Ecclestone’s opening burst and a 73-run stand keep MI London winless at The Oval
Sophie Ecclestone bowled both MI London openers inside eight balls, the hosts never recovered from 1 for 2, and Smriti Mandhana and Meg Lanning knocked off 92 with 28 balls to spare.
Aug 3, 2026
MI London have now played five matches in this Women’s Hundred and won none of them. The defeat to Manchester Super Giants at The Oval on Sunday was the most one-sided of the lot, and it was effectively settled inside the first eight balls of the afternoon.
Ecclestone opens the bowling and hits the stumps twice
Sophie Ecclestone had not taken the new ball for Manchester Super Giants all season. She did here, bowling the first ten balls of the innings, and both MI London openers were gone inside eight of them. Hayley Matthews went without scoring. Alice Davidson-Richards went without scoring. Both were bowled, and the hosts, batting first after losing the toss, were 1 for 2.
Ecclestone came back for the rest of her allocation and gave away almost nothing, finishing with 2 for 7 from her 20 balls. She also held two catches and ran a batter out with a direct hit, which is the sort of afternoon that ends with a match award attached to it.
“I was thrilled to bowl in the powerplay and get a few wickets,” she said afterwards.
Ninety-two, and nobody past 18
MI London were bowled out for 92 and did not use their full 100 balls, folding in 99. Kira Chathli’s 18 was the top score. Nobody else got going long enough to change the shape of the innings, and the wickets kept arriving in clumps rather than singly.
Ryana MacDonald-Gay did the heaviest damage after the powerplay, taking 3 for 19. Between her and Ecclestone, Manchester had the game in hand before the interval.
Mandhana and Lanning make the chase look like a warm-up
Ninety-three to win is not a target that survives a good opening pair, and Smriti Mandhana and Meg Lanning put on 73 from 53 balls to remove any doubt. Mandhana made 34, much of it through the leg side off the spinners. Lanning got to 43 before she was trapped lbw with the finish line in sight.
Manchester lost four wickets in all and still got there with 28 balls to spare, closing on 95 for 4. Mady Villiers hit the boundary that ended it.
Third for Manchester, bottom for MI London
The win keeps Manchester Super Giants third, behind Southern Brave, who have won all five of their matches, and Trent Rockets. It also pushed their net run rate up, and with six points covering the top three, that number could yet be what separates them.
MI London are bottom, still looking for a first win, and now doing it without Danni Wyatt-Hodge. She tore a left calf muscle while making 52 not out in the one-run defeat to Southern Brave on 27 July and has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament, with Ella Claridge called up in her place. Wyatt-Hodge was MI London’s joint leading run-scorer at the time she went down, which tells you something about where the 92 came from.