The Hundred: Oval Invincibles v Manchester Originals breaks TV audience record

A terrestrial audience of 1.6 million watched the opening game of The Hundred, making it the most watched women’s cricket match ever televised on the BBC.

Oval Invincibles beat Manchester Originals at the Kia Oval on Wednesday.

In a game streamed live 180,000 times on iPlayer, Invincibles’ captain Dane van Niekerk hit 56 not out, sealing victory with two balls remaining.

The Originals had set the hosts a target of 136 to win.

Broadcast simultaneously on BBC Two and Sky Sports, the peak combined viewing figures of 1.95 million meant the game broke UK viewing records for women’s cricket – surpassing the peak audience of 1.24 million who watched last week’s England v India T20.

More than 3.8m people watched at least three minutes of the game across all channels and nearly 35% of the audience was female.

The crowd of 7,395 in attendance at the Oval also broke the modern-day record for a domestic women's match.

They saw the Invincibles lose four early wickets in their run chase, with the home side 36-4 before Van Niekerk and Marizanne Kapp put on a partnership of 73.

The Hundred’s managing director, Sanjay Patel, said the new format’s debut was “a thrilling match” with “a brilliant atmosphere inside the crowd with lots of families and children”.

“The Hundred is all about throwing cricket’s doors open for everyone, and the response to last night’s game has been remarkable. We know this is only the first game and there is a still a lot of hard work ahead,” he added.

The Hundred continues on Thursday on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from 18:00 BST, with the men’s fixture of Oval Invincibles v Manchester Originals.

Coverage of all games continues on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and BBC Sport online.

Original article 22.07.21 on the BBC Sport website

To see the original article click here