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Australia 248 for 4 (Gardner 104*, Sutherland 98*) beat England 244 for 9 (Beaumont 78, Sutherland 3-60) by six wicketsIndomitable Australia were at it again, this time with an unbroken 180-run stand between Annabel Sutherland and Ash Gardner which dug them out of early trouble and put them back into top spot on the World Cup table with a six-wicket win against England.It almost feels misguided to use the word “trouble” when it comes to an Australian side packed with so many gifted allrounders and boasting such depth that someone, anyone, in their XI can always get the job done.On Wednesday in Indore, where Australia lurched to 24 for 3 then 68 for 4, it was Sutherland and Gardner, who proved so dominant in their pursuit of 245 that they inadvertently turned the closing stages into a battle over who would reach a century first.Gardner did it, rocking back with intent to steer a Lauren Bell delivery to the boundary through deep third. She’d romped there from 69 balls, yet three dot balls followed to give Sutherland the strike, with four runs needed for victory and five for her ton.Sutherland attempted a six off Sophie Ecclestone and miscued high over cover where Heather Knight spilled the chance. Though she got back on strike with a two, a subsequent single left her at the non-striker’s end on 98, with Gardner hitting the winning boundary as Australia cruised to victory with 57 balls to spare.Both had played their part with the ball too in restricting England to 244 for 9. Sutherland claimed three wickets and Gardner two while legspinner Alana King was instrumental in smothering England through the middle overs with a miserly eight-over spell. She yielded just 13 runs while claiming the big wicket of Nat Sciver-Brunt for just 7. King finished with 1 for 20 from 10.Tammy Beaumont found form with the bat but, without her half-century and a late charge by seventh-wicket pair Alice Capsey and Charlie Dean, England would have been worse off than defending a total that still looked sub-par against a side as strong as Australia.Australia celebrate the DRS review that sent Heather Knight on her way•Getty Images

So it proved as Australia – missing injured captain, wicketkeeper and in-form batter Alyssa Healy – consigned England to their first defeat of the tournament.After a best score of 32 from five innings at this World Cup, Beaumont stood up for England with 78, sharing a 55-run opening stand with Amy Jones. Capsey was the only member of England’s struggling middle-order to make a significant contribution with 38 off 32 balls, while Dean provided another helpful cameo from No.8, this time worth 26 from 27 as the pair put on 61 runs together.It looked briefly like their efforts might have been good enough when new-ball duo Lauren Bell and Linsey Smith sent Australia reeling.Bell’s third ball was a gem which moved away from left-hander Phoebe Litchfield, whizzed past the outside edge and took out off stump. It was the first time in 33 ODI innings that Litchfield had been dismissed in the first over.Healy pursed her lips and shook her head in the dug-out as she watched a replay of her batting replacement, Georgia Voll, bottom-edging a slog-sweep off Smith onto off stump, losing her balance and toppling onto the ground into a backward somersault to complete the indignity.Smith claimed her second with a simple return catch off Ellyse Perry’s leading edge as she backed away from a shorter delivery, while stand-in skipper Beth Mooney was left chewing her top lip after she spooned Sophie Ecclestone to midwicket, where Sciver-Brunt took a sharp catch dive-rolling to her left.Sutherland looked scratchy early in her rescue mission but she settled into a rhythm, moving into the 40s with a powerful slog-sweep off Smith and clearing the covers off Dean for four to bring up her fifty. She then skipped down the pitch to Bell and steered another boundary expertly between extra cover and mid-off.Linsey Smith struck in her second over as Georgia Voll played on•ICC/Getty Images

