Wrexham are reportedly facing stiff competition from Wayne Rooney's Plymouth in their pursuit of Manchester City starlet's brother John McAtee.
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For Rana, his batting position is all about what the situation demands
S Sudarshanan15-Apr-20253:36
Will Sanju Samson adopt a new approach for RR?
Nitish Rana started IPL 2025 by batting at No. 4 and scoring 11 and 8. Ahead of Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Guwahati, he was pushed to No. 3 and he scored a 36-ball 81. He batted at that spot just once in the next three games. For Rana, his batting position is all about what the situation demands and he’s prepared to move up and down the order.”Things are different and sometimes match situation demands right-left combination, which is important in a format like T20,” Rana said ahead of RR’s game against Delhi Capitals in Delhi. “In the first two games and I tried to fulfil the team’s demands and batted lower down the order. In the third match I was asked if I would bat at No. 3, I said yes and scored 81. I am okay with it and will fulfil whatever the team demands.”RR got into a bidding war with CSK and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and eventually bagged Rana for INR 4.2 crore at the IPL 2025 mega auction ahead of the season. For the last seven years, he played for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), for whom he batted at all positions, from opening to No. 6. Even in RR’s last match against RCB, he walked in on the final ball of the innings at No. 6 and hit a first-ball four.Related
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“This probably what makes a professional cricketer [to play at any position],” he said. “In such a big league, you are playing for a good franchise, that is a big thing and I consider myself blessed. When a team buys you or shows faith in you, they talk to you about what your role is, where you will bat, in what situation you will bat. That is clear, and preparation is according that.”You hear that camps start two months before the IPL or that there is a ten-day camp once the Ranji Trophy breaks. Those are for such preparation and how you should bat in which position. In a tournament at the end of the day, as a batter, you have to pay attention to the ball. If you open or bat down the order, it is about batting one bat at a time.”The more you keep cricket simple, it is simple, the more we make it complicated, it becomes complicated. I don’t think about what my role is and whether that is tough. It is the biggest league, everything is tough, and the challenge is to evolve and come through it as a player, and we are ready for that.”When KKR’s then-captain Shreyas Iyer was injured before IPL 2023, Rana was handed over the reins. He led KKR to a seventh-position finish with six wins and eight losses. When RR’s regular captain Sanju Samson played only as a batter for the first three matches of IPL 2025, Riyan Parag was chosen to lead the team, despite Rana’s previous experience as captain.While Rana “wouldn’t have said no” if he was asked, he agreed with the call to go ahead with Parag.”When I captained KKR, only one thing that was in my favour – that I was with KKR for six-seven years before that. That point was very important in my captaincy,” Rana said. “When I came into RR, Riyan knew more about this team environment and culture than me. It was the right decision, that is not to say I would have said no if I was asked to captain. I would have taken captaincy with both hands. It was an important decision for the team and the RR management took the right decision.”
Heading into Liverpool’s highly anticipated clash with Real Madrid on Tuesday night, one obvious player was stealing all the headlines.
Indeed, it was billed as the return of Trent Alexander-Arnold to Anfield in the Champions League, but the former Reds prodigy turned Los Blancos star only came on for the final exchanges.
Thankfully, Arne Slot’s resurgent side backed up a 2-0 win over Aston Villa with a superb showing against Xabi Alonso’s challengers, as a full team effort guided the Reds to a memorable 1-0 win on Europe’s grandest stage.
It was a phenomenal performance but there was perhaps an even better display post-game from skipper Virgil van Dijk. Keen to dismiss Trent as a talking point, he simply responded to being asked whether he was going to speak to the right-back with one word: “No.”
So, any talk of a meltdown has subsided now, as Liverpool look to be slowly returning to the polished machine they were last season when the Premier League title was triumphantly lifted.
There must be something in the water on Merseyside that sees Liverpool raise their game whenever the LaLiga giants stroll into town.
In 2024, the Reds cruised to a 2-0 victory over the Spanish titans, with Alexis Mac Allister on the score sheet that night.
Deja vu occurred on Tuesday evening; therefore, as another comfortable victory saw the former Brighton and Hove Albion star pop up with the decisive match-winner.
Mac Allister headed home Dominik Szoboszlai’s inch-perfect delivery, with the South American also managing to come off at the end of the clash with 100% of his tackles won.
Szoboszlai offered far more than just being a classy operator from set-pieces, with a total of five shots registered by the Hungarian, only for Thibaut Courtois to have another unbelievable night against Slot’s men.
Come the end of the contest, journalist Bence Bocsak even boldly stated that the classy number eight was the “best midfielder on the pitch”.
That’s high praise, indeed, considering the visitors boasted Jude Bellingham in their ranks, but there was no fear in Liverpool’s game, coming up against some of these world-class talents, as evidenced in Conor Bradley’s ice-cold display.
