Invincibles' faith repaid as Muyeye trends upwards

The Hundred's relentless social-media push for viral moments can make it hard to know where to look across a weekend featuring eight matches, 2,084 runs and 95 wickets. But Tawanda Muyeye's roar of celebration after Jordan Cox hit the winning runs at a brimming Oval on Saturday afternoon was the culmination of a performance which demanded attention.

Muyeye punched the air and shouted in celebration in the south London sunshine, after playing an innings that had been two years in the making. First signed by Oval Invincibles in 2023, he has been backed as a first-choice player this season and his unbeaten 59 off 28 balls to set up a nine-wicket thrashing of Manchester Originals showed precisely why.

When Muyeye walked along Cottesloe Beach earlier this year to meet Invincibles coach Tom Moody for coffee, he feared that he was about to be released. He was playing grade cricket in Perth, and knew the retention deadline was imminent. "I was like, 'Goodness, this could be one of two things: either I'm getting flicked, or he's going to continue with me,'" Muyeye said.

But Moody was clear in his belief that after struggling to find an opening partner for Will Jacks - Jason Roy and Dawid Malan were both inconsistent - it was time to back Muyeye. "We felt that T was ready to play a frontline position," Moody said. "He's come along leaps and bounds over the last 12 months, and has been part of our dressing room for some time now."

Muyeye has had a breakout T20 season for Kent - only D'Arcy Short has scored more than his 516 runs in the Blast - and he believes he is a far better player than the one Moody first signed as a wildcard on Matt Walker and Sam Billings' recommendation: "Every time I've come into this group, I've improved so much [from] being around a gun group of cricketers."

His innings on Saturday was dominant, part of an opening stand worth 114 in just 49 balls. Jacks appeared determined to break the back of the game inside the powerplay - he slashed his second ball over deep third for six - and Muyeye soon emerged from his slipstream, hitting his first ball for four and then belting another off James Anderson.

"Jacksy just took the attack to them and I was like, 'Okay, well, I might as well join the party,'" Muyeye said. "It was good. He took the initiative… I don't play like that without him, so it was a bit of yin and yang. I think our games complement each other pretty well, and we showed it today."

The most impressive feature of Muyeye's innings was his takedown of Noor Ahmad: he had never previously faced a left-arm wristspinner in a short-form match, but hit five of Noor's first six balls for four. It was substance to match his undeniable style. "I just saw a few opportunities, and played my strongest shots against him," Muyeye said.

"We talked about one of their threats being Noor, who is one of the most effective wristspinners in the game," Moody added. "We talked about concentrating on vertical-bat shots through the off side, and he played a couple of great ones: one just past cover, then one lifted over cover-point. Absorbing information is one thing; being able to execute under pressure is another."

For all of Muyeye's success in the Blast this year, the Hundred is a step up. His innings on Saturday came in front of a soldout crowd at The Oval, in a televised game, and in a tournament with a concentrated talent pool. "For me personally, this is the closest thing to international cricket there is," he said.