By ECB Media
Result: Oval Invincibles (147-9) beat Southern Brave (130-7) by 17 runs
OVAL Invincibles became back-to-back champions of The Hundred men’s competition with a resounding victory over Southern Brave at Lord’s on Sunday.
With Southern Brave chasing 148 for victory, the game was in the balance before three wickets in six balls from Saqib Mahmood ripped the stuffing out of Brave and saw Invincibles become the first side to register four trophies across the men’s and women’s competitions.
Mahmood removed Leus Du Plooy, Kieron Pollard and Laurie Evans from balls 72-78 and when Chris Jordan followed them back into the pavilion four balls later the game was settled as a contest.
The England seamer’s timely and vital burst added to a number of individual performances from Invincibles that combined to form a winning team effort.
Their total of 147-9 was formed of cameos from Will Jacks, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran and Tom Curran, a total that eventually proved a winning one.
Jacks set the tone for Invincibles, slapping the first ball he faced from Jofra Archer for six and not letting up thereafter, racing to 37 from just 22 balls.
He was given a life on 31, in an eventful set of five from Akeal Hosein. The England man went 4, 4, 6 before the notorious bucket hands of Kieron Pollard sprung a leak at long-on and granted Jacks a reprieve.
Curran and Cox both made sprightly 25s, but their two dismissals book-ended a mini collapse for last year’s champions. They lost 4-9 across nine balls to leave themselves 102-6 with one quarter of their innings to come.
Step up Tom Curran, the hero of last year’s final. The elder of the Curran brothers sparkled with an eleven-ball 24 to lift up Invincibles to 147-9.
It was a total that may have left both sides fancying their chances of winning going into the second half of the match – hovering around the average score for men’s games at the venue but also requiring the highest successful chase in The Hundred’s history at Lord’s.
Either way, Brave wanted a quick start in the powerplay and while James Vince and Alex Davies took them to 18-0 after the first ten balls they struggled to accelerate away.
By the time Adam Zampa delivered his first set of five, Brave were looking at an increasingly demanding equation that required 100 runs from 65 balls.
Jacks then delivered with the ball to remove James Vince, before Nathan Sowter dismissed James Coles.
Du Plooy and Evans then put Brave well back in the game – 53 needed from 30 – before Mahmood came back into the attack to deliver three fatal blows to Brave and with it take Oval Invincibles to The Hundred trophy.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant but we just knew from the start we’d win. I don’t know what it was,”Mahmood said.
“I really wanted to use this competition to try and get back in the England white-ball side. I haven’t played that much red-ball cricket, I’ve still got to get my body used to that. If I can get back into that white-ball team, that is my main target.”
Invincibles captain Sam Billings added:”Amazing. Just a real team effort throughout the tournament, probably even better than last year. It didn’t go all our way and that’s the strength of the group.
“Saqib Mahmood came and changed the game with that set of ten.”
“I love this tournament,” Zampa said. “Days like today – the way Lord’s put the day on, the women’s game before us – it is a really good event.”
Evans didn’t hide his disappointment. He said: “I’m gutted to be honest. It is the third year in a row [losing in the final]. All credit has to go to Oval Invincibles, they are a great team and have been for the last two years.”
Meanwhile, in The Hundred women’s, London Spirit, who defeated Oval Invincibles in the Eliminator, won a thriller against Welsh Fire by four wickets.
Spirit needed 116 to win, and it came down to four needed from the last three balls before Deepti Sharma hit Hayley Matthews for six.
