Defending champions Oval Invincibles to take on Northern Superchargers in The Hundred 2022 opener

defending champions Oval Invincibles and Northern Superchargers on August 11. Although the men’s competition begins on August 3, womens’ event will kick off eight days later post the culmination of the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.

“The Hundred helped grow the game last year. With more than 500,000 tickets sold and issued and 16 million watching on TV – with half of them being new to cricket - we saw a new audience enjoying the game for the first time. We can’t wait to build on that this year, bringing world class cricket and an incredible family day out to fans across England and Wales,” said Sanjay Patel, Managing Director for The Hundred.

Invincibles, who won the inaugural edition beating Southern Brave in the final, will take on Superchargers at the Oval in the season’s first double header. Women’s sides will play the evening match after the men’s game, and from that day, all the matches will be played as double headers. The number of matches for women has been reduced to six per side owing to the delayed start courtesy of the Commonwealth Games.

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The group stages will go on till August 31 and on September 2, Eliminator will be played between second and third placed sides at the Rose Bowl. Final of the competition will happen on September 3 at Lord’s with top ranked team from the group stages playing in the winner of the Eliminator. All the games from the tournament will be telecasted live on tv by the official broadcaster.

Invincibles’ young allrounder Alice Capsey said that the inaugural edition was a memorable experience and the second year will be even more exciting than the first season. South Africa allrounder Marizanne Kapp took four wickets in the final to help Invincibles thump Brave by 48 runs in the final. 17-year-old Capsey had an impressive tournament scoring 150 runs at a strike rate of 126.05 and she also took ten wickets at an average of 12.20 from ten matches.

“Last year was such an exciting year for the women’s game. Playing in the opening match of the competition and winning the first-ever Final of The Hundred are moments that I will never forget. I still remember seeing all the fans at the Oval for the first game, there were so many young girls, it was so special,” Capsey said.

“I’m sure the second year of the women’s competition is going to be even more exciting. Everyone involved will be desperate to get going again and hopefully we can bring even more fans to the game.”