The Hundred: The Oval Invincible Crushes the Manchester Originals by Seven Wickets

Paige Scholfield guides Oval Invincible to triumph in the women's competition

Paige Scholfield leads the team to victory /

By Caroline Chepkorir

The oval invincible crushed the Manchester Originals at Old Trafford by seven wickets in the hundred women’s competition. An undefeated 67 runs partnership between Paige Scholfield and Marizanne Kapp from 37 balls took control of the chase. The hosts only managed 125 for four. Scholfield hit 48 from 27 balls after opener Chamari Athapaththu started with 33 from 36 balls.

The Oval Invincible were also good in the field, as the Australian leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington picked off the bowlers with 2-22.

The Manchester originals managed 25 runs without any lost during the power play, but after an early halt opener laura wolvaardt and beth mooney reached the rope seven times in 15 balls.

Mooney was just getting started when Seren Smale had a good opportunity to take a short third off Ryana MacDonald-Gay, but the latter made an even better catch at mid-on moments.  Afterwards Woolvardt, the competition's second-highest run scorer was dismissed by MacDonald-Gay.

After losing 34 balls without a boundary, the Originals got off to a much-needed late surge led by captain Sophie Ecclestone, who helped them end unbeaten on 26 from 15 balls. With the added 48 for the first wicket by Sri Lankan star Athapaththu and captain Lauren Winfield-Hill, the oval Invincible demonstrated that it was far from enough on a good pitch.

Alice Monaghan removed Winfield-Hill and Alice Capsey back to back and when Athapaththu was LBW to Kathryn Bryce there was work to do at 60-3.

Scholfield made sure any concerns were short-lived as she found the rope seven times, and Kapp added 19 from 11. Together, they drove the oval Invincible to victory with seven balls remaining.

"I really enjoyed it. We've had a couple of tough games in a row. You learn more from losing than winning and we went away and studied what was going on and I think we were more disciplined today. We just spoke about nudging her Sophie Ecclestone around and getting the rotation of strike going and then going after the other bowlers," said the player of the match Paige Scholfied in media reports.