Sunrisers Leeds got off the mark in the Men's Hundred 2026 with a narrow five-run win over Southern Brave at Leeds on Saturday (July 25). Adil Rashid’s denting spell – he took three wickets in five balls – threatened to derail Leeds’s innings, but they recovered twice, once with the bat and again during the chase, pulling things back after a rapid start by Brave, and a late Tristan Stubbs blitz. Put in to bat first, Leeds enjoyed a bustling start largely due to Mitchell Marsh, who pulled out his trademark straight drive four balls in, high elbow and all. He then welcomed fellow Australian Dan Worrall with a sweet hit over cow-corner, proceeding to regularly clear different sections of the leg-side boundary over the course of his 69. Luke Wood felt the brunt the most, his left-arm angle barely caused any trouble, conceding 40 from his 15 balls. Ryan Rickelton, Marsh’s opening partner, started off slower, but picked up soon enough. After the 55th ball, the opening pair had set the stage for a significant score, putting them at 111/0. Enter Rashid. Bowling with loop and typically slow speeds, he forced Leeds’ batters to make mistakes. Rickelton and Marsh both fell to loose shots, four balls apart. Zak Crawley was out next ball, and suddenly Leeds’ early momentum evaporated. But Dan Lawrence came in to steady the boat. After nearly chopping on the hat-trick ball, he quickly showed signs of excelling: a rare sped-up ball from Rashid was astutely cut for four. By the time his rescue act was over, they had neutralised the mid-innings wobble to post 187/5. Chris Jordan was particularly impactful at the death, holding things back with his usual change-ups, even as Jofra Archer leaked runs. Southern Brave’s reply was led by an enterprising Ben McKinney, barely moving in his crease as he unleashed a flurry of hits. Playing a role similar to what Marsh did for Leeds, he got them off to a flyer, combining with Jamie Smith to tick off nearly one-third of the runs. At one point, Leeds were scampering to change their field nearly every ball. When McKinney departed, having been slowed down by pace change-ups, and Matthew Revis took out Smith not too long after, Brave felt a stutter. They needed a strong push to reach 100 off 50 with two new batters at the plate. Stoinis gave them that with a string of fours. The equation came down to 72 off 40 when the time-out was called. And as is often the case, it led to a break in momentum. Abrar Ahmed went on to do what Adil Rashid did earlier: he first took out David Miller, foxing him with width, before dismissing Stoinis off a reverse sweep – the shot not getting any elevation and falling into short third-man’s palms. The run-rate was fast catching up, and the release was provided by Tristan Stubbs. He hit two sixes and three fours on eight balls, the majority of which were typical shots through the V. Brave still looked in the hunt, but Nathan Ellis’s quiet second spell tilted the scales again. Brydon Carse strangled them further. Suddenly, even with five wickets in hand, they needed 21 in 5. They needed three sixes off the last three balls, and Stubbs hit one of them, but Potts managed to prevail, giving them a five-run win.