Bradley – who noted that he wasn’t “fazed at all” after the match – came up against 2025 Ballon d’Or runner-up Vinicius Junior, and had him in his pocket all night long, heroically winning seven duels and three tackles.
Yet, there is one more Liverpool hero who could be turning into Slot’s very own Philippe Coutinho in front of our eyes.
Coutinho is remembered for being an exceptional midfield talent at Anfield, capable of lighting up Champions League occasions with his trickery and skill.
His final season for the Reds saw the Brazilian fire home a ridiculous five strikes from five Champions League clashes, with ex-Liverpool midfielder Craig Johnston once stating that Coutinho was the “absolute jewel” in their crown.
|
Coutinho at Liverpool |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Position |
Games |
Goals + Assists |
|
LW |
106 |
37 + 26 |
|
AM |
84 |
15 + 18 |
|
Sourced by Transfermarkt |
||
Johnston also stated that he provided Liverpool with “the best of both worlds” in terms of his audacious tricks and flicks, but also his hard work and adaptability for the cause, having often been moved to the left wing during his Anfield career.
That worked a treat, too, with 37 of his 54 career strikes for the red half of Merseyside coming from the left flank.
Florian Wirtz very much put in a Coutinho-like shift against Alonso’s men on Wednesday evening, as the easily scapegoated German was equal parts skill and equal parts grit down the left channel, to ensure a 1-0 win was secured.
Only eight of his 197 games for Bayer Leverkusen would come down this channel, but he looked a natural from this spot against Madrid, with a whopping five key passes amassed come the end of the tie and completing his one and only tackle.
The big-money summer signing has not been at his best in Liverpool colours just yet but this certainly provided hope for the future. There is a player in there, for sure.
Moreover, Wirtz completed all 100% of his dribbles as a constant Coutinho-esque threat for the visitors from Spain to keep tabs on.
He also covered a staggering 11.37km of the pitch just from energetic runs alone, with the aforementioned Johnston also once praising Coutinho for his ability to “keep running.”
In an ideal world, Wirtz would want to play in that preferred number 10 position for Slot and Co week in, week out.
But, with an “outrageous” performance now under his belt on the left – as Liverpool-based account Anfield Wrap described it – the £116m summer buy could slowly be morphing into a Coutinho-like presence, with the goals and assists hopefully flowing soon.
Better than Bradley: Liverpool star looked sellable, now he's their star man
Liverpool produced their best performance of the season to defeat Real Madrid in the Champions League.
By
Angus Sinclair
Nov 5, 2025
Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough admits his team were blown out of the water by League One rivals Wrexham for defender in transfer market.
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Fast bowler is eligible again thanks to Brexit, but will return to Hampshire in 2021 and 2022
Firdose Moonda07-Jan-2021Kyle Abbott has no immediate plans to push for an international return for South Africa and aims to use his stint in the country’s domestic game to retrieve the competitive edge he lost from almost a year out of action.Abbott, who played 11 Tests for South Africa before signing a Kolpak deal with Hamsphire, has made himself available for the Centurion-based Titans franchise for the rest of the season. He will play in the One-Day Cup, which starts on Saturday, January 9, and could also feature in up to three rounds of first-class cricket and the T20 Challenge. Then, he will head back to Southampton for the first of two years as an overseas player, a status he has transitioned to after the end of the United Kingdom’s transition period with the European Union put an end to Kolpak registrations.Though Abbott is eligible to play for South Africa, and he did not rule out the possibility of a return, he indicated that he first wants to find his form. “At the moment, [international cricket] is not in my immediate view. I had a very tough 2020 not playing cricket. I need to get back into the space where I was 18 or 15 months ago,” Abbott said, from the biosecure environment in Potchefstroom where the One-Day Cup will be played.”My objective is to get back playing professionally and get back to the level that I was, which is proving to be quite difficult at the moment. The body has had rest but it’s been quite difficult getting back to that competitive edge.”Related
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Life as a Kolpak
In 2020, Abbott played only two matches – in the Lanka Premier League – in which he bowled just five overs after travel restrictions made it impossible for him to return to Hampshire for the county season. With both South Africa and England in lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Abbott – who returns home to Durban in the UK winter – could not organise a visa and accommodate for a quarantine period in England. As a result, he came to an agreement with Hampshire to sit out the season.That meant Abbott had a break from the time he finished at the Paarl Rocks in South Africa’s Mzansi Super League in December 2019 until the LPL in November 2020 and the lay-off affected both his training regime and his motivation. “For the first couple of months, I was quite happy,” he said. “I was enjoying the time off and not feeling guilty that I wasn’t playing anywhere or training or bowling. That was quite nice but then as soon as it got close to when they started to kick off in the UK, I started to itch a little bit and miss it a little bit.”I found myself at stages unmotivated where I would sit for days and think, ‘why must I gym? Why must I run? I can’t see an end.’ I think a lot of us went through that.”But, now that cricket has restarted in South Africa, Abbott decided to use the same system through which he worked his way into professional cricket to work his way back albeit via a different route. Instead of returning to his home team, the Dolphins, he opted for the unfamiliar territory of the Titans. “I needed an environment that would get me back into cricket and purely focusing on cricket. Having played against them in the past, I have admired the way they’ve gone about their work. It’s a hard environment and I felt I needed that to get myself back playing.”Kyle Abbott will return to Hampshire as an overseas player this year•Cricket South Africa
