The Hundred 2021 Women News

Champion openers David Warner and Chris Gayle are among the 284 foreign internationals who have thrown their hat in the ring for the upcoming 'The Hundred' draft ahead of its second edition. The inaugural season of 'The Hundred' competition was initially scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020, but the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) eventually postponed it due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last summer, the inaugural edition finally got underway, with Southern Brave clinching the men's title and the Oval Invincibles bagging the women's competition. Last month, the top-brass announced players that they retained ahead of the season. The marquee list included superstars from men's and women's cricket, including Glenn Maxwell, Rashid Khan, Ellyse Perry, and Alyssa Healy. The remaining spots in the eight-team competition will be filled via the draft, which is scheduled to take place next week. It was originally scheduled for this week but was eventually pushed to the next in order to avoid a clash with the state funeral services of the legendary Shane Warne, who tragically passed away earlier this month. Warner and 'Universe Boss' Gayle, who have set their base price at 125,000 pounds, are joined by Pakistani superstar skipper Babar Azam, South African left-arm leg-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, the West Indian trio of Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran and Sunil Narine, Australian batting all-rounder Mitchell Marsh. As many as 250 local domestic uncapped players have also thrown their hat in the ring, including uncapped batsman Joe Clarke, who has set himself a base price of 60,000 pounds. The 100,000-pound bracket includes South African superstar Quinton de Kock, Australian pacer Kane Richardson, West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell, while legendary all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, Aussie white-ball captain Aaron Finch, former Proteas leg-spinner Imran Tahir and Pakistan left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir are placed in the 75,000 pounds reserve price category. As many as 534 players have registered themselves for the draft. Former England Test player Joe Denly is one of the 21 England internationals available for the draft. Others include Olly Stone, Liam Dawson, Matt Fisher, Dom Sibley, Luke Wright, Toby Roland-Jones, Keaton Jennings, Alex Lees, Danny Briggs, Pat Brown, Scott Borthwick, Dom Bess, Haseeb Hameed, Steven Finn, Mark Stoneman, Gary Ballance and Tom Banton. The Men's edition of The Hundred will get underway from August 03.

India batter Jemimah Rodrigues who impressed everyone with her unbeaten 49 against Australia in the first T20I match that was eventually washed away due to rain in Queensland has credited ‘The Hundred’ tournament for regaining her confidence. Jemimah has had a rough patch with the bat before she was roped in by the Northern SuperChargers for the competition. "There's so much to learn, but it wasn't an easy time for me. There are lots of things going on sitting out, there were a lot of doubts in my head sitting out, but I'm grateful to be a part of this team. If not for the Hundred, I don't think I would've even been selected to play for India," Jemimah said in the press conference. The right-handed batter played her first match on the trip and wasn’t picked for the ODI series and the one-off day-night Test earlier against the Australian side. Rodrigues expressed her disappointment on the same but admitted that it was about creating the right balance. "Honestly, any player would be frustrated not getting picked for ODIs especially when I knew I was batting well and in good form. But at the end, I'm ready for what the team wants, and if the team was finding the right balance, I'm happy sitting out," she added. The Indian team suffered a 1-2 defeat in the three-match ODI series while the pink-ball Test ended in a draw. The second encounter of the three-match T20I series will be held on Saturday in Queensland.

It has been revealed that the inaugural edition of The Hundred has become the most attended event in the history of women’s cricket and that too by a huge margin. Wisden, leading cricket media house in England tweeted that in total 267,000 people attended women's matches in The Hundred, which is the highest attendance for a women's cricket event ever. The record was previously held by the 2020 T20 World Cup, which attracted 136,000 people. In that sense almost double the people attended The Hundred Women’s with just 11 matches more being played in this event against the World Cup in Australia. Also, among the 136,000 in the T20 World Cup, around 80,000 had attended the Final itself. The Hundred Women’s saw in total 34 matches and if average attendance is calculated, it would come down to 7853 people attending every game. Oval Invincibles Women won the inaugural edition of The Hundred Women after they defeated Southern Brave Women in the Final by 48 runs to lift the trophy at Lord’s. Birmingham Phoenix Women finished third in the eight-team competition that saw women’s teams playing in the venues as men’s. The matches were hosted back to back with women playing the first game of the evening. Spectators were charged a one-time fee for full-day attendance.

