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Southern Brave take on Northern Superchargers in the final of the women’s Hundred before Oval Invincibles face Trent Rockets in the men’s final, looking for their third in a row.
Saqib Mahmood seals a 26-run victory with a wicket to dismiss Stoinis LBW and write the Invincibles’ name in the history book with their third title in three years!
Jacks’ quick fire 72 meant that Oval always had too many, but Sowter sealed the deal with his first ten-ball spell, picking up all of the Rockets’ top three batters and conceding just three runs.
Stoinis carves Sam Curran away for consecutive boundaries over point, moving him to 58* off 33 but with 33 needed from the last five balls, the Invincibles are about to seal their third successive title.
With 20 balls remaining, and George Linde also dismissed, the Rockets require a miracle now, needing 69 to win.
Stoinis is still going (33 off 24), with Ross Whiteley down the other end, but it’s surely too much for them to do now.
Despite WinViz giving them a 5% chance of victory, Trent Rockets continue to fight.
A sharp piece of work by Billings gets Willey stumped off the bowling of Zampa. He threw a wide one outside off and the left-armer toppled forwards, looking to swipe it into the leg side.
However, with their captain now back in the pavilion, it looks all but settled.
Root was starting to get stuck and ends up getting caught on the boundary. Similarly to Sam Curran, Jacks stops it from going for six.
Sowter then skips one through Rehan Ahmed on middle stump. The all-rounder was looking to cut it through the off-side but he was unable to get it away.
He continues for a second set in a row and two balls later he gets the set Banton.
What an impact he is having on this game! The Rockets were in a great place to chase down this total and now they may struggle to bat out the hundred balls.
And with that, the powerplay is over for the Rockets. They only add 32 in first 25 balls but most importantly, they haven’t lost a wicket.
Banton has 20 off 16, while Root has a run-a-ball nine.
The Invincibles end up well short of 200 in the end but no team has breached 150 batting second in the final, and only the Rockets have chased successfully (120).
Curran is run out with a couple of balls to spare and Sanderson nails his yorkers to concede four off the final set to the Invincibles.
Ferreira and Curran send a couple of huge sixes into the crowd off the bowling of Stoinis, but looking for back-to-back maximums is the downfall for Curran. He’s only short by a fraction, and Banton plucks the ball out of the air, right on the boundary.
Stoinis digs in a short one, and Jacks sends a looping catch out to Calvin Harrison at deep midwicket. Another slower ball by Stoinis sends Jacks back to the pavilion for a marvellous 72 off 41.
The Rockets could have had another soon after, but a fumble by Pennington meant Curran makes his ground after a mix up in the middle with Donovan Ferreira.
Sam Curran joins in on the action too and together they plunder 16 from Willey’s final over.
With 20 balls remaining, Oval are ramping up the rate and could be on track for nearly 200.
Jordan Cox follows suit and also smashes Ahmed into the stands but ends up swinging himself off his feet next ball. He edges behind and has to depart for 40 off 28.
George Linde drops a tough caught and bowled opportunity but in doing so has hurt his bowling hand. He has to be withdrawn from the attack for Rehan Ahmed and Jacks launches a huge six into the grandstand to bring up his fifty next ball.
Jordan Cox dabs a ball out to deep midwicket and with that brings the hundred up for the Invincibles. The partnership between Cox and Jacks is at 69 now and continues to be a thorn in the side of the Rockets.
Stoinis thinks he has Jacks caught in the deep, but replays show the full toss was above waist height, and the umpire sticks his arm out to signal the no ball.
Jacks makes the most of his reprise and smokes the free hit between the fielders on the leg side boundary for four.
Dillon Pennington nicks Muyeye off with his first ball of the tournament. He replaced Lockie Ferguson, who got injured in the warm-up, and has had an immediate impact. It was a slight drag down but the batter could only feather it through to the keeper.
Will Jacks and Tawanda Muyeye find the boundary on a number of occasions, dispatching David Willey and Marcus Stoinis.
Invincibles were heavy favourites heading into the game and have started very well.
Sam Billings announces his side will bat first and look to defend a total.
He says, “Get a score on the board and hopefully defend it. Scores have trended upwards at this venue this year, hopefully a good wicket.”
Adam Zampa comes into the side for Miles Hammond, while Ben Sanderson replaces Sam Cook from the Rockets side that played yesterday. Cook misses out with a broken thumb.
Sutherland smashes Adams for six to seal victory for the Superchargers.
Carey and Sutherland combine for 60 to marshal their side to victory with 12 balls remaining. Yet again, the Australians dominate the game.
NSC become the fourth champions in five years (Oval Invincibles x2, Southern Brave and London Spirit) today, having kept an almost identical core over the last few years.
Litchfield looks to sweep Chloe Tryon and top edges the ball straight to Lauren Bell. Her quickfire 26 off 13 brings the required rate down to almost one a ball and leaves the Superchargers in a commanding position.
She almost traps Nicola Carey in front first ball.
Out of nowhere, the rain pours down, but it stops pretty quickly and the covers are already off.
Litchfield replaces Perrin and goes on the offensive from the outset. After a wide first up, she guides Devine through third man for four, before reverse and conventional sweeping Villiers for consecutive boundaries and then launching the spinner over mid off for six.
However, the final ball of Villiers’ set sees Davidson-Richards stumped off the pad of Rhianna Southby. ADR looks to reverse paddle, misses the ball, which ricochets off Southby’s pad into the wicket.
Superchargers start well but watchfully with the bat, scoring at a tick over a run a ball.
Perrin finds the boundary on a few occasions, including a sumptuous uppercut and a lap sweep, but eventually she is dismissed by Devine. She skies a good length ball to Bouchier at mid on and departs for 17.
ADR also could have fallen, but is gifted a lifeline by Freya Kemp on the square leg boundary, putting down a simple chance.
Lauren Bell bowls the first over for the Brave with Davina Perrin and Alice Davidson-Richards opening, as expected, for the Superchargers.
They concede seven off the bat, including a crunching cover drive from ADR, but Bell starts well otherwise.
With wickets tumbling throughout the innings, Southern Brave manage to get up to 115.
The Superchargers scored 214 yesterday at The Oval in their 42-run victory over London Spirit, so there are runs in this team, but in a final, anything can happen.
Mady Villiers slaps one into the leg side for four to bring up Brave’s hundred before upper cutting Sutherland next ball for four over the off side.
