Spirit start off their Hundred campaign with narrow win over Invincibles

London Spirit hung on to record a thrilling three run victory over close rivals Oval Invincibles at the Kia Oval on Thursday in the second match of this years Hundred competition.

Requiring 48 from the final 15 balls of the night and a further 17 from the last five. Invincibles came within a whisker of victory thanks to a brilliant unbeaten knock of 29 from Danny Briggs.

Hitting two successive fours to reduce the target to just nine from three balls, Invincibles looked like snatching victory away from Spirit, only for Jordan Thompson to bowl three excellent deliveries at the death to get Spirit over the line.

Oval Invincibles won the toss and elected to put London Spirit into bat. Pakistani pace man Mohammad Hasnain had Adam Rossington(14) caught off a skier before grabbing the wicket of Invincibles captain Sam Billings(21) in successive deliveries.

Sunil Narine was as economical as always and had Glenn Maxwell(18) caught in the deep to leave the visitors 55-3 after 36 balls.

It was down to captain Eoin Morgan and Dan Lawrence to dig London Spirit out of a spot of bother. The pair added 72 off 39 balls before Narine bowled Lawrence for 27.

Morgan(47) was approaching his half century before falling in the deep off a  Reece Topley full toss.

Eventually the home side concluded their innings on 171-6 and were looking to keep their unbeaten home record in the competition intact.

Oval Invincibles needed to get off to a good start to chase down a good total from Spirit but soon lost opener Jason Roy to the first ball of their innings after steering the ball to Mason Crane at short third man.

Some outstanding tight bowling from Spirit saw Invincibles struggle to 10-2 after 12 balls when Sam Curran fell for eight.

Captain Billings(1) fell shortly afterwards off the bowling of Nathan Ellis to give him his second scalp of the night and on his way to excellent figures of 3-28 of his 20 deliveries.

The home side needed a partnership to get them out of trouble with Hilton Cartwright and Jordan Cox coming to the rescue.

The pair added 66 runs off 40 balls before Cartwright(42) edged behind off Mason Crane.

Ellis was in the action once again by bowling Cox for 39, with the hosts struggling on 116-6 after 80 balls.

A further fifty-six runs were needed of twenty balls with Spirit favourites to get the bragging rights over their neighbours.

A bright and breezy knock from Tom Curran(27) was ended when he picked out Glenn Maxwell in the deep, with 48 required off 15 balls.

An expensive over from Chris Wood left the target down to 17 off five balls with Thompson bowling the final five balls of the evening.

Briggs smashed the first two deliveries for four before Thompson produced three slower deliveries to see Spirit home to their opening victory in the tournament by a narrow margin of three runs.

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