On the Eliminator: "It's tricky because we're playing at The Oval on Saturday which I'm sure will be different to what we've come across here. Spin does the trick again as Brave skipper James Vince skies one off Adil Rashid and Matthew Short takes a comfortable catch.

Although Pyle, one of the first "embedded" journalists in wartime, could get a bit repetitive, his account of the American GIs in the European theater during WWII will rightly stand as one of the best portrayals of the common soldier in these epic times. In fact, it is one of the branches that even the average soldier is little aware of… And yet the war couldn’t keep going without it.Buttler, who belted the ball through the covers and regularly planted it over long-on, reached 50 from 26. There are some lessons there, when you compare how we approach such concepts today, versus Pyle's celebration of American men at arms only about 65 years ago. It's been a night to remember for Birmingham Phoenix and with a 20-year-old and a 22-year-old as the stars, the future looks bright!

When I was 17, however, my mother gave me a book, one that dragged the realities of war – and all its bloodthirsty “courage” – kicking and screaming into the bright white light of my consciousness. The Ageas Bowl is home to Hampshire Cricket, Hilton at The Ageas Bowl and hosts a range of major sporting and non-sporting events, but the ground's offering doesn’t end there. They came from every town and hamlet in America, frequently from places of which one had never heard, and did an infinite variety of things in civilian life.

On his hat-trick: "I bowled five slower balls, I backed them not to time it and I thought I bowled well. Reigning champions Oval Invincibles play Northern Superchargers on Thursday 11 August at 18:30 BST in the first fixture. Brave men's coach Mahela Jayawardene is a shrewd operator and throwing Lintott in at the deep end last year shows he is prepared to think outside the box. Pyle’s descriptions of scenes he witnessed; his simple, unassuming style; and his ability to recognize the humanity in everyone he meets.