The Hundred Cricket Tournament Preview

The Hundred Cricket Tournament Preview

The Hundred Cricket Tournament gets under way on 22nd July and promises to make an impact in the cricketing world!

Tournament History

Initially, there was a fair amount of criticism towards the tournament from cricketing traditionalists. The ECB claims the tournament will attract a new generation of fans to the game. Matches will include entertainment, lights, fireworks and are planned to only last around two and half hours. However, many have questioned the validity of the tournament, in what is already a packed summer schedule. Ultimately it will be the public who decide whether the tournament will be a success. The ECB will hope that the Hundred’s popularity is similar to that of Twenty20 and how that newly-created format has attracted cricket fans around the world.

Rules

The majority of rules remain the same, but the biggest change addresses the match length and how the overs will be bowled.

Each innings will last only 100 balls.

Each over can either consist of five consecutive balls or 10, with the captain to decide how long they will go on for.

There will be change of ends after 10 deliveries, with bowlers allowed to bowl 20 balls per innings.

The fielding team have one tactical 2.5 minutes time-out per innings.

The team that scores the most runs will win the match.

See here for a full breakdown of the rules.

Teams & Star Players

Eight brand new teams have been created for the tournament and are spread across England and Wales.

Each squad will consist of 15 players with a maximum of 3 overseas stars. Players were selected through a draft system on 23rd February, but some changes were subsequently made due to Covid-related travel restrictions. Here are the updated squad lists.

Some of the top cricketers in the world will display their talents, although as previously mentioned, some are unavailable due to travel restrictions or are injured.

Here are the teams, their home grounds and some of the star players involved:

• Oval Invincibles (The Oval, London) – Jason Roy, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Sunil Narine, Sandeep Lamichhane, Colin Ingram, Sam Billings.
• Welsh Fire (Sophia Gardens, Cardiff) – Jonny Bairstow, Ollie Pope, Kieron Pollard, Jimmy Neesham, Liam Plunkett.
• London Spirit (Lords, London) – Eoin Morgan, Mohammad Amir, Zak Crawley, Mark Wood, Mohammad Nabi, Ravi Bopara.
• Manchester Originals (Old Trafford, Manchester) – Jos Buttler, Colin Munro, Carlos Brathwaite, Lockie Ferguson, Steven Finn.
• Northern Superchargers (Headingley, Leeds) – Ben Stokes, Faf du Plessis, Chris Lynn, Adil Rashid, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
• Southern Brave (Ageas Bowl, Southampton) – Jofra Archer, Quinton de Kock, Andre Russell, Chris Jordan, James Vince.
• Trent Rockets (Trent Bridge, Northampton) – Alex Hales, Joe Root, Rashid Khan, D’arcy Short, Dawid Malan, Wahab Riaz.
• Birmingham Phoenix ( Edgbaston, Birmingham) – Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Imran Tahir, Liam Livingstone, Dom Sibley.

Check out The Hundred squads! Are you excited? pic.twitter.com/2dMAYSPqFI

— The Hundred (@thehundred) July 2, 2021

Tournament Fixtures/Schedule

The Hundred is a round-robin style tournament, with every team playing each other once (playing four games at home and four away), plus one extra game against their nearest rivals (22nd July – 18th August). The three teams that finish top after the round-robin fixtures will then qualify for “The Finals”. The 2nd & 3rd placed teams will play each other in an elimination game (Friday 20th August), before playing the top ranked team in the final on Saturday 21st August. See here for a full list of fixtures.

? "I'm just happy to be a part of it."

Northern Superchargers' Ben Stokes say he's really excited to be part of the Hundred and that it's a huge step forward that women are launching the tournament.

— Sky Sports (@SkySports) February 23, 2021

Pre-Tournament Favourites

Before the action gets underway it’s always interesting to see who the bookmakers think are best placed to hold aloft the trophy at Lords in August. According to Oddschecker.com the Southern Brave’s are currently 5/1 favourites, with three teams (Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles & Trent Rockets) all positioned at 6/1.

1 ball. 6 runs to win. ?

Who gets the job done? pic.twitter.com/Jy3DGjV6mg

— The Hundred (@thehundred) July 12, 2021

We hope you enjoyed the article ‘The Hundred Cricket Tournament Preview.’  Are you excited for The Hundred? Which team do you think will win? Will the tournament be a hit or a miss? Let us know what you think!

Read more on cricket here:

• What is ailing cricket in Sri Lanka
• The exponential rise of T20 cricket
• The Highest Paid Cricketers in 2021