The Hundred 2024 season predictions and cricket betting tips: London Spirit could have plenty to celebrate

Where to watch The Hundred

Every match is live on Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Sports Mix or Sky Sports Main Event and 15 selected fixtures will also be shown on BBC Two & BBC iPlayer

Best bets

London Spirit Men to win The Hundred
2pts 7-1 general

Nathan Sowter to be top tournament wicket-taker
1pt each-way 40-1 bet365

London Spirit Women to win The Hundred
1pt each-way 10-1 bet365, BoyleSports, Hills

Maia Bouchier top tournament runscorer
1pt each-way 16-1 bet365

The Hundred predictions

The fourth season of The Hundred starts at The Oval on Tuesday and the finals of the men's and women's 100-ball competitions will take place at Lord's on Sunday, August 18.

London Spirit, the franchise based at Lord's, have not made much of an impact in the first three seasons but both their men's and women's teams may be underrated by bookmakers this summer.

The packed schedule means punters will need to keep a close eye on player availability. England's Test batsmen will join their franchises after this week's third Test against the West Indies but the fast bowlers' workloads will be managed more carefully.

Overseas stars such as Nicholas Pooran (Northern Superchargers), Andre Russell (London Spirit), Rashid Khan (Trent Rockets) and Spencer Johnson (Oval Invincibles) are involved in the USA's Major League Cricket tournament, which runs until Monday.

Russell, who starred in Kolkata Knight Riders' IPL triumph this year, is a potential matchwinner for the Spirit and their core of classy county performers makes them an appealing bet.

Captain Dan Lawrence is a terrific T20 all-rounder and Liam Dawson, Ryan Higgins and Matt Critchley provide further balance to the side.

Essex's Michael Pepper was the leading runscorer in the T20 Blast group stage and the Spirit squad includes international batsmen Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Shimron Hetmyer.

Fast bowler Nathan Ellis is a key part of Australia's T20 plans, and a Blast winner with Hampshire in 2022, and the Londoners, seventh out of eight last year, are capable of significant improvement.

Oval Invincibles beat Manchester Originals in the 2023 men's final after recovering from 32-5 to post a matchwinning total of 161-5.

The Invincibles' spinners closed out their victory at Lord's and only three bowlers finished the tournament with more wickets than Nathan Sowter's tally of 11.

He played only two matches in the first two seasons of The Hundred but was an ever-present for the champions last summer and comes into the 100-ball campaign in great form.

Sowter took 19 wickets in 14 Blast matches for Durham at an economy rate of 6.35 runs per over – the best of any spinner in the competition – and he merits an each-way bet in the top wicket-taker market.

The Invincibles beat Southern Brave in the 2021 and 2022 women's finals but the Brave got over the line last summer, defeating Northern Superchargers by 34 runs to lift the trophy.

London Spirit had an underwhelming season, with two wins, four defeats and two washouts – exactly the same record as their men's team – but England captain Heather Knight and former Australia skipper Meg Lanning should inspire them this term.

Lanning was the second-highest runscorer in this year's Women's Premier League in India and Deepti Sharma, the WPL's player of the tournament, will touch down in London after India's T20 Asia Cup campaign.  

Spinners Charlie Dean and Sarah Glenn have flourished under Knight's captaincy for England and the Spirit look a tempting alternative to short-priced favourites Southern Brave.

The defending champions have a powerful batting unit featuring Danni Wyatt, Maia Bouchier and India's Smriti Mandhana, three of the top six runscorers in 2023.

The progressive Bouchier should go well again after establishing herself in England's white-ball teams this year. She scored 223 runs in five T20s in New Zealand in March and made 67 and 100 not out in the first two ODIs against the White Ferns at the end of June.

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