The third season of The Women’s Hundred will kick off on 1st August with the two times runner-up taking the ground against the Trent Rockets. This year, the Rockets will hope to go two steps further from where they finished last year.
In the 2022 edition, they reached the eliminator where the current skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt tried her best to see off the chase with an unbeaten 72 off just 36 balls. This included three consecutive sixes off Tahlia McGrath when the team needed 22 runs off 4 balls for a berth in the final but they fell short of just two runs. The 2021 edition was a forgettable year for them as they finished second from last with just three wins from the eight matches.
The finals of the previous two editions were almost copied and pasted. Oval Invincibles won the elusive title, Southern Braves finished as the runner up and Marizanne Kapp won the player of the final in both the editions.
The Trent Rockets retained their skipper, one of the best pace bowling all-rounders Nat-Sciver-Brunt, the experienced Katherine Sciver-Brunt, the Aussie star Alana King and the young Bryony Smith. They picked the Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur and the South African keeper batter Lizelle Lee from the draft to fill their remaining overseas spots.
In the freshly concluded Charlotte Edwards (CE) Cup, an England-based domestic T20 tournament, Bryony Smith was second on the leading run-getters list, with 256 runs from just seven matches at a fiery strike rate of 155. Along with her, Fran Wilson also impressed everyone with her 186 runs from seven matches.
Katherine Sciver-Brunt needs no introduction. The veteran all-rounder recently announced her retirement from international cricket and will return to play with the Rockets for a third season. The young pacer Kirstie Gordon picked 6 wickets from 7 matches and the 21-year-old spinner, Grace Potts picked 4 wickets from 3 matches and were impressive in the CE Cup. This squad is an amalgam of young players and the perfect experienced players to guide them.
Squad:
Nat Sciver-Brunt (C), Katherine Sciver-Brunt, Alana King, Bryony Smith, Harmanpreet Kaur, Lizelle Lee, Grace Potts, Kirstie Gordon, Josie Groves, Cassidy McCarthy, Naomi Dattani, Alexa Stonehouse, Jo Gardner, Fran Wilson, Nat Wraith
Trent Rockets Schedule for Women’s Hundred 2023:
| DATE | OPPOSITION | VENUE | TIME (BST) |
| 01-Aug-2023 | Southern Brave | Trent Bridge | 15:00 |
| 05-Aug-2023 | Birmingham Phoenix | Edgbaston | 14:30 |
| 09-Aug-2023 | Northern Superchargers | Trent Bridge | 11:00 |
| 11-Aug-2023 | London Spirit | Lords | 11:00 |
| 14-Aug-2023 | Welsh Fire | Sophia Gardens | 15:00 |
| 17-Aug-2023 | Manchester Originals | Trent Bridge | 15:00 |
| 19-Aug-2023 | Birmingham Phoenix | Trent Bridge | 11:00 |
| 21-Aug-2023 | Oval Invincibles | Kia Oval | 15:00 |
Players to watch out:
“You can’t look past the signing of Harmanpreet Kaur who I’ve obviously played in India with and then Alana King, she obviously did really well last year and leg spinners in T20 cricket and The Hundred are very important,” said skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt.
Harmanpreet Kaur
She led Mumbai Indians to the title in the first-ever WPL where Kaur scored 281 runs from nine innings. In the final against the Meg Lanning-led Delhi Capitals, she and Nat Sciver-Brunt shared a match-saving partnership of 72 runs. When India toured Bangladesh in July, Kaur won the Player of the Series award in the T20 leg, which included 54 off 35 balls on a sluggish pitch. She previously played for the Manchester Originals in the 2021 edition.
Alana King
The first-ever bowler to bag a hat trick in The Hundred was well-deservedly retained. In the 2022 edition, she picked seven wickets from as many matches which included her best figure of 4-15 which came against the Manchester Originals. Apart from her wicket-taking abilities, she can provide a late flourish with the bat too.
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