With a five-wicket win over Trent Rockets, Oval Invincibles secured their place in the Hundred final thanks to Sam Billings’ unbeaten half-century.

Invincibles won by eight balls at the Kia Oval thanks to Captain Billings’ 76 from 40 balls.

Colin Munro led the Rockets with 36 points from 35 balls, while Lewis Gregory added 35 points from 24 balls.

Invincibles can now progress directly to Sunday’s final without being caught at the top of the table.

Rockets remain third on net run-rate, ahead of Southern Brave and Welsh Fire, but need both of those sides and London Spirit to lose their final matches in order to qualify.

• In each of the previous two years, the Oval Invincibles men’s team failed to qualify for the knockout stages.

• Five of Billings’ sixes went 122 metres into the top tier of the stand during his innings.

• After Luke Wood removed Jason Roy, Daniel Sams removed Tawanda Muyeye and Sam Curran in consecutive deliveries to leave Invincibles wobbly on 21-3, Trent Rockets took a hat-trick.

• The Rockets’ innings was anchored by Gregory and Munro, who put on 70 for the fifth wicket after the visitors had been reduced to 54-4.

‘It has been a real team effort’ – what they said

Sam Billings, Oval Invincibles’ Match Hero: “It’s been a while since I hit it that well. It was nice to see some of the work that’s gone on behind the scenes actually come out. The scenario wasn’t ideal for me to come in, but I had the opportunity to bat and get myself in, and then I just played to my strengths. I really enjoyed it.

It was fantastic to qualify and go straight to the finals. Heinrich Klaasen was arguably the best player in the world for the past year, so it was about someone stepping up and filling those shoes.

The story of our summer is that everyone has stepped up at different times. It has been a real team effort and no one has been left out.”