Gardner raised her half-century with a glorious pulled four off Sciver-Brunt but didn’t stop there, adding two more straight away, a carbon copy of the first followed by a lofted drive down the ground.From there the Australian duo made their task look easy, Gardner becoming particularly aggressive with three consecutive fours off Capsey and three more off Ecclestone’s ninth over to move ahead of Sutherland.Earlier, Kim Garth, who replaced fellow seamer Darcie Brown in the Australian side, and Megan Schutt were wayward with their lines and lengths and the England openers capitalised. England reached 55 for 0 in eight overs, which was already their highest powerplay total of the tournament.But Sutherland’s introduction to the attack delivered instant rewards with a wicket maiden as she plucked out Jones, playing inside the line of a perfect ball on the top of off stump, and when Garth closed out the powerplay with her own maiden to Beaumont, Australia’s mid-innings fightback was underway.After a wise Australia review removed Knight, lbw to Sophie Molineux, King backed up the excellent economy of her player-of-the-match performance against Bangladesh and was rewarded with the wicket of Sciver-Brunt, lured down the pitch and skewing the ball to Sutherland at mid-off.King extracted prolific turn and bounce, her initial spell coinciding with a period between the 20th and 30th overs in which England added just 26 runs. Australia, by contrast, would rack up 77 for 0 in the same spell of their reply.A cool-headed catch by Voll, playing her first World Cup match, removed Beaumont. Feeling the need to pick up England’s tempo, Beaumont took on Sutherland’s slower ball as Voll ran backwards at long-on, parried the ball back into play as she toppled over the boundary rope, and stepped calmly back inside to complete the catch.It was a back-of-the-hand slower ball from Sutherland which extended Emma Lamb’s wretched tournament when she was bowled off her pads for 7, and after struggling for rhythm in her 22 from 48 balls, Sophia Dunkley misread a Gardner delivery, advancing and heaving towards the leg side as the ball spun past the outside edge. Mooney whipped off the bails as she tried in vain to make her ground.Capsey defied her lean run at No. 7 with back-to-back fours off Sutherland, taking her past her previous best of 20 for this tournament. But when she was pinned on the pad by Molineux and Dean chipped Gardner to cover two balls later, Australia wrested back control.

Holder not only anchored Patriots’ innings with an unbeaten fifty but also delivered a match-winning final over

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Sep-2025St Kitts and Nevis Patriots kept their playoffs hopes alive by pulling off a narrow one-run victory over Barbados Royals, who have been knocked out of the race in CPL 2025. Captain Jason Holder played a starring role, not only anchoring Patriots’ innings with an unbeaten fifty but also delivering a match-winning final over with the ball, in which he defended 13 runs.Patriots sit fifth on the points table with eight points and all their matches done. Guyana Amazon Warriors are fourth with eight points and if they win either of their next two matches, they will secure the last playoffs spot, with St Lucia Kings, Trinbago Knight Riders and Antigua and Barbuda Falcons already through.While there were handy contributions from several players, Holder’s all-round performance was the key to Patriots’ success. His 53 not out guided them to 150 for 7, with Patriots recovering from 62 for 4 at the end of ten overs. This was after Mohammad Rizwan’s 39 off 36 helped Patriots get off to a modest start. Holder, along with Navin Bidaisee (30 off 23), accelerated in the latter stages as the pair added 74 runs off 46 balls for the sixth wicket, including 34 runs off the last three overs.Holder’s leadership was also evident in the bowling attack, where he claimed two crucial wickets in the death. His most dramatic contribution came in the final over, with Royals needing 14 runs to win. Rassie van der Dussen started the over with a six over long-on to bring the equation down to eight off five. Holder kept his composure and, with the equation down to two needed off the last ball, bowled a perfect yorker to trap Daniel Sams lbw, sealing a thrilling victory for Patriots.Earlier, Royals had made a strong start, with opener Brandon King (29 off 22) laying a good foundation for the chase. They raced to 44 for 1 by the end of powerplay. However, the middle overs proved costly as the top order struggled to accelerate. Patriots’ bowlers capitalised, with Waqar Salamkheil striking first with the wicket of King and Naseem Shah removing Kadeem Alleyne in the eighth over. Quinton de Kock was caught and bowled by Bidaisee in the following over and despite a dropped catch from Rizwan, Royals’ chase started to lose momentum.Van der Dussen fought valiantly, keeping Royals in the hunt with a quickfire 37 off 27 balls, but it wasn’t enough in the end. For Patriots, Salamkheil and Bidaisee also picked up two wickets apiece.

Giancarlo Stanton's latest strikeout was a big one, as it put him in an exclusive club.

In the bottom of the sixth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, the New York Yankees' designated hitter fell behind 1-2 against reliever Garrett Cleavinger. Then, Stanton swung and missed at an 86 mph slider to record his first strikeout of the game. It was also the 2,000th of his career.

