The Hundred – Rules, Teams, Fixtures

After a one-year delay, the new franchise cricket tournament, The Hundred, will kick start on July 21 at the Oval. The eight-team tournament, which begins with the women’s competition, is organized by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). In the opening match of the extravaganza, Oval Invincibles host Manchester Originals at The Oval on July 22. Lord’s will host both the finals, both men’s and women’s, on August 21.

Rules

The Hundred is the newest addition in the shortest format of the game. The key feature is that each team gets a maximum of 100 balls instead of 120 and 60 balls in T20 and T10 cricket, respectively. A bowler can deliver five or ten consecutive balls, while the bowling and batting ends will switch after every ten balls.

Here are the key rules and regulations:

• Bowlers can deliver a maximum of 20 balls in a match
• The powerplay will be the first 25 balls of the innings
• The fielding side can take a strategic time-out of up to 150 seconds
• In the event of a tie during the league stage, two teams will be awarded a point each
• In the event of a tie in eliminator and final, a ‘Super Five’ will be played to determine the winner

Teams

Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets, Welsh Fire are the eight teams participating in the inaugural edition. The eight franchises will be fielding their women’s team, too, in the competition. India’s white-ball captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues will feature in the month-long tournament.

Each team is allowed to field three overseas in their playing eleven. Faf du Plessis, Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Lewis Gregory will lead Northern Superchargers, London Spirit, Birmingham Phoenix, Trent Rockets, respectively.

Fixtures