The Hundred: Are the boundaries of women's competition too small?

Some of the world's most exciting players - Deandra Dottin at Headingley or Alice Capsey at The Oval - demonstrating their masterful technique as they smash balls on the boundary rope and in the stands.

But while the sixes and fours stack one debate has also brewed.

Female match boundaries are smaller than male match due to obvious difference in physique - but are they so small?

"It's a fine line," former England international Lydia Greenway told BBC Sport. "If you're in a situation where you only get singles, fours, and sixes because the limits are so short, I don't think the game is as watchable."

According to Opta, the average total of 100 balls in the 2021 edition of the women's event was 119, whereas so far this year , it is 137. Last season, 2.8 six limits were hit on average in each game completed, this year that rate is 5.2. Similarly, 26.7 four limits were hit in every game last season while that rate is 32.7 this season.

More races and more limits. That's a good thing, right? Not necessarily.

Smaller limits may make it easier to hit fours and sixes, but it makes them also harder to find field voids and run twos, removing a key piece of the batter's arsenal.

"A massive feature of the women's game is skill level and technique, it has to be impeccable because they don't have the power," Greenway said.

"So you want them to have the option to push two and three if they can."

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which organizes the Hundred, does not dictate the exact boundary size to each team. Instead, they have minimum and maximum sizes, which are aligned with women's cricket international. The exact size is then determined by the head coach of the team.

The rules state that no boundary shall exceed a distance of 70 meters from the center of the field. According to the ECB, more limits were played at 60 yards earlier in the competition, but this has increased to 65 yards over the past week. This is broadly similar to the 2021 edition.

So if the field sizes are not significantly larger small - what's behind the increased limits?

"Another reason for which we see much higher than six is ​​time on task for players," Greenway said.

"A lot of us played in a time when we couldn't do the strength training we had to do, or the multiple times you have to practice hitting the ball a long distance. We didn't have just no time."

There are also other factors at play. First of all , the hot, dry weather that England has experienced this summer has resulted in much cooler outfields pides, which means the ball will run along the ground and over the boundary line for four times faster than on a greener, lusher surface.

There is also a relatively small group of players who consistently hit sixes. So far, 19 batters have hit more than a six in this year's women's competition, averaging 2.3 players per team. By comparison, there have been 50 players in the men's tournament so far.

"Limits are good," said Welsh fire thrower Alex Hartley.

"There have been a few times where they have been smaller but I think they have been standard size for women's games - it's just because you play on bigger courts that they look smaller.

"I was comparing men's and women's matches the other day and I don't like doing that, but I was wondering why there was so many two in the men's game compared to the women's game. This is because they are so quick between wickets. That's the difference, they're honestly fast. ...