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Cartwright has big boots to fill but Madsen remains key influence for trip to Taunton

David Hopps08-Jul-2022″What do you know about Derbyshire?” Hilton Cartwright was asked. He is only there for a month, so he was not about to reel off the county’s lesser-known delights, but he can already feel the yearning for the county to reach only the second T20 Finals Day in their history.”The only thing I know is don’t go to that restaurant,” he offered, before recalling the name of a well-known fast-food chain that had laid him low with food poisoning for two-and-a-half days soon after his arrival.But, in truth, he really knows two things. Much more easily digestible is the knowledge that, in filling in for Shan Masood, who has been called up for the Pakistan Test squad in Sri Lanka, in Derbyshire’s Blast quarter-final against Somerset at Taunton on Saturday, he is facing one of the most daunting tasks of the season.Cartwright joined a media link-up in Derby this week in good-natured fashion as, first, Derbyshire’s ebullient coach, Mickey Arthur, and then their finest batter of the past decade, Wayne Madsen, blithely extolled the virtues of Masood both as a captain and an opening batter, conceding that his absence will not be easily disguised. There was no sense that it was an attempt to spur Cartwright on, just an honest acceptance that Masood has been such a central figure in their reaching their third last-eight tie in the last six years.Overseas players come and go, but Masood has been more indispensable than most. The question as to whether they can cope without him cannot be overlooked.”Shan has been a big contributing factor,” said Madsen, 38 now, but revitalised by Masood’s involvement after missing much of last season with a serious hamstring injury. “It has certainly helped our batting group to know that you’re batting with someone who’s playing with such competence. He scores quickly, but you feel he’s going to bat through. I would say Shan’s had a huge influence not only in the way I’ve played, but the way that the group have played from a batting perspective this year.”Arthur is having his first stint as a county coach after a wealth of experience at international level, and Derbyshire have flourished under his ebullient brand of positive thinking. He will also tell you the same, except adding that Derbyshire have been preparing for Masood’s absence all along.”Shan’s been a colossus for us. He’s been outstanding: with his weight of runs, and his presence in the dressing-room has been exceptional. But we lose Shan and the next man comes in because he’s been primed for that position. You know, we weren’t taken by surprise by it. We knew Shan was going to be gone around this time. And it presents an opportunity for somebody else to come in and make a real mark for himself.”Hilton Cartwright has stepped up for Derbyshire since Masood left for international duty•Getty ImagesThat could be Cartwright, whose returns in the Sheffield Shield earlier this year suggests that, at 30, he is at the peak of his powers. He is not a like-for-like replacement and in his two games to date, decent enough contributions against India and Durham, he has appeared at No.5, his usual role for Western Australia. He also asserted that fitting into a successful side where everybody is confident in their role is much easier – even if expectations are higher – than trying to bale out a struggling squad. But cold, hard statistics suggest that Madsen, who finished the North Group stage with his maiden T20 hundred, against Durham at Chester-le-Street, needs others to respond to the demands of a big occasion.The runs made by Masood and Madsen are instrumental in the fact that Derbyshire are contesting a quarter-final tie against Somerset at Taunton on Saturday: 45 percent of their total in the Blast to date, with Leus du Plooy the only other batter to make much of an impact.Derbyshire are not heavy scorers – although they pulled off a record chase of 194 in that last match against Durham, and if Somerset’s talented young bucks hit form on Taunton’s fast-scoring ground, they will be stretched to the limit. In the field, though, their whole is better than their parts: they have become a well-disciplined side, mentally strong and each aware of their own responsibilities to the common good.Mark Watt and Mattie McKiernan have developed into two of the Blast’s craftier spin bowlers with 30 wickets in the group stage at around eight runs an over. And the belief in Derbyshire that George Scrimshaw can rev it up to 90 mph (a reputation that has won him an England Lions call-up) will come under scrutiny on a Taunton ground where this season Jamie Overton has already bowled with fearsome pace. Taunton is the sort of small ground where the game can get away from you in a trice, but Arthur referenced Derbyshire’s vital victory against Yorkshire at Chesterfield as one occasion this season where they handled a small ground better than their opponents and that memory will sustain them.Arthur underlined: “We are only as good as the sum of our parts. Everybody plays their role. You always talk about it being a jigsaw puzzle, and you’ve got to give everybody a role. We’re not there yet but we are getting close. Our mission as a coaching staff has always been to make the players the best they can be. And once you get that belief and you find that little hidden three or four percent and collectively you start getting a couple of wins, the whole process becomes quite powerful.Related

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“Taunton is going to be exciting. It’s a wonderful little venue. I would say it’s a great place to go and play cricket. A Saturday night is going to be even more daunting for our boys but it’s going to be a wonderful experience for everybody and one that I hope and know they will embrace.”Arthur knows that strong performances until the end of the season might also help with a bit of player recruitment, Derbyshire not always being the first name on the list for a player seeking a change. “We want people knocking the door down to come here because of the of the opportunities that we can offer,” he said.He will also take pleasure from the fact that his recruitment of Masood also appears to have reinvigorated Madsen, who competes with Somerset’s James Hildreth as the best county batter of the past 15 years never to win England recognition. At Derbyshire, though, the consolation of domestic success has also been denied him (albeit he did guide the county to Championship promotion back in 2012). When the severity of his hamstring injury became clear, some imagined the end was in sight.”Yes, you have the self-doubt whether the body can recover from severe injury but mentally I was always going to come back,” Madsen said. “Retirement never really crossed my mind. I really want to win trophies, but that has been my goal and objective for so many years. There was even more of a determination to get myself back fit and prove not just to myself but to other people that I can still perform well to help the club and the team achieve that.”

