and then outfoxing Ollie Pope, on the sweep, with a leg-spinner.

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^{Livingstone starred with bat and ball (Image: ECB via Getty Images)}

Boult, leading his Kiwi cohort of quicks, then slipped back in to upend Ashton Turner's leg stump just as the Australian was looking to open up; tellingly, Turner hit one of just two sixes across the whole of Spirit's innings.

When Will Smeed was yorked by Luke Wood from the second ball of Phoenix's innings, the pressure could have suffocated the batters to follow, but instead the occasion galvanised them. Ben Duckett was again subdued, departing for just 11, but Joe Clarke was immediately into his stride, careening to his maiden half century for Phoenix in a blaze of clean hitting, notably down the ground.

Clarke took the Spirit for nine fours and two sixes to break the back of the chase, leaving Livingstone and Jacob Bethell to enjoy themselves in front of a typically boisterous Edgbaston crowd, smashing an unbeaten partnership of 63 in just 25 balls, with Livingstone launching five sixes to leapfrog Jos Buttler at the top of this year's men’s run-scoring chart.