the hundred cricket bettingThe Hundred： Common sense reigns despite the glitz and rustle of crisp packets
In a week when eight ludicrously-named, garish-kitted ‘franchises’ splurged hundreds of thousands on players, some of them falsehearted and frauds, and the ECB’s administrators were exposed in a government inquiry as presiding over an ￡8 million shortfall ahead of The Hundred next year, no-one in English cricket seems to have paid heed to the oldest betting maxim in the book.
The Hundred is the biggest gamble in the history of the game in England. Counties and players split, divided and now ruled between new, crisp-packet funded teams all in the name of a fast buck. A buck that was coming along very nicely thank you on the inside, with record-breaking ticket sales in the hugely competitive and entertaining Blast, a competition which will suffer due to its demoted status.
Few picked up on the irony, during the Department of Culture, Media and Sports investigation, of cricket’s wittering that it failed to receive any financial benefit from the betting industry’s interest in the game. The golden rule of gambling is this: don’t bet with money you can’t afford to lose. They can have that one for free. Here’s another: cricket wouldn’t exist without gambling, its rules and regulations back in the 1800s were drawn up precisely to declare winners or losers for the bookies.
What the lesson will be from The Hundred in 200-odd years’ time is anyone’s guess. But after the pre-draft hype and the mild excitement of teams called Oval Invincibles (a moniker which makes even spell check blush) and Northern Superchargers spraying money around like the tickertape on the Blast trophy stage, one can be sure that in its desperation to attract as much interest as possible, the ECB will be rather keen for folks to be considering a flutter or several on its new competition.
In that regard, The Hundred is unlikely to disappoint. For the hardcore, it offers a tremendous test. Gamblers will be feverishly trying to work out their edge from now until ball one. What will be an average score? Which teams are most likely to overvalue wickets? Will spinners be as dominant as they were in T20? The rest will be chomping at the bit for a gamble on Andre Russell’s sixes haul or a Jason Roy top batter. It’s all much-needed gristle to the ECB mill.
And whether you like The Hundred or not, there is little doubt it’s going to be a betting frenzy. To paraphase every cricket journalist who have had their knickers in a twist, it’s coming and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Worth trying to wonder who might win the thing then? A couple of weeks ago this column suggested that post-draft we would have a clear idea of who the teams to avoid would be. Chiefly, ones which splurged on the likes of Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi or Steve Smith. Well, only Smith was sold so bang goes that piece of assistance. Any Gale-laden outfit was one to avoid.
Instead, we seemed to have a draft which, with the odd exception (oh, we’ll come to you later, Manchester Originals) which was heavily influenced by analysts. And one of the teams we suspected could be guilty of emotional-driven picks, the Invincibles, ended up rejecting emotion almost entirely, and outing faith in hard data. Now you’re talking. Jeez, we might even end up loving this scam.
The Invincibles arguably did the best business of any team with their selection of Sunil Narine and Sandeep Lamichhane, two of the finest spin bowlers in T20 and who should be capable of tying teams down just when they are needing to go beserk. Narine’s pinch-hitting could also be invaluable in such a short innings. Two players for the price of one in a 200-ball match? They have crunched the numbers expertly to add the West Indian.
Narine and Lamichhane were, of course, expensive. But the best piece of business of all could be Laurie Evans, top scorer in the Blast in 2018, for just 30 grand. A potential front four of Roy-Narine-Evans-Billings has the sort of reckless vibe which one feels is a necessity.
Birmingham Phoenix also did impressive work. Pakistan left-arm pace ace Shaheen Afridi was identified on these pages as a game-changer. Liam Livingstone is a good addition. Ravi Bopara likewise considering his destructive form in the Blast. But pairing unfashionable duo Benny Howell and Pat Brown from unfashionable teams like Gloucestershire and Worcestershire respectively, the sort of marginalised counties who will surely suffer from the jamboree, could be the masterstroke. Still, we have no idea why they signed Kane Williamson so they didn’t get everything right.