There was no last-minute panic, no agonising self-destruction, just a straightforward win playing better cricket

Danyal Rasool25-Oct-2021I looked up in disbelief, mortified by how unfair things seemed. Six-year-old me had just been told, in fairly unequivocal terms, that no, I couldn’t be allowed to stay up well past midnight to watch the game right through to the end. It was much too late. That might sound fair enough, but it was June 8, 1999. Pakistan were playing India, and well, Pakistan were going to beat them.Or so I thought when I went to bed that night at the halfway stage, spending the night dreaming of a routine Pakistan win. India had set Pakistan 228; below par, one felt, even in 1999. Besides, aside from an inexplicable loss to Bangladesh in a dead rubber a couple of games before, Pakistan had sailed into the Super Sixes in red-hot form, beating West Indies, New Zealand and Australia in a World Cup classic.Related

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India, meanwhile, had begun the campaign with losses to South Africa and Zimbabwe, and only sneaked into the Super Sixes. Four days earlier, Australia had thumped them by 77 runs. It didn’t feel like they had the runs, or indeed the bowlers, to seriously challenge Pakistan – not to my six-year old self anyway.I checked the score first thing next morning. Apparently, Venkatesh Prasad had done again what I’d been told he’d done three years earlier in a World Cup quarter-final between the sides. Pakistan, who would finish top of the Super Six table, had been hammered by the side that would end up bottom; it was the only match India won against a Super Six side. My introductory experience of Pakistan vs India was perhaps the first time it really began to feel like a jinx.

****

Over the next two decades, these games – nine of them, to be precise – took on a bizarre, amnesic shade, each World Cup contest hyped and promoted as if the previous one had never happened. It was a marketer’s dream; in Pakistan, the fans were sold hope -which they bought by the crate load. In India, it was another chance to have that sweetest kind of fun – the kind that came at Pakistan’s expense. Tickets sold out in minutes, were scalped and rebought at obscene prices. The day arrived, people tuned in by the hundreds of millions, or even a billion, depending on which ratings metric you chose to believe. India cruised to victory, the cycle continued.The T20 World Cup in 2007 saw this curiously one-sided streak extend to a second format, with a group stage win in a bowl-out – which now feels like one of those science experiments too ludicrous to be allowed to happen – followed by a five-run victory in a gloriously agonising final. Misbah-ul-Haq had looked like he was making amends for the group stage with a heroic one-man counterattack but would end up giving India one of its most iconic moments of sporting triumphalism, and provide the origin myth for the advent of the IPL.It seems a long time ago, and not just because it was 2008, that Sohail Tanvir pulled one through midwicket to win his side the IPL final. At the time, this inclusive, nascent competition promised to usher in a fresh era in Indo-Pak relations. Hindsight would tell you that’s as good as it got for Pakistanis at the IPL. Or, indeed, for Rajastan Royals.Relations soured, and Pakistan found their players locked out of the IPL. The cricketing gulf between the two countries widened, both in terms of administrative power and on-field performance. By now, an Indian win over Pakistan didn’t feel like a jinx so much as it did the right cricketing result.Misery for Misbah: India win the 2007 World T20•Saeed Khan/AFPEven if the pain had been numbed by repeated exposure to it, a bruising semi-final defeat at India’s hands in Mohali stood out. It had its classic Pakistani cast of characters – Wahab Riaz playing the bowling wizard with a five wicket-haul, the highlight of which involved Player of the Tournament Yuvraj Singh being yorked for a golden duck. There was the scapegoat – poor Misbah again for supposedly batting too cautiously in the chase. There were the fielders happily putting down anything Sachin Tendulkar hit right at them. There was the conspiracy theory of Tendulkar’s non-lbw, a rabbithole best avoided here.And above all, of course, there was a Pakistani defeat and an Indian victory that saw MS Dhoni – who might have looked perfectly at home in a Pakistan side of the ’80s – lead his side to a World Cup trophy. Five further World Cup games yielded five heavy Pakistani defeats, with a famously bizarre victory in the 2017 Champions Trophy final the only balm for Pakistan’s psychological wounds.It was that context in which Babar Azam and Virat Kohli’s sides stood side by side for the anthems in Dubai on Sunday. Even when Pakistan won what looked a vital toss and began brilliantly, India’s dominance over this fixture meant it was difficult to really feel comfortable from a Pakistan perspective. Sure, the exhilaration of Shaheen Afridi’s first over was considerable, but that’s more of a universal experience, like a Jasprit Bumrah yorker or a one-legged Rohit Sharma pull. Sure, 151 in Dubai was perhaps a below-par total, but so was 227 in Manchester 22 years ago, remember?I interviewed Babar last month. It was a cordial enough chat, but there was one occasion where he’d allowed irritation to flicker on his face. I’d just asked him if opening alongside Mohammad Rizwan was indeed the most progressive thing Pakistan could do.”Yes, absolutely,” he said, irritated by the audacity of the query. “Look at how well that’s gone, at our performances in the past year, at the records he has broken. The year’s not done yet and he has already scored the most-ever T20I runs in a calendar year. What more do you need, really?”

