The Hundred finals weekend - all you need to know

After three weeks of thrilling cricket The Hundred 2023 reaches its conclusion this weekend.

Here is everything you need to know and things you should look out for.

Who is playing and when?

Here are the all-important fixtures and start times (all times BST):

Saturday:

• 14:30: Northern Superchargers women v Welsh Fire women
• 18:00: Manchester Originals men v Southern Brave men

Sunday:

• 14:15: Southern Brave women v Northern Superchargers women/Welsh Fire women
• 18:00: Oval Invincibles men v Manchester Originals men/Southern Brave men

One or two new winners?

The women's competition is certain to have a first-time winner after two-time champions Oval Invincibles could only finish fifth in the group stage.

Southern Brave, who lost to Invincibles in both the previous finals, will hope to make it third time lucky. Welsh Fire would complete a remarkable revival if they lifted the trophy having finished bottom of the table in each of the past two seasons, while Northern Superchargers are also in the eliminator for the first time.

The men's competition could have a repeat winner with Southern Brave looking to match their victory in the inaugural competition of 2021. Their eliminator opponents Manchester Originals lost to Trent Rockets in last year's final.

Oval Invincibles, who topped the table to advance straight to the final, are in the knockout stages for the first time.

Farewell to World Cup heroes

Anya Shrubsole (left) and Alex Hartley (right) took eight wickets between them at the 2017 World Cup final

Two of England's 2017 Women's World Cup winners will be bidding farewell this weekend, with Welsh Fire spinner Alex Hartley and Southern Brave captain Anya Shrubsole retiring from cricket.

Shrubsole played 173 games for England across all formats, claiming 227 wickets, including six in a player-of-the-match performance against India in that famous World Cup final win at Lord's.

She also played domestic cricket for Somerset, Western Storm, Perth Scorchers, Berkshire and Southern Vipers during a 19-year professional career.

"I knew I was retiring before this competition and you have that hope you'll make it to the final, but I often find sport isn't that kind so I feel incredibly lucky that the team have performed so well and we get to play in the final," Shrubsole told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Like Shrubsole, Hartley was also an integral part of England's successful World Cup campaign, ending the tournament as their second-highest wicket-taker and claiming 2-58 in the final.

She played 32 matches for England across all formats after her debut against Pakistan in 2016.

The 29-year-old is also a member of the BBC's Test Match Special commentary team and a host of the No-Balls podcast with Thunder team-mate Kate Cross.

Who should I look out for?

There will be an array of world-class talent on show wherever you look this weekend.

Manchester Originals have England white-ball skipper and tournament top scorer Jos Buttler and new England bowler Josh Tongue in their ranks, while Saturday's opponents Southern Brave have the experienced pace duo of Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan, and the emerging talent of teenager Rehan Ahmed.

Sam Curran, player of the tournament at last year's T20 World Cup, is in the Oval Invincibles side as well as the pacey Gus Atkinson, who has just been called up to the England squad for the first time.

The women's competition is equally stacked.

India superstar Smriti Mandhana, the most expensive player at the inaugural Indian Women's Premier League earlier this year, opens the batting for Southern Brave alongside England international Danni Wyatt. They also have England seamer Lauren Bell opening the bowling.

Northern Superchargers have talented Australian duo Phoebe Litchfield and Georgia Wareham, while Welsh Fire have South Africa's all-time wicket-taker in white-ball cricket Shabnim Ismail and England's Tammy Beaumont, who hit the first century in the women's Hundred earlier in the competition.

How is the race for top run-scorer and wicket-taker looking?

As well as the Hundred trophy, there are also plenty of individual awards on the line.

Buttler looks set to take home the gong for men's top run-scorer having hit 298 so far - 85 more than anyone else who is playing this weekend. The women's competition is much closer, with just 32 runs separating the top five, all of whom are in action.

Brave spinner Georgia Adams looks set to end as top wicket-taker, with Fire seamer Ismail and Superchargers spinner Wareham five behind her tally of 16.

Mills leads the men's bowling charts with 15 and will be confident of staying out in front if he leads Brave to glory.

How to watch on TV and across the BBC

However you want to keep updated with The Hundred this weekend, the BBC has it covered.

Both finals are live on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport online, with coverage starting at 14:00 and running until 21:30 on Sunday.

The women's eliminator is also live on the BBC on Saturday from 14:15.

You can also hear radio commentary on all four matches on BBC Sounds, while the BBC Sport website and app will host the TV and radio coverage alongside live text updates, video clips and analysis.

The commentary team across TV and radio includes Isa Guha, Alison Mitchell, Melissa Story and Henry Moeran, with expert analysis from the likes of Suzie Bates, Carlos Brathwaite, Sophie Devine, Michael Vaughan, Tash Farrant, Phil Tufnell and Steven Finn.

Finals day at Lord's will include also a performance in between the two matches by Brit Award winners Rudimental.

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