Oval Invincibles vs Trent Rockets Prediction: Back Stoinis and Cox to shine one last time

It's the big final at Lord's on Sunday afternoon between the Oval Invincibles and the Trent Rockets, starting at 18:00 on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Cricket and BBC Two and the good news is the weather is lovely and there's no sign of rain.  

Jamie Pacheco will finish the Hundred season in profit whatever happens here but will talks us through his analysis and his top Oval Invincibles vs Trent Rockets Predictions for the match for the final time this year...   

*You can check out all of our Cricket Odds over at betfred.com

Oval Invincibles  

This lot have hardly put a foot wrong all tournament, topping the table and going straight to the final, albeit on the same points as the Rockets in the end.  

Sam Curran, Jordan Cox, Rashid Khan (who has since left for international duties) and Donovan Ferreira have been their stand-out performers in a team that can do the lot.   

They have a unique chance to win three in a row, almost unheard of in franchise cricket, and the experience of having it done twice already in a big final, is a big plus point.   

They've recognised the need for a world-class spinner and with Rashid no longe available, they've brought in Adam Zampa just for this one game, deciding that he wasn't needed before when they'd already qualified for the final.  

Trent Rockets  

It's a shame that their match against the Superchargers was rained off, such an important game ruined when we've had lovely weather all tournament before it.  

Sure, the Rockets' priority was to make the final, and they did courtesy of finishing second in the table, but waiting around so late at the Oval for a resumption won't have done them much good. Not to mention, facing just a couple of deliveries in the chase meant no-one got a hit ahead of the final.  

But they'll have to forget about all that and focus on this match ion what will be very different conditions to what they faced in Southampton. Let's see if Ross Whiteley keeps his place in the team ahead of Max Holden, which happened on Saturday.  

Pitch and conditions

The good news is that the weather is fine for the big Lord's final, one bookie making it just a 1/100 chance that we'll have a completed match. 

186-135-162-80 are the first innings scores at Lord's this year so a bit all over the place but we note that in five of the previous nine innings, less than 135 would have been a winning bet on the runs line, so beware of going big on a runs bet.  

It remains a bit of a mystery as to what the par score is here so the safest option for the skipper winning the toss may be to chase and let the side batting first worry about that.  

Key Odds

The Invincibles are 4/6, implied probability of 63.6%, with the Rockets 6/5, or 45.5%.  

Sam Billings' side won the only fixture between these two this season but things are tight on the head-to-head with the Invincibles 3-2 up.  

I promised myself I'd back the Rockets if they were 6/4 or bigger but they're not, so I'm not going in.  

That's not to say that another strong performance from their excellent bowling line-up and some big-hitting from the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Tom Banton, to go with Joe Root's anchor-like role can't see them come very close. It's just that we have to stick to our guns regarding price and it's just not quite big enough. We've worked tirelessly all tournament to return a profit of sorts, which we have and which we will end with whatever happens here, so we're not moving away from our principles just because it's a final.  

*You can check out all the latest and live Oval Invincibles vs Trent Rockets Odds over on betfred.com

Oval Invincibles Top Batsman  

Jordan Cox may not win at 3/1, but he ticks just about every box you'd want for a top bat bet at that price. For starters, he's the tournament's top run scorer with 327 runs, 60-odd more than the next best, Jos Buttler. He's also got the best strike rate (178) of anyone in the Top 30, meaning that even if he's only around for 25-30 balls, he could well be on 50 by the time he gets out, which could be enough.  

For good measure, he's also the top scorer in this fixture with 158 runs. And finally, he's also top-scored in four out of eight matches this season, so you can se why we're keen.  

However, Donovan Ferreira at 7/1 is worthy of a 'saver'. He has top-scored twice himself for the Invincibles.  They should consider batting him ahead of the likes of Billings given his excellent strike rate but even if things don't go to plan for the Invincibles, he may need to deliver a rescue act.  

Trent Rockets Top Bowler  

The Betfred odds-compilers have mostly been on the money this tournament in terms of correct prices but haven't learnt their lesson about Marcus Stoinis. We won on him at 5/1 earlier in the tournament and he's an even bigger 11/2 this time round. His 10 wickets for the tournament are only bettered by Ahmed (10/3) among Rockets players, who has 11.  

Stoinis dead-heated once and won straight up on another three occasions, including on Saturday when he took two wickets in quick succession, so that's a seriously big price on a player who, given his experience, should at least be given his full 20 balls.  

Jamie Pacheco Cricket Hundred P/L 2025: 

• Points Staked: 26.5
• Points Returned: 29.71  
• Current P/L: +3.21

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket and European Football for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Cricket Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Cricket hub page...