Williamson could prove to be as stinker or tinkerer. Although what use the latter would be in the bowling Armageddon is anyone’s guess. Likewise Smith for Welsh Fire who also have the air of a team who could struggle to defend. The same could be said of Southern Brave, Sportsbook’s jollies. Trent Rockets, meanwhile, focussed almost entirely on signing as many Nottinghamshire players as possible. They are an early contender for the first use of ‘against the spirit of the game’ stick, which is saying something.
If the Rockets’s early bias is something to be enraged over, the Originals are, possibly, the original jokers. Having gone into the draft with Jos Buttler and Matt Parkinson, possibly the most sought-after two homegrown players, they preceded to whizz their advantage up the wall like Bez after a particularly heavy pills and pop session. Dane Vilas for ￡125,000 may in future be excused as one of their bidders tripping the light fantastic about a luxury estate opportunity in Denmark.
***
Southern Brave 10/3
Jofra Archer, Andre Russell, David Warner, Liam Dawson, James Vince, Shadab Khan, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Ross Whiteley, Delray Rawlins, Ollie Pope, George Garton, Alex Davies, Max Waller, Craig Overton.
Northern Superchargers 4/1
Ben Stokes, Aaron Finch, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Chris Lynn, Adil Rashid, Adam Lyth, David Willey, Richard Gleeson, Ben Foakes, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, David Wiese, Nathan Rimmington, Brydon Carse, Ed Barnard, John Simpson.
Trent Rockets 11/2
Joe Root, Rashid Khan, D’Arcy Short, Lewis Gregory, Alex Hales, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Harry Gurney, Steven Mullaney, Matthew Carter, Luke Wood, Tom Moores, Dawid Malan, Ben Cox, Luke Fletcher, Luke Wright.
Welsh Fire 6/1
Jonny Bairstow, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, Colin Ingram, Tom Banton, Ben Duckett, Ravi Rampaul, Simon Harmer, Qais Ahmed, Liam Plunkett, Ryan ten Doeschate, David Payne, Ryan Higgins, Danny Briggs, Leus du Plooy.
Oval Invincibles 6/1
Sam Curran, Sunil Narine, Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Sandeep Lamichhane, Rilee Rossouw, Tom Curran, Reece Topley, Hardus Viljoen, Fabian Allen, Alex Blake, Will Jacks, Chris Wood, Nathan Sowter, Laurie Evans.
Birmingham Phoenix 7/1
Chris Woakes, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Kane Williamson, Ravi Bopara, Benny Howell, Tom Helm, Shaheen Afridi, Pat Brown, Adam Hose, Cameron Delport, Henry Brookes, Adam Zampa, Riki Wessels, Chris Cooke.
Manchester Originals 8/1
Jos Buttler, Imran Tahir, Dane Vilas, Phil Salt, Tom Abell, Matt Parkinson, Saqib Mahmood, Daniel Christian, Wayne Madsen, Wayne Parnell, Mitchell Santner, Joe Clarke, Marchant de Lange, Ed Pollock, Eddie Byrom.
London Spirit 8/1
Rory Burns, the hundred cricket bettingThe Hundred： Common sense reigns despite the glitz and rustle of crisp packets Glenn Maxwell, Eoin Morgan, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Amir, Roelof van der Merwe, Mark Wood, Joe Denly, Dan Lawrence, Mason Crane, Kyle Abbott, Adam Rossington, Zak Crawley, Jade Dernbach, Luis Reece.
the hundred cricket bettingWhat is the Hundred？ Cricket’s New Fast Paced Tournament
To outsiders and newcomers, cricket can be a complex enough sport as things are. The LBW law alone can keep a novice confused for days. So when we introduce the fact that “cricket” is essentially not just one sport but two, three or even four, it is easy to see why some may be put off from further investigation.
In truth, cricket is a single sport but comes in different forms. Broadly these can be divided in two, with red ball cricket, or long form cricket, the more traditional version of the game, of which international Test matches are the pinnacle.
