THE HUNDRED MENS COMPETITION 2025
Jordan Cox hit ten sixes in his innings. © Getty
Jordan Cox smashed 10 sixes enroute to a 29-ball 86 as Oval Invincibles posted the highest-ever total in the Men’s Hundred – 226/4, and stormed to the top of the points table with a massive 86-run victory over Welsh Fire. Cox was the standout star for the Invincibles, but each of the other members of the top-four too came out swinging as the team surged ahead to the mammoth total. Jonny Bairstow scored a 28-ball 50 in response but the effort around him lacked the spark to keep Fire in their daunting chase.
David Payne started well with the ball but the first set and one other later in the game were the only two where the Invincibles didn’t score at least one four or a six. The carnage, that began with Will Jacks welcoming Matt Henry to the tournament with two fours, was relentless throughout. Complementing Jacks at the top was Tawanda Muyeye, who got going with two successive sixes off Payne. They took 15 off Henry’s next set to finish the PowerPlay (25 balls) with 54/0. Left-arm spin of Saif Zaib ended this stand on 76, with Muyeye departing for 33 off 15, but it brought Cox to the middle. Henry returned to dismiss Jacks and the Invincibles reached 89/2 at the halfway stage.
Chris Green bowled the boundary-less set to Sam Curran and Cox, with the latter compensating for it against Ajeet Dale. Cox hit 4 massive sixes in the five-ball set to power his team well over the 100-run mark. This came like a flick of a switch as he kept swinging for the fences for the remainder of the innings. He targetted both sides of the fence for his big shots, and got them away convincingly as did Sam Curran and Donnovan Ferreira.
To make matters worse for the bowling side, Dale dropped a catch to give Cox a reprieve while he was on 45 off 18. Cox responded to that gift by hitting three successive sixes off Walter as the Invincibles inched closer to the 200-mark. They managed to breach it rather comfortably in the end as the last three sets fetched 15, 11 and 20 runs.
Fire had the worst possible start in the quest to chase the mountain of runs ahead of them as Jason Beherendorff removed opener Stephen Eskinazi on the first delivery and then got rid of Steven Smith in the following set. Jonny Bairstow forged two fighting stands – with Luke Wells and Tom Kohler-Cadmore – while he reached a half-century, but that’s as far as he could go. Bairstow became the first of four wickets that Tom Curran would go on to pick as the lower order wilted under the daunting target.
Once Bairstow departed, Fire fell from 122/4 to 143 all-out, as the Curran brothers wiped out the second half of the line-up. Tom finished with figures of 4-15 while Beherendorff returned to pick his third wicket. The Fire were put out of their misery with seven balls to spare.
Brief Scores: Oval Invincibles 226/4 in 100 balls (Jordan Cox 86, Will Jacks 38, Sam Curran 34; Matt Henry 2-39) beat Welsh Fire 143 in 93 balls (Jonny Bairstow 50; Tom Curran 4-15, Jason Beherendorff 3-20) by 83 runs
© Cricbuzz
