Marcus Stoinis surpasses MS Dhoni on unwanted finals list after Oval Invincibles pummel Trent Rockets

Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis ended up on the losing side of a T20 final for the second time in the year, as his Hundred side, Trent Rockets, failed to put up a challenge to the Oval Invincibles in the final. The Invincibles became the first short-format team in England to complete a historic three-peat as they beat the Rockets by 26 runs in the final. Stoinis did put up a valiant fight, scoring 64 runs off 38 deliveries; however, he got very little support from the other end, with Tom Banton being the second highest at 23 off 21.

Will Jacks, with a fantastic 72 off 41, pushed the Invincibles’ score beyond 165 and the Rockets, despite a depleted bowling attack, did well to restrict them to anything below 170. The Rockets didn’t get a good start with both Banton and Joe Root being extra cautious and it had a cascading effect on the rest of the batting line-up as they came in to bat under pressure to score quickly and apart from Stoinis, everyone succumbed to it.

Having been on the losing side in the IPL final for the Punjab Kings, Stoinis lost a second T20 final for the year and the Sunday result was his eighth loss in the final of the short-format competition. Stoinis equalled the likes of Imran Tahir, Shakib Al Hasan, Misbah ul Haq and Sohail Tanvir, all being part of eight lost finals of a T20 competition. However, for anyone playing at least 10 finals, Stoinis has the worst w/l percentage, having won just two.

After the Sunday result, Stoinis went past the likes of MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Mohammad Nabi, Chris Jordan, Sunil Narine, Shahid Afridi and Sarfaraz Ahmed, among others, who all have lost seven T20 finals as a player. Former West Indies captain Kieron Pollard is at the top of the list with 13 losses, but he also has played the most finals – 30.