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da pinup bet： Se o momento do Corinthians dentro dos gramados é positivo, o mesmo pode ser dito nas redes sociais. Pela terceira semana consecutiva, o clube alvinegro foi a equipe brasileira com maior engajamento no Instagram e Facebook.

continua após a publicidadeRelacionadasCorinthiansCom retorno de laterais, Corinthians faz trabalhos específicos visando o Santo AndréCorinthians01/03/2023Campeonato PaulistaSantos x Corinthians: FPF libera áudio do VAR no gol anulado de Yuri Alberto; veja o diálogoCampeonato Paulista01/03/2023Núm3ros da bol4Perto do Corinthians, Barletta é um dos maiores dribladores do PaulistãoNúm3ros da bol428/02/2023

da betobet： + Renato Augusto é novamente o destaque do Corinthians; Giovane destoa contra o Santos

Entre os dias 22 e 28 de fevereiro, o Timão teve 10,71 milhões de interações no Instagram, e 497 mil no Facebook, segundo levantamento realizado pela Samba Digital, agência de marketing esportivo internacional, e publicado pela empresa MKT Esportivo.

+ Veja as movimentações do mercado da bola no LANCE!

A goleada de 14 a 0 sobre o Ceará, na estreia do Campeonato Brasileiro feminino, ajudou o Corinthians a manter a liderança de engajamento nas redes sociais citadas. O post sobre o resultado final rendeu 647 mil interações no Instagram, o segundo maior número da semana entre clubes brasileiros.

O placar, construído na Arena Nogueirão, em Mogi das Cruzes, foi o segundo maior da história do Brasileirão feminino. Em 10 anos de competição, somente o 16 a 1 aplicado pela Ferroviária sobre o Pinheirense, do Pará, em 2014, foi maior do que a vitória corintiana no último final de semana.

+ Veja tabela e simule os jogos do Campeonato Paulista

No masculino, o time de Fernando Lázaro está classificado ao mata-mata do Paulistão e busca a terceira campanha geral do Paulistão no sábado (4), contra o Santo André, na Neo Química Arena.

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Manchester United, co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and manager Ruben Amorim are ready to axe 10 players this summer on a combined salary of £1.8m-a-week.

Ratcliffe calls some Man Utd players ‘overpaid’ and ‘not good enough’

The Red Devils and Ratcliffe have been in the headlines this week, and before plans for a new 100,000 capacity stadium were unveiled, the main talking points were on the co-owners’ comments to the media.

Talking on various topics, including Erik ten Hag, Amorim, the squad and Old Trafford finances to the likes of Gary Neville and the BBC, Ratcliffe took aim at some of the current Man Utd squad.

“If you look at the players we are buying this summer, that we didn’t buy, we’re buying Antony, we’re buying Casemiro, we’re buying Onana, we’re buying Hojlund, we’re buying Sancho. These are all things from the past, whether we like it or not, we’ve inherited those things and have to sort that out.

“For Sancho, who now plays for Chelsea [on loan] and we pay half his wages, we’re paying £17m to buy him in the summer. It takes time for us to move away from the past into a new place in the future.

“Some are not good enough and some probably are overpaid, but for us to mould the squad that we are fully responsible for, and accountable for, will take time.”

"Devastated" – Mark Goldbridge gutted at Man Utd update confirmed by INEOS

He hasn’t held back.

ByCharlie Smith Mar 12, 2025

Amorim has since responded to Ratcliffe’s comments on some of the squad being ‘overpaid’ and ‘not good enough’, saying: “If you’re a top player playing in this club, even me – a lot of people say I am not good enough for the club – my feeling is that you can change that with results. In training, I feel that they want this really bad.”

It promises to be a busy summer ahead of Amorim’s first full season in charge of Man Utd, and by the looks of things, a mass overhaul of the playing squad is on the cards.

Ratcliffe and Amorim ready to move on 10 Man Utd players this summer

According to a recent report from Spain, Man Utd are preparing to get rid of 10 players who are on a combined £1.8m-a-week at Old Trafford.

Casemiro (£350,000-a-week), Marcus Rashford (£300,000-a-week), Mason Mount, (£250,000-a-week), Jadon Sancho, (£250,000-a-week), Antony (£200,000-a-week), Christian Eriksen (£150,000-a-week), Victor Lindelof (£120,000-a-week), Rasmus Hojlund (£85,000-a-week), Jonny Evans (£85,000-a-week) and Tom Heaton (£45,000-a-week) are all in line to leave Old Trafford over the coming months.