The Titans are home to a host of South African internationals, including Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Lungi Ngidi and Tabraiz Shamsi, but most of them will be unavailable during Abbott’s stay due to international duty. For Abbott, that presents an opportunity to work with some of the younger players in the South African system and to give back to the place he still calls home. “I feel like I still owe a lot to South African cricket,” he said. “I am pretty happy and excited to impart some knowledge back to the system and see South African cricket stay strong.”Abbott’s generosity to the South African system stands in stark contrast to the feelings that surrounded him when he left, having just established himself as the third seamer in the Test attack.His Kolpak deal was first revealed by ESPNcricinfo, before he had told his team-mates, in the middle of a series against Sri Lanka. His departure dwindled South Africa’s resources as he joined a long list of players including Rilee Rossouw, Simon Harmer and Duanne Olivier, who moved to county cricket to benefit from the security of the pound and an escape from the politics of the South African game.But Abbott said going Kolpak was not as simple as chasing money and escaping drama. “People don’t realise that it was never an easy decision for any of us at the time. Life over there is not as easy as people may think – from being away from home for six months to catching a lot of flak from people in the crowd,” he said.”As much as South Africans want to see Kolpaks go, a lot of the English supporters don’t want to see us there. We almost felt we were the outsiders there as we were the outsiders here in South Africa. At the end of the day, it’s our jobs. I understand where people are coming from. It’s an emotional thing. It’s a patriotic thing. But for most of us, myself definitely, it’s purely a career decision that I had to make at the time. I don’t regret anything I ever did.”I’ve grown a hell of a lot as a bowler and a person because I’ve been thrust responsibility and almost the go-to man in most situations and most games. The first-class system in the UK has to be the strongest in the world. The [number] of teams competing every week for something only strengthens cricket. That whole Division One, with the top four or five teams competing for the trophy and bottom for relegation – at any given stage you might only have two or three teams out of it and not playing for much. To have that strength and competitiveness is excellent.”Abbott bends his back in training•Cricket South Africa
For that reason, Abbott is pleased that the South African game will soon be going a similar way. From the 2021-22 season, the domestic structure will consist of 15 teams in two divisions, with automatic promotion and relegation. “It’s been a long time coming for Cricket South Africa to do something like this and put more value on results. In a normal season here, once you get a few rained-out games and then maybe a draw, you are out of it. Now those remaining games are going to be huge because no-one wants to get relegated,” he said.”It’s a terrible feeling. I’ve been on the brink of it, in 2017. It was down to the last hour of the last day of 14 first-class games and it’s a horrible feeling. In South Africa, it’s long overdue considering the amount of facilities we have from Buffalo Park to Potchefstroom, places that can host good first-class cricket.”He maintains he “wants to see South African cricket in a strong position,” and hopes the game can get back on its feet after a difficult 18 months. “South Africa and the Proteas are very close to my heart and I’ve always got an eye on what’s happening here,” he said. “It’s very hard to comment from outside [but] from chatting to guys in the last couple of days and asking how the national teams is going, everyone is incredibly happy. They seem to think it’s in a very healthy position, which is great news.”
Jude Bellingham has hailed the 'stones' on Bukayo Saka for his 'Man of the Match' performance and penalty shootout redemption against Switzerland.
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West Ham chairman David Sullivan and the Hammers board have come under fire from supporters for a long time — even more so after their downward trajectory since 2023.
As per The Telegraph, West Ham supporters are poised to stage protests against the ownership at every Saturday home game this campaign — sending a clear message of discontent towards the hierarchy.
Their controversial move to the London Stadium, which forced loyal supporters to wave goodbye to the beloved Boleyn Ground in 2016, was promised to bring a change of direction — with supporters told they would get a “world-class stadium for a world-class team” (The Telegraph).
However, after what was an unforgettable closing ceremony at the Boleyn, made better by a 3-2 win over Man United that night, West Ham have done little to make good on their pledge to kick on.
David Moyes guided the club to three consecutive seasons in Europe during his second spell in charge, including a journey to the Europa League semi-finals in 2022, and West Ham topped off their exploits abroad by winning the Conference League.
Their glorious night in Prague ended the Irons’ 43-year-wait for silverware, with West Ham also lifting their first European trophy since 1965.
