There are two more matches in The Hundred on Sunday as we head closer towards the end of the first phase of the competition and we begin at The Oval as the Oval Invincibles host the London Spirit in the second London derby of the campaign.
The Invincibles are in a three-way battle for top spot and go into this one knowing that if they win their final two matches they will bypass the Eliminator and go straight into the final. The Spirit can’t qualify not but they could put a huge spanner in the Oval works.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Cricket channel with the build-up getting underway at 2pm ahead of the start time of 2.30pm.
Oval Invincibles
The defending champions Oval Invincibles are putting up an excellent defence of their title so far and they are two wins away from competing in another final which would be a very good achievement. There were signs earlier in the competition that the Invincibles were just being made to work a little harder than they would have wanted but the longer the campaign has gone on the better they have looked and they are going to take a lot of stopping from here.
The big difference for the Invincibles is that their key batters have come to the party. Will Jacks has started to fire up while Sam Curran has been one of the better players in the tournament. They needed to come good to make matches comfortable but Oval always had the knowledge that their bowling attack is very hard to get after, especially on their home ground where they tend to bowl very well with their knowledge of the dimensions.
London Spirit
This is a competition that should be going fairly well for the London Spirit but one which hasn’t played out that way on paper and with just one win from their opening six matches any chances that they had of qualifying for the latter stages of the tournament have long since disappeared so they are reduced to playing the role of party spoilers. It could be a big party that they spoil here if they win too because Oval would lose all control of their own destiny with a defeat.
It will be interesting to see how London go about things ahead of the new season because this is a fairly old side and it might be that which has caught them out a little this term. If they are going to bring some younger blood into the side then the experienced players in their ranks here could be playing for their contracts in the future. If the Spirit are to give themselves a chance here then they have to come up with the goods with the bat.
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Key Players
Sam Curran is performing with bat and ball in this tournament. He is the second highest wicket taker in the tournament and he is fourth in the run charts, sparking the sort of form which took England to the T20 World Cup title a couple of years ago. He is key for Oval here.
Such has been how poorly the London Spirit have batted in this tournament, as well as being their leading wicket taker in this competition, Liam Dawson is also the second highest run scorer in it for them and they need a big match from him here.
Betting
These two sides met at Lord’s last Sunday and the Oval Invincibles were 30 run winners and if anything the London Spirit have got worse since then. They have just lost to the Manchester Originals and that isn’t a good result and in between the two they were fairly well beaten by the Trent Rockets. Their batting isn’t really firing and they are flattering to deceive with the ball and neither of those things bode well for them.
Oval Invincibles have picked up with the bat since that fixture and they have a wonderful bowling attack with two mystery spinners to keep the two West Indies players for London Spirit honest. There just looks a real gulf between these two sides. If there is an issue it is that Oval are probably a batter light but the form of Sam Curran makes up for that. I’m a little surprised that the handicap here is only 4.5 wickets or 10.5 runs. Oval only lost five wickets in making 147 last week and they won by 30. I think they have more than enough to cover this total.
Tips
Back Oval Invincibles (-4.5wickets/10.5runs) to beat London Spirit for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
