On Saturday, 21st August 2021, Oval Invincibles led by Skipper Dane Van Niekerk scripted a history, becoming the first team ever to lift The Hundred trophy, beating Southern Brave at the iconic Lord’s Stadium.
The toss landed in favour of Southern Brave who elected to BOWL first. The opening pair from the Oval Invincibles side was Georgia Adams and Captain Dane Van Niekerk while Anya Shrubasole took the bowling end. Not even 3 sets into the match and Georgia Adams was eliminated by skipper Shrubsole. Next in line came Fran Wilson. She along with Captain Niekerk built an excellent partnership and gave the Southern Bowlers a hard time. Unfortunately, half way into the inning both were eliminated in quick succession. A good performance was displayed by both these batswomen as Wilson contributed 25 runs and Niekerk contributed 26 runs to the team score. After them star players Marizanne Kapp and Alice Capsey took over and it started to rain boundaries. The scoring pace started increasing rapidly but two slip ups both these amazing batters were eliminated contributing total 44 runs to the team score. Then came in Jo Gardner and Mady Villiers to wrap up the inning. The first inning ended with another wicket of Mady Villiers taken by Anya Shrubsole. The Southern team now had to chase a decent target of 122 runs. On the basis of their performance throughout the tournament, this target was doable for them. However, with their main opener Smriti Mandhana not available for the match, would they be able to keep up the same level?
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 21, 2021
The second inning was opened by Danni Wyatt and her new partner Gaby Lewis. Within the first two sets, Marizanne had eliminated both the openers and newly entered Sophia Dunkley. A very bad start for the Southern Brave side. Following the bad start, even the middle line-up showed a bad performance as no one could reach a score of 20 runs. All the star players like Stafanie Taylor, Amanda Wellington, Sophia Dunkley showed a very disappointing performance. Only Fi Morris managed to score 23 runs but it was not enough. Within 98 balls, the Southern Brave batting line-up was all-outed. Oval Invincibles Women won the match by 48 runs and became the Champions of the inaugural season of the Women’s Hundred. Outstanding all-rounder performance by Marizanne Kapp. Being the first and last wicket-taker, she eliminated a total of 4 players and contributed 26 runs to the team score, rightly earning the Hero of the Match Title. Captain Dane van Niekerk was titled Most Valuable Player.
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