With that swing and miss, Stanton became the eighth player in Major League Baseball history to record 2,000 strikeouts as a hitter. The others are Reggie Jackson (2,597), Jim Thome (2,548), Adam Dunn (2,379), Sammy Sosa (2,306), Alex Rodriguez (2,287), Miguel Cabrera (2,105) and Andres Galarraga (2,003).

That's some fairly lofty company. Jackson and Thome are Hall of Famers, while Cabrera will be in when he's eligible. If not for performance-enhancing drug scandals, Sosa and Rodriguez would be in as well. Only Dunn and Galarraga aren't Hall of Fame-level players.

While it's a dubious club to enter, Stanton is in some pretty great company.

Entering Wednesday night's action, the 35-year-old is slashing .275/.351/.510, with seven home runs and 20 RBIs in 30 games played. Injuries to both of his elbows have cost Stanton most of this season.

Ravindra Jadeja has said that he isn’t surprised by his non-selection for India’s upcoming ODI series in Australia and that the communication from the team management has been smooth. Jadeja, who will turn 37 this December, had retired from T20Is after winning the World Cup last year, but has ambitions of playing in the 2027 ODI World Cup.”[Selection] is not in my hands. I want to play, for sure,” Jadeja said at his press conference after the second day’s play against West Indies in the Delhi Test. “[At the] end of the day, team management, selectors, coach and captain have their thoughts and they will have their reasons for not selecting me for this series. They have talked to me, it was not a surprise for me after the squad was announced.Related

• Kohli and Rohit selected in India's ODI squad for Australia

“It is a good thing that they communicated the reason behind my omission. I am happy about that. But whenever I get a chance next, I will try and do what I have done all these years. If I get a chance in the World Cup and there are many ODIs before and if I do well there, it will be a good thing for Indian cricket. Winning a World Cup is everyone’s dream. We had narrowly missed out the last time, the next time we will try and make up for it.2:56

Jadeja: ‘I don’t think about captaincy and vice-captaincy anymore’

Jadeja’s omission was among five changes from the ODI squad that had won the Champions Trophy in the UAE in March. After announcing the squads, Ajit Agarkar, India’s chief selector, however, suggested that Jadeja is still part of their future plans in ODI cricket.”With regards to Jaddu [Jadeja], I mean look, at the moment to take two left-arm spinners to Australia is not possible. He is clearly in the scheme of things with how good he is, but there will be some competition for places,” Agarkar said at the time. “Of course he was there in the Champions Trophy squad, because we took those extra spinners with the conditions there [in UAE].”At the moment we could only carry one and get some balance in the team with Washy [Washington Sundar] and Kuldeep there as well. I don’t think we are going to need more than that in Australia. It’s a short series, you can’t accommodate everyone and unfortunately at the moment he is missing out, but it’s nothing more than that.”Jadeja has played 204 ODIs so far, taking 231 wickets to go with 2806 runs. In his most recent ODI assignment, the Champions Trophy, he came away with five wickets in five innings at an economy rate of 4.35.India will play three ODIs in Australia on October 19, 23 and 25, followed by five T20Is between October 29 and November 8.

Charles and David also contributed with the bat to hand Patriots their third loss in four games

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Aug-2025

Roston Chase’s fifty formed the backbone of the St Lucia Kings’ innings•CPL T20/Getty Images

After a washout in their opening game, St Lucia Kings beat St Kitts and Nevis Patriots by three runs in a last-ball thriller in Basseterre to register their first win of CPL 2025. This was Patriots’ third loss in four games.After being sent in, Kings rode on the half-centuries of Johnson Charles and Roston Chase and a 23-ball 46 from Tim David to post 200 for 8. Patriots started well in their chase but had lost three wickets by the end of the powerplay. It became 66 for 4 after nine overs. At that point, ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster gave Patriots a 5.32% chance of winning.Jason Holder kept them in the game singlehandedly, striking a 29-ball 63. After he fell, Navin Bidaisee took over and brought it down to four needed off the final delivery. David Wiese bowled a slot ball; Bidaisee swung towards long-off but could not clear David. Apart from scoring a 38-ball 61, Chase also picked up 2 for 27 from four overs and was named the Player of the Match.Earlier, Kings were 21 for 2 after three overs before Charles and Chase injected momentum into the innings by adding 50 off 26 balls for the third wicket. After Charles fell, Chase and David carried on. Chase hit Dominic Drakes for three fours in an over and, later, David smashed Holder for three sixes in his one over.Jason Holder’s valiant knock could not bring a win for Patriots•CPL T20/Getty Images

