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No confronto entre Athletico-PR e Vasco, Hugo Moura foi expulso com apenas 15 minutos do primeiro tempo. O ex-jogador do Furacão errou um passe e cometeu uma falta em Zapelli, onde o meia tinha condições de abrir o placar para sua equipe.

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Logo após o cartão vermelho, o público presente na Ligga Arena cantou uma música em homenagem ao volante do Cruz-Maltino em tom de ironia. Por outro lado, os vascaínos detonaram o reforço nas redes sociais.

Além disso, o Athletico-PR tem R$10,2 milhões a receber do Vasco pela transferência de Hugo Moura nas últimas semanas. O atleta precisava ser relacionado em quatro partidas para que a cláusula de compra obrigatória fosse acionada.

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When the Blue Jays signed All-Star slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year, $500 million contract extension in April, the news was met with some mixed responses from the general baseball public.

Here was a homegrown star, a born Canadian who, with just one year left until free agency and after a lengthy and at times testy negotiation process, was pledging to spend the rest of his career in Toronto. For an MVP-caliber player entering his age-26 season, it was the kind of day that organizations dream about.

Except there was a way to view the decision as a desperation move, one made by a gambler who’s barely hanging onto their seat at the table deciding to push a dwindling chip stack all in. The Jays were coming off of a last-place finish that followed three playoff runs in four years, each ending with a wild-card round sweep. To some (including a certain writer), the organization’s contention window was closing, if not already shut. In gambling parlance, this was throwing good money after bad.

Four-plus months into the 2025 season, and it appears that Toronto’s big bet is paying off.

Entering play on Wednesday, the Blue Jays have the best record in the American League. Playoff odds that began at 40% on Opening Day, per FanGraphs, have soared to 98.7%. Barring a horrible collapse, Toronto will be alive and well in October, and has a good chance of earning a spot directly into the division series.

Beyond simply pledging half a billion dollars to Guerrero, the path to where the Blue Jays currently find themselves is paved with even more gambles on in-house talent returning to form and fueling Toronto’s surge.

For years, the Blue Jays have far too often (for their fans’ liking, at least) played the role of bridesmaid rather than bride. Highly publicized free agent chases of Shohei Ohtani (a private plane ride from California to Toronto carrying Canadian businessman Robert Herjavec of fame caused international confusion) and Juan Soto (agent Scott Boras said Toronto impressed the now-Met with a “great offer”) came up empty, as did bids at landing Corbin Burnes and Teoscar Hernández.

Toronto was looking high and low for reinforcements, but the big fish the organization chased weren’t biting.

And the ones that did end up joining the Blue Jays haven’t panned out as hoped. Anthony Santander, who inked a five-year, $92.5 million deal in January, managed a .179 average in 50 games before landing on the injured list. Closer Jeff Hoffman signed for $33 million, and has so far posted a 4.41 ERA with five blown saves. All-Star second baseman Andrés Giménez, acquired in a December trade from the Guardians, has battled injuries amid his worst offensive season (74 OPS+ in 62 games).

Instead of the cavalry coming to save the day, it’s been improvements from players already on the roster that have spurred the Blue Jays’ climb.

The Athletics will complete their first season in their temporary home of Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, Calif., against the Royals on Sunday.

Between their departure from their longtime home in Oakland and the move into their new stadium in Las Vegas expected by 2028, Sacramento is home. It may not feel that way, though, as they became known simply as the "Athletics" this season. The franchise's stopgap home is set to feel a bit more natural next season as they unveiled new alternate uniforms Sunday that proudly read Sacramento across the chest.

The new jerseys will seemingly replace the team's current gold alternates with the "A's" logo on the left chest. According to MLB.com's Martín Gallegos, the A's plan to wear their new Sacramento gold uniforms for every home Saturday game next season.

Just one of two MLB franchises without a City Connect uniform, the new jerseys are a no-brainer to further relate to their new city even if they will only be there for a couple more years. The Athletics' '25 campaign will come to a close Sunday as they finish the regular season near the bottom of the AL West with the Angels. There's plenty to be excited about, though, with strong rookie campaigns from Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson, plus the deadline deal where they acquired top prospect Leo De Vries by sending Mason Miller and JP Sears to the Padres.

Jazz Chisholm took the stage for and put on a show, blasting two home runs and driving in four as the New York Yankees cruised past the Boston Red Sox, 7-2. ESPN's cameras captured an emotional Chisholm returning to his dugout after the first homer, getting extra special congratulations from his teammates.

After the game, the second baseman revealed that he was playing with a heavy heart as he collected his 100th career home run.

"It felt kind of surreal," he said. "I lost my best friend yesterday so today felt like a different type of day, especially with the 100th home run coming today. I’ve been going through a lot in the last 30 hours."

