Every. Ball. Counts.

Good afternoon sports fans, I hope you’ve all been well! I’m back from my holidays and raring to get blogging again!

As you might be able to tell from the title of this one, we at All The Cricket are excited that this year’s Hundred has kicked off! We’re a few games into the competition now and things are looking pretty open for both the men and the women. As you will probably guess, we’re Northern Superchargers fans in this house (we can never draw our sword against Yorkshire) and we are attending all the Superchargers home games at Glorious Headingley but I’m not just going to write a fan boy piece on this occasion, that will come later! Today I’m going to give you some players to keep an eye on.

Nicholas Pooran is wearing Northern Supercharger purple this year and looks good in it! The man known as Nicky P (I might rebrand as Nicky B!) keeps wicket and bats like a rocket and has done so for franchise teams all over the world as well as his native West Indies. Nicky didn’t have the best start to the competition with a poor batting performance in match 1. That can be put down to jet lag as he had flown back from the MLC in the states just hours before the game. In the last few matches he’s looked every bit the West Indian power house we know and love!

Sophie Ecclestone is once again taking the helm of the Manchester Original Women. Sophie is a slow left-arm orthodox spinner and she is the best in the world……..literally, she’s ranked world number 1! As well as being a world class bowler she is also an incredibly useful skiddy batter, easily capable of finishing a game if needed. Watch out for her fiery northern temper though. The All The Cricket team were at Glorious Headingley for the Nothern Superchargers Manchester Originals derby on Sunday………Superchargers won both games! Our Sophie was caught out on the boundary, obviously frustrated from a difficult day against her biggest rivals she resorted to throwing her bat at the dugout……….all very exciting!

Issy Wong burst into the world stage a few years ago and showed great promise! A right arm pace bowler Wong has ambitions of becoming the fastest female bowler in world cricket. She is once again in Birmingham orange for this year’s Hundred. As well as her pace bowling, Issy also has ambitions for her batting, last season she smashed the great Nat Sciver-Brunt for two consecutive sixes……not an easy feat for anyone. Wong has been out of form of late but at just 22 years old she has plenty of time to find her rhythm again……still one for the future I reckon. Fun fact, she can also solve a Rubik’s cube in 33 seconds!

Charlie “Deano” Dean plays her Hundred cricket at Cricket HQ, Lords for the London spirit. A spin bowling all-rounder she is known for her prodigious rotations on the ball as well as her fiery batting. Despite only being 22 at the time she has also captained the Spirit after an injury to Heather Knight. Deano became a victim of the meaner side of international cricket after being Mankaded by India on 2022. No spirit of the game was shown to the spirit star that day!

It’s easy to understand why Oval Invincibles are keen to keep hold of Will Jacks when you consider what a mullerer of a cricket ball he is! He holds the record for the faster 100 in a professional game, hitting a ton from just 25 balls. He also has the largest individual score from a playing in The Hundred with 108 as well as an unbeaten century for Royal Challengers Bangalore from just 41 balls. If he starts firing this year Invincibles’ chances will look up!

Raw, ruthless, unforgiving and unforgettable pace. When Jofra Archer was peppering the Superchargers batters at Headingley last week, you could barely see the ball come and go! Jof has conquered franchise leagues all over the world due to his unplayability with the ball and he at any rate backs himself with the bat……..although that’s a bit sketchy. His career to this point has been dogged by injury and controversy but if he stays fit and fellows the rules then there’s world yet to conquer for the big man from Barbados.

It was said to me recently that Natalie Sciver-Brunt is the best cricketer in the world, I would argue that that titles goes to Namibian Pirate David Wiese…….but Nat is pretty good too! Sciver-Brunt is a genuine all rounder, bowling up front pace and cementing middle order batting. Amongst her many achievements ranks the fastest 50 in a ODI, the first playing male or female to take a consecutive ball hat trick in a T20i, is regularly top run scorer in whatever competition she happens to be playing in and is the only cricketer I can think of to have a shot named after her, The Natmeg! Like I say, almost as good as David Wiese!

Hayley Matthews, apart from being a fantastic cricketer, is remarkable for 2 things. 1, she used to represent Barbados in javelin throwing as well as cricket and 2, she bowls with a cap on! A no nonsense West Indian all rounder Matthew’s has played for teams all over the world despite being just 26. She is also Captain of WI women and a T20 World Cup winning, quite the cricketing resumé for a Javelin thrower!

There is of course many, many more players in could mention but these are my pick for you dream team, don’t blame me if you lose though!

Both halves of the competition are wide open and as ever in tournament cricket, anything can happen so don’t miss a moment. All the fixtures are available to listen to via BBC TMS on Radio 5 Extra and a good number of the games out on BBC TV of The Hundred YouTube stream.

Thank you for giving this a read and thank you to our Editor at Large Emily for her help with this edition. All things being equal we’ll be back to a weekly blog from here on in.

All the best,

Nicky B