The Hundred: Marvelous Marizanne's all-round effort

Marizanne Kapp shone with her allround brilliance in Oval Invincibles' straightforward win over Birmingham Phoenix on Sunday (August 13). Kapp scored a fierce 64 off 40 deliveries and later bowled an economical spell with 11 dots.

In the absence of regular skipper Dane van Niekerk, who was ruled out of the competition due to a thumb injury, Kapp put in a player of the match to help Invincibles register their second win in The Hundred 2023.

“We were praying for that win. Not been going for us this season, this win means a lot,” said Kapp after the match.

Phoenix started sturdily with Katie Levick picking back-to-back wickets of skipper Suzie Bates and Alice Capsey and in came Kapp as she defended the hat-trick ball solidly. After 30 balls, the Invincibles could score only 31. The pair of Kapp and Lauren Winfield-Hill chose to go after Issy Wong in a 14-run set. Kapp opened her account with a glorious punch toward the deep extra cover.

With Levick bowling well from one end, Phoenix decided to introduce another leggie in Hannah Baker. She came to bowl the ninth set and Kapp, on her knee, crunched the last ball of the set for an illustrious cover drive.

The partnership between Kapp and Winfield-Hill was progressing steadily and so the home side brought Emily Arlott and Kapp amassed 12 runs from it - including a beautifully carved four through backward point and a ferocious hoist towards the deep mid-wicket for a maximum.

The duo stitched a well-made partnership of 59 off 42 deliveries before Winfield-Hill fell to Baker. Paige Scholfield entertained everyone with her short but impactful knock of 17 off nine balls.

Two wickets fell in a span of six deliveries and the onus was on the South African allrounder. In a partnership of 26 off 10 for the sixth wicket, Kapp scored 23 runs off nine.

Kapp started with a bang, and stepped out to hit a six through fine-leg. Not just boundaries, her brilliant running between the wickets was also on display. She and Mady Villiers ran four back-to-back doubles as Kapp reached her maiden half-century in The Hundred.

In the ultimate set, Kapp slapped the ball to the sweeper cover for a four and then gave a fitting end to her innings with another four as she tickled the ball towards fine-leg. Invincibles ended their innings on a competitive total of 142.

The 33-year-old was again instrumental with the ball in hand. Kapp’s opening spell of ten balls produced just nine runs for Phoenix. In the next ten balls, 25 runs came with Sophie Devine taking charge. At the end of nine sets, the Phoenix were 65 for none and were well on their way in the chase.

But Kapp had other ideas and changed the momentum when she gave away just two runs from her last set and ended her spell with just 16 runs coming from her four sets.

With boundaries drying up, the White Ferns skipper had to go for her shot and this resulted in her wicket as she found the safe hands of Kapp at deep backward square-leg.

“When Devine teed off, I thought we were short on runs,” Kapp added. “But one thing we have missed this season is a partnership with the bat but we just tried to stick around today.”

Scholfield and Ryana MacDonald-Gay picked timely scalps and the required run rate galloped to three runs per ball in the last two sets. As a result, the late blitz by Issy Wong and Sterre Kallis was not enough and Invincibles snuck home by ten runs.

“I prefer taking the new ball and it’s been going my way. But it was harder today, being tired after the batting but that's part of the job. Was a little bit nervous when Sophie got going, but credit to her for how she came out. But I have to mention our youngsters who were outstanding. Losing Dane is a massive loss. It's happened in the last two seasons as well, but we've stood up and it shows how good our team is,” Kapp concluded.