Win Projections to be updated soon
In an exciting Super Five match at the Kia Oval, the Southern Brave defeated the Birmingham Phoenix to secure a spot in the Hundred final at Lord’s. In an excruciating fight, Jofra Archer had restricted Phoenix to a total of 7 from their Super Five, but Chris Jordan proved to be the match-winner, hitting 10 from three balls.
After Liam Livingstone fell in the last set of his team’s innings, Akeal Hosein defended three from three to prevent the first-ever Super Five in the Hundred. Livingstone had seemed poised to lead Phoenix to the championship with 55 off 34 balls.
James Vince scored 43 for the Southern Brave in the first inning of the game, while Leus du Plooy scored 39. In the last set, Jordan hit two sixes off Sean Abbott’s bowl, which turned out to be significant and a sign of things to come from the England all-rounder’s bat.
Phoenix’s run pursuit got off to a poor start, but the Birmingham team started to come closer to the goal with to efforts from skipper Moeen Ali and Jacob Bethell.
With Livingstone in complete control and hitting Jofra Archer for six, the scores were tied at 126 thanks to some late drama and his ejection.
Livingstone, who was batting first in the five-balls-per-side match, failed to make up for his late removal when he fell for the first delivery and flashed a full toss from Archer to backward point.
Bethell hit the second ball wide of long-on for four, but there would be no more boundaries, so Jordan and Kieron Pollard would have to score more than seven to make it to Lord’s.
Jordan’s first delivery was inside-edged for four behind square on the leg side thanks to a bit of luck. He then followed up with two and four to help Brave reach the Hundred final for the second time.
“Just relieved to be honest, I thought I’d given it away in that second to last over,” Meerkat Match Hero Archer stated.
“You just have to commit to it,” he stated after his last three deliveries. I’m just happy that today was one of the days when it worked for me because sometimes things work out for you and sometimes they don’t.
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“We’ve got 11 match-winners and the guys that are not in the XI are match-winners themselves, so the team has so much talent it doesn’t matter what team we put out there, I back the guys all the way.”
India