Chisholm opted to keep the details of his friend's passing private while discussing his difficult day with reporters in the clubhouse after the game. A lot of times we see athletes dealing with loss find respite on the playing field and oftentimes play their best amid those struggles.

Think back to the morning of the Fourth of July. Our nation’s birthday. Quintessential America. Barbecues. Burgers. Fireworks. Everything as you expect, including the Dodgers with the best record in baseball.

Now seems like a long time ago. Since then, the Dodgers have been as sorry as a sack of soggy charcoal briquettes: 12–21. Only the Nationals and the Rays have been worse.

Wait, the Dodgers? The $391 million payroll Dodgers? The same Dodgers who gobbled up so many high-profile free agents last winter we started asking, “Are the Dodgers good for baseball?”

Eight months later, now we’re asking, “Will the Dodgers ever play good baseball?”

They better figure it out quickly. Starting tonight, the Dodgers play six of their next 10 games against the smoking hot, deadline-fortified, first-place San Diego Padres.

What is wrong with the Dodgers? It’s time to dig in.

1. Maybe the Dodgers are just in a slump

All teams go through valleys. At some point in June, the Dodgers, Cubs, Mets, Astros and Yankees all had leads as big as 5 1/2 games. All gone.

But slumps this deep are rare for the Dodgers. In the past 30 years, here are the only seasons in which the Dodgers hit .236 and lost at least 21 games in a 33-game span:

Dodgers Seasons with 33-Game Span With 21+ Losses and Hitting .236 or Worse (Wild Card Era)

Year

Final Record

Postseason Result

2003

85–77

None

2010

80–82

None

2012

82–76

None

2017

104–58

Lost World Series

2025

?

?

I know you optimistic Dodger fans are thinking:

But the problems this year go deeper than 33 games. Let’s continue.

2. Dodgers don’t measure well against good teams

Los Angeles is 28–32 against teams that are .500 or better. Among the 12 teams in playoff position today, only the Tigers are worse against good competition.

To find the last Dodgers team that had a losing record against teams .500 and above, you must go back a decade, to 2015, when Don Mattingly was the manager, Andrew Friedman had just arrived as president of baseball operations—and the Dodgers were booted in the NLDS by the Mets.

That best record on the Fourth of July? Fool’s gold. The Dodgers were 14–1 against the Rockies, Marlins and White Sox. They proceeded to get swept by the Astros and then twice by the Brewers.

3. Dodgers are a poor team in defensive efficiency

This is shocking news.

What is defensive efficiency? It’s the measurement of how often a team turns batted balls into outs. I like this measurement because it does not isolate defense but reflects the unbreakable marriage between pitching and defense. A pitching staff that gets weak contact, for instance, makes the job easier for the defense.

This has been Andrew Friedman’s secret sauce. You can talk all you want about the Dodgers’ money, technology, scouting, international footprint, annoying speaker system at Dodger Stadium, whatever … turning batted balls into outs is what they do best under Friedman.

No more. Their amazing six-year year run of elite pitching combined with elite defense is over.

Dodgers MLB Rank in Defensive Efficiency

Year

Defensive Efficiency MLB Rank

2019

2

2020

2

2021

1

2022

1

2023

2

2024

2

2025

18

The Phillies were knocked out of the MLB playoffs in extra innings on Thursday night after a brutal error from reliever Orion Kerkering allowed the Dodgers to bring in the game-winning run.

While it is easy to point to Kerkering’s mistake as the moment that ended the Phillies’ season, the team had plenty of opportunities earlier in the game to make a play or have one break go their way that might have prevented the game from ever going into extras in the first place.

And according to starting pitcher Cristopher Sánchez, an umpire acknowledged one of those bad breaks. Per Lochlahn March of the , Sánchez said after the game that the umpire apologized to him for missing what should have been a called strike three on a 2–2 count against Alex Call in the bottom of the seventh.

Watching a replay of the pitch in question, you can clearly see it was a close call, but the ball did in fact hit the strike zone. On the mound, Sánchez knew he should have had the K and with it, two outs in the inning, and gave the ump quite a stare in response to the call.

Unfortunately for the Phillies, that base runner would prove to be the difference that brought the game to extra innings. After a second runner got on base, the Phillies pulled Sánchez to turn the ball over to closer Jhoan Duran. Philadelphia decided to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani to load the bases with two outs, bringing Mookie Betts to the plate.

After working the count full, Betts was able to hold off a pitch that was high out of the zone, walking in the game-tying run.

Baseball is a game full of sliding-door moments, but had the Phillies gotten that strike called, they would have had two outs and no men on in the inning, and very possibly could have escaped unscathed, and then would have been six outs away from forcing Game 5 back in Philadelphia.

