The Hundred rules explained

The Hundred rules at a glance

The T20 column shows men's T20 internationals. Fours, sixes, extras, the 10 wickets to bowl a side out and the target of one run more than the other side's total all work as in any other cricket.

How do sets of five and the change of ends work?

The Hundred replaces the six-ball over with the set of five legal balls (the playing conditions still call it an over). At the end of a set the umpire calls "five" instead of "over". Two sets are bowled from each end before the ends change, so the ends swap every 10 balls rather than every six.

The captain decides whether one bowler bowls both sets from an end, 10 balls in a row, or two bowlers bowl five each. After the first set from an end, the umpire holds up a white card to show that the next five come from the same end. With a limit of 20 balls, a bowler can bowl at most four sets in an innings.

As in other cricket, wides and no-balls are bowled again and are not among the 100.

How is scoring in The Hundred different from T20?

• Balls, not overs. The scoreboard counts balls, so there is no 18.2. In six-ball overs, 100 balls would be 16.4; the overs to balls converter turns one into the other.
• Rates per ball. A chase is followed as runs needed from balls left. Needing 30 from 20 balls is 1.50 a ball, which is 7.50 per set of five or 9.00 per six balls. The required run rate calculator has a Hundred mode.

The first 10 balls, ball by ball

Here is the start of an innings: 11 deliveries, 10 of them legal, because the no-ball does not count toward the 100. The playing conditions call each set of five an over, so the Overs column counts sets: 1.0 is one set of five, 2.0 is 10 balls.

After 10 balls the score is 20/1 with 90 balls left, and the powerplay has 15 balls to run. Legal balls 6 to 10 (deliveries 7 to 11) came from the same end as the first five, bowled by the same bowler or a new one, and the 11th legal ball will come from the other end. In a T20 the same 10 balls would read 20/1 in 1.4 overs, with the ends already changed once.

What is the strategic timeout?

Each fielding side can take one strategic timeout of 90 seconds in its innings. The captain asks the umpires when the ball is dead, it can come mid-set or between sets, and it cannot be taken in the first 25 balls, so it always falls after the powerplay. It is optional: if a side does not use it, the 90 seconds are added to the match's extra time.

What happens if a match in The Hundred is tied?

A tied group match stays a tie, and each side gets two points. In the Eliminator and the Final, a tie goes to a Super Five: one set of five balls for each side, with the side that batted second in the match batting first, and two wickets ending a side's five balls. If the Super Five is tied too, a second one is played. If that is also level, the side that finished higher in the group goes through (in the Eliminator) or takes the trophy (in the Final).