The Oval Invincibles have now won three matches from four at The Hundred, with Sam Curran’s all-round performances defining the difference between the two teams competing for the title in the capital.
Curran smashed 51 off 22 balls to singlehandedly guide the Invincibles to a strong total on a difficult court before ending the Spirit’s hopes of chasing 147 with a stunning five-wicket spell that included a hat-trick.
On a pitch at Lord’s which allowed some lateral movement, Invincibles captain Sam Billings elected to bat first and the Spirit attack took advantage of the pitch’s favourable conditions, with the visitors struggling to trail by 46-2 at half-time.
Olly Stone hurled Will Jacks out of the gates and Liam Dawson dismissed Jordan Cox, who has only just been called up to the England men’s Test squad.
David Malan and Billings then exchanged some powerful blows before Malan was caught at the square leg boundary off a Matt Critchley delivery to score 38 off 29.
Billings struggled to find his rhythm and was replaced by the in-form Donovan Ferreira, but it was Curran who turned the tide, reaching fifty in 21 balls, including three consecutive sixes off Nathan Ellis, and his innings helped the Invincibles to a respectable 147 for 5.
In response, the Spirit came through the power play unscathed, with Keaton Jennings and Michael Pepper leading the way to a 35-0 victory.
But then the Invincibles’ top-class spin attack piled on the pressure, with both openers and Ollie Pope falling in quick succession: Jacks dismissed Jennings lbw, Adam Zampa caught Pepper with his first delivery and Nathan Souter broke Pope’s defence for a leg break.
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Spirit’s Charlie Dean leaps through the air to make a sensational catch!
Dan Lawrence and Shimron Hetmyer reinvigorated spirits and the match got underway with 56 needed from 30 balls remaining, but before they could up the ante, Zampa, who finished with figures of 3-22, dismissed both Hetmyer (20 off 21 balls) and Lawrence (27 off 18 balls).
Despite Andre Russell trying to force the home side, Curran bagged his third hat-trick in the history of The Hundred men’s competition to cap off one of the tournament’s best individual performances and seal victory for the Invincibles.
Man of the match: Sam Curran
“I’ve had a few battles with Russ (Russell) over the years and a hat-trick ball wasn’t even on my mind. I thought it was either going to be me or him, he’d hit me for a six or I’d take a wicket. Thankfully he prevented that from happening but the most important thing is we won,” Curran said.
“As long as you have players like Dan (Lawrence), Hetmyer and Russell the game is never over so it was a massive relief when we got him (Russell) out.”
Brooke fires off the Supercharger and defeats The Originals
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Harry Brook went 33 for 58 points to help the Northern Superchargers win against the Manchester Originals.
Andrew Flintoff’s Northern Superchargers beat Manchester Originals by 14 points in The Hundred clash at Headingley, thanks to a Harry Brook half-century.
England’s batsmen scored 58 off 33 balls to help the Superchargers to 167-5 after losing the toss, but the winless Originals were then beaten by two runs to fall well short in the chase.
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The Originals’ Phil Salt was run out by Adil Rashid after forgetting to hit the ground with his bat.
The Superchargers got off to a tough start with the batting with Fazal Haq Farooqui taking the wicket off the first ball of the match.
Graham Clarke and captain Brook revived the innings with a well-built 50-run partnership, Brook scoring an explosive half-century only to be caught by a brilliant one-handed diving catch by Scott Curry.
The Originals came back strong at the end, holding the supercharged one to 167.
Captain Phil Salt and Matty Hurst scored 90 in an opening partnership to get the Originals’ innings off to a promising start.
However, both were run out. Salt scored 40 off 27 balls while Hurst top-scored with a brilliant 78 off 45 balls.
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Scott Curry prevented crucial runs with a brilliant one-handed catch on the boundary.
The Originals succumbed from 90-0 to 128-4 thanks in part to spinner Mitchell Santner’s efforts, who took 2-23.
When Hurst was dismissed, the Originals needed 29 runs off 13 bats, but with no other batsman scoring in double figures, they were unable to cross the score line and sank to the bottom of the standings.
The Superchargers have won three of their four games to move into third place.
Man of the match: Harry Brook
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Brook was dismissed after a catch by Curry, but the Headingley crowd were convinced the ball had not flown.
“I felt like they had the upper hand on the power play, but we pitched incredibly well down the stretch and came out with the win,” Brook said.
“The outfield here is so fast that I didn’t feel like I needed to get a lot of balls in the air, so I just focused on hitting the gaps and it worked out well.”
“I just tried to stay until the end and put some pressure on them at the end. I started well and thankfully was able to squeeze out some gaps.”
What’s next?
The Hundred continues with two games on Monday. Welsh Fire and Southern Brave The women’s match will kick off at 3pm and the men’s match will begin at 6.30pm and both matches will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket. Stream The Hundred and other sports on NOW.
