Eighteen-year-old Alice Capsey and Sophia Smale, 17, have helped Oval Invincibles to Hundred Finals Day; the vastly-experienced Dawid Malan has been instrumental for Trent Rockets – watch the title games in The Hundred live on Sky Sports from 2.30pm on Saturday

Oval Invincibles women and Trent Rockets men topped the The Hundred standings to qualify automatically for the final

There will be a new winner of the men’s competition in The Hundred this season – but in the women’s tournament we could yet see a back-to-back champion.

Oval Invincibles stormed to the inaugural title last term, flattening Southern Brave at Lord’s in the final as they rolled their opponents for 73.

Fast forward a little over 12 months and Invincibles are back in the trophy match – once again against Brave – and this time around their progression was a little less strenuous.

They did not need to come through the Eliminator having topped the group by dint of a 32-run win over Manchester Originals in their final league game.

There are very few weaknesses in the Invincibles’ line-up.

Experienced openers in Suzie Bates and Lauren Winfield-Hill, both of whom have passed 200 runs this season.

A South African trio they can call upon in franchise captain Dane van Niekerk, last year’s match-winner in the final Marizanne Kapp and speedy seam bowler Shabnim Ismail.

Alice Capsey has fired with bat and ball for Invincibles this season

Teenage kicks for Capsey and Smale

Oh, and some highly-talented teenagers, too.

Alice Capsey burst on the scene last summer with a fifty on debut at Lord’s at the age of 16 and, after making her England T20 international debut this summer, has continued to impress in The Hundred.

Whether that is scoring runs with confident reverse sweeps or strong shots down the ground, picking up wickets with her off-spin or making interventions in the field, the 18-year-old has once again underlined that she is a star in the making.

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Watch the moment Capsey ran out Trent Rockets’ Katherine Brunt after dropping the ball onto the stumps

“I am really enjoying batting with Capsey,” said New Zealand veteran Bates. “Alice just attacks and that makes my job easy. You want her to play on instinct, be really brave with all the shots she has.”

Capsey’s form was probably expected. Less so seventeen-year-old Sophia Smale’s.

Smale was only a late call-up into The Hundred as an injury replacement and perhaps thought the tournament may be a case of soaking in the environment rather than turning her arm over.

But she has played in each of Invincibles’ six matches so far, taking seven wickets with her left-arm tweak at a fine economy rate of 6.05. In all but one game, she has bowled in the powerplay. The one game she did not, against Brave, was the one fixture Invincibles have lost.

Sophia Smale has gone from late call up to key member of the Invincibles side

Speaking to The Cricketer recently, Smale said: “I just try to bowl my best ball. As a spinner, you have to accept that you’ll go for runs at times, especially when you play the world’s best.

“But I do quite enjoy the challenge of bowling at the best batters. I like knowing my margin for error is so small. I think it focuses me a bit more.

“I would have taken just doing okay. To do really well, I don’t really know how it’s happened. Maybe it’s because people don’t know what to expect.”

Malan masterful as Rockets reach final

If you add Capsey and Smale’s ages together you get 35, which is what Trent Rockets men’s Dawid Malan has turned on Finals Day.

His runs have been crucial in his side getting to this stage, where they will now face Manchester Originals following Originals’ win over London Spirit in Friday’s Eliminator.

No one can match Malan’s 338 runs in the tournament. No one can equal his four fifties. He has the third and fourth highest scores of 98 not out and an unbeaten 88 respectively. Malan’s strike rate is also a very healthy 172.11, trumping his opening partner Alex Hales.

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Check out the best bits of Dawid Malan’s 58 off 37 balls against Welsh Fire – his fourth half-century of the season for Trent Rockets

Malan said after his 98 against Manchester Originals: “We know more about The Hundred than we did last year.

“Last year we approached it a bit like a T20 but there are fewer balls here and you want to get ahead of the game as quick as you can, so you are willing to take more risk early to get yourself above the required run rate.”

Malan was instrumental in Rockets winning six of their eight group games to reach the final, their only blemishes coming away from home against Brave in Southampton and Birmingham Phoenix at Edgbaston.

Rockets, like Invincibles women’s team, earned themselves an extra day off by topping the group and securing immediate passage through to Lord’s – but that proved a curse last year with both table toppers, Brave women and Phoenix men, ultimately losing in the final.

Capsey and Smale’s Invincibles and Malan’s Rockets remain the teams to beat. Now they have to ensure they are not the teams that are beaten.

Watch Finals Day in The Hundred from 2.30pm on Saturday on Sky Sports The Hundred and via free streams on skysports.com, the Sky Sports App and the Sky Sports Cricket YouTube channel. The women’s final gets under way at 3pm with the men’s match starting at 6.30pm.