Match 16 of The Hundred Men's 2026 sits at the clean-slate end of the season's first half. London Spirit and Southern Brave have played five times against each other across the competition's history, with two wins each plus one match washed out; both entered this fixture in the lower half of the points table after slow starts, and both are coming off a single win in their most recent outing. Spirit lost their opening two fixtures before a seven-wicket win over MI London. Brave went winless in their first three games before beating Birmingham Phoenix in their previous match. The schedule gives them a Saturday-evening stage at Lord's, and the form ledger gives them a reason to play aggressively.
The match is the second game of a Saturday double-header, with the first fixture of the day already underway by the time Spirit and Brave walk out. Start time is 10:30 PM IST / 5:00 PM GMT / 6:00 PM local at Lord's Cricket Ground, London. The forecast for Saturday evening in London is bright and clear, with the temperature around 25°C and average humidity close to 31 percent. Khel Now's pitch note for the venue describes a track where bounce has stayed consistent and batting has been true in recent matches, which is the surface brief that shapes the batting-heavy Dream11 build below.
Predicted London Spirit XI
The expected Spirit eleven has been put out by Khel Now with Lhuan-dre Pretorius opening alongside Jonny Bairstow, who also keeps wicket. James Rew slots in at three, Liam Livingstone captains the side at four, and Dewald Brevis rounds out the middle order at five. James Coles and Jamie Overton form the seam-bowling all-round axis at six and seven, with David Willey, Andrew Tye and Adam Milne taking the three specialist pacer slots, and Adam Zampa as the lone spinner. The shape is a six-batter, five-bowler split with Livingstone the only part-time spin option beyond Zampa.
| # | Player | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lhuan-dre Pretorius | Opener |
| 2 | Jonny Bairstow (wk) | Opener / wicketkeeper |
| 3 | James Rew | Top-order batter |
| 4 | Liam Livingstone (c) | Captain / middle-order batter / off-spin |
| 5 | Dewald Brevis | Middle-order batter |
| 6 | James Coles | All-rounder |
| 7 | Jamie Overton | Seam-bowling all-rounder |
| 8 | David Willey | Left-arm seam |
| 9 | Andrew Tye | Right-arm pace |
| 10 | Adam Milne | Right-arm fast |
| 11 | Adam Zampa | Right-arm leg-spin |
Predicted Southern Brave XI
Southern Brave's expected eleven has Jamie Smith at the top of the order with the gloves, Ben McKinney at two, Marcus Stoinis at three, Tristan Stubbs at four, David Miller at five, and Tom Abell at six. Chris Jordan captains the side at seven and leads the seam attack, with Saif Zaib at eight, Adil Rashid at nine, and Luke Wood and Jofra Archer rounding out the XI. The batting depth is the talking point here: Stoinis, Stubbs, Miller, Jordan and Zaib can all clear the ropes, and the side has Archer and Wood for the new ball plus Rashid to control the middle phase.
| # | Player | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamie Smith (wk) | Wicketkeeper / opener |
| 2 | Ben McKinney | Opener |
| 3 | Marcus Stoinis | Top-order all-rounder |
| 4 | Tristan Stubbs | Middle-order batter |
| 5 | David Miller | Middle-order batter |
| 6 | Tom Abell | Top-order batter |
| 7 | Chris Jordan (c) | Captain / seam-bowling all-rounder |
| 8 | Saif Zaib | All-rounder |
| 9 | Adil Rashid | Right-arm leg-spin |
| 10 | Luke Wood | Left-arm pace |
| 11 | Jofra Archer | Right-arm fast |
Dream11 Team 1 — Khel Now's recommended XI
Khel Now's first Dream11 build pairs Lhuan-dre Pretorius as captain with Tristan Stubbs as the second-choice captain. The vice-captain slot goes to Jamie Smith, with Jamie Overton as the alternative. The reasoning is straightforward: Pretorius opens against a Brave new ball of Archer and Wood, with the South African's powerplay form running ahead of the recent Brave pace pair, and Stubbs offers the middle-overs ceiling from a Brave line-up that has the batting depth to keep him in the contest. Smith's role as opener and wicketkeeper gives him a second scoring channel through catches and stumpings that few other options in the fixture can match.
The supporting cast in Khel Now's first team reads as a balance of batting upside and bowling points. The expected batting line is Bairstow, Pretorius, Brevis and Livingstone from Spirit, with Smith, Stubbs and Miller from Brave. The bowling all-rounder picks are Jamie Overton from Spirit and Chris Jordan from Brave, with Adam Zampa as the sole specialist spinner. The combined ceiling is built around the powerplay wicket potential of Archer and Milne, and the middle-overs control of Rashid and Zampa. For season-long fantasy players, the captain differential is the meaningful variable here: Stubbs as the alternative captain is a higher-variance, higher-upside play than the default Pretorius, and the trade-off is a slot for differential points in large-field grand leagues.
