Wayne Madsen became the second batter to tactically retire out in three days during the men's Hundred today (August 6).
Manchester Originals were chasing 165 to win against Oval Invincibles, and the match went down to the wire. With 20 balls left in the innings, they needed 34 with just two wickets down. Paul Walter responded to the increasing run margin by launching Adam Zampa for six to take the target below 30. However, Walter was out to the next ball, attempting another massive six but picking out Sam Curran in the deep.
That brought Jamie Overton to the crease, moved up the order to No.5 for a big finish. He took a single off the first ball to bring Madsen on strike. Madsen had been scoring significantly slower than Walter, and the dot he played out off Zampa's next ball brought his strike rate down to an even 100. With quick runs needed, Madsen attempted to lift Zampa through fine leg off his final delivery, but couldn't find the boundary and narrowly avoided giving a catch to fine leg.
After the ball had been played, Madsen was retired out by the Originals with 25 runs now needed from 15 balls. They brought Sikandar Raza to the crease to face up to Nathan Sowter. The plan backfired when Raza was out to his second ball from Sowter. He tried to find the leg-side boundary but couldn't get enough elevation, and picked out Jordan Cox at wide long on.
The Originals' plan of retiring a batter not scoring quickly enough at the end of the innings might have been inspired by their opposition. In the Invincibles' previous match against London Spirit, captain Sam Billings retired himself out after the 87th ball of the innings, having struggled through to make 17 off 22 balls, bringing the big-hitting South African Donovan Ferreira to the crease. The Invincibles scored 147-5 in their innings and went on to win the match by 30 runs.
There was no such success for the Originals after using the tactic. While a couple of boundaries from Overton brought the equation down to a four needed off the last ball, Usama Mir could only hole out to Tom Lammonby at deep point.
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