THE HUNDRED – MEN’S COMPETITION 2025
Rashid Khan returned figures of 3 for 11 on his debut for Oval Invincibles © Getty
Rashid Khan and Sam Curran bowled 25 dots between them in 39 deliveries and picked three wickets each to give holders Oval Invincibles a crushing win to kick-start their men’s Hundred campaign against London Spirit. After folding Spirit for just 80 runs, the Invincibles took just 69 deliveries to wrap a routine six-wicket win at Lord’s.
Before Rashid or Curran had to dig their teeth into Spirit’s line-up, Jordan Clark and Jason Behrendorff got the Invincibles going with a flying start. Between them, they dismissed Keaton Jennings, David Warner and Kane Williamson – all for single-digit scores. Despite Ashton Turner’s attempt to push back, he didn’t have company as Curran and Rashid kept chipping away at the wickets around him.
His 21 was the best effort in an otherwise sorry scorecard, with the next best being 12 off 15 from Ryan Higgins. Rashid capped off his Invincibles debut with figures of 3-11 in 20 deliveries while Curran managed 3-18 in 19. As many as seven batters for the Spirit fell for single-digit scores in a horror start to the season.
Will Jacks and Tawanda Muyeye then gave the Invincibles an assured start in a paltry chase, nearly getting half the total before Liam Dawson broke through to dismiss the latter. There was a mini-wobble through the middle as the Invincibles went from 51/1 to 66/4 with the loss of Jacks, Jordan Cox (5 off 9) and Curran (14 off 9) but Sam Billings and Donovan Ferreira saw what was left of the chase through to wrap it up with a whopping 39 deliveries to spare.
Dawson, who featured in the Manchester Test against India late last month, returned in time to feature in the tournament opener for Spirit and even pick two wickets. They however, missed the services of Jamie Smith, Jamie Overton and Ollie Pope who were all involved in the five-day classic at the Oval that concluded only on August 4.
Brief Scores:London Spirit 80 in 100 balls (Ashton Turner 21; Rashid Khan 3-11, Sam Curran 3-18) lost to Oval Invincibles 81/4 in 69 balls (Will Jacks 24, Tawanda Muyeye 18; Liam Dawson 2-9) by 6 wickets
© Cricbuzz
