Oval Invincibles make it three
The fifth season ran from 5 to 31 August 2025 and ended the way the two before it had. Oval Invincibles won the men's title again, a third in a row, and no side in the competition's short history has been anywhere near that. They lost twice in the group and finished with a net run rate of 1.786, which was more than four times better than anyone else's. That number came largely from one night at The Oval, where they made 226 for four against Welsh Fire and won by 83 runs, but it was earned across the month.
Jordan Cox was the reason as much as anyone. He scored 367 runs at the top of the order, 84 more than the next man, and was named player of the tournament. Will Jacks added 272 and Sam Curran kept doing what he does at both ends of the game. Rashid Khan took the match award in the opening fixture, a London derby at Lord's in which the Spirit were dismissed for 80.
Trent Rockets pushed them hardest, with six wins from eight and a run of tight chases. Northern Superchargers took third, beating the Invincibles by 16 runs at Headingley in one of only two defeats the champions suffered. At the other end, Welsh Fire won twice. London Spirit, Manchester Originals and Birmingham Phoenix all finished on three.
A washed-out eliminator, and a Lord's final
The knockout stage lost its first game to the weather. Northern Superchargers had reached 119 for five off 75 balls at The Oval when rain came, Trent Rockets began a revised chase of 105 from 55 balls, and after five balls it stopped for good. No result. The Rockets went through because they had finished second, which is the rule and which satisfied almost nobody who had paid to be there.
The final at Lord's was a better advertisement. Oval Invincibles batted first, made 168 for five, then took the game apart in the middle. Nathan Sowter, a leg-spinner who had spent most of the season as a squad option, was the player of the match. Trent Rockets finished 26 short on 142 for eight.
The season everything changed around it
What made 2025 different was happening off the field. Over the winter the ECB sold its 49 per cent share in all eight teams, and several host counties sold part or all of the 51 per cent they had been given the year before. The valuations were startling: about £145m for a stake in London Spirit, roughly £100m for Yorkshire's entire holding in Northern Superchargers, £81m for 70 per cent of Manchester Originals. IPL owners, a US investment group including Tom Brady, and Todd Boehly's Cain were all in. The ECB treated the season as transitional, with new owners taking full control ahead of 2026.
The counties who sold now have money they did not have. That is the case for it: the proceeds are shared across all eighteen first-class counties, the MCC and the recreational game, and English cricket's balance sheet needed the help. The case against has not gone away either. The Hundred still sits on top of the T20 Blast's best weeks, it still takes the leading players out of county cricket for a month, and by August 2025 the new investors were already reported to be pressing for a switch to Twenty20 — the format the Blast plays. Whichever way that argument lands, the competition the counties fought over is no longer entirely theirs.