Two men who weren’t born the first time India beat Pakistan in a World Cup match had helped Pakistan remove a stone from their shoe that had been chafing away for 29 years

If it was any other opposition, or any other tournament, you’d have known six overs into the chase that Babar and Rizwan had an unassailable, vice-like grip on this contest. The target didn’t require explosive hitting, the ball was coming onto the bat nicely, and there were no hiccups at the start. These two are the most prolific T20 opening pair since the start of the year by some distance; in April, they’d put on 197 in under 18 overs at Centurion to help chase down 205. They were in that sort of mood. But India were the opposition, so you couldn’t quite see it just yet.But the runs kept getting knocked off. Bumrah was negotiated with maturity; the whole chase in general was being pursued with a sort of cold ruthlessness completely alien to Pakistan and their supporters. Even as the asking rate was dragged down over by over, it felt as if the game was in a holding pattern; what really mattered was what happened once a wicket fell. Following the game on your smartphone was a different experience altogether, WhatsApp groups abuzz with nightmarish worst case scenarios from Pakistan fans looking to inoculate themselves from the pain when (or was it “if”?) their side found a way to muck up this chase.That, mercifully for Pakistan fans, was a sporting experience they didn’t have to endure. In the 18th over, the excitement levels rising to a crescendo, Rizwan walloped Mohammad Shami for six over fine leg. Four balls later, Babar whipped one through the leg side, called his partner over for two, and that was that. Two men who weren’t born the first time India beat Pakistan in a World Cup match – all the way back in 1992 – had helped Pakistan cricket remove a stone from their shoe that had been chafing away at them for 29 years. There is much that divides Pakistan, but for a few days, the country can bask in a therapeutic moment of harmony, fleeting and illusory as it might be.So how, then, did it feel? Well, somewhat numbing for how it happened. There was no last-minute panic, no agonising self-destruction, no letting the pressure of a nation weigh them down. There was no salvaging of national pride, no one-upmanship in a bitter rivalry. Pakistan had just beaten India in a cricket match in the only way it was possible to do so – by playing better cricket on the day.”What more,” as Babar might put it, “do you need, really?”

حسم 16 ناديًا تأهلهما بشكل رسمي إلي دور المجموعات من منافسات بطولة دوري أبطال إفريقيا للموسم الحالي 2025-2026.

تأهل النادي الأهلي، ممثل الكرة المصرية، إلي دور المجموعات بعد فوز على إيجل نوار البوروندي، بنتيجة 2-0 في مجموع مباراتي الذهاب والإياب.

كما صعد الهلال السوداني إلى دور المجموعات بعد الفوز ذهابًا على البوليس الكيني 1-0، في حين انتصر أيضًا في مباراة الإياب بنتيجة 3-1، ليصعد بمجموع مباراتي الذهاب والإياب بنتيجة 4-1.

طالع | الفرق المتأهلة إلى دور المجموعات من الكونفدرالية

وتأهل فريق سانت إيلوي لوبوبو من الكونغو الديمقراطية، إلي دور المجموعات من بطولة دوري أبطال إفريقيا للمرة الأولي في تاريخه، على حساب فريق أورلاندو بايرتس الجنوب إفريقي، في مفاجأة كبري، من البطولة القارية للموسم الحالي، ذلك بركلات الترجيح 5-4، بعد التعادل في مجموع المباراتين 3-3.

وتمكن بيراميدز من التأهل على حساب التأمين الإثيوبي، واكتمل العقد بعد فوز نهضة بركان على حساب الأهلي الليبي.

ومن المنتظر أن يجري الاتحاد الإفريقي لكرة القدم “كاف”، قرعة دور المجموعات، يوم الإثنين الموافق 3 نوفمبر 2025 في مدينة جوهانسبورج في جنوب إفريقيا. الفرق المتأهلة إلى مجموعات دوري أبطال إفريقيا

– باور ديناموز الزامبي

– الهلال السوداني.

–  سانت إيلوي لوبوبو من الكونغو الديمقراطية.

– يانج أفريكانز التنزاني.