Instead, the Dodgers got the run they needed to extend the game. In extras, the Phillies bats didn’t heat up, and their defense made one mistake too many. A brutal way to see a season end.

There are a host of players who can shine over the next few weeks, but this collection could be right at the top

Annesha Ghosh20-Feb-2020Ellyse Perry (Australia)A great of the game, the former England captain Charlotte Edwards, believes Perry is “the greatest female player we’re ever going to see”. The assessment may put into perspective just how enormous the buzz might be around the leading women’s allrounder in a home World Cup, and how immense the pressure is for her to take Australia to the March 8 final at the MCG.A two-time ICC Cricketer of the Year and the 2019 Belinda Clark Medallist, the awards and accolades consolidate Perry’s ever-growing stature as a generational star as much as her incisive swing bowling at north of 115kph and the ability to wed power and technique with consistency in a line-up that boasts genuine depth down to No. 10.Besides, there’s the insatiable appetite for excellence: on some days, a one-legged Perry is all it takes to win a World Cup; on others, record figures of 7 for 22 show her at the peak of her powers. A key contributor in Australia’s tri-series title win last week at home, much of how Perry performs in the league stage may determine if the MCG will see two Perrys in action in the final, or if the record attendance the ICC has set out to attract will be a reality.Harmanpreet Kaur (India)The Harmanpreet Kaur India need in a World Cup season•BCCIWhat could dampen hosts Australia’s spirits in the tournament opener? What should New Zealand be wary of going into their face-off against India? The short answer is: (A) Harmanpreet (En)Kaur.Harmanpreet’s unbeaten 171 knocked Australia out at the 2017 ODI World Cup and, within the first 90 minutes of the 2018 T20 World Cup, New Zealand were on course for a league-stage exit, thanks to Harmanpreet’s maiden T20I ton. A third straight Harmanpreet blockbuster in as many world tournaments, against Australia or New Zealand in Group A, could decidedly ease India’s entry into the semi-finals for the second time in a row.India’s most-capped T20I player, and their first line of defence for their uncertain middle order, Harmanpreet heads into the T20 World Cup with scores of 12, 20*, 14, 28, 42* in the tri-series. A veteran of three WBBL seasons, her two unbeaten knocks at No. 4 were pivotal to India’s two wins in the tri-series en route to their runners-up finish. And it is this finisher’s role that the India captain will need to play to perfection at this World Cup, where a string of brisk 30-plus unbeaten knocks from Harmanpreet might be enough for India to go the distance.Sophie Devine (New Zealand)Sophie Devine pulls powerfully through the leg side•Getty ImagesThe New Zealand allrounder’s chart-topping 769-run tally and 19 wickets underpinned first-time finalists Adelaide Striker’s runners-up finish at the 2019-20 WBBL. Named Player of the Tournament and then captain of New Zealand in the absence of Amy Satterthwaite, Devine carried her rich vein of form into the Super Smash, the domestic T20 competition in New Zealand, where she averaged 52 in Wellington’s title-winning campaign.In the recently concluded home T20I series against South Africa, she smashed four 50-plus scores in the four games she played – the last one being a maiden T20I hundred – to become the first batter, male or female, to make five fifty-plus scores in a row in T20I cricket, having preceded that run with a 72 against India.Trailing Perry and compatriot Suzie Bates at No. 2 on the ICC T20I allrounder and batting rankings respectively, Devine is one of only three players to achieve the career double of 2000 runs and 50 wickets in both women’s T20Is and ODIs. Her imperious form augurs well for New Zealand, who could be unstoppable in Australian conditions, if opener Devine gets support from the rest of the line-up, especially #SmashSister Bates.Heather Knight (England)Heather Knight sweeps during her career-best•Getty ImagesAt the heart of England’s recent world tournament successes – the 2017 ODI World Cup win at home and the runners-up finish to Australia in the T20 World Cup the following year – has been the astute leader, key spin-bowling option, and middle-order lynchpin that is Heather Knight.In what’s set to be her third World Cup – across formats – as captain, and first one under new head coach Lisa Keightley, Knight remains key to England’s chances of making the semi-finals from a group that also features 2016 world champions West Indies, the formidable South Africa, T20 World Cup debutants Thailand, and Bangladesh.In the tri-series, Knight’s rotation of her bowlers was arguably the best among the three captains. With the bat, her dominance of India’s spinners and Australia’s pace attack was equally emphatic; she bettered her career-best in T20Is twice in as many days, with 67 against India and then 78 against Australia.Since the start of the 2019 Kia Super League, where she led Western Storm to their second title and finished with the third-most runs, Knight’s appears to have found a new gear in her batting. England will also rely on her to tap into her WBBL experience, with Knight having topped the run-charts for the Hobart Hurricanes this season.Marizanne Kapp (South Africa)Marizanne Kapp punches through the offside•Getty ImagesThe leader of South Africa’s highly regarded pace attack, Marizanne Kapp’s stocks as a batter have been on the rise for a while now. She was the leading run-scorer for South Africa in the 2018 T20 World Cup and had an impressive WBBL where she struck two half-centuries for the Sydney Sixers, averaging over 33. Her ability to score at a brisk rate and innovate is at the heart of her knack for chipping in with momentum-changing cameos.A sharp fielder, Kapp’s athleticism stems from dabbling in multiple sports, having represented her province in netball, athletics, biathlon and lifesaving. She is the only South African with a T20I hat-trick, and her new-ball partnership with Shabnim Ismail makes the South African duo arguably the most feared pace-bowling combination in women’s cricket.The Sixers’ leading wicket-taker 2019-20 season, Kapp specialises in applying the brakes and, save for this WBBL edition, has been the most economical bowler in all preceding four seasons of the tournament. At the World Cup, keep an eye out for the way Kapp sets up batters for the rest of the pace attack to snack on.

