The Hundred Women's 2021 (Inaugural): Oval Invincibles Win by 48 Runs at Lord's, Marizanne Kapp Takes 4/9

Oval Invincibles won the inaugural Women's Hundred on 21 August 2021 at Lord's Cricket Ground, beating Southern Brave by 48 runs — Invincibles 121/6, Brave bowled out for 73. The Women's final was played on the same day as the Men's final at the same venue, where Southern Brave's men's team beat Birmingham Phoenix. Marizanne Kapp took 4/9 — the innings' decisive bowling spell — and contributed with the bat as Player of the Match. Dane van Niekerk won Player of the Tournament. Both Kapp and van Niekerk are South African international cricketers who played for Oval Invincibles.

Marizanne Kapp 4/9: The All-Round Display That Won the Inaugural Final

Marizanne Kapp's 4/9 in the inaugural Women's Hundred final at Lord's — the tournament's best bowling figures, taken from a 100-ball innings in which Brave were bowled out for just 73 — was the decisive bowling spell that gave Oval Invincibles the first-ever Women's Hundred title. Kapp, South Africa's right-arm fast-medium bowler and hard-hitting lower-middle-order batter, brought the same qualities to The Hundred that had made her one of the world's most impactful women's cricket all-rounders in international cricket: the ability to move the ball at pace and hit the bat hard on any surface. Her 4/9 in the Women's Hundred 2021 final at Lord's is the most celebrated bowling performance in the competition's history and the innings that most defined Oval Invincibles' inaugural championship.

Lord's Double Final Day: One Venue, Two Championships, Two Different Winners

The Hundred's decision to stage the Women's and Men's finals at Lord's on the same day — 21 August 2021 — produced an unusual outcome: the two finals at the same venue had different winners. Oval Invincibles won the Women's final in the afternoon; Southern Brave won the Men's final in the evening. The double-header format at Lord's — giving cricket's most historic ground two championships in a single day — was designed to maximise The Hundred's launch-year impact and give both competitions equal billing at the sport's flagship venue. The opposing results (Oval Invincibles women, Southern Brave men) ensured that no single franchise swept both titles on the inaugural day, and that two different fan bases had their own Lord's celebration.

Women's Hundred 2021 in Context

The inaugural Women's Hundred (2021) was the first edition of the women's side of the 100-ball franchise competition — run concurrently with the men's Hundred and using the same city franchise structure (eight teams across the same English cities). The women's competition had been designed explicitly to give women's cricket a major new broadcast platform in England, with guaranteed primetime slots, equal prize money to the men's competition, and the same marquee venue (Lord's for the finals). Oval Invincibles' 48-run margin of victory — Southern Brave bowled out for 73 — in the inaugural final gave the competition's first year a winner of decisive quality. Women's Hundred subsequent champions: Oval Invincibles (2022), Southern Brave (2023), London Spirit (2024).