– ريفرز يونايتد النيجيري.

– بترو أتليتكو الأنجولي.

– الأهلي المصري.

– شبيبة القبائل الجزائري.

– الجيش الملكي المغربي.

– سيمبا التنزاني.

– صن داونز الجنوب أفريقي.

– الترجي التونسي

-الملعب المالي.

– مولودية الجزائر

– بيراميدز 

– نهضة بركان.

Hetmyer, who didn’t play a single game at the 2024 T20 World Cup, retained his place in the squad

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Aug-2024Andre Russell will miss West Indies’ upcoming three-match T20I series at home against South Africa as he has “requested a period of rest and recovery,” according to Miles Bascombe, CWI’s director of cricket. Russell, 36, was part of West Indies’ run to the Super Eight during their home World Cup in June and was more recently in action for London Spirit in the Hundred.Russell and Jason Holder, who has also been rested for the T20Is will work closely with the CWI science and medicine team. Alzarri Joseph, who was West Indies’ vice-captain during the T20 World Cup and missed the Tests against South Africa, will continue to take time off.West Indies’ red-ball coach Andre Coley had laid out a long-term outlook with regards to Alzarri’s workload management in a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo, “As far as Alzarri is concerned, it always helps to have a period of time away from the game to work on your individual skills, because you could get drawn into moving from one tournament to the next and might actually lose some of your skills.”So it’s building in the right amount of rest time where he does nothing, but then also have little periods where he is not in competition. That way he will be able to create more control around his bowling.”ESPNcricinfo LtdOpening batter Brandon King will also miss this series as he continues to recover from the side strain he had sustained during West Indies’ Super Eight fixture against England in June. King has not played a competitive game since. In his absence, Shai Hope could open the batting with Johnson Charles while rookie Alick Athanaze could also do a job at the top.Shimron Hetmyer, who didn’t feature in a single game at the 2024 T20 World Cup, retained his place in the squad. Hetmyer had last played a T20I for West Indies in December 2023.”Facing a strong South Africa side is an excellent opportunity for our team to reset and refocus with our game plan,” Daren Sammy, West Indies’ white-ball coach, said in a CWI statement. “We have played them recently and had mixed results, so this should be an exciting and important series. I’m confident in the squad we’ve selected, and with eyes already on the next T20 World Cup in 2026, I know the guys will be keen to show their hunger for success.”Along with Athanaze, allrounder Matthew Forde has been picked with an eye on the 2026 T20 World Cup. Forde can swing the new ball and hit sixes lower down the order and has flourished under Sammy at St Lucia Kings in the CPL.Spin-bowling allrounder Fabian Allen returned to the side, having missed the cut for the T20 World Cup. He will bolster a spin attack that already includes Akeal Hosein, Gudakesh Motie and Roston Chase. Allen had won the Lanka Premier League (LPL) with Jaffna Kings in July.The Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba will host all three T20Is, and will be part of double-headers with the WCPL.West Indies squad for SA T20IsRovman Powell (capt), Roston Chase (vice-capt), Alick Athanaze, Fabian Allen, Johnson Charles, Matthew Forde, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Joseph, Obed McCoy, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd

Sunderland have had some of the Premier League’s most iconic strikers down the years, but one man in particular has been praised as one of the best talents of his era.

No one at the Stadium of Light will forget the name Tommy Watson in a hurry regardless of how his move to Brighton pans out, but as the dust settles on a memorable campaign and that stunning late win at Wembley, the Black Cats must now turn their attentions to building a squad capable of surviving football’s toughest task.

Sunderland's promotion season in pictures

Regis Le Bris’ side were the lowest scorers in the Championship’s top six, with 58 goals to their name in 46 games, as Wilson Isidor (13) and Eliezer Mayenda (10) were their only players to score more than five league goals.

And it’s fair to say this is a club who have lived off the backs of great number nines down the years, with the likes of Jermain Defoe, Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn all thriving on Wearside.

1. Kevin Phillips

61

2. Jermain Defoe

34

3. Niall Quinn

29

4. Kenwyne Jones

26

5. Darren Bent

24

6. Steven Fletcher

23

7. Adam Johnson

19

8. Stéphane Sessègnon

17

9. Fabio Borini

14

10. Kieran Richardson

14

Many of the club’s most iconic moments have come from their front men, from Darren Bent’s famous ‘beach ball goal’ against Liverpool to Fabio Borini’s incredible late effort to sink Alan Pardew’s Newcastle.

But while no one comes close to “Super Kev” Phillips from a statistical standpoint, few would argue that Defoe is right up there alongside him as one of the most talented players to ever put on the red and white shirt, and England legend David Platt once revealed he may be even better than that.

Platt: Defoe was as good as Michael Owen and Luis Figo

Speaking about his time as Defoe’s manager in the England Under-21 set-up, Platt, who earned 62 caps for the Three Lions himself, once revealed a 19 year-old Defoe was one of the greatest talents he had ever seen.

