Manchester Super Giants beat Trent Rockets by five wickets in the final of the Hundred, managing it with two balls to spare at Lord’s on the 16th of August, their first win in the competition’s six seasons. Chasing 159, they got there at 162 for 5 off 98 balls, with Tim Seifert making 72 from 38 deliveries, a total that featured four fours and seven sixes. He reached his 50 in 23 balls on the way to a Player of the Series total of 394 runs for the tournament. Rockets had made 158 for 8 batting first, Aneurin Donald’s 38 the highest score of a stop-start innings. Noor Ahmad took 3 for 33 to keep Manchester’s target within reach.
Image Credit: Daniel Cooper, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons – 2026 Hundred Final at Lord’s
Interestingly, what settled this Hundred happened four days earlier at Edgbaston. On the 12th of August, MI London won their last group match against bottom-placed Birmingham Phoenix by two runs, but it made no difference whatsoever. The team that had won the previous three men’s titles in succession, then playing as Oval Invincibles, still finished outside the top four, meaning that Sunrisers Leeds went through to the Eliminator in their place. Manchester beat Sunrisers there by 20 runs at The Oval on the 14th, Paul Walter’s 80 and Heinrich Klaasen’s 63 doing the early damage.
By the time the final came round at Lord’s, the side that had run the competition for three years was already at home. Manchester, playing then as Originals, lost the 2023 final to the team that went on to win the next two as well. This time, it was Manchester Super Giants lifting the trophy, whilst Oval Invincibles, rebranded as MI London over the winter after Reliance bought into the club, had nothing to show for a season in which they still won more matches than they lost.
@._8877233 #Manchester Super Giants won the 2026 Men’s Hundred cricket title, defeating the Trent Rockets by five wickets in a tense final at Lord’s.#thehundreds #cricketlove #viralvideos #foryourpage ♬ original sound – ✿>♡JISOO♡<✿
Trent Rockets arrived at Lord’s chasing a dream of their own. Their women’s side had already beaten Sunrisers Leeds by eight wickets earlier in the day to win a maiden Hundred title, so a men’s win would have completed the club’s first double. Lewis Gregory’s 32 from 16 balls gave them something to defend and Mohammad Amir took three wickets trying to protect it, but it was not enough to stop Manchester getting home with balls in hand. Six seasons in, the Hundred still hasn’t settled what it wants to be, with many continuing to criticise the format.
This year, at least, it left two clubs with trophies they hadn’t lifted before and reminded one very good side that winning your last group game counts for nothing if the maths was never on your side.
