What is the Hundred? The rules, teams and players as 100-ball tournament returns in 2022

After its debut season last year, The Hundred is back for a second term. Southern Brave won the inaugural men's competition, beating Birmingham Phoenix in the men’s final at Lord’s. Oval Invincibles are defending the women’s title. 

The blurb on the Hundred website sums up the aims from simplicity of the game to the desired audience: “Seven cities, eight teams, 100 balls. The Hundred will be played over five weeks during the school holidays and will be a great way for families to enjoy cricket.”

The ECB’s market research shows that two and a half times more people questioned identify with a city rather than a county; 75 percent of families said they prefer short games that finish by 9pm and 19 percent of those asked who do not follow cricket say the sport’s terminology is the main barrier to attending games. Those answers have underpinned the design of the tournament.

Broadcasters try to make it easier to tell which team is winning. So for the team batting first the scoreboard shows runs scored from balls faced (57 runs from 25 balls), for the team batting second it is runs needed and balls remaining (75 required from 51 balls) with Sky using the WinViz equation as well (which shows the percentage chance of each side winning updated ball by ball). 

Each team’s innings lasts for 100 balls (plus no balls and wides) with five lots of 10 balls from each end. The captains choose whether a bowler bowls five balls in a row or stays on to bowl all 10. The bowlers can bowl a maximum of 20 balls per innings and can bowl two five-ball overs in a row, either from the same end or alternate ends.

The decision review system using Hawkeye is available for the first time in domestic cricket in England as well as a ‘smart replay’ system