Defoe scored 163 Premier League goals in total, placing him inside the division’s top ten and behind only six other Englishmen – Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole, Frank Lampard and Robbie Fowler.

While his longest spell in England’s top flight came with Tottenham Hotspur, some of his most iconic moments were produced in a Sunderland shirt, most notably that stunning strike against Newcastle at the Stadium of Light, and fans will also never forget his relationship with Bradley Lowery.

Defoe’s love for the club hasn’t waned either, as the 42 year-old was spotted at Wembley celebrating their promotion, also praising Le Bris for the impactful substitutions of Patrick Roberts and Watson: “We spoke before about the manager not panicking, and the substitution, Patrick Roberts came on and done his thing.”

Sunderland lining up centre-back signing who Van Dijk said is "outstanding"

He could be perfect for Regis Le Bris.

ByHenry Jackson Jun 3, 2025

It’s hard to imagine the likes of Isidor and Mayenda will be able to replicate the Englishman’s stunning influence in the North East, but the young Spaniard’s equalising goal against Sheffield United was certainly a good start.

تحددت المنتخبات المتأهلة إلى نهائيات كأس العالم من قارة آسيا، بعد نهاية المرحلة الرابعة والنهائية للتصفيات الآسيوية، اليوم الثلاثاء.

وكانت 6 منتخبات حسمت التأهل بشكل مباشر من المرحلة الثالثة إلى نهائيات كأس العالم، وهي إيران وأوزبكستان وكوريا الجنوبية والأردن واليابان وأستراليا.

وتبقي مقعدين، للتأهل من قارة آسيا، حيث أقيمت المرحلة الرابعة النهائية، وتم تقسيم المنتخبات التي احتلت المركزين الثالث والرابع في المرحلة الثالثة، إلى مجموعتين من 6 منتخبات، كل مجموعة تضم 3 منتخبات، يتأهل المتصدر من كل المجموعة لاكتمال عدد المنتخبات من قارة آسيا.

وأقيمت مباريات المرحلة الرابعة بنظام الدوري من دور واحد، يتواجد في المجموعة الأولى كل من قطر والإمارات وعمان، بينما ضمت المجموعة الثانية السعودية وإندونيسيا والعراق.

وحسم منتخب قطر، تاهله من المجموعة الأولى لـ تصفيات كأس العالم، بعد تصدر ترتيب المجموعة الأولى من المرحلة الرابعة والنهائية برصيد 4 نقاط من فوز على الإمارات وتعادل مع عمان.

طالع | المنتخبات المتأهلة إلى كأس العالم 2026 (محدث باستمرار)

واستطاع منتخب السعودية، أن ينضم إلى المنتخبات الآسيوية المتأهلة إلى كأس العالم، بعد حسم صدارة المجموعة الثانية من المرحلة النهائية لـ تصفيات آسيا وذلك على حساب العراق بعد التعادل في المباراة التي أقيمت بينهما مساء الثلاثاء 0-0. المنتخبات المتأهلة إلى كأس العالم 2026 من قارة آسيا

1- إيران

2- أوزبكستان

3- كوريا الجنوبية

4- الأردن

5- اليابان

6- أستراليا

7- قطر

8- السعودية

Also, what’s the highest ODI total without a fifty?

Steven Lynch22-Jan-2019South Africa lost a one-day international the other day despite losing only two wickets. Was this a record? asked Brian Taylor from England

South Africa made 266 for 2 in that match in Port Elizabeth last week, but still lost to Pakistan. This was the fifth time that a team lost an ODI despite losing only two wickets: the last one was also in South Africa, in Johannesburg in 2003-04, when West Indies lost despite amassing 304 for 2, with Chris Gayle making 152 not out. Pakistan lost a World Cup match against West Indies in Melbourne in 1991-92 despite scoring 220 for 2 (West Indies replied with 221 for 0, so only two wickets went down all day, although Brian Lara did retire hurt). The other instances were by India (183 for 2) against Pakistan in Sahiwal in 1978-79 (India conceded the match in protest at a barrage of short-pitched bowling), and by New Zealand (167 for 2) against Australia in Auckland in 1989-90 (they were behind the target score when rain ended the match).Two ODIs have been lost by a team losing only one wicket, although both of them were badly affected by rain. In the 1991-92 World Cup, Zimbabwe lost to India despite scoring 104 for 1 in Hamilton, as they were behind the target score when rain ended the match. And in Hambantota in 2013-14, Sri Lanka had scored 138 for 1 before a long rain delay; New Zealand were set a Duckworth-Lewis target of 198 in 23 overs, and got there off the last ball.MS Dhoni scored 193 runs in the three-match ODI series against Australia without a century. What’s the most in a three-match series where the batsman did not score a hundred? asked Savo Ceprnich from South Africa