However, apart from a brief adventure under Moyes, their move to the London Stadium has failed to deliver what was promised by the board — and West Ham have only got worse since their Conference League victory.
A succession of managers in Julen Lopetegui and Graham Potter were shown their marching orders after failing to build upon Moyes’ era, with Nuno Espírito Santo now in the West Ham hot seat as he seeks to deliver where his predecessors failed.
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Worst West Ham managers in the Premier League |
Win percentage |
|---|---|
|
9. Sam Allardyce |
30.7% |
|
10. Julen Lopetegui |
30% |
|
11. Gianfranco Zola |
27.8% |
|
12 Graham Potter |
26.1% |
|
13. Avram Grant |
18.9% |
|
via StatMuse |
|
Nuno is making his presence known by axing James Ward-Prowse already, and some reports suggest that West Ham are prepared to back their new manager with new signings in January.
However, tensions between the fanbase and West Ham have now reached breaking point, with former boss Harry Redknapp now predicting a bold move by Sullivan to transform the club.
Speaking to GiveMeSport, the ex-West Ham and Tottenham manager has predicted that Sullivan will sell his West Ham shares to billionaires from the Middle East.
Interestingly, the 78-year-old has actually moved to defend Sullivan too — claiming that the divisive chair has pumped his own money into the club and a lot of the blame for West Ham’s woes lies with their recruitment department.
West Ham take on Arsenal this Saturday as Nuno prepares for his second game in charge, with Mikel Arteta’s side overwhelming favourites, especially considering their major threat from set pieces.
Failure to deal with dead balls has been a real thorn in West Ham’s side this season, so Nuno’s men are seriously up against it at the Emirates, as they also look to contain Arsenal’s plethora of attacking talent.
Lille star Nabil Bentaleb may have to retire from professional football following his cardiac arrest earlier this month.
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Six-hitting exploits seal stiff run-chase after impressive display with the ball too
Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Dec-2020Colombo Kings 205 for 4 (Evans 53, Qais 50*) beat Dambulla Viikings 203 for 3 (Perera 74*, Dickwella 65) by six wicketsHow the match played outWho needs Andre Russell when you have Qais Ahmad?Colombo Kings made an outstanding start to a chase of 204 in their near-dead rubber v Dambulla Viiking, with the in-form Laurie Evans plundering 53 off 24 to propel Kings to 72 for 1 off 6.5 overs. But when he was forced to retire hurt with what appeared to be an abdominal strain, Kings lost substantial momentum. They lost Lahiru Udara and Daniel Bell-Drummond in consecutive overs, and the run rate slowed as new batsmen set about establishing themselves through the middle overs. By the end of the 11th, the required rate had climbed to 11.44.Ashan Priyanjan, though, kept Kings ticking through that middle period, picking up frequent legside boundaries to keep the asking rate manageable. But with Russell having been rested for this game, and Angelo Mathews in woeful batting form this tournament, Kings still needed someone to provide the big final push.Enter Qais at No.7 at the beginning of the 14th over. He played himself in, taking only five runs off his first six deliveries, before hitting two confident consecutive fours off Malinda Pushpakumara in the 16th over. Kings needed 30 off the last 14 balls, so it looked like it was going down to the wire, but Qais made it a cakewalk. He would go on hit five sixes off the seven balls that followed, making sure he never lost the strike.It was devastating hitting. Lahiru Kumara was launched back into the sightscreen, and next over, Anwar Ali was brutalised – a six over long off, and two in the wide long-on/cow corner region coming off his next three deliveries. There was a yorker dot-ball in between, but the next ball was back-of-a-length, and that disappeared a distance beyond the deep square leg fence to end the match. Kings won with seven balls to spare. That six also took Qais to his first ever 50 in senior competitive cricket. It had come off 22 balls.Stars of the dayQais had also been outstanding with the ball, earlier, taking two wickets for 23 runs, as Viiking racked up what seemed like an imposing 203 for 3. Priyanjan, the batsman who kept Kings in the hunt until Qais’ finishing fireworks, made 47 not out off 24. For Viiking, Niroshan Dickwella and Angelo Perera had both struck half-centuries, the latter playing the more impressive innings, making 74 off 41.Where does this leave the teams?This final game of the LPL league stage didn’t really matter much. Viiking and Kings are both through. Kings, though, will now top the table and play Galle Gladiators who sneaked into the semi-final with just two victories in the league stage. That semi-final is the first one up, on Sunday. Viiking will play Jaffna Stallions in the second semi, on Monday.
Former German legends Dietmar Hamann and Oliver Kahn have criticised the inclusion of Said El Mala in Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifying matches. Kahn argued that players should not be selected based on just two or three good performances, while Hamann felt that Nagelsmann should have waited until March next year to give El Mala his first opportunity with the national team.