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Oval Invincibles missed out on the chance to confirm a place in the final of the men’s Hundred competition as they lost to Trent Rockets by six wickets in a thrilling encounter at Trent Bridge.
Opener Dawid Malan hit an unbeaten 53 as the Invincibles set a challenging target of 151, but Tom Alsop (41*) and Rovman Powell (45) put on an impressive display of strokeplay for the already eliminated Rockets as they won with six balls to spare.
Table-topping Invincibles had already qualified for the competition’s knockout phase, but will now have to wait for the result of Thursday’s final group game to see if they will progress directly to the final at Lord’s on Sunday.
The visitors chose to bat against the already eliminated Rockets and started well, reaching 47-0 before Lewis Gregory removed Will Jacks lbw.
Malan shared a partnership of 71 with Ollie Cox (39), ended when the new England call-up was bowled by Sam Cook, and Donovan Ferreira clouted 27 from 10 deliveries to close the innings.
Rockets had leading run-scorer Tom Banton caught behind for six off the bowling of Saqib Mahmood early in their reply, and were behind the rate on 57-3 at the halfway stage.
But their innings began to build momentum, starting with Alsop hammering tournament leading wicket-taker Adam Zampa for consecutive sixes.
Needing 56 with 25 balls remaining, five boundaries in the next ten balls helped bring that total down to 24.
Powell smashed Sam Curran for his fourth six of the night, but the England seamer got his revenge from the following ball, having him caught in the deep by Ferreira to end the partnership of 80.
But by that stage the damage had been done, and Alsop struck Mahmood for four to see his side home.
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