They added 80 off 50 but after they both departed, the incoming batters could not keep the momentum going and managed just 21 from the last three overs.Andre Fletcher and Kyle Mayers gave Patriots a start of 43 in 4.2 overs. But once Wiese broke that stand with Mayers’ wicket, Patriots’ chase got derailed. Khary Pierre, who had opened the bowling, removed Fletcher and Mikyle Louis in the next over to make it 49 for 3 after the powerplay. Chase dropped a tough return catch of Rilee Rossouw. It did not prove costly as Chase dismissed him in his next over. Holder came and hit Tabraiz Shamsi for 4, 6, 6 off successive balls in the tenth over to take the side to 84 for 4 at the halfway stage.Holder kept hitting and brought up his fifty with his fifth six, off Wiese and off just 23 balls. He added 77 off 40 balls for the fifth wicket with Bidaisee, in which the latter’s contribution was 9 off 11.Once Holder fell, Bidaisee opened up and dispatched Shamsi for 4, 4, 6. He hit a six in each of the next four overs and got to his fifty in 35 balls. But he could not take Patriots over the line.

A former team-mate of Lionel Messi has revealed how much he would love to join the Argentina icon at Inter Miami. The World Cup winner has recently extended his stay with the MLS side, penning a new contract at the club that will run through to the end of the 2028 MLS season. Messi will be 41 when his contract expires, meaning this could be the final club of his incredible career.

Messi starring in MLS with Miami

Messi is continuing to play a starring role for Inter Miami and is currently eyeing his third piece of silverware with the club. The former Barcelona star has already won the Leagues Cup and the Supporters Shield during his time with David Beckham's club and will face the Vancouver Whitecaps next for the MLS Cup on 6 December. Saturday's game will be Inter Miami's first MLS Cup final appearance and offers Messi the chance to add yet another trophy to his extensive cabinet.

AdvertisementAFPEx-Messi team-mate opens door to MLS move

Ahead of the game, Messi's former Argentina team-mate Darío Benedetto has been talking about his future. The 35-year-old, who left Newell's Old Boys in October, is on the verge of retirement but admits he could be tempted to reconsider, particularly if Messi comes calling. "If he calls me to play for Inter Miami, I'll go by bicycle!" he told ESPN.

A move may be unlikely, but Benedetto is still hoping to finish his career on a high. He added: "I got fed up with certain bad habits that football has taken on today. Troubles, business dealings, it doesn't matter… But I'll always love it, because I'm very grateful to football. I can't believe the career I've had… Now I'm almost retired. But I've decided, through therapy, to extend it a little longer and retire on a high note.

"I'm going to lean towards clubs that don't have any problems, because the last few years I've spent my time complaining. I want to enjoy playing football," he added, "I would have liked to retire at Boca, but it didn't happen. My best form was in 2016. And I always watch it on TV."

Messi staying at Miami

As for Messi, he now looks set to stay at Miami potentially until he hangs up his boots after penning a three-year extension in October. The World Cup winner said: “It makes me really happy to stay here and to continue with this project that, besides being a dream, has become a beautiful reality – playing in this stadium, at Miami Freedom Park. Since I arrived in Miami, I’ve been very happy, so I’m truly glad to keep going here.”

Yet Messi has also admitted that he still longs to return home to Barcelona and plans to go back to the city with his family in the future. He told Sport: "I really want to go back there, we miss Barcelona a lot. My wife and I, the kids, are constantly talking about Barcelona and the idea of moving back. We have our house there, everything, so that's what we want. I'm really looking forward to going back to the stadium when it's finished because since I left for Paris, I haven't been back to Camp Nou, and then they moved to Montjuic.”

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Getty/GOALMessi vs Muller up next

Messi is now preparing for Saturday's clash in a game which will see the Inter Miami talisman come up against former Bayern and Germany star Thomas Muller. The forward joined Vancouver Whitecaps in the summer after his contract with Bayern ended and is now set for yet another match-up with Messi.

