Shafali Verma to play The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix

Birmingham Phoenix replaced New Zealand cricketer Sophie Devine with 17-year old Shafali Verma to play in The Hundred tourney in England.

Teen sensation Shafali already got the No-Objection Certificate from BCCI and she will join Indian cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrgues and Deepti Sharma in the inaugural edition of The Hundred.

Shafali Verma has represented India in 22 T20 Internationals and achieved the feat of becoming the youngest Indian cricketer to score a half century. She scored 617 runs at an average of 29.38 with a power packed strike rate of 148.31.

Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments confirmed that Shafali is the fifth Indian player who has been handed a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“It is a delightful news not just for Shafali but for Indian women’s cricket that there will be five Indian players in the inaugural edition of The Hundred. She will re-unite with her Sydney Sixers coach Ben Sawyer and the experience should help her grow further in what has already been a very positive road forward for the youngster,” the source said.

The 17-year-old has shown that she loves taking on fresh challenges and speaking after her spectacular showing in the women’s series against South Africa in March.

Shafali Verma trained with the Haryana men’s team to improve her game.

“The reason behind the fast foot movement is the time I spent with the Haryana men’s team ahead of the Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. I cannot thank the Haryana Cricket Association enough for allowing me to train with the team. What it did was that it helped my decision-making power at the crease as I was facing fast bowlers who were touching close to the 140kph mark. So, I had that extra second to decide if I wanted to go back or play off the front foot when I played the T20I series,” she told ANI.

“We had some top-quality bowlers in Mohit Sharma, Ashish Hooda, Ajeet Chahal, Sanjay Pahal and Aman Kumar among others.” She added.

Shafali also thanked HCA for helping her work on her fitness during the time away from game due to lockdown.

The Hundred format

Interestingly, The Hundred was initially planned as a regular T20 tournament. But, later, due to the ongoing row over present competition structure, the management decided to come up with something new. Also, the ECB wanted to introduce something novel this time to draw in more fans. Thus, in 2018 April, the ECB declared the launch of the 100 ball cricket.

According to the original 100-ball format, the upcoming tournament was proposed to host 15 traditional 6-ball overs along with one final ten-ball over. The management also asked for removal of LBW law. Although the plan sparked criticisms from several quarters yet it received huge support from English team skipper Joe Root. Finally, in 2019 February, the ECB announced revised conditions which would be the confirmed format for the upcoming tournament to commence from July 2021.

As per the reports, The Hundred will follow Round-robin League and Playoffs format. Below is a brief on the major features of the upcoming tournament:

1. 100 balls will be played per innings in every match
2. Bowlers will deliver either 5 or ten consecutive balls
3. After ten balls, there will be change of bowler
4. Every bowler will deliver 20 balls maximum per game
5. Every bowling side will enjoy up till 2 and ½ minutes of strategic time-out
6. Each team will start respective innings with 25-ball powerplay
7. Two fielders would be allowed outside initial 30-yds. circle in times of powerplay
8. Each team has the right to call for time-outs, the same you see with IPL
9. Simplified scoreboard

The tournament will kick start on July 22 with Oval Invincibles taking on Manchester Originals at Kennington Oval, London.