Season four of The Hundred is rapidly approaching as the English version of the franchise cricket gets going on Tuesday as a month of 100 ball action will take centre stage with some of the best players in the world battling it out for this relatively new trophy.
The Oval Invincibles lived up to their name last season to claim their maiden The Hundred title and they will be looking to make a successful defence of the crown. The other seven sides have all strengthened in a bid to deny them.
Recent Winners
2023 – Oval Invincibles
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 18. 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
Oval Invincibles will begin their title defence as the 4/1 favourites to win the tournament. They were far too good last season but they will be without their second highest run scorer with Heinrich Klaasen not here although Donovan Ferreira is a decent pick up as a replacement. Gus Atkinson took 10 wickets last season and he is going to spend the first week of the season away with England. Oval will have Saqib Mahmood available this term though while Will Jacks could be a real dangerman. Dawid Malan might have been the best piece of business done in the draft as it strengthens Oval and weakens the Trent Rockets.
Birmingham Phoenix are around 5/1 shots in most places but you can get bits of 11/2 on them to win the title for the first time. There is no shortage of power in this Phoenix squad but the injury to Will Smeed isn’t helpful, neither is the fact that Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith are going to miss the first week of the season and Chris Woakes the opening two weeks. Rishi Patel, Aneurin Donald and James Fuller are good domestic additions while Sean Abbott is a good overseas signing but a lot is going to need to fall into place for the Phoenix to win the title.
Manchester Originals are also 5/1 in most places but much like with the Birmingham Phoenix you can get some 11/2 about them winning the tournament. The big news for the Originals is that Jos Buttler is going to withdraw from the event which leaves Phil Salt as a likely debut captain. Buttler was their leading batter by a country mile last season so the replacement for him will need to be good. The Originals did well to sign T20 World Cup leading wicket taker Fazalhaq Farooqi while Sikandar Raza is a good white ball player too but third highest run scorer last season Jamie Overton is just coming back from injury and with Wayne Madsen and Max Holden in nothing like their best form way too much is needed from Salt for my liking.
Trent Rockets were the second winners of this tournament and they are generally 6/1 or 13/2 shots to get their hands back on the trophy although there are bits of 7/1 around on them. It will be interesting to see how the Rockets go this season because they have been through a number of changes to their squad. Tom Banton, Jordan Thompson, Adam Lyth, Ollie Robinson and Tom Alsop are good domestic signings but they have lost three of their top four from last term in Dawid Malan, Colin Munro and Tom Kohler-Cadmore while Joe Root will miss the first week of the season. Rovman Powell is a really good pick up as an overseas player while Rashid Khan will be available this season too. They will need his wickets to replace the injured Daniel Sams.
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The Outsiders
Northern Superchargers are a general 7/1 shot to win the tournament this season. Their best addition might be in the coaching staff where Andrew Flintoff is going to get the chance to coach a team on his own. He is highly thought of so that is a good addition but he will coach a squad which is much different to last season. Gone are the likes of Tom Banton, Adam Lyth and Saif Zaib but they have signed Jason Roy and will have Ben Stokes available for four matches between the two Test series. Nicholas Pooran is another aggressive batter who should fit perfectly into the way Flintoff wants this term to play.
The Southern Brave were the inaugural champions of this competition three years ago and while things haven’t gone their way since then, they look much better equipped to have a shot at it this term. The big thing for the Brave is that Jofra Archer is fit and available this season and a seam attack with him, Tymal Mills, Chris Jordan and Craig Overton should be money in the bank and with Danny Briggs brought back home and Akeal Hosein brought in the Brave will not lose this tournament due to a lack of bowling. If Kieron Pollard can produce some fireworks down the order with the bat there is enough depth for the Brave to go well at 7/1.
London Spirit will be a popular team this season. You can get lots of 7/1 about them winning the tournament but there are bits of 15/2 doing the rounds for them and with the marquee additions of Andre Russell and Shimron Hetmyer it isn’t hard to see why they will be liked. Add to that the fact that Michael Pepper, Ravi Bopara and Adam Rossington had good T20 Blast competitions and the Spirit aren’t going to lack for batting power, particularly with Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope available from the second week of the tournament. If the bowlers can deliver the goods the Spirit could have their best season yet.
I think it is fair to say that the Welsh Fire haven’t really cracked the code of this tournament yet having gone 7-8-4 in terms of finishes to the three seasons and their chances of going well this time around were dented when Shaheen Afridi decided to play in the Canada tournament after the Fire had drafted him. Haris Rauf will be the spearhead of the attack now but with Jonny Bairstow finally expected to play a whole season and the likes of Tom Kohler-Cadmore, David Willey, Tom Abell and Glenn Phillips all around for the season the batting looks as strong as it ever has for the Welsh outfit. They are generally 8/1 or 17/2 to win this tournament.
Outright Betting
Regular readers will know that I am always keen on the ‘bowlers win tournaments’ mantra when I assess these things and with that in mind I can’t see past the Southern Brave. We should acknowledge that with Dawid Malan in opening the batting the defending champions Oval Invincibles are going to be right there too but I can’t see past this Brave bowling unit doing big things regardless of how many matches England allow Jofra Archer to play, and the general consensus is it will be more than half of the campaign.
The matches Archer plays there is a seam quartet of Archer, Tymal Mills, Chris Jordan and Craig Overton in their ranks while the Brave also have a trio of spinners in Danny Briggs, Rehan Ahmed and Akeal Hosein so they have two of the three leading wicket takers in the Blast which has just concluded for now, the best bowler England might ever have had and two very potent spinners. You do need to score runs of course but few do that better in this country than James Vince while the likes of Laurie Evans, Alex Davies and Leus du Plooy form a top four before Finn Allen arrives. There is so much to like about the Brave this season and I expect them to be right there when the playoffs come along.
Finish Bottom
While I think the Southern Brave will go well at the top end of the table, I do fear a little for the Manchester Originals at the other end of it now that it appears that Jos Buttler is going to miss the majority of the competition if not all of it. That leaves a young captain a little exposed and if Phil Salt doesn’t come off then the Originals batting could fall off a cliff because Max Holden isn’t in the form of last year and Wayne Madsen and Paul Walter have only been sporadic in their form.
There looks to be better options with the ball with Fazalhaq Farooqi and Sikandar Raza joining Usama Mir who had a good campaign last season while Josh Hull is an excellent pick up but Josh Tongue has been ruled out of the tournament and I’m not convinced Scott Currie gets it done as a replacement. I am concerned by the Originals batting though and if the bowling goes around the park a couple of times as players come and go this season could easily unravel quite quickly. At 7/1 they are a fair bet to finish bottom.
Tips
Back Southern Brave to win The Hundred for a 2/10 stake at 8.00 with Bet365
Back Manchester Originals to finish bottom for a 2/10 stake at 8.00 with William Hill
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