White ball cricket, or short form, is a much newer variation and until recently the two main versions of that, two further sub-divisions, were 50-over games, or “one dayers”, and 20 over games, known as T20 or Twenty20.
What, then, is The Hundred?
Some cricket critics argue that the sport is too slow, takes too long and is not exciting enough. What’s more, many fans around the world think that the idea that you can play for five days and not have a winner (around 25% of Tests are drawn) is baffling at best and a massive turnoff at worst. One day games were created to offer a more captivating type of cricket that would appeal to a younger fan and a wider audience.
The first-ever Test match was played in 1877 whilst the first One Day International (ODI) was played almost 100 years later in 1971. The first T20 games were played in 2003, with the first Twenty20 International clash taking place a year later (though that was a women’s game, the first men’s match came along in 2005).
The Hundred can be seen as a continuation of the trend to shorter matches with more focus on runs and in particular boundaries. Moreover, many view it as reflecting a general societal shift to more immediate gratification, shorter attention spans and sport being more commercially motivated.
In keeping with appealing to Twitter-esque attention spans, we’ll keep our explanation simple. The Hundred is a new cricket format that sees games cut from approximately 2,700 deliveries (Tests) to 600 in one day games, to 240 in T20s (20 six-ball overs per team) to just 100 each (200 in total) in The Hundred.
The Hundred was the name given to the pioneering tournament that was scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020 but, well, we all know what happened then. Due to the pandemic of 2020/21, not a single competitive game of 100-ball cricket took place in its’ first year of existence. The first ever game scheduled to take place was in the women’s tournament between Oval Invincibles and the Manchester Originals on the 21st July 2021.
The concept of the new competition was mooted in 2016, with the 18 major counties voting in favour of an eight-team, city-based format in September of that year. England’s various T20 competitions had never really enjoyed the success of the IPL or Australia’s Big Bash and it was felt that a new format that was radically different to England’s county-focussed structure was needed.
Some felt that it was another format in a crowded marketplace and that a revamped 20-over tournament would have been a better idea. However, in general, the reaction from within the English and Welsh game was positive. The new tournament would guarantee significant income for all the counties, whether they hosted games or not. In addition, it would also receive major television coverage, with all games live, including a good number free-to-view on the BBC, including the finals of the men’s and women’s competitions.
Terrestrial TV coverage was seen as a big part of the concept, as was the fact that the women’s games will generally be played alongside the men’s as doubleheaders. These facts, plus the short and exciting format and strong branding, were designed to make the new tournament as appealing as possible to both men and women across a range of ages and ethnicities.
As with any brand new competition, there can be a lot to take in and that is particularly the case with The Hundred because pretty much everything is new, including the rules, the format and even the teams. Let’s start with the teams, with all franchises having a male and female squad (note that our focus in this section is the men’s tournament).
Team
City
Ground
Manchester Originals
Manchester
Old Trafford
Northern Superchargers
Leeds
Headingley
Birmingham Phoenix
Birmingham
Edgbaston
Trent Rockets
Nottingham
Trent Bridge
Welsh Fire
Cardiff
Cardiff Wales Stadium
London Spirit
London
Lord’s
Oval Invincibles
London
The Oval
Southern Brave
Hampshire (Near Southampton)
The Rose Bowl
Each squad is 15 players strong, with a maximum of three overseas participants. Each team, or franchise, gets to pick at least one centrally contracted England Test player who is signed to one of their constituent counties. So, for example, Northern Superchargers is made up of Yorkshire and Durham, so could choose from Joe Root, Ben Stokes or Jonny Bairstow (the latter is no longer centrally contracted but was when the initial squads were picked).
If a franchise does not have an eligible player then they can select an alternative player from the “England pot”, which is how Trent Rockets obtained Joe Root for example. Squad selection was muddied somewhat by the postponement of the 2020 season but in essence, teams are a mix of England players, overseas options and “Local Icons” (players from the constituent counties).