Dream11 Team 2 — Risk-balanced alternative
The second Dream11 build keeps the Spirit captaincy in the side but pivots the choice to Liam Livingstone, with Jonny Bairstow as the alternative. The vice-captaincy goes to Marcus Stoinis, with Dewald Brevis as the second-choice. This is the safer pick on the Spirit side, because Livingstone gives you both a captaincy multiplier and a part-time spin option that can return 1-2 wickets in the middle phase. Stoinis as vice-captain balances the upside of Bravo's middle-order hitting with the consistency of a top-three batter who has batted through the powerplay in the Hundred before.
The breadth of the second team is the point. Bairstow at the top gives you a safer powerplay multiplier on the Spirit side, while Brevis as the alternative vice-captain gives you a Brave-side ceiling without needing the same captaincy weight on the middle-order. For cash contests and small-field games, the Livingstone–Stoinis combination is the build that minimises the chance of a captain blank. For grand-league mega contests, the first team's Pretorius–Smith pair is the higher-variance play that lifts the ceiling when both openers fire.
The Lord's pitch note and what it means for the build
The Lord's brief is the part of the puzzle that ties the two teams together. According to the Khel Now read, the pitch has played with consistent bounce and held its batting true through the recent Hundred matches at the venue. That is a brief that rewards pace-on bowling at the top of the innings and accurate spin in the middle phase, but it does not penalise batters for staying leg-side of the ball or for hitting against the spin. The implication for Dream11 team selection is that the bowling points spread between Archer, Milne, Wood, Overton, Willey and Rashid is tighter than it looks on paper — every one of those six has a credible wicket-taking path — and the differential between captain picks comes down to batting innings shape rather than bowling matchup.
What also matters is the chase brief. The Hundred's 100-ball format compresses the chase down to a tight five-set window, and the side batting second has won more often than not at Lord's this season when the first-innings total has been under 145. Khel Now's read is that Spirit's recent form — the seven-wicket win over MI London — is the more relevant recent data point than Brave's win over Birmingham Phoenix, because the Brave win came against a side that has been one of the weakest in the competition, while the Spirit win came against a side that has been in the top half of the table. Combined with the Brave batting order being below-par through the first four games, that is the framing that has Khel Now backing Spirit to win the match.
Khelo Now's winner call: London Spirit
Khel Now's match prediction backs London Spirit to win the fixture, citing Southern Brave's below-par batting through the first half of the competition and Spirit's stronger batting form this season. The Brave batting order has not yet found its ceiling in this Hundred campaign; the side has relied on individual contributions rather than the kind of partnership innings that win close matches. Spirit, by contrast, have Pretorius and Bairstow at the top, Livingstone and Brevis in the middle, and Overton at seven — a line-up that has batting shape in the order that matters at the death.
The Spirit bowling has been the more consistent side through the opening four games, with Zampa and Rashid's middle-overs control balanced by Archer and Milne's new-ball threat. The Brave bowling, with Archer, Wood, Jordan and Rashid, has the same ceiling on paper, but the side has not yet strung together a complete bowling performance. The base case for the Spirit win is that their top four bat the full 100 balls, one of the Brave middle-order batters — Stoinis or Miller — gets out early to a Spirit pace bowler, and the Brave chase falls short in the closing five-ball set. The base case for the Brave win is that Archer and Wood take two powerplay wickets, Rashid controls the middle overs, and the Brave middle order chases 130-plus without losing more than five wickets.
What the form ledger actually says
Form is the second variable that anchors the Dream11 build. The Brave opened the season with three losses before the Birmingham Phoenix win, and the Spirit opened with two losses before the MI London win. Both sides have a single win in the ledger, and both are in the lower half of the table. The form differential in Khel Now's read leans Spirit because the Brave win came against a weaker opponent, while the Spirit win came against a stronger one. For Dream11 team selection, that means the captaincy should weight Spirit's openers and middle-order higher than Brave's in the base build, with the Brave ceiling picks — Stubbs, Miller, Archer — kept as the differential picks in the second team.
How this fits the verified winners archive
This cheat sheet is part of our rolling verified winners archive, where every captain pick and Dream11 prediction we publish is held against the post-match record. The shortcut the build uses is the same one the archive uses for every match: name the predicted XI, name the captain pick, name the vice-captain pick, name the winner, and let the post-match numbers confirm or contradict the call. For Match 16, the predicted XIs above are the Khel Now expected sides, the captain picks are Pretorius (with Stubbs as alternative) and Livingstone (with Bairstow as alternative), and the winner call is Spirit. The next article in the archive will pull the post-match totals and leadership scores and walk through where the prediction held and where it did not.
Verified facts behind this read
This read is built from the verified Dream11 prediction article published by Khel Now on 1 August 2026 at 11:36 AM IST, "LNS vs SOB Dream11 Prediction, Dream11 Playing XI, Today Match 16, The Hundred Men's 2026". The match number, the start time, the venue, the predicted London Spirit XI, the predicted Southern Brave XI, the past-five record between the two sides, the recent form for both sides, the pitch and weather notes, the Dream11 Team 1 captain and vice-captain picks with their alternatives, the Dream11 Team 2 captain and vice-captain picks with their alternatives, and the Spirit winner call are all sourced from that piece. No further player reactions, post-match quotes, or contest projections beyond what those facts allow have been added; doing so would weaken the read rather than strengthen it.