The Oval Invincibles men’s team finally emulated the women’s team and got their hands on The Hundred trophy last season and in season four they go from the hunters to the hunted as they look to become the first two-time winners of the competition and with it the first team to make a successful title defence of the relatively new trophy. Expectations are high going into another season of action at The Oval.
Stats
Last Season: Champions
Captain: Sam Billings
Key Players: Will Jacks & Adam Zampa
Best Odds: 4/1 General
Fixtures
Jul 23: Birmingham Phoenix (h)
Jul 28: Welsh Fire (a)
Aug 2: Northern Superchargers (h)
Aug 4: London Spirit (a)
Aug 6: Manchester Originals (a)
Aug 8: Southern Brave (h)
Aug 11: London Spirit (h)
Aug 14: Trent Rockets (a)
Squad
Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Will Jacks, Adam Zampa, Jordan Cox, Gus Atkinson, Sam Billings, Saqib Mahmood, Spencer Johnson, Dawid Malan, Nathan Sowter, Donovan Ferreira, Tom Lammonby, Tawanda Muyeye, Marchant de Lange, Mark Watt.
Preview
All eyes will be on the Oval Invincibles to see how they back up their title run of last season and particularly after a bit of change in their squad. Jason Roy was a big player to let go even though he probably didn’t perform how the London outfit would have wanted him to but Dawid Malan is an excellent pick up as a replacement. Heinrich Klaasen is another big name who they have lost but Donovan Ferreira has the potential to deliver similar levels of fireworks which is encouraging.
Oval Invincibles are largely unchanged with the ball but the spin trio of Adam Zampa, Nathan Sowter and Mark Watt with a bit of Will Jacks mixed in could keep opposition batters in check. Spencer Johnson had that incredible spell last season while Saqib Mahmood is fit and looking to show his international credentials on the big stage again while Gus Atkinson will be a huge player when he is back from international duty. Even then, you feel the Curran brothers need to deliver if Oval are going to successfully defend their title.
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Betting
The Oval Invincibles batting is expected to be dominated by their opening pair of Dawid Malan and Will Jacks and I think that is a fair enough assumption to make although if Jordan Cox bats three for them and can find the sort of form which had him on the fringes of the England white ball setup then the 5/1 on him top scoring for Oval would be value. I’ve already laid my colours to the mast of Will Jacks by backing him to be the tournament top batter and I’m happy to have that running without a bet on him for Oval.
The Oval top bowler market interests me though. Adam Zampa is the favourite for it and I can certainly understand why that would be the case but he is 9/4 to lead their wicket taking and the other leg spinner, Nathan Sowter, is an 8/1 shot so almost four times the price when he is going to bowl a similar amount. We might just be getting to the stage where batters view Zampa as the threat and sit on him and think someone has to go the distance and that someone is Sowter. Getting after him isn’t much easier than going for Zampa though and Sowter is having a fine Blast campaign. He has 19 wickets at 15.05 with an economy of just 6.35 and in six of his last seven matches he has taken two wickets in his spell. He was the leading Oval bowler with 11 scalps last season, albeit when Zampa and Sunil Narine shared an overseas spot but those two together only claimed 12 wickets. I think the Durham man is a big price here.
Tips
Back N.Sowter Top Oval Invincibles Bowler for a 1/10 stake at 9.00 with Bet365