Patrick Dorgu

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Arsenal

As we know, Rashford, Sancho and Antony are on loan at Aston Villa, Chelsea and Real Betis respectively, whereas Eriksen, Evans, Lindelof and Heaton are out of contract at the end of the season.

INEOS will look to move all 10 on ‘in an attempt to generate income and free up space for new signings’ and Amorim has given the green light regarding the exits.

Should the three loanees complete permanent moves to their new employers, United will only need to find homes for Casmeiro, Mount and Hojlund.

da blaze casino： It’s been a brutal season for Tottenham Hotspur that only seems to get more so by the week.

da cassino： Ange Postecoglou’s side have been utterly ravaged by a seemingly endless string of injuries to key players all over the pitch, and it has understandably affected their campaign.

In the Premier League, the North Londoners have lost more games than they’ve won, and over the last seven days, they have been knocked out of the FA Cup and League Cup.

With all that said, there are at least a few players who can come out of this horror season with their heads held high, including one who is worth millions more than he was when Spurs signed him.

The Spurs stars who can hold their heads high

Now, while the aforementioned injuries haven’t helped in the slightest, the team has been underwhelming at best this season, although a few players have stood out for the right reasons, such as Dominic Solanke.

The £65m man is the club’s record signing, and while he did get off to a somewhat slow start, he eventually found his feet and showed the fans that his fee was entirely justified.

For example, prior to his injury, the former Bournemouth star scored 11 goals and provided six assists in 29 appearances, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.70 games.

From the frontline to the back, someone who has been a surprise hit this year has been Djed Spence.

We say surprise as it looked like he was on his way out of the club in the summer and wasn’t even included in the first Europa League squad.

However, as the defence started falling like flies, Postecoglou was forced to call upon the Englishman, and it was a good thing he did, as the 22-year-old is now arguably their best full-back.

He might not quite be able to whip a ball as well as Pedro Porro, but he’s no slouch going forward, and unlike some of his teammates, he’s imposing when it comes to the defensive side of the game.

With that said, neither he nor Solanke has been Spurs’ best player this season; that title goes to someone else, someone whose valuation has exploded since joining the North Londoners.

The Spurs star whose valuation has exploded

Despite their position in the table, there are several incredibly valuable players in the Spurs squad, like Solanke, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.

In this instance, though, the player in question is none other than Dejan Kulusevski, who made his move to N17 permanent in 2023 for a fee said to be in the region of £25m.

However, he’s worth a lot more than that today, with the CIES Football Observatory valuing him at around €70m, which converts to about £58m, representing a 132% increase on the fee paid by the Lilywhites.

Now, that is undoubtedly a lot of money, and it’s probably fair to say the last few weeks have not seen him at his very best, but when we take a look at the season as a whole, it’s clear that he’s been the club’s best player and more than deserves such a valuation.

For example, in just 39 appearances, which have seen him play in midfield and out wide, the “world-class” international, as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, has scored nine goals and provided ten assists.

Kulusevski’s 24/25

Appearances

39

Minutes

2850′

Goals

9

Assists

10

Goal Involvements per Match

0.48

Minutes per Goal Involvement

150′

All Stats via Transfermarkt

That means the 24-year-old game-changer is averaging a goal involvement every 2.05 for a team struggling in the bottom half of the Premier League table – talk about impressive.

Ultimately, this season has been nothing short of a disaster for Tottenham, but even in such a campaign, players like Spence, Solanke and even Kulusevski have shown that they have what it takes to be a part of the next great Spurs side.

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They were given the chance to experiment with their team and they took it. Now the question is, will they give their new players time to find their way?

Danyal Rasool28-Mar-2023Almost seven years ago, Pakistan turned up in Manchester on a cool September night to cap off a miserable white-ball tour with a one-off T20I. The prospects for a relatively inexperienced Pakistani side looked bleak; they had just come off a wretched 2016 T20 World Cup campaign, while England’s incipient rise to the top of the white-ball game was picking up steam. The ODI series just prior hadn’t gone to plan for the visitors, brushed aside 4-1, including a humbling defeat that saw England post a then-world record 444 at Trent Bridge.Pakistan made a number of changes from that ill-fated T20 World Cup five months prior. Shahid Afridi was finally done away with, and Sarfaraz Ahmed was handed the captaincy. Mohammad Sami was phased out, and 22-year-old Hasan Ali made his debut. Mohammad Rizwan earned a recall after six months. Another slight, unassuming 21-year-old also made his T20I debut; Babar Azam would go on to hit the winning runs in a nine-wicket romp.Related