The eighth and ninth Nawabs of Pataudi made significant contributions to the game

Paul Edwards26-May-2020India’s imperial past sometimes seems so distant that its preservation can be entrusted to the heritage industry. People hearing of the two Nawabs of Pataudi might think them characters in a Sherlock Holmes mystery rather than a father and son whose life stories offer a personal history of the independent republic’s emergence. Yet any temptation to view them as modern men of the people must take account of their princely background. And no account of either’s career could be complete without considering some of the finest innings played by the pair in an era which stretched from Duleepsinhji to Sunil Gavaskar.The father was the eighth Nawab of Pataudi and inherited the title, aged seven, in 1917; he played three Test matches apiece for England and India, married the daughter of the Maharaja of Bhopal and died of a heart attack in 1952 when playing polo. In no respect outshone, the son was considered a far better batsman and made his first-class debut for Sussex aged 16, when he still had two years’ schooling ahead of him at Winchester. Having lost the sight in his right eye when involved in a car accident a fortnight before the 1961 Varsity Match, he remodelled his stance and made his Test debut for India less than six months later. The possessor of film-star looks and effortless charm, he married Sharmila Tagore, a proper film star. Pataudi captained his country in 40 of his 46 Test matches but ended his days in 2011 as simple Mansur Ali Khan, prime minister Indira Gandhi having abolished all princely entitlements some four decades previously. In any case everyone still called him “Tiger”. This, you may have gathered, is not a story of everyday Indian folk.ALSO READ: Odd Men In – Frank ChesterWhen surrounded with so much glamour – had they played today both men would have been targets for and – it might have been easy for the Nawabs to take their cricket for granted, yet this was not a trap into which either fell. Instead, their careers are a beguiling blend of honed talent and aristocratic mien. Perhaps no innings captures this mixture better than the elder Pataudi’s only Test century, which was scored on debut in the first match of the Bodyline series. Rather than being achieved with a succession of silky boundaries, the hundred was brought up after five-and-a-half hours’ stubborn effort and included only six fours. When mocked by Vic Richardson, Pataudi replied that he was assessing the pace of the Sydney pitch. “Well it’s changed three times since you came in,” was the amused reply. Nevertheless, the debutant gritted it out against Bill O’Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett before being last out for 102 with his side’s total on 524 in a match they eventually won by ten wickets.Yet there was patronage to go with the patience. As the players left the field after England’s first innings, Pataudi asked the umpire, George Hele, for a bail as a memento of the innings. Hele offered him the ball instead and thought nothing more of it until a few weeks later when the grateful Nawab presented him with a gold wristwatch. “I thanked my lucky stars Pataudi did not play in another Test [after the watch was presented],” Hele said.But Pataudi was as closely involved as most MCC tourists with the unsavoury centrepiece of the Bodyline tour. At a relatively trivial but still insulting level he was addressed as “Pat O’Dea” by some of the folks who lived on The Hill, although others in the Sydney crowd had the grace to ask him what he wished to be called. “Just plain ‘Pat’ to you boys,” he replied, thereby showing a far greater popular touch than his captain, Douglas Jardine, ever revealed or wished to possess. Indeed, the antipathy between the pair seems clear. “I see His Highness is a conscientious objector,” Jardine said when Pataudi affected not to hear his instruction to join the leg trap. The Nawab was not selected for any of the three Tests after Melbourne. “I am told he has his good points,” he said of Jardine towards the end of the tour. “In three months I have yet to see them.”The Nawab of Pataudi raises his bat after reaching his century•PA Photos/Getty ImagesThe elder Pataudi was only 23 when the Bodyline tour ended but he was almost exactly at the midpoint of a career which comprised 127 first-class matches. Some spectators had fond memories of his unbeaten 238 in the Varsity Match two years previously and there would be three double-centuries for Worcestershire in 1933. There was even a return to the England side for the Trent Bridge Test in 1934 but Pataudi was cursed by ill-health for the remainder of the decade and when he returned to England after the war it was as captain of the touring India team. He made four centuries on that trip but managed only 55 runs in the three Tests. And perhaps it was fitting that having made his first-class debut in The Parks; Pataudi should end his top-level cricket career at Lord’s. He had, after all, opted to make himself available to play for England against India in his homeland’s first official Test in 1932. “While India was still ruled by the British such anomalies were possible,” notes Ramachandra Guha.’s obituary of the elder Nawab is a trifle more oblique, albeit it mentions his schooling in Lahore and adds that “after the partition of India and Pakistan, Pataudi, a Moslem, found himself without a State to rule”. But the tribute’s most prescient sentence is its last, which notes that he had left “an eleven-year-old son who has shown promise of developing into a good cricketer”.Less than five years later such optimism seemed mild. People spoke wonderingly of the younger Pataudi’s talent when he was still at school and he had been recruited by Sussex before he arrived at Oxford in 1960. No doubt the shrewd eyes of the former Sussex players and Winchester coaches, Hubert Doggart and George Cox jnr., played a role in that signing. “There was huge excitement and anticipation,” recalled his Oxford contemporary, Abbas Ali Baig. “At first sight in the nets his technique seemed a little unconventional as his bat started its descent from the gully position…However, we soon discovered that at the moment of contact Tiger’s bat straightened out magically and his eye and foot coordination was such that he was able to choose where to despatch the ball earlier than both batsmen.”For his freshman season the mystique was maintained; indeed it never completely left the younger Pataudi. But the accident which deprived him of the sight in his right eye necessitated a more square-on stance and if the runs continued to flow from this less classical technique they rarely did so quite as fluently. After the accident, wrote John Woodcock, “his batting was not so often an expression of genius as a triumph over handicap.” Nevertheless, after noting that Oxford and Cambridge produced some 15 Test captains in the period 1952-82 Woodcock judges that “none of the 15, not even Dexter or May or Cowdrey or Imran, was capable of greater brilliance than Tiger.” Like his father, Pataudi scored more first-class centuries for Oxford than for any other team.

