London Spirit and Oval Invincibles triumph before big sell-off begins

A searing spell of bowling by Saqib Mahmood helped Oval Invincibles men to retain their Hundred title, beating Southern Brave by 17 runs, while the London Spirit women came through a tight contest against Welsh Fire to lift the trophy for the first time.
Mahmood, who has only recently returned after a long absence because of a back stress fracture, took three wickets in seven balls to rip through the Brave’s powerful middle order and was well supported by the Australia spinner Adam Zampa who took two key wickets to finish with 19 in the tournament.
Chasing 148 for victory, Alex Davies got the Brave off to a flying start, blasting 35 from 23 in an opening partnership of 58 with the tournament’s leading runscorer, James Vince. But after the opening pair had been dismissed within five balls of each other, Mahmood, who finished with figures of three for 17 from 20 balls and was named player of the match, put the brakes on their innings, leaving the Southampton-based side with too much to do.
With 15 balls remaining, they needed 45 to win and although the big-hitting Craig Overton, with 22 from 11, did his best to try to lead his team to their second title, Sam Curran, who has been one of the outstanding performers throughout the tournament, conceded only six runs from the last set of five balls. The Surrey all-rounder took 17 wickets and scored 201 runs in nine games.
Batting first, the Invincibles got off to a promising start thanks to aggressive cameos by the Surrey team-mates Will Jacks and Sam Curran, and Essex’s Jordan Cox. But they stuttered in the middle of their innings, losing four wickets for nine runs as the pace of the strong Southern Brave seam attack — Jofra Archer, Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan — combined with the skilful spin of the West Indies slow left-armer Akeal ­Hosein kept the Oval-based side to 102 for six after 76 balls.
Their innings was boosted by Tom Curran, though, as the all-rounder hit four cleanly struck boundaries, scoring 24 from 11 before being bounced out by Archer, holing out to James Coles at deep mid-wicket.
This was a high-quality, thrilling ending to what has been a mixed tournament. The women’s competition continues to thrive, but the men’s has been underwhelming in parts, with a lack of overseas stars, low-scoring matches and few tight games.
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It has ended on a high, though, with finals weekend featuring four high-quality matches.
By the start of next year’s competition, new team owners will be in place with the sale of a 49 per cent stake in each of the eight teams to private investors taking place over the winter, from which the ECB hopes to raise about £500 million.
The sell-off process begins next month, although it will not be completed until the spring. The new owners will be able to make changes to the team names, colours and branding — but it is likely, The Times understands, that the names will remain the same for 2025 because there will not be enough time between the ownership contracts being signed and the start of the tournament to change the branding and new merchandise. Any substantial changes to the competition, therefore, may not be evident until 2026.
The Ambani family, the richest in India, who own Reliance Industries, have shown a keen interest in buying into the Lord’s team and were watching on as the home side, London Spirit women, lifted the trophy for the first time, beating Welsh Fire by four wickets in front of a record crowd for a women’s Hundred match of 22,000.
In an almost perfect narrative, England spinner Charlie Dean and India all-rounder Deepti Sharma combined for Spirit to get them over the line with two balls to spare.
It came almost two years after the pair were involved in a controversial incident in a one-day international at Lord’s when Sharma “Mankaded” Dean, who was visibly upset, to secure a series win for India — but that was all forgotten as the pair embraced after Sharma hit a six over long off to give her side a four-wicket win with only two balls to spare.
It was much closer than it should have been, though. Welsh Fire’s score of 115 was under par despite a well-struck 54 by the Australia all-rounder Jess Jonassen, but what should have been a straightforward chase for Spirit was made tougher when three of their big guns, Meg Lanning, Heather Knight and Danielle Gibson, were all removed cheaply by the pace of South African seamer Shabnim Ismail. She took three for 24, but a measured innings of 34 from the wicketkeeper, Georgia Redmayne, got them back on track and by the time Redmayne had departed, Spirit needed 12 from 11.
Although they lost another wicket when Abigail Freeborn was run out, Dean came to the crease and showed a calm head to run a quick single off the only ball she faced to get Sharma on strike and finish it off in style.