"It's not about Messi against Thomas Müller," Muller told reporters. "It's Miami against the Whitecaps. Maybe they rely a little bit more on him than we do on me, because we are such a good group."

The two superstars have previously met 10 times, with Messi ending up on the winning side only three times.

Erling Haaland has given a candid response to Norway’s daunting World Cup draw, admitting on social media that he faces a brutal challenge in what supporters are already calling the tournament’s 'group of death'. Next summer’s World Cup will be the largest ever staged, expanding to 48 teams across 12 groups as FIFA introduces a round of 32 for the first time. Yet even within a broadened field, one Group I stands out for its sheer competitiveness.

Haaland set to clash with Mbappe

France, Senegal, Norway and the winner of FIFA play-off 2 – one of Bolivia, Suriname or Iraq – have been drawn together. The draw immediately triggered excitement among fans because it finally delivers a long-awaited showdown between Haaland and Kylian Mbappe on the sport’s biggest stage. The Norwegian is heading towards his first World Cup with Norway in fine form, whereas Mbappe, now spearheading Real Madrid’s forward line, continues to produce the kind of numbers that will define a generation of footballing legends. Mbappe already has the ultimate international accolade, having lifted the trophy in 2018 and dazzling again in the 2022 final. Haaland, on the other hand, has been forced to watch from afar as Norway repeatedly missed out, until now.

AdvertisementA battle between two extraordinary strikers

Haaland was ruthless in qualifying, scoring 16 goals in eight games to haul Norway into their first World Cup since 1998. No player on any continent scored more. For a country whose footballing hopes have long rested on promise without fulfilment, Haaland’s numbers were simply historic. Mbappe’s own statistics this season are equally formidable. He has scored 16 times in 15 league matches for Real Madrid and is only two goals away from becoming France’s all-time leading scorer at just 26. Haaland is already Norway’s record marksman and an incredible 22 goals clear of the next highest on his country’s list. At club level, he has 15 goals in 14 appearances for City in the English topflight. 

He shared his initial reaction on Instagram shortly after the draw was finalised and wrote: "France and Senegal, that’s tough [laughing emoji]. What do you guys think?"

Deschamps welcomes the Haaland–Mbapps spectacle

France manager Didier Deschamps was keen to embrace the drama of the inevitable duel. "It will be a great duel," he told reporters. "Both teams have lots of other big names, but of course Kylian and Haaland are two players recognised around the world and they will be two of the contenders to be the top scorer."

Deschamps was quick to highlight not only the Haaland–Mbappe spectacle but also the renewed significance of France facing Senegal, a flashback to one of the most dramatic opening nights in World Cup history. In 2002, Papa Bouba Diop stunned the world by scoring the winner against the reigning champions, setting in motion a disastrous tournament for Les Bleus as they departed without a single victory.

"Every World Cup has its own story and we need to make sure this one is as beautiful as possible," added Deschamps. "Of course, as France we have a status and there is a lot of expectation around us, but we need to show respect and humility from the beginning. Before thinking about what is at the top of the mountain, we will need to work our way up gradually and the first steps are difficult."

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Getty Images SportWhen can England face France?

Given France were among the top four seeds, an eventual meeting with England could only happen in the latter stages of the tournament. England themselves face a challenging route, having been drawn alongside Croatia, Ghana and Panama.

"We have Croatia and Ghana, two regulars in World Cups, and we have Panama," England manager Thomas Tuchel explained. "I don’t know much about Panama, but we will know everything about them when the tournament starts. For me personally, even in the Champions League, you have to focus on the group – the group is always the most difficult, and we want to escape, and we want to win the group. It’s a tough one."

Every World Cup fixture will be announced on Saturday evening. 

While Arsenal dropped points prior to the international break, this weekend represented a colossal opportunity for Mikel Arteta’s men to stamp their authority on this Premier League title race.

Manchester City and Liverpool suffered defeat, meaning that once the Gunners had beaten fierce rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, their advantage over City in third was now seven points.

As Jamie Carragher put it at full-time on Sky Sports, the only team who can stop Arsenal from winning the league are Arsenal.

They have the tactics, they have the defensive shape and they now have the attacking firepower and depth to their squad to take on anyone.

