A New ball game: What is The Hundred? Cricket’s new format; All you need to know.

A New ball game: What is The Hundred? Cricket’s new format; All you need to know.

Sherjeel Malik

The Hundred is cricket’s new format launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board. The new format aims to bring more excitement and accessibility to everyone with shorter and faster matches lasting less than 3 hours.

The newest format of the game is garnered towards a young audience as England’s cricket board looks capitalize on growing popularity of franchise cricket with its own colorful and entertaining twist.

Here is what you need to know about cricket’s newest format

Teams:

London Spirit

Manchester Originals

Northern Supercharges

Oval Invincibles

Southern Brave

Trent Rockets

Welsh Fire

Rules:

  • 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 an 100-ball innings.
  • The fielding team can take a two-minute strategic time-out at any stage after the first 25 deliveries.
  • 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.
  • No drinks intervals are permitted. Players may be given drinks at the boundary edge or at the fall of a wicket provided no playing time is wasted.
  • If a batter is out caught, and the batters crossed while the ball was in the air, the non-striker returns to his/her original end.
  • 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.
  • Each team plays eight matches. There are 2 points awarded for a win, 1 point for a tie/no result and 0 points for a loss.
  • The team finishing top of the group progresses straight to the final. The teams finishing second and third will compete in the ‘Eliminator’, with the winner progressing to the final.
  • In the knock-out 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.
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