- Oval Invincibles have won four of the five completed matches against London Spirit
- Adam Zampa has taken seven wickets to lead the way in this year's Hundred
- Recommended bet: Zampa to be top wicket taker for Oval Invincibles

Oval Invincibles will be desperate to get back on the winning trail when they take on London Spirit at Lord's on Sunday, having suffered their first defeat of this year's Hundred competition against Northern Superchargers on Friday.

The Invincibles, who lost only one game in 2023, opened the defence of their men's title with two victories but saw their momentum checked by the Superchargers as they could not stop Nicholas Pooran crashing them to all parts.

However, they should be confident of bouncing back on Sunday as they have won four of five games against the Spirit, including both meetings last season.

The Spirit made a slow start to this campaign, but managed to chalk up their first win at the third time of asking, beating Welsh Fire in a low scorer, although they started round four sat second bottom in the standings.

Team news

Keaton Jennings has taken the place of Zak Crawley in the London Spirit squad after the England Test opener was ruled out of the tournament with a broken finger.

Whether he makes Sunday's line-up remains open to question, but given the Spirit's struggles with the bat it would not be a surprise.

Ollie Pope is available following the completion of England's Test series against West Indies, making 12 against the Fire on Thursday in his first game this season.

For the Invincibles, Gus Atkinson could make his debut in the tournament now free from England commitments, while Tom Curran made his first appearance of the season against the Superchargers following injury, but struggled as he posted bowling figures of 0-29 while scoring only six.

The stats

Oval Invincibles have won four of the five completed matches between these two sides, which includes both meetings last season, albeit by narrow three-wicket and two-run margins.

The Invincibles have won two of their three games so far in 2024, losing their most recent, but they have yet to pass 126 with the bat.

By contrast, the Spirit have lost two of their opening three games, winning the most recent, but have passed 126 in both matches in which they were defeated.

Liam Dawson has batted at number eight twice and at seven once but is the leading runscorer so far in either line-up, having made 85 from his three innings.

Donovan Ferreira leads the way for the Invincibles with 79 runs at number six, although he has only batted twice, scoring 49 in Friday's defeat to the Superchargers.

Adam Zampa is the tournament's leading wicket taker so far with seven from three matches, while Dawson is one of six bowlers to have taken five.

Prediction

Given the Spirit's start and the Invincibles' superior head-to-head record, it is hard to argue against Sunday's visitors being the favourites, even in spite of Friday's first defeat of the season.

The Spirit may have won their most recent game to get up and running but made a real struggle of chasing down 95 and hardly inspire confidence, even if the Invincibles have yet to really fire with bat in hand.

It is the champions' bowling attack that has impressed, certainly in their opening two games before Pooran ran riot, but London do not have a player in such great form and they could be kept to a low score.

Zampa has been the standout so far and has twice taken three wickets, so backing him to finish as his side's top performer with the ball once again looks a worthy way to go.

Back Adam Zampa to be Top Wicket Taker for the Oval Invicibles at 10/3 with LiveScore Bet.