Jacks ransack Highest Hundred scores: Oval Invincibles defeated Southern Brave by seven wickets as Will Jacks bludgeoned the best total ever in the Hundred to lead his team to their third consecutive triumph.
With a merciless attack on the Brave bowlers at The Oval, Jacks, who had previously scored 81 against Welsh Fire, improved on that performance. He smashed an unbeaten 108 from 48 balls to surpass Will Smeed’s 101 for Birmingham Phoenix from four days earlier. The Invincibles cruised home with 18 deliveries remaining unused thanks to the 23-year-eight-old’s sixes and ten fours in his innings.
The first Hundred winners, who labored to 137 for 6 against some tight Invincibles bowling, suffered their third straight loss. This score never appeared to be enough to defend. Invincibles made the decision to bowl first and rely on Reece Topley’s ability to create swing as the south London sky started to appear cloudy. That trust was rewarded when Topley delivered a twin punch in the first over, with Quinton de Kock being brilliantly caught by Rilee Roussouw sprinting in from the boundary and Alex Davies continuing in the left-subsequent armer’s set.
In order to speed up the game, Marcus Stoinis pummelling Sam Curran for the only two sixes of the innings as he advanced to 37 from 27, but the all-rounder was defeated by Mohammad Hasnain’s return, top-edging into mid-off.
James Vince, the team’s captain, was particularly gloomy in his 15 from 22 and, despite a few damaging blows from Tim David (22 from 17), the Brave innings never really picked up steam. Vince and Stoinis had a partnership of 55 from 43 runs.
When Topley returned, he caught David misfiring on a straight drive, but Sunil Narine and Tom Curran were truly the ones to silence the hitters, giving up only 35 runs between them even though they both went wicketless.
No solace came to Jason Roy as the Invincibles began their chase; the opener’s miserable run of form continued when he was castled by George Garton’s inswinger on the second ball, making it his third duck in four innings.
Jacks, on the other hand, has been in great shape and he started off by hitting Michael Hogan for two huge sixes, one of which went well off of the ground, before handing Stoinis a similar fate.
As the two added 56 runs from only 37, Roussouw needed to do nothing more than watch from the non-end. Striker David’s brilliant fielding ended the stand when he scythed down the stumps with a direct smash from mid-off to run out the left-hander.
Even though Sam Billings was out thanks to a superb diving catch by Vince at mid-off, Jacks reached his century by hitting Rehan Ahmed for six, and he followed it up with the exact same shot on the next ball to secure the win.
Will Jacks ransack the Invincibles’ victory with the greatest Hundred scores?
