Laurie Evans blasted a phenomenal 72 off 34 balls to send Manchester Originals to the Hundred final this evening – after they beat London Spirit by five wickets.

Opening batter Evans, who replaced the injured Jos Buttler as captain of the Originals, got his side off to a flier in response to Spirit’s 150, with a 101-run stand with Phil Salt.

But a wobble led by Mason Crane and Nathan Ellis – two for 35 and two for 31 respectively – gave Eoin Morgan’s men hope but Aston Turner and Tom Lammonby got Originals over the line with 11 balls to spare.

Originals will now hot-foot it up the M3 to face Trent Rockets at Lord’s at 6:30pm tomorrow.

After Adam Rossington fell to the second ball, Ben McDermott and Zak Crawley got the innings rolling with a 69-run stand after Spirit at chosen to bat first.

McDermott, who played for Hampshire in the Blast, was imperious from ball two, which he thrashed over the square boundary before bashing through cover next ball.

Bowled Crawley was swapped with Dan Lawrence, but McDermott kicked into the next gear as he guided through third to bring up a 33-ball fifty – his 59 one shy of his best for his county on this ground.

Just as an enormous total was brewing, the innings spluttered between balls 74 and 85, as Originals twice went bang-bang.

First, it was Paul Walter who picked up McDermott with a slower ball sent out to deep midwicket and then Eoin Morgan caught at mid-off first ball. Ravi Bopara resolutely blocked the hat-trick ball, as Walter ended up with figures of three for 29.

Then in the following end, Matt Parkinson had Lawrence holing out before Jordan Thompson’s leading edge gave him two-in-two, there was to be no hat-trick ball as the leg-spinner was bowled out.

Bopara starred in the final 15 balls, with a pair of sixes – the first swung square, the second a skier over long on – to smash 34 off 16 balls. Despite Liam Dawson slapping to extra cover, Spirit reached 150 for seven.

All eyes were on how Spirit’s Hampshire-flavoured attack would defend on their county ground. Between Chris Wood, Mason Crane, Liam Dawson and Nathan Ellis, they have played 165 T20/Hundred games at the Ageas Bowl – taking 163 wickets in the process.

Laurie Evans, who has his own T20 history on the ground with two half-centuries, didn’t care for ‘home’ advantage. He’d already struck four of his first eight balls to the boundary before slog-sweeping sweetly into the stands.

Another six over long-on, followed by a scampered two, took him to a 19-ball fifty – his first of the tournament.

Phil Salt had largely done his best to stay out of Evans’ way, but took centre stage when he took Crane downtown, only for Evans to hit back with a six of his own off Dawson.

The 101-run opening stand ended with ball 50 when Dawson had Salt caught and bowled, two balls later and Evans and swept Crane to deep square leg. The following set and Paul Walter firmly hit at cover off Ellis.

The Hobart Hurricane then yorked Wayne Madsen, after a period of squeeze, and Crane got Tristan Stubbs to squirt to point, to take the equation to 18 off 20 balls.

But Turner and Lammonby made sure they booked their place in the showpiece without any more worries.

Speaking after the match, London Spirit’s Ravi Bopara said: “It is really disapointing. We have been together for a month and played some really good cricket and it comes down to this one game.

“Laurie Evans has played one of the best knocks of the tournament so far and deserves to be on the winning side. He is a tough man to bowl today as he can hit the ball to pretty much anywhere in the ground. He is skillful with his hands and he showed it tonight.

“I thought there was going to be a point in the game where we dragged it back but we needed to drag it back and hold it but we kept leaking a boundary here and there.

“McDermott played beautifully today. He’s got a lot of power and it was good to see him get some runs. But I can’t get over the disappointment of losing today.”

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