The Hundred fixtures 2026: MI London Men and Sunrisers Leeds Women to start title defences at Kia Oval on opening day

Sunrisers Leeds Women and MI London Men will begin their Hundred title defences on the opening day of the 2026 tournament, at The Kia Oval on Tuesday July 21.

Sunrisers - formerly known as Northern Superchargers prior to being taken over by IPL owners - play MI London Women in the afternoon game from 2.45pm as the sixth season of the ECB's 100-ball competition kicks off.

Then, from 6.30pm, MI London Men will start their bid for a fourth straight title against Sunrisers Men, having completed a hat-trick in 2025 under their previous Oval Invincibles moniker.

MI London's name switch has also come after investment from IPL owners, with Mumbai Indians chiefs purchasing a 49 per cent stake in the Oval side.

Every match from the men's and women's competitions will be live on Sky Sports, including the eliminators on Friday August 14 and finals on Sunday August 16, with every day seeing a women's game precede a men's fixture at the same venue.

The men's and women's sides that top the league phase will qualify directly for the finals, with the sides ending up second and third meeting in the eliminator to decide the table-toppers' opponents.

Teams play eight group games, meeting six sides once and their local rivals twice.

MI London will play London Spirit on two occasions, with the other home and away fixtures Sunrisers vs Manchester Super Giants, Trent Rockets vs Birmingham Phoenix, and Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire.

The Hundred will hold its first player auction across March 11 and 12.

Players previously not retained or picked up as direct signings were purchased during a draft system but the heavy private investment from overseas across the eight franchises has led to a change in the player acquisition process.

Auctions have been seen across other franchise tournaments, most notably in the IPL.

Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid, James Anderson, Amy Jones, Issy Wong and Sarah Glenn are among the high-profile players not already retained or signed by a side.

Teams could sign up to four players before the auction, either through retentions or new direct signings, with all men's teams and half of the women's sides hitting that number.

Jacob Bethell (Birmingham Phoenix), Jos Buttler (Manchester Super Giants) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (Trent Rockets) were among the big names retained, while Mitchell Marsh (Sunrisers Leeds), Alice Capsey (Birmingham Phoenix) and Smriti Mandhana (Manchester Super Giants) are three of the new signings.