Oval Invincibles (OVI) climbed to second in the points table after a nine-run win over Trent Rockets (TRT) at home. In a rain-affected match, reduced to 65 balls, Jason Roy’s half-century steered Oval Invincibles to 125. A three-wicket haul from Sunil Narine and two wickets each for Tabraiz Shamsi and Tom Curran helped them successfully defend the big total.
A wet outfield delayed the start of the match by more than one hour. Trent Rockets won the toss and chose to bowl first. Timm van der Gugten and Sam Cook replaced Wahab Riaz and Luke Wood in Trent Rockets’ playing eleven. Meanwhile, Oval Invincibles handed a debut for batter Alex Blake.
Roy and Will Jacks made a brisk start. The opening pair hit two sixes in Rashid Khan’s first set of five. Jacks struck a boundary off Cook, and Roy charged down and hammered the ball into the stands in van der Gugten’s opening set of five. They were 38/0 in the powerplay.
Oval Invincibles lost the wickets of Jacks and Narine in quick succession. Colin Ingram, at No. 4, dispatched a full-toss for a six but had to depart in the next ball after Lewis Gregory took a stunning one-handed catch. The new batsman Sam Billings got off the mark with a boundary. However, Tom Moores effected a smart stumping to dismiss the Oval Invincibles captain for six.
Roy was unfazed by the frequent falling of wickets. He scored two sixes in Matthew Carter’s 10-ball spell, in which the off-spinner conceded 26 runs. Blake went back to the pavilion for nine as Rashid clinched his first scalp in the match. Curran struck a six in the first ball. The pacer added two more runs and fell for eight to give Cook a wicket on his Hundred debut.
A costly final five balls – two fours and a six – from van der Gugten saw Roy reach his second half-century in the tournament, and Oval Invincibles finish on 125/6 in 65 balls.
Trent Rockets made a dreadful start to their run-chase as D’Arcy Short gave a simple catch to Saqib Mahmood at short fine leg in the third ball of the innings. Dawid Malan and Alex Hales added 27 runs before the left-handed batsman holed out to Blake. Hales seemed to be in excellent form, scoring a six off Shamsi and a boundary in Narine’s second set of five.
The West Indies all-rounder claimed two wickets – Hales and Moores – in three balls to leave Trent Rockets at 42/4 in 30 balls. Samit Patel and Steven Mullaney raised the visitors’ hope by scoring 23 runs from ten balls. But Shamsi removed Patel for 15, while Mullaney, too, perished a few deliveries later.
Trent Rockets needed 35 from ten balls. Rashid cleared the ropes, and Gregory hit two fours off Mahmood’s last set of five. They still required 17 from five balls. Curran conceded seven runs in his final five balls to give Oval Invincibles their third win in the tournament.
OVI 125/6 in 65 balls (J Roy 56*; S Patel 2/21)
TRT 116/8 in 65 balls (L Gregory 28*; S Narine 3/11)
Player of the Match
Roy came up with yet another responsible knock in the 100-ball tournament. Despite running out of partners, he kept the scoreboard ticking with some clean hitting. The 31-year-old scored more than 30 runs off Carter and van der Gugten. With the T20 World Cup just months away, England fans will be delighted with the way Roy has been batting.
Top Fantasy XI
S Narine (82 pts), J Roy (80 pts), S Patel (72 pts), T Curran (72 pts), T Shamsi (54 pts), R Khan (47 pts), L Gregory (46 pts), M Carter (44 pts), A Blake (39 pts), A Hales (34 pts), S Cook (31 pts)
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Parameswaran Sankaranarayanan
Parameswaran Sankaranarayan is a sports enthusiast who has worked in print, website, and other digital platforms. He was part of the editorial team of first-ever Indian football-based website - IndianFootball.com (now defunct) - and passionately follows the latest happenings in world football. During his time as a journalist, he had the opportunity to interact with some of the iconic personalities in Indian sports and witness some memorable moments in Indian football.
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