Surprisingly perhaps, Mahendra Singh Dhoni – who scored 51, 55 not out and 87 not out in the recent series in Australia – comes in quite a way down this particular list. Another Indian, Kris Srikkanth, leads, with 244 runs in the home series against Sri Lanka in 1981-82, when his scores were 57, 95 and 92. The New Zealand opener Martin Guptill hit 232 runs – 70, 77 and 85 – at home against Zimbabwe in 2011-12. Dhoni’s average of 193, however, is the highest in a three-match ODI series without a hundred, beating Ricky Ponting’s 186 for Australia in Zimbabwe in 1999-2000.Has there been a Test in which the team batting last required only one run to win? asked Anas from Pakistan

There have been seven Test matches in which the scores were level after three innings, so the side batting last had to come out and score one run to win. In two of those, someone hit a four to end the match – Sarfraz Nawaz for Pakistan against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1976-77, and Marcus Trescothick for England against West Indies at The Oval in 2004. When West Indies beat India by ten wickets in Bridgetown in 1982-83, the winning run was a no-ball from Syed Kirmani.Kris Srikkanth piled up 244 – 57, 92 and 95 – runs against Sri Lanka in 1981-82, the most in three ODIs without a century scored•Getty ImagesWhat’s the highest ODI total without a fifty? asked Brian Powell from England

The highest one-day international total without an individual half-century is England’s 285 against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford in 2006, when the highest score was Andrew Strauss’ 45, unusually scored from No. 4. They beat the previous record, Pakistan’s 281 for 9 against West Indies in Adelaide in 2004-05, when the highest individual contribution was also 45, by Mohammad Yousuf.The record for Tests is England’s 315 against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1985-86 (highest score 47 by David Gower), just ahead of South Africa’s 313 against England in Johannesburg in 2015-16 (Dean Elgar 46).Virat Kohli now has five international centuries at the Adelaide Oval. Is that a record for the most hundreds by a batsman at an overseas venue? asked Aditya Alok from India

Virat Kohli does indeed now have five international centuries at Adelaide Oval – three in Tests and two in one-day internationals, one of those being against Pakistan in the 2015 World Cup. The record for an away venue is seven centuries, by Saeed Anwar and Sachin Tendulkar in Sharjah (all in ODIs).England’s Jack Hobbs scored five centuries in Melbourne, all in Tests (a record), while Tendulkar collected five at both the Premadasa Stadium (four in ODIs) and the Sinhalese Sports Club (four in Tests) in Colombo. Younis Khan made six international centuries in Abu Dhabi and five in Dubai, while Misbah-ul-Haq scored five in Abu Dhabi – but most of those came while Pakistan were playing “home” matches in the UAE.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

da betobet： Tonight is set to be the the biggest nigh in Tottenham Hotspur’s season, if not the biggest this decade.

da apostebet： Ange Postecoglou and his side have the chance to make amends for their horrendous Premier League campaign and write their names into the history books by winning the Europa League tonight.

However, to do that, the North Londoners have to get past Reuben Amorim’s equally desperate Manchester United.

So, to ensure this team have the best chance of winning the club’s first piece of major silverware since 2008, Postecoglou must make some changes to the team who lost on Friday night, starting with Djed Spence.

Why Spence should be dropped

So the first thing to say is that throughout the season, Spence has probably been one of the few players who has increased his reputation.

His impressive blend of attacking and defensive abilities made him one of the team’s most effective players in the months after Christmas.

However, while the former Middlesbrough gem has started the last ten league games for the club, the team have been seriously poor in those matches.

Chalkboard

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For example, they’ve won only one, drawn two and lost the other seven, with the games away to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Liverpool and Aston Villa being particularly underwhelming.

Moreover, while he wasn’t the worst offender at Villa Park, the 24-year-old was underwhelming at best, with the Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick writing that it was another display demonstrating he’s ‘lost his mojo in the past month.’

So, with Postecoglou needing everyone to be at their very best tonight, he should take the Englishman out of the team and bring in Pedro Porro, who has shown his value in the last few European games.

For example, the “titanic” right-back, as dubbed by The Athletic’s former Spurs correspondent Charlie Eccleshare, scored a goal in the first leg of the quarter-final, picked up an assist in the first leg of the semi-final and then scored another goal in the second leg as well.

In all, while Spence is a talented player, he should be dropped for tonight’s game, as should several other players.

The other Spurs star who should be axed

Now, while there are several players you could make a case for dropping from Friday’s lineup for tonight, the most obvious one is Sergio Reguilon.

The 28-year-old left-back made just his second start and sixth appearance of the season against Aston Villa, and while he wasn’t utterly terrible, he didn’t do anything to suggest he should remain in the team.

For example, in 74 minutes of actions, the “ridiculous” full-back, as dubbed by Gary Neville, amassed a combined expected goal and assists figure of just 0.05, was dribbled past twice, lost 75% of his ground duels, lost the ball 13 times, completed just 17 passes, misplaced all seven of his long balls, and failed in 100% of his dribbles.