On the field he had presence, a regal touch; one’s eyes would be drawn to him, as eyes have been drawn to Imran Khan, Viv Richards, Ian BothamMike Brearley on “Tiger” Pataudi

Unlike the eighth Nawab, however, his national loyalties were never divided. At 21 Pataudi became India’s youngest captain in only his fourth match when he led the team at Bridgetown in 1962 after Nari Contractor had fractured his skull when ducking into a Charlie Griffiths bouncer. He would lead the side for much of the next decade and when critics pointed to only two series wins, both against New Zealand, Pataudi’s supporters, many of them modern writers, would argue that he revolutionised the approach of India’s players, inculcating fresh pride and suggesting his colleagues might at least attempt to emulate his own graceful and athletic fielding. “Pataudi remains, perhaps, India’s most iconic captain ever, credited with giving Indian cricket the steel to take on the best in the world without backing down,” wrote Boria Majumdar in . “In many ways he remains the forerunner to the Sourav Gangulys and Virat Kohlis of the world.”Pataudi scored his first Test century against England in only his third match and his 13-year international career would feature five more. Those against Australia in 1964 and against England at Headingley in 1967 are still rated among the finest Test hundreds, albeit only when the compilers of such lists are not blinded by modernity. Pataudi’s record in other first-class matches was more modest. His 33 centuries in 310 matches compares unfavourably with his father’s 29 in 127 games.Yet the opportunity to display his leadership skills helped make the last Nawab’s achievement far more substantial. Guha considers him “the most charismatic Indian cricketer since CK Nayudu… Even with one eye he was close to world-class… Back in the 1960s, no one would have cared to question the patriotism of the Muslim captain of India.”Equally significantly, Pataudi demanded that India’s cricketers represented their newly-independent country rather than their ancient states. “If you were good, you were in, irrespective of whether you were from Mumbai or Bihar,” writes Mudar Patherya. “Today, one would hardly consider that a big deal but in the 1960s, this was a morning breeze in a factional India.”Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi stands on a balcony overlooking an esplanade and beach•Getty ImagesThere were tactical innovations, too. Blessed with four high-class spinners in Bishan Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Pataudi sometimes bucked orthodoxy and played them all. The nerves of some top-order Test batsmen never recovered, especially if they had toured the subcontinent and been hemmed in by close fielders. Claustrophobia has never since been as fascinating.Some criticised Pataudi’s mercurial temperament but it was still rather a surprise when he was replaced as India’s skipper by the calmer Ajit Wadekar. The new captain proceeded to win series in both West Indies and England in his first six months in charge; his predecessor, meanwhile, who had been deprived of both his title and his job in less than a year made an poorly-judged foray into Indian politics but was among the first to send Wadekar a congratulatory telegram after Chandrasekhar had bowled India to their first Test victory against England at The Oval.Pataudi returned to the Test side for the home victory against England and led his country in his final Tests when India lost 3-2 to a West Indies side captained by Clive Lloyd. On a personal level it was a low-key conclusion to his international career but perhaps there was something fitting about bowing out in a series which saw the debuts of both Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge. Both men may have hit the ball harder than Pataudi but he, too, could dazzle spectators without blinding them.”Tiger – in the mind’s eye – aquiline, still, slight, swift, hawkish,” recalled Mike Brearley, who played against Pataudi in the 1963 Varsity Match. “On the field he had presence, a regal touch; one’s eyes would be drawn to him, as eyes have been drawn to Imran Khan, Viv Richards, Ian Botham. A proper arrogance, or as Bishan Bedi put it, an imperious charm.”For those who did not see Pataudi bat there is still film available of him advancing down the pitch and hitting spinners over the infield. For those who did not meet him when he was young and had a world before him, there are many recollections and many more photographs. Few cricketers have done so little to repel the lens. One such shot adorns the cover of a book of tributes: . The young batsman gazes down from what appears to be a hotel balcony on Brighton’s sea front in the early 1960s. His eyes are shaded by dark glasses and the hair is immaculately cut and combed. It could be a still from a Visconti film and its subject could indeed be a prince looking down on a possible kingdom. “What will you be doing after Oxford?” he was asked when still an undergraduate. “I won’t have to be doing anything,” he replied. “You see, I am a Nawab.” He little knew. Odd Men In

