​Explained: Why runs in the Hundred are counted in total T20 runs of a batter originally appeared on Cricket News.
Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.KEY TAKEAWAYS:The Hundred has counted in T20 records since the tournament began in 2021.ICC classifies both men’s and women’s Hundred as official List A T20.Statistician explains the decision matched precedent set by other formats.Why do The Hundred runs count as T20 runs?When Jos Buttler recently climbed past Chris Gayle to become men’s cricket’s leading T20 run-scorer, the news caught plenty of people off guard.They were not to be blamed, as the runs came in The Hundred, a competition built around 100 balls rather than the traditional 120-ball innings.That naturally raised the question of why his runs from that format were being added to his overall T20 tally at all.As it turns out, this isn’t a new development at all, since statistics from the Hundred, across both the men’s and women’s competitions, have counted toward players’ official T20 records ever since the tournament launched back in 2021.MORE: The Hundred: Birmingham Phoenix vs Sunrisers Leeds prediction, lineups and pitch report as Harry Brook eyes another big scoreWhy is The Hundred classified as T20 stats? What is the technical reason behind itThe explanation largely comes down to how the format is actually structured. While The Hundred does differ from traditional T20 cricket in certain ways, in principle it remains the same.The teams bowl consecutive overs from the same end, for instance, and a single bowler is permitted to send down two overs back to back. Moreover, it still fundamentally consists of 20 overs per side, simply delivered in sets of five balls rather than the standard six.According to the ICC’s official classification guidelines for recognised cricket, matches can be granted List A Twenty20 status if they involve a single day’s play, one innings per side, and a cap of 20 overs per team, alongside a handful of other standard requirements.MORE: England squad for ENG vs PAK 2026 Test series with Root as captainThat same documentation, specifically within its appendix section, explicitly lists both the men’s and women’s editions of the Hundred among the official List A Twenty20 competitions played across England and Wales.David Kendix, president of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians and a member of the ICC’s cricket committee, shed further light on how this classification came about.”When The Hundred was being created, ECB sought ICC agreement that the matches would still be classified as official cricket,”  he told in an interview with Cricinfo.”They didn’t want an event where the statistics ‘didn’t count’. ICC clearly wasn’t going to create a fourth official format of the game when it is played in only one tournament in one country, but nor was it going to say that it wasn’t official cricket because it’s 20 balls shorter than a T20.”MORE: ECB unhappy with Cric