{"id":109914,"date":"2025-09-01T02:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T02:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/109914\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T02:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T02:42:07","slug":"invincibles-sweep-rockets-aside-for-treble-of-mens-hundred-titles-the-hundred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/109914\/","title":{"rendered":"Invincibles sweep Rockets aside for treble of men\u2019s Hundred titles | The Hundred"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have seen this one before. For the third year<\/a> in a row Oval Invincibles rocked up to Lord\u2019s, batted first and ended up with the trophy. As the Hundred signed off on its opening chapter \u2013 next year will bring new owners, rebranding and potentially an extreme makeover of squads<\/a> \u2013 this was a fitting result, the Invincibles men having been the standout side for much of it.<\/p>\n

Will Jacks and Nathan Sowter, both of whom played in the Invincibles\u2019 first match in 2021, were the ones responsible this time, with Trent Rockets falling to a 26-run defeat. Jacks provided the hits in the first half, finishing with 72 off 41 balls as the Invincibles put up 168, and Sowter ruined the chase quickly. A 10-ball set by the leg-spinner accounted for the Rockets\u2019 top three of Tom Banton, Joe Root and Rehan Ahmed. Marcus Stoinis briefly threatened with 64 off 38, but it never turned into a serious fright.<\/p>\n

There probably will not be a Last Dance-style docuseries in 25 years on the Invincibles\u2019 Hundred success, with Sam Curran puffing on a cigar as he explains his takedown of Sam Cook at the Oval. But the south London side have been thoroughly watchable, finishing top of the league stage in three successive seasons, their excellence driven by a stable set of players. They entered this contest with nine of the XI from the final last year, confident enough to leave Gus Atkinson on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to play with people that have been with this team for five years,\u201d said the Invincibles\u2019 Jordan Cox, the leading run-scorer this season. A new player recruitment system next year could rip that connection up. \u201cWe\u2019ll try our best to keep a little group together but the cricket world\u2019s changing, whatever they do, the people in the hierarchy can decide that. We\u2019ll just play cricket and try and entertain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rockets arrived after a rain-ruined eliminator the night before, their second-place finish sending Northern Superchargers out. Their run was powered by the energy of Ahmed, the 21\u2011year\u2011old twirling his leg-breaks while batting at No 3, and very capable of carrying that charisma into a Lord\u2019s final. But this remained a difficult task for the Rockets made harder by an injury sustained by Lockie Ferguson in the warmups, prompting the last\u2011second introduction of Dillon Pennington for his first game of this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

Pennington was the first to strike after the Invincibles batted first, his opening delivery a wide loosener to Tawanda Muyeye. An invitation to send the ball into the grandstand was rejected, Muyeye edging behind for 15.<\/p>\n

But the opening exchanges still belonged to the Invincibles as Jacks thumped away while Cox settled in at the other end. Stoinis thought he had Jacks caught in the deep but the full toss was a touch too high, prompting the no-ball call. Ahmed\u2019s stump\u2011to\u2011stump fizz was handled, too, Jacks getting the reverse sweep out to find the boundary. The Invincibles had 83 runs after 50 balls.<\/p>\n

Nathan Sowter jumps for joy, next to teammate Sam Billings, after taking the wicket of Joe Root for 10. Photograph: Julian Finney\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ben Sanderson was pummelled through the off-side and George Linde felt double pain from a dropped chance; the left-arm spinner failed to take a return catch off Cox and the blow to the hand forced him off the field. Jacks tonked Ahmed over midwicket to bring up his half-century off 32 balls, with the Rockets threatening to disintegrate. Ahmed did account for Cox on 40, but Jacks remained locked in, driving Pennington over extra cover for six and perishing with 15 balls left in the innings.<\/p>\n

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The Rockets strolled out with their two leading run-scorers, Banton and the ever-evolving Root. After a 32-run powerplay, some hoo-ha was needed against spin. Adam Zampa was the big-name leggie in the Invincibles lineup but it was his less heralded colleague who broke through.<\/p>\n

Sowter, one of two players in the XI without an international cap, invited a Root launch to Jacks at long-on and rattled Ahmed\u2019s stumps for a duck. Sam Billings kept Sowter on for another five, a call that resulted in a miscue from Banton. Ten consecutive deliveries resulted in three runs and three wickets, Sowter in effect bringing the match to an end with 60 balls to spare.<\/p>\n

A new-look tournament awaits, though the prospect of a switch to Twenty20 does not appeal to Cox. \u201cI absolutely love the [Hundred] format, I think it\u2019s the best format,\u201d he said, questioning the value of competing with the Indian Premier League. \u201cWhat\u2019s the point in trying to change it to be second best? Why ruin it?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have seen this one before. For the third year in a row Oval Invincibles rocked up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-109914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}