This week: The ODI exploits of Michael Bevan, Lance Klusener and MS Dhoni

Himanshu Agrawal22-Jun-2020What We’re WatchingThe ice-cool pioneer
The idea of a finisher probably first took root during the 1995-96 Benson & Hedges World Series, during which Bevan scored 389 runs at an average of 194.50, bolstered by eight not-outs in ten innings. The highlight came on New Year’s Day at the SCG, against West Indies. Australia needed 173 in 43 overs, and were struggling at 74 for 7 when Bevan orchestrated the kind of escape that would soon become his trademark, scoring an unbeaten 78 and hitting the winning boundary off the last ball, with the No. 11, Glenn McGrath, at the other end.Bevan’s greatest innings, arguably, came in an unofficial ODI in April 2000. Chasing 321 against an Asia XI in Dhaka, the Rest of the World XI slipped to 196 for 7 in the 37th over Game over? Not while Bevan was still at the crease. With Andy Caddick providing support, Bevan somehow kept the RoW in the hunt, and brought the target down to 20 off the last over. What happened next? Well, watch the highlights of Bevan’s unbeaten 132-ball 185 here.Bevan made six ODI hundreds, and his last one, against New Zealand in January 2002, was perhaps his best. All the familiar ingredients were there. Chasing 246 at the MCG, Australia slipped to 82 for 6, and then 143 for 7, and Bevan yet again had only the tail for company. But as always, he knew exactly which bowlers, and which areas of the field, to target. Watch his unbeaten 95-ball 102, and marvel at those meaty leg-side swats, and that lightning running between the wickets.In the 2003 World Cup, England were on the verge of handing a seemingly invincible Australia side a rare defeat, reducing them to 135 for 8 in a chase of 205 in Port Elizabeth. But Bevan was still there, and so was Andy Bichel. invincible? Scratch that.The red-hot marauder
They both batted left-handed, and were both at their best in the late middle order, but their methods were chalk and cheese. Or fire and ice. Lance Klusener bludgeoned bowlers where Bevan manipulated them, but he was no less effective when you put a lost cause in front of him. Need 27 off 14 balls with just three wickets in hand, as South Africa did in Napier in March 1999? And then four off the last ball? No problem.A few months later, Klusener produced one of the greatest individual displays at a World Cup. In a tournament characterised by low totals and seaming pitches, he scored 281 runs at an average of 140.50 (six not-outs in eight innings) and a strike rate of – wait for it – . Oh, and he took more wickets – 17 – than any other South African bowler.
Against Sri Lanka in Northampton, he smashed 52 not out off 45 balls, including smacking 22 off Chaminda Vaas’ final over. In the Super Sixes against Pakistan, South Africa chased 221 with an over to spare despite middle-overs wobbles, thanks largely to Klusener’s 46 not out off 41 balls. Some of his leg-side hitting, as you can see here, was awe-inspiring, particularly a baseball-style six off Shoaib Akhtar. And you’ll remember the heartbreaking finish in the semi-final at Edgbaston, but don’t forget Klusener’s hitting in the lead-up. Just sensational.In 2000-01, New Zealand toured South Africa and ended up on the wrong side of a 5-0 ODI whitewash. It might not have been so one-sided, though, had Klusener not been around to pull off a pair of ruthlessly explosive finishes in Durban and Cape Town.“Finishes off in style!”
Has there been a better finisher than MS Dhoni at his peak? Could anyone better the audacity of his display in Lahore in 2006, when he arrived with India needing 99 off 92 balls, and proceeded to clatter an unbeaten 72 off just 46 balls? The second boundary in the video, off Abdul Razzaq, is particularly impressive: a controlled, one-handed lofted hit off a low full toss, placed calmly beyond the bowler’s reach. Later in the same series, in Karachi, India sent Dhoni in at No. 4 when they were miles behind the required rate and needed 146 to win off 118 balls. Tough ask? Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni only needed 99 balls to finish the job.Dhoni’s most iconic finish, of course, came in the final of the 2011 World Cup, in Mumbai. You know how it ends, you know what Ravi Shastri says next, but you’ll definitely want to watch it again.By this time, Dhoni was a far more calculating sort of finisher, a master of managing required rates while taking the fewest possible risks, and backing himself to produce the big hits at the climactic moments. A sample of this came in Adelaide in 2012, when he hit just one boundary in an unbeaten 44 off 58 balls – a monstrous, match-winning 112m six off Clint McKay, in the final over.A year later, he sat out the league stage of a tri-series in the West Indies, returned for the final in Port-of-Spain, and finished the game in breathtaking fashion. With India needing 15 off the last five balls of a low-scoring thriller, Dhoni sent Shaminda Eranga crashing for 6, 4, 6.What We’re Watching