Reguilon vs Villa

Minutes

74′

Expected Goals

0.05

Goals

0

Expected Assists

0.00

Assists

0

Clearances

4

Dribbled Past

2

Ground duels (won)

4 (1)

Possession lost

13

Accurate passes

17/26 (65%)

Key passes

0

Crosses (accurate)

2 (1)

Long balls (accurate)

7 (0

Dribble attempts (successful)

1 (0)

All Stats via Sofascore

In short, it wasn’t a great showing from the former Real Madrid ace, and with tonight’s game being so important, he simply has to be dropped from the team.

Moreover, much like Porro on the right, the manager has made Destiny Udogie his go-to left-back in the Europa League in recent games, and it’s been a decision that’s paid off.

The team conceded just one goal in their last four games, and Alasdair Gold awarded the Italian with a 9/10 match rating following their incredible 1-0 win away to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Ultimately, while Spence and Reguilon were not the worst players in the team on Friday night, neither one did anywhere near enough to break into Postecoglou’s European starting XI, and therefore, both must be dropped.

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The incredible talent would be an unreal signing for Spurs.

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Sophia Dunkley must rediscover her rhythm and find her best cricket if she is to break back into the England side for this year’s T20 Women’s World Cup after being left out of the squad for home white-ball series against Pakistan.Dunkley was overlooked for both T20I and ODI squads for Pakistan’s visit, which starts with the first of three T20Is in Birmingham on May 11. Tammy Beaumont was only named in the ODI squad after regaining her T20I spot temporarily during the recent tour of New Zealand, where Maia Bouchier excelled to secure her place in the top order.Jon Lewis, England Women’s head coach, said Dunkley and Beaumont were still “very much in the conversation around who should be playing in the top three” at the World Cup, which – along with the No. 7 spot – remain the key places up for consideration ahead of the tournament in Bangladesh.”The message I have sent to Sophia is that I’d like to see her back playing her best cricket,” Lewis said. “When she’s playing her best cricket, she’s one of our best cricketers.Related

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“We’ve decided to try and give her the space away from the bigger limelight in terms of the Pakistan series in both ODI and T20 cricket to go and find some rhythm, go and find the rhythm of batting, get back to your best and then come back to us and see if you can make an impact again in international cricket.”I still have a really strong belief that Sophia’s got a big future playing for England. I think her talent is as incredible. She just needs a little bit of space to get back to her best cricket and work out how to cope with the situation she’s being put in.”Dunkley didn’t play in England’s last series at home, against Sri Lanka at the end of the 2023 summer, but subsequently toured India and New Zealand.In nine T20I innings since scoring a half-century against Australia in Birmingham last July, Dunkley has reached double-figures just three times and has not passed 32. She has played just one ODI since the Women’s Ashes, scoring 1 against New Zealand in Hamilton last month.Beaumont played her first T20Is in New Zealand since losing her spot following the 2022 Women’s Ashes, scoring 15, 19 and 37 before moving aside to accommodate Danni Wyatt’s late arrival from the WPL.”What I was really keen to do with Tammy and Dunks in particular was not to carry them around as spare batters, to give them the opportunities to play regional cricket and play some cricket rather than sitting on the bench as two experienced players,” Lewis said, adding that he was impressed with what he had seen from Beaumont upon her T20I return in NZ.England Women’s squads vs Pakistan•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“Maia pushed her case more than Tammy at that point, and I think Maia deserves, from the performances she put in New Zealand, to hold onto her spot.”Having batted in the middle-order during limited England appearances over the previous two years, Bouchier was first promoted to open during Sri Lanka’s visit, where she scored a 65-ball 95 in the third ODI in Leicester.But it was during England’s 4-1 T20I series win in New Zealand that she made her claim at the top of the order. She batted at No. 3 in the first three matches, scoring 43 not out, 12 and 71, then made 91 from 56 balls after being promoted to open for the fourth match.”Maia has always been incredibly talented,” Lewis said. “The bit that I suppose Maia has struggled with in the past is putting regular big scores together. She’s starting to understand how to build bigger innings. The work that we’ve done with her in particular is around controlling emotion and controlling herself in the game and thinking tactically about how she’s going to play.”We haven’t done any technical work with Maia because my belief is her technique is really sound. It’s more around the mental approach to the game. She’s been working incredibly hard around that part of her game and she’s been working incredibly hard in training around how to train her brain to do things for longer. Now we’re seeing the benefit of that.”You combine that with a batter scoring runs and in good form and learning how to build innings and play at the right tempo and then you’ve got a crackerjack cricketer, and hopefully she can continue the form that she was on in New Zealand.”Maia Bouchier stamped her claim on a top-order spot•Getty Images