As Arsenal swatted aside Spurs, they did so without a recognised centre-forward, they did so without captain Martin Odegaard and they did so without Gabriel, one of the most influential players in the entire division this season.

The man to thank? Well, it was certainly Eberechi Eze.

The key men as Arsenal defeat Spurs

Coming into this game the narrative was all about Eze.

The attacking midfielder had famously rejected a move to Spurs in the summer in favour of returning to his boyhood club.

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank was quizzed on that in his pre-game press conference and muttered a response that he will now live to regret: “Who’s Eze?”

The Dane said that with a smile. Well, he certainly knows who Eze is now.

He became the first Arsenal player to score a hat-trick in the north London derby since Alan Sunderland in 1978 and he did so in some style.

It was Leandro Trossard who has opened the scoring but Eze, signed for £67.5m over the summer from Crystal Palace, stole the show.

Arsenal have lacked a player with his ability to shoot on sight and boy did he do so on Sunday evening. His first was a brilliant taken effort in a crowded penalty area but his second and third goals came with more space.

The quality, however, was equally as good each time. The England international scored a stunning goal for his country over the international break and was bang in form again here. The way he dispatched his second on his weaker foot spoke volumes of the form this man is in.

The third was also sumptuous. Fed the ball by Trossard, the former Palace star took one touch to set himself, ignored Bukayo Saka to his right and rifled the ball home.

Eze deserved most of the plaudits but the aforementioned Trossard did too. He scored and assisted, meaning that in the 32 games where he has found the net for Arsenal, he has never been on the losing team.

An amount of praise must be passed to Piero Hincapie too.

With Gabriel injured and out of the side the Ecuadorian stood in at centre-half and was exemplary on his first start in the Premier League, winning all three of his contested aerial duels.

Still, there was a rather underrated performance elsewhere that we’re yet to mention.

Arsenal star shows shades of Ozil and Odegaard

An attacking midfielder lights up the Emirates again and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Eze was the most alike to a certain Mesut Ozil and Odegaard.

Yet, in rather surprising circumstances, the player who evoked memories of those dazzling Arsenal players was Mikel Merino.

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When the Spaniard signed for the Gunners in 2024 he was renowned as something of a duel monster. While he’s played regularly in midfield for Arteta, he has been most impactful as a makeshift striker.

Injuries to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus last term meant that the Spain international needed to fill in as a centre-forward. He performed admirably too, notably scoring against Real Madrid and rescuing that win against Leicester when he first featured as the number 9.

Arsenal signed Viktor Gyokeres in the summer but have still had to rely on Merino with Jesus, Havertz and the Swede on the sidelines in recent weeks.

The £32m midfielder netted twice against Slavia Prague in the Champions League a few weeks ago but perhaps saved his finest display of the season for Spurs on Sunday.

He started the game slowly but held the ball up admirably and although he won’t run the channels like Gyokeres, he made the team click and was the catalyst for Eze’s hat-trick. That was outlined by analyst Raj Chohan on social media.

That wasn’t the best thing Merino did, however. The pass for Trossard’s goal was remarkable.

He received the ball 25 yards from goal, waited for precisely the right moment to clip the ball into the box and he did so delightfully, finding the Belgian who swivelled and then found the net.

It was a scarily good pass, one that evoked memories of a certain Ozil.

In the process of being hailed as “Arsenal’s most underrated player” by club insider, Hand of Arsenal, he stated that “if that pass is made by Ozil we are raving.”

Merino vs Spurs

Minutes played

88

Touches

44

Accurate passes

16/22 (73%)

Shots

1

Key passes

1

Successful dribbles

0/2

Tackles won

5/5

Ground duels won

8/15

Aerial duels won

2/7

Recoveries

3

Stats via Sofascore.

CBS reporter James Benge had a similar viewpoint, remarking that it was “an Arsene Wenger building an entire midfield out of diminutive playmakers” type of pass.

Cast your mind back to the days of Ozil, to some of Odegaard’s magical assists in Arsenal colours, it was right out of their playbook and it broke down what had been a stubborn Spurs defence up to that point.

Merino is not the most stylish of players, he is not the Rolls-Royce. However, what he will always guarantee is a mighty strong shift and a very efficient performance. He delivered just that on Sunday again, all with a bit of Ozil flavour.

