Birmingham Phoenix captain Liam Livingstone led his team to their first win of the Hundred 2025 on August 12. Livingstone played a captain’s knock in the run chase, scoring an unbeaten 27-ball 69. During the clash, Oval Invincibles’ Tom Curran had a heated exchange with Livingstone. While The Phoenix skipper had the last laugh, he revealed that Tom called him “a fat slob”. He did not expect such language from his friend but it fuelled his aggressive strokeplay, enabling him to finish the job for the team in a high-scoring encounter in front of the home crowd at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
“I have no idea why Tom started to spray me,” Livingstone told BBC Two.“He is one of my good friends and he called me a fat slob or something so I thought, ‘Let’s hope you don’t go for a few if you come back at the death.’ He did so I’m kind of happy with that.”
Livingstone on taking down Rashid
Livingstone In the penultimate over, Livingstone smashed Tom for a four and two huge sixes. First, he hit the ball through extra cover for a four. Then, he pulled it over deep mid-wicket for a six. He followed it up with another pull shot in the same area. Birmingham Phoenix won the game by four wickets with two balls to spare. Before taking down Tom, he had smashed Afghan leggie Rashid Khan for 26 runs in five balls.
“I have confidence in having played him before. I have a decent record against Rash by stepping across and slogging him. I tried to play a couple of balls with a straight bat. I am safer trying to slog him,” ‘Hero of the match’ Livingstone said after the match.
Tom, Rashid’s horror show
Tom had a forgettable outing with the ball as he conceded 35 runs from 15 balls. His only wicket was young out-of-form all-rounder Jacob Bethell. Meanwhile, Rashid conceded 59 runs, breaking the record for most expensive spell in The Hundred's history.
Birmingham Phoenix rise up one spot
The win helped them rise from the bottom of the points table. They have a slightly inferior net run rate (NRR) than Manchester Originals who have one win from three games as well. Their next clash is against Northern Superchargers on August 15.