Match 12 of The Hundred Men's Competition 2026 pits MI London against London Spirit at Kennington Oval on Tuesday, 29 July 2026, with the first ball scheduled for 11:00 PM IST. The fixture sits in a tight cluster: MI London are fourth with two wins in three, London Spirit are last with two losses in two, and the season's race for the knockout places is already narrowing the room for error. A win for either side moves the table in a direction the other would rather not see written down.
For fantasy line-ups, the shape of the night comes down to three inputs: who is actually playing, the read of the Oval's surface, and the weather under the lights. The probable XIs landed late on Monday evening, the pitch looks like Kennington on a warm July day — flat, batting-friendly, slightly racier for the seamers early — and the forecast is benign. The Hundred's 100-ball format rewards the players who can clear the inner ring rather than the ones who can survive the new ball, so the captain pick sits with the batters in form, not the bowlers in form.
Where the two teams stand.
MI London sit fourth. The most recent result was a three-wicket win over Southern Brave, with Will Jacks scoring a half-century to anchor the chase. The line-up has settled around Sam Curran, Nicholas Pooran, Jacks, Ollie Pope, James Vince, Sherfane Rutherford, Tom Curran, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Richard Gleeson and Nathan Sowter in the eleven that took the field at the weekend. The batting runs through Pooran and Vince in the middle order; the wicket-taking threat comes from Rashid, Boult and Gleeson. Sam Curran does both jobs and is the team's most bankable fantasy asset.
London Spirit are last. They lost to TRT by four wickets in their previous match, which was their second consecutive defeat. The probable XI Liam Livingstone walks out with is broadly Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Jonny Bairstow, James Coles, Dewald Brevis, James Rew, David Willey, Jamie Overton, Adam Milne, Adam Zampa and Andrew Tye. There's plenty of batting, but the form numbers are thin: only Livingstone and Brevis have crossed fifty in the season so far, and the bowling has looked one-paced in the powerplay.
Head-to-head at the venue.
The last ten meetings go heavily to MI London: eight wins, one loss, one no-result. At Kennington Oval specifically, MI London have won 90% of their completed matches, London Spirit 20%. The combination of MI London's batting depth and London Spirit's tendency to start slow with the ball at this venue is the single biggest structural reason the odds board has MI London installed as favourites. For fantasy line-ups, structural edges translate to ownership edges — the multiplied-captain favourite should come from the favourite team unless the differential signal is unusually strong.
Pitch and conditions read.
Kennington Oval in late July is a batsman's surface. The average first-innings score across completed Hundred matches here is 145, with the second-innings average dipping slightly to 133 as the surface holds pace into the second half. Win-by-batting-first is 52%; win-by-bowling-first is 48% — almost a coin flip, which is why the toss isn't priced as aggressively here as it would be at a turning venue. Pacers have taken 59% of the wickets at the ground across the competition, which is unusual for a flat deck and reflects the swing on offer early in the evening before the ball loses its lacquer.
For fantasy captains, the read is: batters from the top of the order on both sides, with a slight lean to the team batting first. The Hundred's 100-ball format shortens the chase — a par score here is around 145, and both teams have batting that can clear that. The 100-ball structure also rewards all-rounders (they accumulate across both phases) and pinch-hitters at the death, and slightly penalises fourth-seamer types who bowl in the middle and don't bat.
Weather under the lights.
London on 29 July 2026 is forecast at 28–29°C with rainfall probability under 2% and humidity around 45%. No rain interruption on the card. Humidity at that level is not the dew-inducing range The Hundred often sees in late-August fixtures, so the bowlers who rely on grip will not get a late assist. Bowlers who rely on pace and accuracy at the death should hold their value. Bowlers who rely on turn will need to earn their wickets in the middle phase.
Probable XIs in full.
MI London probable XI: Sam Curran (c), Nicholas Pooran (wk), Ollie Pope, Sherfane Rutherford, James Vince, Tom Curran, Will Jacks, Trent Boult, Richard Gleeson, Rashid Khan, Nathan Sowter.
London Spirit probable XI: Liam Livingstone (c), Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Jonny Bairstow (wk), James Coles, Dewald Brevis, James Rew (wk), David Willey, Jamie Overton, Adam Milne, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye.
Both line-ups are loaded with international names; the fantasy ceiling on either side is high. The differentiated call is which of the two wicket-keepers to back — Pooran has the bigger role with the bat, and in The Hundred that translates directly into fantasy points.
Recommended squad split: 6 ML + 5 LNS.
The shape of the match — favourite team, flat surface, batting-deep line-up — points to a 6-5 split weighted to MI London. The remaining two slots from a typical 11 are the captain and vice-captain, and those are decided by contest type rather than split. A 6-5 split clears the batting depth on both sides and lets the MI London all-rounders sit alongside the London Spirit quicks in a single XI without forcing a player on a red-hot micro-form to be dropped.