Selection of the non-contracted players is done using a banded draft, with each team getting to pick in turn, coaches having 100 seconds to make their call. Following that, each side has a final “Wildcard” pick to complete their squad. The precise details of the draft, which was televised live, are a little complex but can be seen in full at the official website of The Hundred.
Whilst the draft is far from easy, the end results and the squads assembled are top draw. All eight teams have some world class international players, excellent England talent and a smattering of the best local players as well. Players to look out for include:
Manchester Originals – Jos Buttler, Harry Gurney, Kagiso Rabada
Northern Superchargers – Ben Stokes, Aaron Finch, Adil Rashid, David Willey
Birmingham Phoenix – Moeen Ali, Kane Williamson, Chris Woakes
Trent Rockets – Dawid Malan, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Rashid Khan
Welsh Fire – Jonny Bairstow, Kieron Pollard, Ollie Pope
London Spirit – Eoin Morgan, Glenn Maxwell, Mark Wood
Oval Invincibles – Sam Billings, Sam Curran, Jason Roy, Tom Curran
Southern Brave – Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, David Warner
Thankfully the structure of The Hundred is a whole lot simpler than the player selection process. The 2021 season was scheduled to start on the 21st July and conclude on the 21st August.
Each team plays four times at home and four away, playing six teams once and their nearest rival twice, both home and away. Whoever tops the table proceeds directly to the final with the sides finishing second and third meeting in the semi.
Each game should last just two and a half hours.
With just 100 balls per team, power hitting and wickets will be the order of the day and whilst most rules are the same as for any game of cricket, there are some interesting tweaks which could lead to fascinating tactical developments. The key rules to note are:
100 balls per side
Bowlers can deliver five or 10 consecutive balls as decided by the captain
After 10 balls the bowling side change ends
Maximum 20 balls per bowler
One timeout per team allows the coach two and a half minutes with their side
Each side will have a powerplay of 25 balls. During this only two players the hundred cricket bettingThe Hundred： Common sense reigns despite the glitz and rustle of crisp packets are allowed outside of the 30-yard fielding circle
the hundred cricket betting‘Ab pura din kya karein’- Fans react as India wrap up first Test against Bangladesh in 50 minutes on the final day
Bangladesh and India locked horns in the first Test of the two-match series in Chattogram this week. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first. Thanks to half-centuries from Shreyas Iyer, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Ravichandran Ashwin and useful innings from Kuldeep Yadav and Rishabh Pant, India reached 404 all-out. For the home side, Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraj took four wickets each.
In reply, the Shakib Al Hasan-led side got all-out for 150 with no batter scoring a fifty. For the KL Rahul-led side, Kuldeep Yadav took a five-wicket haul. Notably, the chinaman bowler took a fifer in Tests after his maiden fifer against Australia in Sydney in 2019. Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj took three wickets while Umesh Yadav and Axar Patel took one each. India decided to bat with a massive lead of 254 runs.
In the second innings, the likes of Shubman Gill and Pujara made the best of their second chance. The former scored his maiden Test hundred, having missed against Australia in January 2021. Meanwhile, he and Pujara batted at a brisk pace on Day Three to ensure the team declare in the dying moments of the day. After Gill scored his hundred and got out. After this, the vice-captain for the series, Pujara got to his hundred.
Notably, he last scored his hundred in the same game in which Kuldeep Yadav took his maiden fifer in Tests. Meanwhile, after getting 258/2, India decided to declare the innings with 12 overs left in the day. They set an improbable target of 513 runs.
In the last innings of the game, the Bangladesh Tigers applied themselves much more than in the previous innings. The opening pair of? Najmul Hasan Shanto and Zakir Hasan put together 124 runs. The latter scored his maiden Test in his debut game. Apart from him, skipper Shakib scored 84 while Shanto got 67. The rest of the batters flattered to deceive and the team was bowled on the first session of the the hundred cricket bettingThe Hundred： Common sense reigns despite the glitz and rustle of crisp packets Day Five, losing the game by 188 runs.
https://twitter.com/DineshKarthik/status/1604335500701024256?s=20&t=4f9R1fG2FGvUfGg19SEJgg
