Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan after a blip in the previous two games, continued his spectacular form in the ongoing Hundred for the Oval Invincibles as the two-time defending champions Oval Invincibles extended their dominance at the top of the table.
Oval Invincibles, on cue, are playing according to their name in the ongoing edition of the men’s Hundred. The bowlers are not letting the opponents score and the batters seemed to be in some sort of a hurry to score all the runs in the fewest balls and the quickest time possible. If the game against the Welsh Fire was carnage, the Monday encounter in Southampton was a slow death for the Southern Brave as Invincibles rode on the all-round show of Sam Curran and contributions from Jordan Cox with the bat and Rashid Khan with the ball.
Rashid has blown more hot than cold in the Hundred so far, but after a couple of expensive outings, the Afghan magician was back to his best, dismantling the Southern Brave batting line-up in the space of five balls at the Rose Bowl on Monday. Jason Behrendorff dented the Brave early, sending back both the openers before Rashid ran riot in the middle overs.
Rashid removed Jason Roy first up on the second delivery of his spell, who tried to reverse sweep him but got an inside edge onto his foot and to the keeper, Sam Billings. On the very next ball, Michael Bracewell tried to lap Rashid, but the ball was too full for that kind of shot. It sneaked under his bat, disturbing his stumps.
A couple of balls later, Rashid trapped James Coles in front of the stumps. He had to plead a bit in his appeal but he got the decision correct and the Brave were suddenly six down.
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Jordan Thompson and Hilton Cartwright helped the Brave breach the 130 mark, but the Brave needed to be on top of their game to stop the Invincibles’ line-up. To their credit, they did dismiss both the Invincibles openers cheaply but the 101-run partnership between Cox and Curran took the game away from the Brave, who succumbed to their third successive defeat. Rashid is now the joint-leading wicket-taker of the competition with 10 wickets, alongside Sam Curran.
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