Related Not just Eze: £27m star just had his best game for Arsenal

Eberechi Eze scored a remarkable hat-trick as Arsenal defeated Spurs.

Posts ByMatt Dawson Nov 23, 2025

While Pakistan dealt with the burden of being (g)hosts

Alan Gardner12-Mar-2025And so they did it, triumphing against the odds. Plucky India, with their population of 1.4 billion. With their ICC revenue share of US$230 million. With their team of IPL Galacticos (but no Jasprit Bumrah, of course – another hurdle to overcome). They defeated New Zealand, Goliaths of overachievement, in the Champions Trophy final and the whole cricket world rejoiced.Or at least the biggest contributors to cricket’s economy rejoiced, which pretty much amounts to the same thing. Seriously, who do you think is paying for all this stuff?We had to cheer the little guy on right to the last ball of the penultimate over, so gamely did they attempt to make a game of it. Almost as if to underline the message “Look, folks, no undue advantage here.” Rohit Sharma even stretched mathematical probability to its outermost limit by wilfully losing the toss for the 12,000th time in a row – just to emphasise how up against it his side were.Gautam Gambhir had already put the “perpetual cribbers” in their place after the semi-final, when responding to such undignified questioning as “How brilliant is your brilliant India team, sir?” And Rohit swatted away the idea that spending the entire tournament in Dubai, while everyone else shuttled around Pakistan and back-and-forth to the UAE, was in any way beneficial.”It’s not our home either,” he said. “We don’t play so many matches here, it’s new for us as well.” He might have added that choosing dinner from the same five-star menu becomes really hard after the sixth night in a row, let alone three weeks, and that many of his team-mates had struggled to pack enough swimming trunks to cover the duration of their stay. Who was to know that the Dubai pitch would support bowling 38 overs of spin in the final? Certainly not India.Okay, so Mohammed Shami said something about it being a “plus point that all our matches have been played at the same venue” – but he is merely a 12-year veteran of international cricket, and the second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, so what does his opinion count for?Sure, there might have been a few more fans wearing blue shirts than black caps in the stadium, but this was a classic battle for sporting supremacy. It’s a wonder, really, that the players didn’t go to the logical end point of their refusal to countenance any sort of bias towards India and shove ICC chair Jay Shah off the stage following the trophy presentation, a la Australia and Sharad Pawar all those years ago. Now that would have sent a message.Anyway, talking of tournaments where there’s only one winner… shut your traps, haters, the IPL is about to start.

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Thanks England, for saving Test cricket by having one sucky white-ball tournament after the other•Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty ImagesFor Pakistan, what was meant to be a crowning moment – hosting an ICC tournament for the first time since 1996 – became something more like a public flogging. To be fair to the PCB (a sentence we don’t write often), not all of their pain was self-inflicted. From Pakistan’s name being scrubbed off the TV broadcast logo, to India’s anthem being played at the Gaddafi, to losing out on the right to stage the final – as India’s gravitational pull dragged the tournament away to the UAE – to having no representative on stage for the trophy presentation, the hosts were slowly ghosted. Sure, there was some self-sabotage, like always – Pakistan winning zero games didn’t help. But remember, just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

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England’s Champions Trophy, meanwhile, stank out the room in a way that has barely been conceivable since they started playing white-ball cricket in 2015 (). The promotion of Brendon McCullum to all-formats supremo looked to be on rocky ground after the team lost ten out of 11 games on tour in India and Pakistan… but hold on just a minute. England, remember, are on a mission from Baz to save Test cricket. And if that means tanking in the limited-overs stuff to the extent that it becomes unwatchable, then job done. Yep, that’s right, everybody, the Bazballers have done it again with their 4D chess. No need to thank them (although a namecheck wouldn’t go amiss). The future of Tests is safe in their hands.

