Litchfield shines as Sunrisers Leeds beat MI London in Hundred opener

Phoebe Litchfield was outstanding with the bat as Sunrisers Leeds won by seven wickets on Tuesday and got off to a winning start in The Women's Hundred 2026 in London. After the bowling unit had limited the home team MI London to just 107, the left-hander and fellow Australian Annabel Sutherland struck a 57-run partnership for the third wicket in just 36 balls to end the modest chase. Winning the toss, Sunrisers elected to field first and the hosts struggled to keep the momentum goingagainsta disciplined Leeds attack after a half-century opening stand.Openers Hayley Matthews and Danni Wyatt-Hodge laid the foundation with a 56-run stand in 37 balls before Deepti Sharma sent them both packing.None of the subsequent batters contributed meaningfully. Amelia Kerr was the only other batter to reach double figures, but her 15-ball 13 proved too little.Sunrisers kept relentless pressure with regular strikes thereafter to not let the hosts run away. A pitiful score of 107 was all they could muster. Sunrisers' chase was off to a rocky start with opener Bryony Smith falling cheaply and losing Jess Jonassen to a run-out early on. However, Litchfield combined with her Australian teammate, Sutherland, to put the chase back on track. With her trademark unorthodox shots, Litchfield kept finding the gaps, and boundaries, to keep the scoreboard ticking faster than the home team would have liked. In her 26-ball 43, Litchfield hit seven boundaries and a six, keeping Sunrisers in complete control of the required rate. Sutherland made a handy 30 not out, adding 28 runs in 15 balls for the unbroken fourth-wicket stand as the two took Leeds over the line with 31 balls to spare.