Small-league captain and vice-captain.
For small leagues, head-to-heads and practice contests, the captain slot goes to Sam Curran and the vice-captain slot to Liam Livingstone. The reasoning is straightforward: both are captains of their respective sides, both bat in the top six, both bowl their full quota, and both have the highest recent fantasy points on their teams. Sam Curran's numbers across the season are 90 runs and four wickets; Liam Livingstone's are 102 runs and two wickets. The two-way captaincy hedges the contest: if MI London bat first and post 150, Curran's points carry the XI; if London Spirit chase, Livingstone's points carry the XI.
For SL only, the alternative is Nicholas Pooran as captain and Rashid Khan as vice-captain. Pooran is the explosive middle-order option who can hit a 25-ball fifty and pair the captain multiplier with one of the highest ceilings in the match. Rashid is the wicket-taker who, on a flat surface, is more likely to take 1 for 28 than 3 for 18, but the points adjustment for a wicket against a top-order batter at the venue tilts him ahead of the seamers in this XI.
Grand-league captain and vice-captain picks.
For mega contests, the differential captain is Richard Gleeson and the differential vice-captain is Dewald Brevis. Gleeson leads the Hundred wicket-takers' list with seven wickets across the season and bowls the powerplay overs where the swing on offer at the Oval often turns the second over of the match. Ownership in most mega contests is below 20%, which is the rough ceiling for a differential captain to clear the field. Brevis is the South African who has quietly scored 61 runs at a strike rate that earns fantasy points through bonus milestones, and his ownership is lower than Livingstone's by a wide margin.
For GL-only with a multi-line-up approach, the rotation is three captains across three line-ups: Sam Curran in one, Richard Gleeson in another, Dewald Brevis in the third. The rotation hedges the contest — Curran carries the favourite team, Gleeson carries the differential wicket-taker, Brevis carries the differential batter. The three-line-up rotation is the standard mega-contest template when the favourite is clear but the surface is flat enough that a freak partnership can swing the chase.
Suggested Dream11 squads.
Small-league XI (6 ML + 5 LNS): Wicket-keeper — Nicholas Pooran. Batters — Will Jacks, James Vince, Liam Livingstone, Jonny Bairstow. All-rounders — Sam Curran (c), Liam Livingstone (vc), David Willey, Tom Curran. Bowlers — Rashid Khan, Richard Gleeson.
Grand-league XI (6 ML + 5 LNS): Wicket-keeper — Nicholas Pooran. Batters — Dewald Brevis (vc), James Vince, Jonny Bairstow, Will Jacks. All-rounders — Sam Curran, David Willey, Liam Livingstone. Bowlers — Richard Gleeson (c), Rashid Khan, Adam Milne.
Both squads come in under the 100-credit Dream11 cap provided captain and vice-captain picks are not priced at the absolute ceiling. Verify the credit total and the role-eligibility tags on the platform before locking; the published credits and role labels can differ between the international Dream11 product and the Indian app.
Three things to watch at the toss.
The toss matters more than the line-up at this venue. First, the team batting first has a 52% historical win rate, which is the kind of edge that justifies a captaincy switch if the toss goes the other way. Second, the dew read at 9 PM local — if the outfield is visibly wet by the eighth over, the chasing team's batters get a free rein and the second-innings captain on the chasing side becomes the captain pick. Third, any late injury to Nicholas Pooran or Liam Livingstone changes the captain verdict immediately; both are carrying the most leverage in their respective XIs and a replacement at the top of the order compromises the rest of the XI's structure.
Where to watch the match.
The Hundred 2026 is broadcast in India on JioHotstar and the Star Sports Network. The match starts at 11:00 PM IST. Live streaming on mobile is via the JioHotstar app; the broadcast feed is on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 1 HD. The toss is expected at 10:30 PM IST, with the playing XIs uploaded to the broadcast graphics within ten minutes of the toss.
Pair this with the desk's other reads.
The shortest path through the desk's writing on Hundred fantasy starts with the captain-pick frameworks piece, which sets out the anchor, match-up, and differential logic that drives the two XI builds above. The match-prediction methodology piece explains how the desk weighs pitch, weather, head-to-head, and recent form for any match-night call, and the dew-factor piece is the right next read if the toss puts a chase under lights. The wider match-night reading list collects the desk's recent articles in one feed so the next match preview is one click away.
The desk's bottom line.
MI London are favourites and the venue agrees. The 6-5 split goes to MI London, the small-league captaincy is Sam Curran with Liam Livingstone as vice-captain, and the grand-league differential is Richard Gleeson with Dewald Brevis as vice-captain. Verify the playing XIs at the toss, watch the dew read by the eighth over, and treat any late change to Pooran or Livingstone as a captaincy verdict shift rather than a routine squad update. The Hundred season is short and the table is tight — every match-night call is built on the same four inputs: line-up, surface, weather, and recent form.
