The Hundred returns for a third season throughout August with the eight franchises all looking to get their hands on the newest trophy in England cricket when the tournament starts on the opening day of what promises to be a great month of cricket.
The Trent Rockets were the second champions of the event a year ago and they will be looking to retain the title but the other franchises look to have strengthened in the recent draft and will be out to get their own names on the prize.
Recent Winners
2022 – Trent Rockets
2021 – Southern Brave
The Format
This is completely different to the three formats of the game that we know and love. The eight teams go into a round robin league in the first phase with each team playing the other seven once home or away. Each team plays its rival team home and away to create eight league matches per team. At the end of the league phase the top team heads straight into the final and the next two teams play the eliminator to meet them there. The final takes place at Lord’s on August 27. The tournament will be shown in full on Sky with plenty of live matches on BBC too.
The quirky part of the format is in the matches themselves when the headline changes are:
- 100 balls per innings
- A change of ends after 10 balls
- Bowlers deliver either five or 10 consecutive balls
- Each bowler can deliver a maximum of 20 balls per game
- Each bowling side gets a strategic time-out of up to two and a half minutes
- A 25-ball powerplay start for each team
- Two fielders are allowed outside the initial 30-yard circle during the powerplay
- Teams will be able to call time-outs, as has been the case in the IPL since 2009
The Favourites
The Trent Rockets are the 9/2 favourites to become the first team to successfully defend The Hundred title. They will be delighted that there are no England matches throughout this season which means that the likes of Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Joe Root and Luke Wood will be around for the entire campaign. If anything, the Rockets have got even stronger for this season with the addition of Hampshire seamer John Turner and Sam Hain arriving from the Manchester Originals in the form of his life. The Rockets look fair favourites.
The Birmingham Phoenix have been very competitive in both seasons of the tournament so far and they are 11/2 to get their hands on the trophy. An early concern for their chances is the groin injury picked up by captain Moeen Ali in the last Test match. If he isn’t good to go that is a serious hole to fill. On the flip side of that, the Phoenix have strengthened with the additions of Ben Duckett and Shadab Khan and unlike last season Chris Woakes is fit to play. With a powerful top seven and plenty of variety in the attack, Birmingham shouldn’t be dismissed easily.
The Manchester Originals were the team beaten by the Trent Rockets in the final last season and they are 6/1 to go one better this term. The Originals are having huge issues with overseas players and have done ever since this tournament was created. They do still have a fair bit of heat in their bowling attack, particularly when Zaman Khan is around, while Max Holden is a handy pick up from the Blast but the likes of Tom Lammonby and Richard Gleeson didn’t feature much for their county teams which could be a concern.
Southern Brave were the first winners of this competition and they are 6/1 to get their hands back on the trophy. This is a side whose bowling resources could be strained with Jofra Archer not around and Tymal Mills having to be managed. They can’t really afford Matthew Fisher to go down too. The Brave swapped Quinton de Kock for Finn Allen and the Kiwi will need to hit the ground running but Leus du Plooy looks a good capture. This doesn’t look the strongest Brave side there has been but never rule out a team captained by James Vince.
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The Outsiders
London Spirit haven’t really shown us the best versions of themselves in this tournament and will now have to do without the captaincy of Eoin Morgan. Dan Lawrence gets the honour of leading the side which should in fairness go quite well this season. Unlike a few teams in this competition they look to have the bowling department covered and have some clever all-rounders so if the likes of Michael Pepper can fire like he was a year ago and Zak Crawley retains his form the Spirit could spring a surprise at 7/1.
Northern Superchargers are also 7/1 to win the title this season and with Yorkshire and Durham offering very little in the T20 Blast this term they are going to need players from elsewhere to step up and be counted. They won’t be helped by having Ben Stokes on their books because you wouldn’t think he is going to be allowed to play much after a gruelling Test series while they are taking a chance that the likes of Reece Topley don’t go down with an injury. If the stars align this is a promising squad but there are too many injury doubts for my liking.
The other 7/1 shots to win the tournament for the first time are the Oval Invincibles. In my eyes they have been the underachievers of the first two campaigns of this competition and will be out to prove me wrong here. If there is one thing the Invincibles don’t lack for it is power with the bat but in forming a deep and powerful batting unit, their bowling looks a little weaker, especially with Tom Curran hit and miss with how much bowling he is doing at present and Danny Briggs coming back from injury. Their batting along could have them competitive here though.
Welsh Fire were absolutely terrible last season and are quite understandably the 8/1 outsiders to go from last to first this term. To be fair to them, they realised it wasn’t good enough last year and ripped it up and have started again. No England games means they get a full season of Jonny Bairstow but Ollie Pope misses out with injury. There is a case to be made that with the additions of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf alongside George Scrimshaw, Jake Ball, David Payne and Ben Green, who was the second highest wicket taker in the T20 Blast, that the Fire have the best bowling unit in the competition.
Betting
You can make a case for a couple of teams in this competition but I like a bit of value to an outright bet so I am going to go with the London Spirit to cause a bit of an upset. They finished third last season so it wouldn’t be the biggest shock in the world if they come good and win the title here. I think the difference between them last term and this could be the availability of Mark Wood for some matches. Nathan Ellis is a proven death specialist while Jordan Thompson is much improved in that area as well, while the Hampshire spin duo are more than good enough to do the business.
The Spirit will also have Zak Crawley available for the whole tournament and the addition of Daniel Bell-Drummond when he is fit is a big one. A potential top six of Adam Rossington, Zak Crawley, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Dan Lawrence, Matthew Wade and Matt Critchley with the likes of Ravi Bopara, Dawson, Daryl Mitchell and Thompson all capable of adding further depth to the batting unit, makes the Spirit very strong with the bat. Eight of this squad play for Essex and Hampshire who both reached the T20 Blast finals day so the Spirit look overpriced to me.
Tips
Back London Spirit to win The Hundred (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 8.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
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