The Hundred

First topic message reminder :

England's World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, West Indies batsman Chris Gayle and Australia's Steve Smith have made themselves available for The Hundred player draft on 20 October.

The inaugural 100-ball competition, which is comprised of eight city-based teams, takes place next summer from 17 July-16 August.

Other big names to have stated their interest include Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, Australia opener David Warner and former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

England's contracted Test players such as Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer are not on the list because they will be part of an initial draft for England's red-ball cricketers on Thursday.

In that mini draft, teams will select up to three players, with the Leeds-based side, for instance, having to choose between Root, Stokes and Jonny Bairstow as their first pick.

They will also have the opportunity to select local icons. The eight teams will be based in London (two teams), Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Cardiff and Southampton.

The main draft will be held later this month and among the other international cricketers to have made themselves available for the competition are Shakib Al Hasan, Moeen Ali, Babar Azam, Tom Curran, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Aaron Finch, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Kagiso Rabada, Jason Roy, Mitchell Starc and Kane Williamson.

Players are able to set a reserve price for their services, with each team having two spaces in their squad in each of the following pay brackets: £125,000, £100,000, £75,000, £60,000, £50,000, £40,000 and £30,000.

Taken from the BBC Sport draft. I know that there isn't a lot of fans of it on here...but the actual cricket itself and standard of it will be quite high I think. Certainly is attracting some big names

I caught some of Welsh Fire vs Manchester Originals last night too - Shaheen on fire early on, some good striking by Buttler but they just fell short in the end.

Welsh Fire having won no games last season, get off the mark in the first of this!

king_carlos wrote:Invincibles get over the line but they probably shouldn't. After Billings and Turran went the Spirit looked in control. Especially after a brilliant bit of fielding by Wade prevented a 6.

Then came a fairly disastrous last over from Nathan Ellis. Defending 15 from 5 he started with 3 wides, then got hit for 6 and 4 by Narine from consecutive balls. The 6 probably should have been stopped by Daryl Mitchell. It was a tough one but the sort of relay catch that good fielders usually pull off these days.

A good finish though.

It's an odd tournament but I do think that condensing the talent pool has improved the standard. Which is something amongst a lot of nothing.

I saw the last couple of overs - think you are a bit harsh on Mitchell; was just half a step too far away to get the ball and throw back into the field of play. The three wides first ball was sloppy bowling and keeping, and changed the whole feel of the over..

Still find the 100 rules a bit contrived - don't mind the ability to bowl two consecutive 'overs', and think that could reasonably be introduced into T20 *is an interesting risk / reward thing if a bowler has a good first over), but otherwise I struggle to see the benefit compared with more conventional T20.

I started writing this on a work laptop on the train home the other day and didn't realise I hadn't finished it and replied, sorry!

Olly - Shaheen is simply box office. Wells and Buttler's striking was pretty darn good too. Jos in this looks a bit like Root at CC. Just clearly that bit too good for the level.

dummy_half - I think it would've been a tough catch but I'd expect a fielder of Mitchell's quality to stop the 6 there these days. He's got both hands on it at the end of the day. Rewind 10 years and stopping that seems revolutionary. In this era after players such as Keiron Pollard become specialist boundary riders I think stopping the 6 there is fairly standard though.

The rules are absolutely contrived. As said a few times previously in this thread that's been the case with all of crickets evolutions though. The rubbish changes have drifted away and the good ones stay. Jarrod Kimber and Neil Manthrop did a cracking podcast around the time the Hundred was announced where they looked at crickets evolution. Just about the only thing they could find that hadn't been tinkered with was the length of the pitch!

I often felt the 40 over format was superior to 50 over at County level. It just had less of the meandering middle overs that can still feel a bit like noughties ODI stuff in the RLC. I think it'd be a brilliant idea for the County one day comp to be 40 overs and change ends far less for instance.

Take the good and leave the bad is very much my view with the Hundred. There's been lots of bad no doubt but also several good points that it'd be sad to see thrown away. The Women's Hundred has been brilliant for the game. Reducing the number of sides has improved quality IMO. Fitting the tournament into a small window is good - the Blast simply runs too long due to the number of Counties and wanting to play games on Friday/Saturday night. Changing ends less is also good.

Ridiculous figures from Spencer Johnson today

1 run and 3 wickets from his 20 balls on debut

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:I caught some of Welsh Fire vs Manchester Originals last night too - Shaheen on fire early on, some good striking by Buttler but they just fell short in the end.

Welsh Fire having won no games last season, get off the mark in the first of this!

I was at Sophia gardens for the game.

I thought I had seen fast with some of out bowlers, but seeing Shaheen and Haris Rauf bowl in the flesh was something else. Unbelievably quick!

Contemplating going again on Monday, just to witness it again!!

Can't recall a worse botched run chase than Trent Rockets losing to Welsh Fire in the women's match yesterday. At 134-1 with three balls left, chasing 138 to win, there was a hat trick meaning they finished on 134-4