London Spirit's fresh start ended in a double defeat at Lord's on 23 July 2026, with Manchester Super Giants winning both the women's and men's matches in The Hundred's opening fixture The Guardian.

The women's match set the tone. Spirit were bowled out for just 80, with Manchester's Ryana MacDonald-Gay tearing through the line-up to take 4 for 17 ESPN Cricinfo. Marizanne Kapp, Spirit's most experienced player, managed 17 runs and chipped in with 2 for 18 with the ball, but it was nowhere near enough. Super Giants chased down the target of 81 inside 59 balls — fewer than ten overs in The Hundred's 100-ball format — finishing on 86 for 3 to win by seven wickets BBC Sport. Scholfield's unbeaten 22 saw them home.

The men's match was tighter but followed the same script. Manchester posted 139, built around Tim Seifert's 67 off 45 balls — an innings that ultimately settled the contest The Guardian. Spirit captain Liam Livingstone nearly dragged his side over the line with a brilliant 69 off 40, but he was bowled by Sonny Baker on the antepenultimate delivery of the innings. Spirit fell seven runs short.

Livingstone's performance was doubly striking because he had earlier bowled 20 of the last 25 balls of Manchester's innings, taking 2 for 14. In The Hundred, where each side faces 100 deliveries and bowlers can send down up to 20 in a match, that is a heavy workload for a captain who then opens the batting chase. He nearly pulled it off.

This was the fifth time in London Spirit men's six-year history that they began a season with a loss The Guardian. For Spirit, the 2026 season carries extra weight: new owners, new coaches and new players mean this is effectively a reset year. A sold-out crowd of 23,847 filled Lord's for the double-header, with rapper Tinie Tempah performing between the two matches to keep the festival atmosphere going.

The pitch itself had seen plenty of action recently. Just four days earlier, Lord's had hosted an England-India one-day international in which the two sides combined for 747 runs The Guardian. The same surface played differently under The Hundred's floodlights, offering more for the bowlers than that run-fest suggested.

Manchester Super Giants, for their part, are new to that name themselves. The franchise was previously known as Manchester Originals before being rebranded for the 2026 season Lord's Cricket Ground. Both of the renamed side's teams left Lord's with wins.

For London Spirit, the bright start their new ownership would have wanted will have to wait. The talent is there — Livingstone's all-round display proved that much. But across both matches, Spirit were outplayed with bat and ball, and the margins were not flattering.