Cox, Curran power Invincibles in big chase

In a battle of the top two sides, the Oval Invincibles came up trumps in a game for the history books over the Trent Rockets. Jordan Cox (58) and Sam Curran (54) starred with half-centuries to completely smash the Rockets out of the game. The Invincibles needed 102 off the last 40 balls but Cox's and Curran's blitzkrieg knocks sealed the game with 11 balls to spare.

In the chase, the opening bowlers of the Rockets kept the scoring down in the first four sets. Just when Tawanda Muyeye began to find some timing with back-to-back boundaries off David Willey, he was deceived by a slower ball from the left-arm seamer. Rehan Ahmed picked up Will Jacks who struggled in a 15-ball innings of 9 runs. With the innings going nowhere, the Invincibles' fortunes changed when they picked off 19 runs in Willey's set with Curran hitting two maximums. It continued to rain sixes as a whopping 32 runs came off Sam Cook's set which followed Willey's - the most expensive one in the Men's Hundred.

Curran went 6,4,6,6 which also included a no-ball and six wides to bring the equation hurtling down to 51 off 30 balls. Curran then smashed a six and a four to get to his 50 off George Linde before Rehan got Curran to hole out in the deep. Cox brought up his 50 with a single after smashing Marcus Stoinis for a four and a six before Donovan Ferreira continued the onslaught of sixes with a brace to end Stoinis' set of 25 runs. Cox finished the game in style with two boundaries as the Rockets didn't know what hit them.

Earlier, the Rockets innings was lit up by Joe Root (76 off 41). He began with two boundaries in the first set to get off to a flier. He then battered Saqib Mahmood to the fence thrice as the Rockets flew to 28 after 10 balls. Root continued to be the aggressor with three more boundaries in the next three sets.

Rashid Khan picked up Tom Banton but Rehan came in with two quick boundaries before smashing Rashid for a six and a four before falling to the legspin of Nathan Sowter. In between this, Root brought up his second 50 in the tournament.

Root continued to impeccably time his way to boundaries before Rashid cleaned up his stumps. Linde then smashed three sixes and a four in a cameo of 25 off 8 to take the Rockets to a competitive 171 for 7 at the Oval.

Brief Scores: Trent Rockets 171/7 in 100 balls (Joe Root 76, Rehan Ahmed 28; Rashid Khan 2-19, Tom Curran 2-37) lost to Oval Invincibles 173/4 in 89 balls (Jordan Cox 58*, Sam Curran 54; Rehan Ahmed 2-25, Ben Sanderson 1-21) by six wickets