The Hundred Cricket Odds: Rules, white card, dates, teams & players

The Hundred returns for its second year in August as Southern Brave men and Oval Invincibles women prepare to defend the titles they won in last year’s inaugural season.

The ECB’s revolutionary 100-ball format pits eight teams from across the UK against each other and features world-class players from all corners of the globe.

West Indies big-hitter Kieron Pollard will team up with Glenn Maxwell at London Spirit after being picked up in the first round of April’s draft, while Australia’s World Cup-winning captain Meg Lanning has joined Trent Rockets.

On this page
The Hundred Winner Odds
What are the rules of The Hundred?
How long does The Hundred go on for?
What does the umpire’s white card mean?
What’s the difference between The Hundred and T20?
Squad lists and key dates

The Hundred Winner Odds

It’s looking like an open season for The Hundred, with all teams priced between $4.00 and $9.00 to emerge triumphant.

Southern Brave are the early favourites at $4.00 with bet365, followed by the Trent Rockets at $6.50.

Birmingham Phoenix, Manchester Originals and Oval Invincibles are all $7.00, with Welsh Fire $8.00 and London Spirit and Northern Superchargers down at $9.00.

What are the rules of The Hundred?

The clue is in the name. Both sides face 100 balls and whoever scores the most runs after one innings each is crowned the winning side. Unlike traditional formats, the fielding side switch ends after 10 balls, with each bowler delivering five or 10 consecutive deliveries at the captain’s discretion. No individual is allowed to bowl more than 20 balls across an entire innings. 

Each batting side will face the first 25 balls under powerplay conditions. During this initial spell, only two fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle to encourage batters to be aggressive from the outset. 

No-balls are worth two runs and a subsequent free hit delivery to the batting side. The fielding team is allowed one strategic timeout per match, when the coach is free to walk out to the wicket and hold tactical discussions with his or her players. This can be taken at any point after the powerplay. 

How long does The Hundred go on for?

Weather permitting, matches generally last two and a half hours. Each innings is scheduled to take 65 minutes, with slow over-rates punished by further fielding restrictions.

What does the umpire’s white card mean in The Hundred?

Each innings in The Hundred is structured around the basis that each batting side faces 20 ‘fives’, rather than overs. 

In traditional formats the fielding team switches ends at the end of every over, which makes things very straightforward and clearly punctuates the end of each over. However, the change of ends only happens every 10 balls, or two ‘fives’, in The Hundred. 

As bowlers can stay on for 10 consecutive balls and thus deliver two ‘fives’ from the same end, it can quickly become unclear that a single set of five balls has been bowled.

So to signal a clear end to each ‘five’, the umpire in The Hundred will raise a white card after every five deliveries. 

What’s the difference between The Hundred and T20?

On top of the various differences discussed above, T20 cricket features 120 balls per innings, with each innings made up of 20 traditional six-ball overs. 

While T20 matches are contested in popular global leagues and even between international sides, The Hundred is currently only played in the UK and features new city-based franchises formed for the first edition of the tournament in 2021. 

There are several other minor differences between the formats. 

  • Unlike in T20 cricket, after a caught dismissal the non-striker will return to the non-striker’s end even if the batters have crossed over between the wickets. This means the new batter will be on strike unless the wicket is claimed on the final delivery of a 10-ball spell, thus triggering a change of ends. 
  • The toss will take place on a platform away from the playing field.
  • In the event of a tie in the group stages, both teams will be awarded one point each (two points for a win). In a knockout game, a ‘Super Five’ will be played, with the team that scores the most runs from a further five balls advancing.  
  • The Decision Review System (DRS) will again be used throughout The Hundred. Though the technology was recently used in the Vitality Blast quarter-finals, it has generally been a tool for international cricket until this point.

Squad lists and key tournament dates

August 3: Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire (men’s opener)

August 11: Oval Invincibles vs Northern Superchargers (women’s opener)

August 31: Group stage concludes (men’s and women’s)

September 2: Second-placed team vs Third-placed team (women’s Eliminator)

September 2: Second-placed team vs Third-placed team (men’s Eliminator)

September 3: First-placed team vs Winner of Eliminator (women’s final)

September 3: First-placed team vs Winner of Eliminator (men’s final)

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