Welcome to live coverage of this afternoon’s men’s final of The Hundred at Lord’s where Southern Brave and Oval Invincibles meet to claim the spoils.
The Brave are here thanks to a remarkable victory in last night’s eliminator which required Jofra Archer to reprise his role from England’s 2019 World Cup victory and take the ball in a ‘Super Five’.
Birmingham Phoenix looked on course to take victory in the eliminator at the Oval, requiring 30 off their last 20 balls. However, Archer caught Liam Livingstone from the first ball of the Super Five and restricted Phoenix to just seven from the extra five deliveries.
The Brave subsequently eclipsed that with one delivery to spare thanks to Chris Jordan’s leg-side boundary off Adam Milne
Behind Archer and captain Jordan, the Brave defeated Birmingham Phoenix and now have the chance to lock horns with the Invincibles at Lord’s.
“I am just relieved, to be honest,” Archer said. “I thought I had given it away in the second-last over. You just have to commit [in the Super 5]. Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it doesn’t. Today it went for me.
“We have 11 match-winners and the guys not in the 11 are match-winners as well. We have so much talent. It doesn’t matter what team we put out, I back us.”
Meanwhile, the Invincibles have had a tremendous run in the competition as they finished top of the table. The team, captained by Sam Billings, finished top with 12 points thanks to wins in six out of eight matches in the tournament.
The team have done well to reach the final yet again thanks in large part to Sam Curran’s form with bat and ball. The all-rounder has scored 176 runs and taken 17 wickets, including a hat-trick.
Who will be crowned champions this evening? Southern Brave or the Invincibles?
All to play for then and we will get to the action presently.
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