The Hundred: Saqib Mahmood stars as Oval Invincibles defend men's title

Oval Invincibles became back-to-back champions of the Hundred cricket competition with a 17-run victory over Southern Brave at Lord’s on Sunday, 18 August. With Brave set a target of 148 for victory, the game was in the balance before three wickets in six balls from Saqib Mahmood ripped the energy out of the run-chase and saw Invincibles become the first team to register four trophies across the men’s and women’s competitions.

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Mahmood removed Leus du Plooy, Kieron Pollard and Laurie Evans between the 72nd and 78th balls and when Chris Jordan followed them back to the pavilion four balls later, the game was settled as a contest. The Invincibles scored 147-9 with Southern Brave finishing on 130-7.

The dramatic over saw Mahmood get hit for a boundary in the very first ball of the set. After getting hit over cover by du Plooy, Mahmood kept his nerve and stayed true to his stump to stump line. With du Ploy backing away, the slight inward movement from Mahmood beat the bat of du Plooy with the ball crashing into his stumps.

After du Plooy's dismissal, Mahmood kept on badgering Kieron Pollard with his seam movement. His sharp inswinger caught Pollard in the front of the stumps which was adjudged an LBW. In a space of two balls, Mahmood trapped a set Laurie Evans (16 off 10) at covers to put Southern Brave in deep trouble.

"Amazing, had a 5-ball interval at the timeout, spent time with the coach and got Polly out. Just attack and bring the stumps into play and that's what I have tried to do. Sam Curran at mid-on told me, keep it simple and don't overdo it. We have kept the core of our squad the same, I missed the last two years with injuries but I was there the first year. To repay that faith of being retained feels nice," Saqib Mahmood said while accepting the match hero award on Sunday.

Sam Curran was judged the Most Valuable Player of the tournament this season. The all-rounder lauded the team environment at the Invincibles behind their back-to-back title wins.

"The environment we have had over the last 4 years has really helped. Similar faces, similar staff and when we walk into work with a smile it helps. Don't care, back to back winners. We won't hear the end of it tonight, really glad for Tom. He came out and pleased to see him perform for us. Everyone has stood up for us, really pleased we get the trophy and feeling really happy," Curran said at the post match presentation ceremony.

Earlier Sunday, London Spirit successfully chased down a target of 116 to beat Welsh Fire and claim the women’s Hundred title in front of a record 22,008 spectators at Lord's. London Spirit scored 118-6 off 98 balls in reply to Welsh Fire’s 115-8.

In a tense finale, it was left to Deepti Sharma and Charlie Dean to get their team over the line, with allrounder Sharma finishing off with a six over long-on with just two balls left. Sharma’s strike hung in the air and briefly appeared to be heading to Shabnim Ismail on the boundary, but there was enough power to go all the way and bring an end to a topsy-turvy encounter.

Published By: Kingshuk Kusari Published On: Aug 19, 2024

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