Will Jacks, Sunil Narine get Oval Invincibles' season up and running
Welsh Fire slip to second successive defeat as Jacks comes up trumps on slow Cardiff pitch
Welsh Fire slip to second successive defeat as Jacks comes up trumps on slow Cardiff pitch
Scorer: @Thilak_Rama | Commentator: Matt Roller
That's it from us today. Join us tomorrow for our coverage of Spirit vs Originals at Lord's tomorrow and keep an eye out for Vish Ehantharajah's piece from Cardiff. Cheers.
Sam Billings: "Here at Cardiff it's all about using the pitch. It can be two-paced as we saw today and it's made for Sunil Narine. He bowled in the nets yesterday on a similar pitch: nobody hit him off the square and he took about 17 wickets. Jacks played beautifully today, earning the right on a difficult pitch. The biggest problem with our batting last year was losing too many wickets up top. Cross-seamers we found were really tough, and the slower balls, we saw Tom Curran utilise them brilliantly. [Roy] He's a world-class player. We've seen him for so long dominate attacks. It's only a matter of time. He's middled one straight to short fine leg. He's too good not to turn it around. With our batting unit, if it's a good pitch, we like pace on the ball. To come here and battle through those tough times... Will Jacks is a class performer and is a young player with a huge amount of potential in front of him. That was a coming-of-age knock, seriously mature."
Will Jacks is Match Hero: "Great crowd, really warm. We needed to bounce back and we did that well. We realised in the first few balls it was lacking in pace. We had to take it deep and take as few risks as possible. After the timeout with 30 balls left, we said that was the time to go. Any time you have wickets in hand, the fielding side feel under pressure."
Hang around for the presentations, which Matt will bring to you.
Hiruja: "Seems like TC is trying to get his brother's spot in the XI for the upcoming World Cup..."
Great Boo: "I take back everything I insinuated earlier about the vincibility of the Ovals!" --- Ah, such is life - and cricket...
4.47pm Invincibles never looked like taking this home comfortably when they were 51 for 3 off 41 balls with the bat. But propelled by Jacks' counterattacking 81, and Narine and Tom Curran's brilliant execution with the ball, they have hit back after a close opening loss.
Sam Curran back
Welsh Fire slip to second successive defeat as Jacks comes up trumps on slow Cardiff pitch
Roy's latest failure heightens scrutiny with T20 World Cup selection looming