London Spirit sealed a three-run win over Oval Invincibles in a thriller at the Oval. Invincibles finished with 168 in reply to Spirit’s 171.
In pursuit of a competitive score, Invincibles had found themselves in all kinds of trouble at 12 for 4, losing Jason Roy, Will Jacks, Sam Curran and Sam Billings in the process. Jordan Cox (39) and Hilton Cartwright (42) then helped the side stage a recovery with a 74-run alliance in just 48 balls. Cartwright was the more aggressive of the two, smacking three boundaries and two sixes.
Despite losing Cartwright, Invincibles continued to mount a serious challenge with Tom Curran cracking 27 off only 15 balls. However, Nathan Ellis and Liam Dawson combined to remove Cox and Tom Curran to peg back Invincibles. Danny Briggs (29 off 11) then took over the mantle of playing aggressively. He smashed Chris Wood for a boundary and followed it up with a couple more boundaries off Jordan Thompson to bring the equation down to 9 off 3 balls.
Eventually, Invincibles needed 5 off 1 ball but Sunil Narine could only eke out a leg-bye. Thompson and Eillis shared five wickets and bowled eight dot balls each. Earlier, Eoin Morgan had top-scored for Spirit with a 29-ball 47. The Spirit captain also strung a crucial stand of 72 with Dan Lawrence for the fourth wicket to set the platform. Meanwhile, Mohammad Hasnain and Narine took two wickets each. Narine also bowled the most number of dots in the game – 9.
