What is The Hundred? How does it work? Who are the teams? How can I watch? Read our essential guide to the 100-ball competition as it returns for 2023 season - watch all 68 games live on Sky Sports from Tuesday, starting with Trent Rockets vs Southern Brave
Tuesday 1 August 2023 14:26, UK
As The Hundred returns for its third season, we tell you all you need to know.
You can watch each of the 68 matches live on Sky Sports between August 1-27, with all women's games and selected men's matches live on the Sky Sports Cricket YouTube channel.
The Hundred, the ECB's 100-ball-a-side competition, features eight teams across seven cities competing in men's and women's cricket. Every day will be a double-header with a women's match preceding a men's game.
The season starts on Tuesday at Trent Bridge as Trent Rockets women face Southern Brave women from 3pm, before the Rockets and Brave men's teams lock horns from 6.30pm.
Each side plays eight group games, including two against their most local rivals.
That means London Spirit will play Oval Invincibles twice, Northern Superchargers will meet Manchester Originals on two occasions, Southern Brave will tackle Welsh Fire twice, and Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix will go head-to-head two times.
The table toppers will progress straight through to the final at Lord's on Sunday August 27 with the sides that finish second and third in the group-stage meeting in the Eliminator a day earlier at The Kia Oval to determine who will face the league leaders in the final.
- Each innings lasts 100 balls and is scheduled to take 65 minutes.
- Two sets of five deliveries will be bowled before changing ends.
- A bowler can bowl two successive sets of five from the same end or successive sets of five from each end.
- Each bowler can bowl a maximum of 20 deliveries in an innings.
- The powerplay will be the first 25 deliveries of a 100-ball innings.
- If a team is not in position to bowl the last five balls of the innings within 65 minutes, one fewer fielder will be permitted outside the fielding restriction area.
- Each team will be allowed a maximum of one unsuccessful DRS review per innings.
- To constitute a match, a minimum of 25 balls has to be bowled to the side batting second, unless a result has been achieved earlier.
- Two points awarded for a win and one point in the event of a tie or no result.
- In the knockout stages, if a match is tied, then a "Super 5" will be played, with the winner being the team which scores the most runs from a further five balls.
Check out the full squad listings here.
The likes of Alice Capsey (Oval Invincibles), Nat-Sciver Brunt (Trent Rockets), Sophie Ecclestone (Manchester Originals) and Sophia Dunkley (Welsh Fire) are set to light up the women's competition, with Liam Livingstone (Birmingham Phoenix), Mark Wood (London Spirit), Rehan Ahmed (Southern Brave) and Adil Rashid (Northern Superchargers) to star in the men's.
Trent Rockets beat Manchester Originals in the 2022 men's final with captain Lewis Gregory's unbeaten 17 from six balls steering his side to their target of 121 with two balls to spare.
In the women's event, Oval Invincibles defeated Southern Brave in the final for the second year in a row, topping Brave's total of 101 with six balls in reserve. Teenager Capsey took two wickets with her off-spin and then hit a quick-fire 25 in Invincibles' successful chase.
Each of the 68 games - 34 men and 34 women - will be live on Sky Sports, while all women's matches and a significant number of men's fixtures will be streamed live on the Sky Cricket YouTube channel.
Sky Sports will show all 68 games in The Hundred live this summer. Stream The Hundred and more with NOW
