How the play-off contenders are shaping up: The Men's Hundred in focus

KIERAN PARMLEY - ANALYSIS: The Hundred is reaching its business end, and there are several sides in the mix. Here, The Cricketer takes a look at the competing teams, what's gone right and what might happen next...

Southern Brave backload both Mills and Jordan

After a shaky start, Southern Brave are on a hot streak.

One key part of their impressive run of form has been the success of combining Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills at the death.

A standard limited overs side tends to have one designated death bowler, think of Jasprit Bumrah at Mahela Jayawardene’s Mumbai Indians or Jordan himself for England, but the Brave have two - in Mills and Jordan - and neither have been forced out of their preferred role to conform to standard limited-overs practice. 

Instead, Brave have forced opponents to adjust the way they approach their batting, a tricky balancing act of either attacking in the early phase of an innings against the spinners, or taking a conservative approach and hoping Mills and Jordan have an off day at the death.

Neither extremes are ideal and teams are yet to find a successful middle ground. 

Brave and Jayawardene, in typical Mumbai Indians fashion, are beginning to peak ahead of the latter stages of the competition, with Quinton de Kock and James Vince both coming into form with the bat.

It bodes well for the Ageas Bowl-based outfit. And pretty ominously for everyone else.

Invincibles show flexibility

As well as boasting an impressive bowling unit (now somewhat diluted after the release of Saqib Mahmood to join the Test squad), Tom Moody’s Oval Invincibles have been flexible with the bat.

Left-handed pinch-hitter Sunil Narine has been used up the order in a majority of matches, anchor and Surrey No.3 Laurie Evans largely demoted to a middle-order role, and Colin Ingram and Sam Billings moving positions depending on the requirements of the situation and opposition bowlers.

While some of the moves made by the Invincibles with the bat haven’t quite paid off, having such a wide variety of options with varying strengths and weaknesses makes them a troublesome prospect to plan against for opposition captains.

It’s not just the variety but also the depth of their batting unit which gives them a higher upside than a set lineup. They have the capacity to both attack on flatter pitches and set a par score on a tricky deck, both of which could be in play with pitches very inconsistent in the tournament so far.

Big hitters for Phoenix

There’s no real mystery to Birmingham Phoenix’s success so far this tournament: they quite simply have the best collection of boundary hitters on show in the competition.

Birmingham lead the league in averaging just under sven sixes per game.

Somewhat helped by the pitches they’ve played on, Phoenix have combined the known talents of Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone with overseas star Finn Allen and lesser heralded players such as Chris Benjamin and Will Smeed to create as complete a batting unit as possible in The Hundred so far.

The reshuffling of their lineup to bring in Smeed for Bell-Drummond has been a real success, with the Somerset man hitting 10 sixes in his three games so far and combining with Allen to give Birmingham a serious boost in the powerplay.

With no obvious replacement available to replace Moeen following his Test call up, the question has to be asked as to whether Phoenix will be able to sustain this success and get through to the playoffs, or if they’ll have to adapt to a new, somewhat alien approach. 

Rockets lean on spin but lose their firepower

Trent Rockets have had a large amount of success this tournament by combining their spin trio of left-arm spinner Samit Patel, tall right-arm off-spinner Matt Carter and the mystery man Rashid Khan along with an overseas quick regularly clocking 90mph.

Marchant de Lange began the competition followed by Wahab Riaz, with De Lange set to return following Wahab's injured. Each have provided ample options for captain Lewis Gregory to exploit matchups and weaknesses of opposing batting lineups.

With the bat Trent Rockets may also need to show a little more flexibility if they want to progress.

D’Arcy Short and Dawid Malan have been largely ineffective and the Rockets could benefit from allowing big hitters Samit Patel, Lewis Gregory and even Khan, more time at the crease.

After getting out of the blocks quickly in the tournament and adapting to the demands of the new rules in The Hundred, Trent Rockets risk being left behind as we head towards the final push for the play-offs.