England's Chris Woakes fires up the Birmingham Phoenix

Without a victory in the tournament before last night, Phoenix had to win to stay alive in the competition and responded with a vastly-improved display assisted by the availability of England star Chris Woakes. Phoenix totalled a meaty 160 for eight after Jamie Smith’s high-class 60 (33 balls) lifted them out of early trouble. Their new ball pair Woakes and Adam Milne then began brilliantly, restricting Invincibles to 12 for one from 20 balls.

The visitors never recovered. They finished on 119 for nine (Kane Richardson four for 32) to suffer their first defeat of the campaign with a further blow coming from the loss of batter Jordan Cox who retired hurt in great pain after being hit on the hand by a rising ball from Milne.

Phoenix batter Smith said: “It’s been a tough couple of games, especially with the bat, we didn’t really leave our bowlers anything to spend in the first two games that weren’t rained out, so to put on that sort of performance tonight against a very strong Oval side was impressive.

“We have always tried to play positively, that is the sort of brand that we are going for, we want to take the game on, but this is probably the first time we were able to get a little partnership together. It was good for Moeen and I to do that – it was almost a case of hit out or get out because at one stage we were looking at an average score on a pretty good surface. So we decided at that point to take the game on and luckily it came off.

n Oval Invincibles kept their Women’s Hundred campaign alive with an impressive ten-run win over Birmingham Phoenix at Edgbaston.

Invincibles overpowered the struggling home side after piling up 142 for five thanks to Marizanne Kapp’s blistering 64 not out (40 balls) and Lauren Winfield-Hall’s composed 41 (33 balls). The Phoenix reply was given a thrilling launch by Sophie Devine (53, 34 balls) but after she fell to Ryana MacDonald-Gay the chase lost impetus. Phoenix fell short on 132 for six and remain rooted to the foot of the table, still without a win from a bitterly disappointing campaign.