Oval Invincibles captain Sam Billings retires himself out with 13 balls to spare in the innings against London Spirit
Oval Invincibles captain Sam Billings decided to retire himself out in the dying stages of the innings after struggling to get going in the 2024 Hundred clash against the London Spirit on Sunday, August 4 at Lord's. The right-handed batter scored 17 runs off 22 deliveries, before giving up and allowing the lower middle-order to have a go and boost the total.
Billings came into bat at No.4 when the defending champions were placed at 41-2 and scoring at a run-a-ball. Left-handed batters Dawid Malan and Sam Curran ramped up the scoring rate, but the skipper struggled a great deal to make an impact. He managed just a solitary six in his entire innings.
After being dropped and dealing with several mishits and mistimed shots, Billings chose to walk off after the 87th delivery, allowing Donovan Ferreira to have a shot at the back end of the innings.
The South African batter was in rich form having scored a quickfire 49 in the loss to the Northern Superchargers, but he did not have to do much in this case as Sam Curran went rampant at the other end. Curran ended up with an unbeaten 51 off 22 deliveries as the Invincibles posted 147-5.
Sam Curran ran the show in the second innings as well to hand Billings and the Invincibles their third win of the season
The London Spirit made a reasonable start to the run chase but lost their way as the innings progressed. All-rounder Sam Curran, after his fifty in the first innings, picked up a five-wicket haul as well including a hat-trick to bowl out the hosts for 117, with five balls remaining in the innings.
"The wicket was fractionally slow. We all complemented each other really well. When Hetmyer and Russell were there, and Dan was playing really well. It's never over with those kinds of players," Curran said during the post-match presentation.
The Oval Invincibles climb to the top of the table on the back of that win. They have six points after four matches, and are next scheduled to face the Manchester Originals away from home on Tuesday, August 6.