The awkward second album
Year one had novelty on its side. Year two had to justify itself, and it opened with a structural problem that had nothing to do with 100-ball cricket. The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham took the best women cricketers out of circulation for the first week, so the women's competition began late and was trimmed to six group games a side. The men's tournament ran its full 32 matches from 3 August, but the double-header model that had been 2021's proudest achievement was, for a fortnight, out of step with itself.
The batting improved sharply. Will Smeed made 101 not out from 50 balls for Birmingham Phoenix against Southern Brave at Edgbaston on 10 August, the first century in the men's competition. Four days later Will Jacks hit 108 not out from 48 at The Oval, which suggested Smeed's innings had been a signal rather than a freak. Salaries had risen by a quarter, more overseas players were available with travel restrictions easing, and the standard showed it.
Trent Rockets, quietly
Dawid Malan scored 377 runs, more than anyone, without ever quite dominating a match the way Livingstone had the year before. He made 88 not out at Headingley and 98 not out at Old Trafford, both in wins, and Trent Rockets accumulated points with an efficiency that generated almost no noise. Six wins from eight put them top and straight into the final.
Manchester Originals, London Spirit and Birmingham Phoenix all finished on five wins, separated on run rate, and it was Spirit who drew Originals in the Eliminator at the Rose Bowl. Laurie Evans made 72 from 34 to take Manchester through. Welsh Fire lost all eight. Not a single win in an entire season, which for a franchise already struggling to build a following in Cardiff was a difficult look.
A final worth the wait
The 2022 final was the best match The Hundred had produced. Manchester Originals were pinned down on a slow Lord's surface and made 120 for 9, Sam Cook taking 4 for 18 with a spell of hard lengths that offered nothing to work with. It should not have been enough. Trent Rockets lost wickets steadily, were still short with a handful of balls left, and got home with two deliveries to spare. Rockets won by two wickets, and Cook took the match award for the spell that had made 120 a target at all.
The argument continued
Attendances held at roughly 500,000, which the ECB presented as consolidation. Television audiences fell from just over 16 million to around 14 million, which critics presented as the novelty wearing off. Both readings were defensible from the same set of numbers.
By now the county objection had hardened into a scheduling complaint rather than a philosophical one. The Blast group stage had been shunted into late May and June, and the One-Day Cup ran through August with nearly every international-quality player absent at The Hundred. Counties argued that two of their three competitions had been degraded to protect a third they did not own. The ECB's answer was that the money and the audience were real, and that no county had volunteered to give up its share of either. The disagreement was genuine, and neither side was arguing from nothing.