Left-arm spinner Linsey Smith kept her spot after returning to the England T20I line-up for the tour of New Zealand following an absence of nearly five years. She took one wicket from her two appearances there and now has eight wickets from four appearances in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy to sit joint-third on the competition list.Freya Kemp, who suffered a stress fracture in her back at the end of 2022 and a subsequent flare up, will play as a batter only after being chosen in the T20I squad but England hope to have her bowling and available for selection as an allrounder by the World Cup.Quick Issy Wong remains on the outer after irregular appearances for England amid some rhythm issues of her own.”She’s shown real improvement from where she was during last summer, and she’s working incredibly hard on her game,” Lewis said. “My view on Issy is that she just needs a period of time playing consistently and performing consistently to earn the right to come back into the England team.”Young cricketers, batters and bowlers, their form fluctuates and we are supporting her in and around her bowling. I am hopeful from what I’ve seen over the start of the summer that there’s some improvement there, but I still think she’s got a little way to go to show that she can play at this level consistently.”England identified a weakness batting against spin during last year’s visit by Sri Lanka, who upset the hosts by winning their T20I series. Lewis responded by holding training camps in Mumbai and he was pleased with how his team put what they had learned into practice during their 2-1 T20I series win against hosts India in December.Amid an increasingly packed schedule, England will head to Abu Dhabi to prepare for the T20 World Cup.”We’ll try and recreate, as best we can, conditions that we will face,” Lewis said. “Bangladesh is a pretty unique place to play cricket and unfortunately in India at that time of year, the places where the wickets are particularly similar, it is rainy season, so we won’t be able to get into India to do that.”I’ve been impressed with the way the girls have been trying to develop their game. We know it’s going to be a big part of that competition and we’re talking about it and we’re working on it and we’re trying to improve our game against spin. In our series against India, and in the T20 series against India in particular, I thought we showed some real signs of improvement there. Very different conditions in New Zealand, and at times we played the spinners very, very well, so I think there is progress.”Fitting in another block of overseas preparation before the tournament will likely mean that the vast majority of players heading to the World Cup don’t won’t travel to Ireland for three ODIs and three T20Is in September.”We’ll use the depth of our squads to play those games,” Lewis said. “It’ll be a real challenge for sure, but we’ve got 21 contracted players. There’s always players that miss out on World Cup selection and there’s always players that are pushing for selection underneath.”At some point we have to try and work out where our highest priority areas are and how do we fit all those things into our schedule so we’ll be trying to balance that and balance everyone’s workload and balance everyone’s preparation through that period.”England Women T20I squad: Heather Knight (capt), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Linsey Smith, Danni WyattEngland Women ODI squad: Heather Knight (capt), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt

Legspinner Rishad Hossain and batsmen Anamul Haque and Pinak Ghosh impress in the third round of action

Mohammad Isam30-Oct-2019After the players’ strike pushed back the third round of the National Cricket League by a day, Rajshahi Division clinched a low-scoring thriller against Rangpur Division, beating them by six runs in Cox’s Bazar, despite three of their regulars being taken away – two to the national team and one for a trial with new spin-bowling coach Daniel Vettori – midway through the match. And across in Rajshahi, Chittagong Division registered their first win of the season, beating Sylhet Division by nine wickets.Best batsmenAnamul Haque became the season’s first batsman to score centuries in each innings of a match. The Khulna Division batsman started with a steady 126 off 224 balls that included ten fours and five sixes, before hitting eight sixes and nine fours in his 151 off 225 balls in the second innings against Dhaka Division.Chittagong’s 20-year-old Pinak Ghosh made his maiden first-class century, hitting two sixes and 16 fours in his 83-ball 100 against Sylhet. Mohammad Ashraful, playing for Barisal Division this season, also made a ton against Dhaka Metropolis in a rain-affected game in Bogra. Ashraful made 150 off 204 balls with 16 fours.Best bowlersLegspinner Rishad Hossain took a five-wicket haul for Rajshahi before he was taken away to the capital to show off his skills to Vettori (Sabbir Rahman and Taijul Islam got national-team call-ups). Veterans Sunzamul Islam and Saqlain Sajib, however, didn’t let Rishad’s absence matter much, as their five-fors clinched them the hard-fought win over Rangpur.Khulna offspinner Mahedi Hasan finished with match figures of 9 for 138 against Dhaka Division, while seamers Irfan Hossain and Mehedi Hasan Rana took five-wicket hauls for Chittagong. Sylhet pacer Abu Jayed was also impressive, returning 4 for 86 against Barisal.Best matchRangpur took a 73-run first-innings lead after they were bowled out for 274 runs. Rajshahi then made 190 in their second innings with an important contribution from Sunzamul, who top-scored with 36 from No. 8. Then he came out to sizzle through the Rangpur line-up, taking 5 for 48 while Saqlain took 5 for 35.Points tableKhulna remain on top of the Tier 1 points table with 17.25 points, but Rajshahi’s win got them into second place with 13.11 points. Chittagong have replaced Barisal on the top of Tier 2, now leading with 16.42 points, ahead by 1.8 points.Players to watchAnamul’s twin tons would do enough to keep him in the selectors’ attention if a replacement is needed in India. Jayed, who was retained in the Test squad, showed improvement with a four-wicket haul, while Rishad’s five-for is also encouraging, but he needs time in the middle.