Sunrisers Leeds registered their first win of the season in a high-stakes encounter at Headingley, narrowly defeating Southern Brave by five runs. The hosts posted a total of 187 for 5, anchored by powerful half-centuries from Mitchell Marsh and Dan Lawrence. Marsh, appearing in his first home match, smashed 69 from 34 deliveries, following up on his 41-run debut. He shared a dominant 111-run opening partnership with Ryan Rickelton, who contributed 37 off 27 balls before top-edging to Dan Worrall off Adil Rashid.
Rashid proved to be a significant threat for the Brave, dismissing Marsh shortly after and trapping Zak Crawley for a golden duck with a slow delivery. Marcus Stoinis added to the Sunrisers' pressure by bowling Harry Brook for 3. However, Dan Lawrence stabilized the innings with an unbeaten 51, aided by a 67-run partnership with Tom Alsop, who scored 21 off 10. Jofra Archer struggled during the spell, conceding 47 runs across 20 wicketless deliveries.
In response, Southern Brave started their chase aggressively. Ben McKinney scored 44 from 23 balls before being removed by Matt Potts, and Jamie Smith added 30 from 18 balls before Matthew Revis caught him at long-on. Despite a brief recovery effort led by Stoinis, who scored 31 off 16, Abrar Ahmed turned the tide by dismissing both David Miller and Stoinis in consecutive overs. Although Tristan Stubbs kept the Brave in contention with an unbeaten 43 off 20 balls, including a late flurry of boundaries against Revis and Potts, Nathan Ellis delivered a disciplined final spell. Ellis conceded only nine runs from his last 10 balls and dismissed Nikhil Chaudhary, ensuring the Sunrisers held on for the victory despite requiring 21 runs off Potts' final five deliveries. Marsh praised his team's bowling performance, noting that the win was an ideal way to kickstart their season at the batting-friendly Headingley ground.
