A brilliant unbeaten 69 from Liam Livingstone saw Birmingham Phoenix chase down Oval Invincibles‘ total of 180 for 8 with two balls to spare in a tense finish in the men’s Hundred competition at Edgbaston.

South African Donovan Ferreira blazed a spectacular 63 from 29 balls for Invincibles but was upstaged by the Phoenix skipper who hit five sixes in his match-winning 27-ball innings.

Inserted by the home side, Invincibles lost Will Jacks second ball and reached 31 for 2 after the 25-ball powerplay. The score quickly became 34 for 3 after the loss of Sam Curran before the Invincibles recovered through Jordan Cox and Sam Billings to reach 70 for 3 at halfway, though lost Billings soon after.

Enter Ferreira, who started positively, depositing Tim Southee for a maximum over wide long-on to bring up Invincibles’ 100 after 65 balls.

Cox fell for 44, but Ferreira continued unperturbed, reaching his half-century off 24 deliveries with another huge six. Invincibles finished strong, the penultimate set from Mousley conceding 25, including two sixes and two lots of five wides, while Rashid Khan (16) contributed two maximums of his own as Invincibles closed on 180 for 8.

The Phoenix run chase started slowly, Aussie left-armer Jason Behrendorff bowling the first 10 balls straight through and conceding just five. Saqib Mahmood then took the big wicket of Ben Duckett with his third ball, but Will Smeed wrestled some of the initiative back with back-to-back sixes.

Smeed (51 off 29) was bowled by Nathan Sower one ball after reaching his fifty to see the score 91 for 3, Jacob Bethell then went 20 runs later. But Livingstone responded by smashing Khan for 26 in a set and combined with Mousley to leave three needed from five.

Mahmood then removed Mousley and Louis Kimber with successive balls, but Benny Howell drove the hat-trick ball through cover to secure the win.

Livingstone, the Meerkat Match Hero, said: “We needed it, it’s been a bit of a disappointing start to the tournament. It’s nice to lead from the front and hopefully that gives the boys a bit of momentum and a bit of confidence.

“I was trying to be there at the end, it’s something I haven’t done a lot of in my career, so it was in the back of my mind, but we still needed to take some risks.

“It’s massive. There’s no hiding in this competition. If you lose a couple of games, you’re right up against it. Hopefully this gives us a bit of confidence going forward, it’s an incredible win from where we were. It’s nice to be on the board and get that first win.”

Brief scores:
Birmingham Phoenix 182 for 6 in 98 balls  (Liam Livingstone 69*, Will Smeed 51, Dan Mouseley 11; Joe Clark 27; Saqib  Mahmood 3-28, Nathan Sowter 1-17, Sam Curran 1-27, Tom Curran 1-35) beat Oval Invincibles 180 for 8 in 100 balls (Donovan Ferreira 63, Jordan Cox 44, Sam Curran 14, Sam Billings 17, Rashid  Khan 16; Trent Boult 2-20, Adam Milne 2-28, Benny Howell 2-26, Liam Livingstone 1-09, Dan Mouseley 1-39) by four wickets

[Cricinfo]