Test cricket, when your front men are scoring runs, is bliss. And that is what India will be searching for in Mumbai

Alagappan Muthu29-Oct-20241:16

Manjrekar: India will hope Rohit, Kohli fire in Australia

This is an anomaly, and it is at the heart of everything that has gone down in this series. A visiting batter is the top-scorer. There really aren’t very many times that has happened in Test cricket played in India.Keeping to events in this century, there was Alastair Cook’s merciless grind in 2012-13. Steven Smith’s extraordinary skill in 2016-17. Hashim Amla’s wristy goodness in 2009-10, dismissed just once while scoring 490 runs. Andy Flower’s sweep-shot masterclass in 2000-01. Matthew Hayden’s sweep-shot masterclass in 2000-01. This is not an exhaustive list, but it does highlight a very useful point. Only one of these five performances went on to help their team win the series.India’s batters found ways to match most of the others. Cheteshwar Pujara was hot on Smith’s heels. Rahul Dravid was only 108 runs off Flower despite playing one fewer innings. And VVS Laxman made 2000-01 all about himself with just one trip to the crease. A significant part of their dominance at home came down to their ability to pile on some serious runs, the kind that simply overwhelmed oppositions. England, in 2016-17, began three of the five Tests with first-innings totals of 400 or more. They drew one and lost two – by an innings.Related

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Often enough, these runs came from their top four – from players with an enormous amount of experience, and the stubbornness that comes with it. This time, however, India’s closest representative to Rachin Ravindra on top of the leaderboard is a man who hadn’t played any international cricket prior to this year.Sarfaraz Khan’s biggest contribution, though – his 150, which forms a lion’s share of his total 170 runs – did come from higher up in the batting line-up. In fact, he braved the challenge of walking out earlier than he normally does in first-class cricket, and came good. That innings is doing a lot of legwork in carrying the average of the top four batters for India up to 31.75. Take that away, and in 15 innings, they have contributed 358 runs at an average of 23.87, including three ducks.New Zealand’s Nos. 1-4, meanwhile, are averaging 49, and even if you take Ravindra’s century out, it stands a healthy 37 because Devon Conway has two half-centuries; Tom Latham, in Pune, produced some of the most high-quality defensive batting seen in the second innings in India in the modern era; and Will Young, who came in to replace Kane Williamson, perhaps the only irreplaceable player in the team, has offered solidity. Among India’s top four, only Yashasvi Jaiswal has faced more balls than Young’s 222. Among his own top four, only Latham has faced fewer (210).Test cricket, when your front men are scoring runs, is bliss. And that is what India will be searching for in Mumbai. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have home bases here, left Pune early. It was understandable. There was nothing more for them there. Just unhealthy reminders of what they had lost: 18 straight series wins, a run unlike any other in the history of the game, and a run to which they had been significant contributors.India need the Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli of old now•BCCIKohli, in particular, has produced absolute gems in dire batting conditions. He made 248 runs in Visakhapatnam from eight years ago, but 81 of those stand separate – as an example of just how devastating his focus is. The ball that turned big couldn’t beat him. The ball that went straight couldn’t catch him off guard. The ball that kept low was whipped to the boundary. There was a 44 against Australia in Delhi just last year, when he was in control of roughly nine out of 10 balls in conditions where the others could only dream of such a thing. His judgment of length was scary quick, and the decisions that they led to elevated batting into art. In this series, he has been bowled to a Mitchell Santner full toss and caught off a non-turning Glenn Phillips offbreak. It has continued a worrying trend in both his and his team-mates’ batting against spin.Rohit has been a lightning rod for India’s defeats. His comments at the post-match press conference in Pune – particularly where he tried to defend the options that he and his team chose – have not gone down well. On social media, people have likened him to Erik Ten Hag, the Manchester United manager who had a habit of telling the media that he was happy with his team’s performance even after losses and pointing to past victories to explain their progress. Ten Hag was sacked on Monday. Rohit’s situation is slightly more secure, but it hasn’t escaped notice that he has led India to four losses in 15 home Tests. His predecessor lost two in 31.Reducing a player to just their numbers can be a bit unforgiving. Worse, it tends to paint an incomplete picture. In this case, it ignores how well Rohit led the team against England earlier this year when they went 0-1 down, and lost first-choice picks to injury and other complications. All of a sudden, there was a whole bunch of new(ish) faces in the team, and nearly all of them had a hand in turning that series scoreline to read 4-1. One of them, Jaiswal, is shaping up to be a world-beater. Rohit lifted his own performance levels as well, scoring two centuries and a fifty. India need that Rohit and that Kohli now. They need their two best batters to regain their old aura.