Also: Why didn’t the Sunrisers promote Rashid Khan in the batting order?

Karthik Krishnaswamy29-Sep-20202:12

Manjrekar: Natarajan showed why the team persisted with him

Who is T Natarajan, and what was so special about his performance today?
Natarajan is a left-arm quick who first came to the attention of IPL scouts when he bowled six yorkers back-to-back in a Super Over against Abhinav Mukund and Washington Sundar. Kings XI Punjab signed him for INR 3 crore during the 2017 IPL auction, and he played six matches for them that season. He was expensive, though, returning an economy rate of 9.07 across six games.That performance drove down his price at the 2018 auction, where the Sunrisers snapped him up for INR 40 lakh. It’s understood that Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sunrisers bowling coach who has also worked in the TNPL, played an influential role in Sunrisers bidding for Natarajan.He didn’t feature in a single game in his first two seasons with the franchise, but he’s since added an extra yard of pace, which he showed while helping Tamil Nadu reach the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. He was Tamil Nadu’s designated death bowler through the entire white-ball domestic season, and those performances may have helped him break into the Sunrisers first XI.On Tuesday night, he showed exactly why he was there: to bowl yorker after yorker and keep nailing them. In his third and fourth overs – the 14th and 18th of the Capitals’ innings – he bowled ten balls that could either be described as pinpoint yorkers – with a hint of shape into the left-hander as well – or balls too full to get under easily, or low full-tosses hitting the toe-end of the bat. The last of them got him the wicket of Marcus Stoinis, lbw playing across the line.The long boundaries and the two-paced pitch definitely increased Natarajan’s margin for error – it will be interesting to watch how he holds up when the Sunrisers play in Sharjah – but it said a lot about his skills that he could hit the blockhole with such precision against some of the biggest hitters in the game, that too with a bit of dew about.Why did the Sunrisers pick Kane Williamson over Mohammad Nabi?
For a number of seasons now, the same weakness has dogged the Sunrisers: a top-heavy batting line-up with a lack of experience and power through the middle order. This weakness had contributed significantly to their losing their first two games of the season, against Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kolkata Knight Riders.Bringing Williamson in was the obvious way to strengthen the middle order, but in doing so, the Sunrisers took a big gamble because they were leaving out the offspin-bowling allrounder Nabi, who is one of the world’s leading bowlers against left-hand batsmen. This against a side with four left-handers – Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Shimron Hetmyer and Axar Patel – in their top seven.The move worked brilliantly on the day, with Williamson not just adding solidity to the Sunrisers batting effort but also urgency and inventiveness while scoring a vital 41 off 26 balls. The Sunrisers also rose to the challenge of having only five bowlers, with Sharma doing well to finish with an economy rate of 8.50 despite bowling the bulk of his overs to two left-hand batsmen. Whether this combination will work in other matches, in more batting-friendly conditions, and against other teams, remains to be seen.Why did Axar Patel only bowl two overs?
Axar was one of the heroes of Delhi Capitals’ win over Chennai Super Kings in their previous match, taking 1 for 18 in his four overs, of which he bowled two inside the powerplay. Against the Sunrisers, however, Axar didn’t bowl at all inside the first ten overs, and only two overs thereafter. Why?In one word, match-ups. The Capitals used Axar with the new ball against the Super Kings because of his excellent head-to-head record against Shane Watson, whom he ended up dismissing for the sixth time in nine meetings.Tonight, the Capitals were wary of using Axar when David Warner was at the crease. This is their head-to-head in T20s: 51 balls across eight innings, 84 runs, two dismissals. Warner was at the crease until the 10th over of the Sunrisers innings, and the Capitals brought Axar on in the 11th, as soon as the opener was safely out of the way.Why didn’t the Sunrisers promote Rashid Khan?
