The Cricketer brings to you the breakdown of the second edition of The Hundred
The Hundred, after a successful maiden competition in 2021, returns for its second edition this year. It remains a controversial part of the English cricket summer.
Shorter than a regular T20 match, The Hundred requires each side to bowl, you guessed it, 100 balls per innings.
Ten balls are bowled from each end before the fielding side alternates, with the option for bowlers to deliver five or 10 consecutive balls.
Liam Livingstone made 348 runs across nine innings in 2021 [Getty Images]
As it did last year, The Hundred has a commanding spot in the English cricket calendar, running throughout August.
The men’s tournament opens on Wednesday, August 3, when Welsh Fire visit Southern Brave, while the final is scheduled to take place exactly a month later on Saturday, September 3.
Eight franchise teams will contest the Hundred this year, with Southern Brave, last year’s winners, vying to defend their championship.
The big-hitting Birmingham Phoenix will want to go one better than their final appearance last year, while Trent Rockets are a better side than their capitulation in the eliminator would suggest.
Oval Invincibles and London Spirit are the two sides based in the capital, with Northern Superchargers and Manchester Originals flying the flag for the North. Welsh Fire, based at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens, round out the competition.
Where are the games being played?
The matches will take place at eight venues across England and Wales. Home grounds are as follows:
Birmingham Phoenix - Edgbaston, Birmingham
London Spirit - Lord's, north London
Manchester Originals - Old Trafford, Manchester
Northern Superchargers - Headingley, Leeds
Oval Invincibles - The Oval, south London
Southern Brave - Ageas Bowl, Southampton
Trent Rockets - Trent Bridge, Nottingham
Welsh Fire - Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
James Vince will be looking to build upon last year's success with Southern Brave [Getty Images]
The squads for all eight sides are as follows:
Birmingham Phoenix: Matthew Wade, Kane Richardson, Olly Stone (injured), Tom Abell, Moeen Ali, Chris Benjamin, Henry Brookes, Miles Hammond, Benny Howell, Liam Livingstone, Adam Milne, Will Smeed, Chris Woakes, Graeme van Buuren, Imran Tahir, Tom Helm (replaced Matthew Fisher), Dan Mousley
London Spirit: Kieron Pollard, Liam Dawson, Nathan Ellis (replaced Riley Meredith), Jordan Thompson, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Chris Wood, Ravi Bopara, Mason Crane, Zak Crawley, Dan Lawrence, Josh Inglis (replaces Glenn Maxwell while on international duty), Eoin Morgan, Adam Rossington, Brad Wheal, Mark Wood, Ben McDermott, Jamie Smith, Toby Roland-Jones (replaced Blake Cullen)
Manchester Originals: Andre Russell, Laurie Evans, Wanindu Hasaranga, Daniel Worrall, Sean Abbott, Colin Ackermann, Jos Buttler, Calvin Harrison, Tom Hartley, Fred Klaassen, Tom Lammonby, Wayne Madsen, Jamie Overton, Matt Parkinson, Ollie Robinson, Phil Salt, Ashton Turner, Richard Gleeson
Northern Superchargers: Dwayne Bravo, Wahab Riaz, Harry Brook, Jordan Clark (replaced Brydon Carse), Faf du Plessis, Adam Lyth, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, John Simpson, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Adam Hose, Roelof van der Merwe, David Wiese, Ben Raine, Michael Pepper (replaced Luke Wright)
Oval Invincibles: Sunil Narine, Rilee Rossouw, Danny Briggs, Hilton Cartwright, Matt Milnes, Jack Leaning, Sam Billings, Rory Burns (released to play for Surrey in RLC), Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Will Jacks, Jason Roy, Nathan Sowter, Reece Topley, Mohammad Hasnain, Pat Brown (replaced Gus Atkinson, who replaced Saqib Mahmood), Jack Haynes
Southern Brave: Jofra Archer, Tim David, Alex Davies, George Garton, Chris Jordan, Jake Lintott, Tymal Mills, Craig Overton, Paul Stirling (replaces Marcus Stoinis while on international duty), James Vince, Ross Whiteley, Rehan Ahmed, Joe Weatherley, Dan Moriarty, Finn Allen, Micheal Hogan, James Fuller (temporary replacement for Quinton de Kock)
Trent Rockets: Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Colin Munro, Ian Cockbain, Luke Fletcher, Matt Carter, Sam Cook, Marchant de Lange, Lewis Gregory, Alex Hales, Tabriaiz Shamsi (replaces Rashid Khan while on international duty), Dawid Malan, Tom Moores, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Joe Root, Luke Wood, Daniel Sams, Ben Mike
Welsh Fire: Joe Clarke, Tom Banton, Adam Zampa, David Miller, Naseem Shah, Sam Hain, Jake Ball, Jonny Bairstow, Josh Cobb, Matt Critchley, Ben Duckett, Leus du Plooy, Ryan Higgins, David Payne, Ollie Pope, Jacob Bethell, Noor Ahmad, George Scrimshaw
The inaugural competition saw plenty of action last year, with much of it coming against the London Spirit – the franchise based at Lord’s finished last in the group places with just one win.
Despite winning more games than sixth-placed Manchester Originals, Welsh Fire finished one spot off the bottom of the table, while the Originals only played six of their allotted eight matches due to two no results.
The breakout season of Harry Brook’s career could only get Northern Superchargers to fifth, while Oval Invincibles couldn’t make the knockout places despite a wealth of English talent.
Trent Rockets showed real promise as championship contenders before posting just 96 in the eliminator against Southern Brave, who went on to win the tournament from second-place. Birmingham Phoenix, who’s six-hitting machine Liam Livingstone lit up the competition last year, fell at the final hurdle, losing by 32 runs.
Livingstone finished up as the tournament’s leading run-scorer, amassing 348 runs at a phenomenal strike rate of 178.46, while four players – Marchant de Lange, Rashid Khan, Adam Milne and Adil Rashid – were tied on a chart-topping 12 wickets each.
South Africa's Imran Tahir had a tournament to remember last year as he took 10 wickets [Harry Trump/Getty Images]
Defending champions Southern Brave are favourites to win, with some bookmakers offering odds as short as 11/4. Other sides fancied to make an impression are Birmingham Phoenix (5/1 in most places) and Oval Invincibles.
The rank outsiders in the betting markets going into the tournament are London Spirit, who are generally 8/1.
The Sky Sports network have the rights to show all Hundred matches, with live coverage carried on Sky Sports Cricket or Sky Sports Mix, with the action sporadically shown on Sky Sports Main Event. BBC Radio Five Live will also provide radio coverage of The Hundred.
The Cricketer will provide live text coverage and post-match analysis of every match, as well as game-by-game previews.
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