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has backed The Hundred tournament to come back “bigger and better” in the next edition. “We are coming back bigger and better next year,” Pietersen said in a post-match show after the Final of both men’s and women’s final on Saturday. The Southern Brave side lifted the inaugural trophy in the men’s tournament after beating Birmingham Phoenix in the final clash by 32 runs at Lord’s. Chasing 169 in 100 balls, Birmingham were restricted to 138/5. Liam Livingstone top-scored for the side with 46 off 19 while captain Moeen Ali chipped in with 36 off 30. Earlier, Southern Brave rode on a half-century from Stirling and an unbeaten 19-ball 44 from Ross Whiteley to post 168/5 in the allotted 100 balls. The Southern Brave captain James Vince lauded Stirling’s efforts with the bat after the match. Paul Stirling and Whiteley were exceptional. Bowlers put in a clinic in the second half there. Stirling getting himself off to a good start and then playing a match-winning innings was superb,” he said. In the women’s competition, it was Oval Invincibles who defeated Southern Brave by 48 runs to clinch the title. The Oval side managed to score 121/6 and then the bowlers rattled the Southern Brave batting line up to bundle them out for 73. Invincibles captain Dane van Niekerk expressed her delight at the win. “I have no words at the moment. If you told me that would happen at the end of the day, I would have taken it. Credit to Southern Brave, they have been incredible. We had to rock up today to beat a very good side,” she said.

On the back of a magnificent all-round performance from Marizanne Kapp and disastrous batting peroformances at the top of the order by the Southern Brave Women, the Oval Invincibles Women went on to become the first champions of The Hundred at the Oval. Chasing a tricky target of 122 from 100 balls, the Southern Brave Women were off to a horrific start with all the three top order batters Danny Wyatt, Gaby Lewis, and Sophia Dunkley scoring ducks against Kapp, who was whooping roud the corners in the first phase of the game. After their chase was derailed, all were lying on the shoulders of Stafanie Taylor if the Brave Women were to chase the target and ace the game on the night of the final. However, she too could not get going and was found short of the crease while getting despearte to hit the leg spin of Invincibles’ skipper Dane van Niekerk. The Brave capitulated inside 100 balls for a mere 73 and handed the Invincibles were proven invincible indeed by Kapp, who as deservingly adjuged Player of the Match. Earlier, the Brave skipper Anya Shrubsole sent the Invincibles in to bat first on a rainy day in London. The Invincibles too did not get off to a great start as Georgia Adam was sent back straightway by the skipper. However, the skipper van Niekerk and Fran Wilson got the women in green back on the track with a muted but substantial innings. Their hard-earned momentum was carried on by Kapp, who could do no wrong on the big night for the Invincibles along with Alice Capsey and Mady Villiers. During the innings break, the Brave Women could have backed themselves to get to the finding end and lift the trophy to become the first champion of the competition that is certain to ignite many debates and discussions around the evolution of the game over the next many years.

India top-order batter and a chirpy customer on and off the field, Jemimah Rodriguez has demanded a Women’s IPL to be held in India. The Mumbai born, currently playing in The Hundred Women’s competition feels that a global T20 tournament could a go long way in changing the outlook of the women’s game in India. “When we see the WBBL (Women’s Big Bash League) happening, then the KSL (Kia Super League which is now replaced by Women’s Hundred) and now the Hundred, we are all like, when will we have our own IPL? It is going to make women’s cricket better. Imagine, the domestic girls here in England, the kind of experience they are having, sharing dressing rooms with international players. There is so much to learn,” Rodrigues was quoted as saying to BBC. The 20-year-old, who did not play even a single game on India Women’s tour of England in June-July, has now become the highest run-scorer in The Hundred, scoring 249 runs in just seven innings at an average of 41.50 and a strike rate of more than 150. Thus Jemimah understood what it is like to have a tournament where you regularly play at the highest level and feels that such a tournament will only improve the condition and stature of Indian domestic cricket as far as the Women’s game is concerned. “Once they realise that OK, this is the standard, this is what I need to go out and do, they will want to work harder and work better. That’s very important in India because there is a lot of gap between the domestic and international sides in India,” said the Northern Superchargers player, who still co-holds the record for the highest individual score by any player (men or women) in The Hundred. She scored unbeaten 92 against Welsh Fire Women. “In every street in India, you see boys and girls playing cricket – there isn’t any shortage of future players! I think it’s high time we had an IPL,” Jemimah added. Earlier another Indian player, Smriti Mandhana, who was part of The Hundred as well, said that a six-team Women’s IPL should be started by BCCI.