When the Sunrisers lost Jonny Bairstow with 13 balls remaining, they sent in the debutant Abdul Samad. Did they miss a trick by not promoting Rashid Khan, who’s shown himself – in the limited batting opportunities he gets around the world – to be a natural ball-striker?There’s definitely an argument that the Sunrisers can trust Rashid’s ability a little more – he has a first-ten-balls strike rate of 143 in the last three years.But Samad comes to the IPL with quite a reputation for hitting too. He hit 36 sixes during last year’s Ranji Trophy, more than anyone else in the competition. It’s a first-class tournament, yes, but that number still tells a tale, and off the fourth ball he faced tonight, Samad proved he can do it against the quickest bowlers in the business too, going deep in his crease to get under a full ball from Anrich Nortje and smoke him over the long-on boundary.Were the Capitals too conservative in their chase?
The Capitals went at less than a run a ball through their powerplay, despite just losing one wicket, and by the time they reached the halfway point of their chase, their required rate was nearly 11. Were they too conservative at the start?Yes, and no. Like most teams, they must have backed themselves to chase two runs a ball if they had wickets in hand, so there was a bit of early caution. But this was a two-paced pitch, there was some seam movement early on too, and the Sunrisers bowled well and used the long boundaries to their advantage, so – much like Bairstow during the Sunrisers innings – the slow scoring wasn’t entirely intentional. Where Shikhar Dhawan did the Bairstow role to an extent, the Capitals didn’t have a Warner or a Williamson on the day to get them close to the target with wickets in hand.Should Warner have used Sharma’s four overs in one spell?
Without Nabi, the Sunrisers had a depleted bowling attack, and Abhishek Sharma – who had bowled two overs each in his first two matches of the season – had to take on a much bigger workload. The left-arm spinner did commendably to concede just 19 in his first three overs despite predominantly bowling to two left-handers. He did this by going wide of the crease, landing on a length just short of sweepable, and forcing the batsmen to hit him into the leg side where most of the boundary-riders were – the long boundaries gave him the cushion to bowl to such a plan.But was a fourth over on the trot asking for too much, especially against hitters of the calibre of Rishabh Pant and Shimron Hetmyer? Warner gambled, and the move nearly came off, with the first four balls bringing three singles and a dropped caught-and-bowled, Pant hitting it too hard for it to be anything more than a half-chance. The last two balls, however, disappeared for sixes, leaving the Capitals still in the game with 85 to get off 42 balls.Why did Warner hold back Khan’s last over?
While Sharma bowled four on the trot, Warner pulled Rashid out of the attack after his third, waiting until the 17th over to bring him back.From the start of the 14th over – when Rashid went out of the attack – to the end of the 16th, the Capitals scored 36 off 18 balls, remaining in touch with their required rate. Another over from Rashid then, you could argue, could have shut them out of the game.Warner, though, may have wanted to ensure that he had one over from his legspinner left in order to break up a string of overs from his quicks. He may have also gambled on getting at least one of Pant or Hetmyer out before bringing Rashid back against Stoinis, who isn’t the most confident starter against spin.In the event, it worked, with Hetmyer holing out off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 16th over and Rashid returning for the 17th with Stoinis on strike.Should Pant have played out Rashid’s final over?
At the start of that over, the Capitals needed 49 from 24. In a similar situation in the CPL recently, while playing for the Trinbago Knight Riders against the Barbados Tridents, Kieron Pollard had played out Rashid’s final over, leaving himself 66 to get off the last 24 balls and somehow pulling it off.Three singles came off the first three balls of Rashid’s over tonight, before Pant took the legspinner on and picked out deep square leg with a miscued sweep. Should he have held back?It was a difficult choice either way for Pant, given the situation, and given how well the Sunrisers’ fast bowlers were also bowling. And he certainly had reason to back himself against Rashid. Before today, Pant had a career T20 strike rate of 155.73 against legspin and an average of 65.66. Against Rashid specifically, he had scored 56 runs off 37 balls while only being dismissed once.