Saim Ayub, Ihsanullah sparkle for young Pakistan to avert Afghanistan whitewash

Win over Pakistan carries a lot of 'emotions and significance' for Afghanistan

That night sent Pakistan on a journey that allowed this game to assume great importance in hindsight. New captain Sarfaraz led the side to 11-straight T20I series wins. Rizwan went on to become one of the most consistent T20 openers in the world. Hasan took home the player-of-the-series award when Pakistan won the 2017 Champions Trophy nine months later. And Babar, well, you get the point.England on the other hand didn’t really care about the loss. Not as much as they did about the chance to test new players transitioning into a new system. One that resulted in the ODI World Cup win in 2019 and, further down the line, the T20 World Cup win in 2022. That old nine-wicket thumping in Manchester wasn’t a harbinger of anything inauspicious; nine of those who started that game would also start at least one of those World Cup finals.Pakistan lost the three-match series against Afghanistan by a 2-1 margin•Afghanistan cricketWhich brings us to Pakistan’s historic defeat at Afghanistan’s hands over the past week and why it might not be such a bad thing.Pakistan were right in giving their newfound PSL stars a go in international cricket. They have the time now, with the next T20 World Cup almost two years away, to supplement the talent they have with the experience they will need.Saim Ayub lit up the PSL. Mohammad Haris was the catalyst for a Pakistan revival at last year’s T20 World Cup. As opening batters, they are very different to Babar and Rizwan, but given the way T20 cricket is being played right now, it almost feels like they are the conventional choice rather than their more decorated, more conservative counterparts. Only, Ayub and Haris found themselves thrown in on surfaces that were much better suited to the accumulating instincts, as well as superior techniques, of Babar and Rizwan.The value of this series to Pakistan was never about bringing home that T20 trophy, ornate as it was. Shadab Khan, Babar’s deputy for some time now, had the opportunity to juggle his all-round role with the captaincy. He was allowed to make his mistakes while the stakes aren’t suffocatingly high. Things didn’t go perfectly to plan but it was important that Pakistan found out what life beyond Babar will look like. Shadab might never end up being a permanent captain for Pakistan, but there were few better occasions to see what he can do, something that he himself touched upon at the end of the series.”Unfortunately, we didn’t win the series,” Shadab said. “But the way our youngsters showed their talent was very exciting, and I’m confident they’ll end up becoming stars. The conditions were evidently totally different to the PSL, and young players can get nervous when they put on the green shirt for the first time. But what I liked was how quickly they adapted. After two difficult matches, they showed in the third their calibre and quality.”These conditions were new for them, and they should learn from it. Those who succeeded in this series and those who failed we might need to work on game awareness a little bit, about when to play what shot. But they’re young, and when you’re nervous, you make mistakes. But with their talent and attitude, they’ll pick up these things quickly.”Shadab Khan remained positive despite Pakistan’s loss•Afghanistan Cricket BoardImad Wasim and Abdullah Shafique found themselves back on the international stage, and only time will tell if they, or indeed Tayyab Tahir, end up being a part of Pakistan’s long-term plan. But the general discomfort at the idea of Pakistan selecting players who might not necessarily be part of their best squads speaks to a culture where rest, rotation and experimentation have never been allowed to take root.Since the start of 2021, until this series began, Pakistan had fielded 32 players in the T20I format. Only Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland, whose talent pools are infinitely shallower, fielded fewer. For starts per T20I played, only Ireland experiment less than Pakistan. The leaders, India, handed out nearly 50% more starts, with 45 different cricketers donning T20I caps in this period.But rotation can be as illuminating as it is rejuvenating, as Pakistan would have discovered after watching Ihsanullah and Zaman Khan this series. Knowing Pakistan’s penchant for knee-jerk volte-faces, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a full-strength T20I side gear up for the home series against New Zealand next month, even though the visitors will send in a significantly weakened squad. Should that happen, it is entirely likely that New Zealand will be the team that walks away having learned more about themselves, regardless of the series outcome.The roles from that night in Manchester have been completely reversed. It is Afghanistan who should view this series as their springboard to something special. Pakistan – just like England that night – need only move on.

Leicester defender Caleb Okoli has emerged as a potential AC Milan signing, with Massimiliano Allegri keen to bolster his defence.

Milan looking to reinforce defence after Thiaw’s saleAllegri switches to a three-man defenceOkoli joined Leicester from Atalanta last summerFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

According to , Milan are considering a move for Leicester centre-back Okoli as part of their defensive rebuild. The Serie A giants recently sold Thiaw to Newcastle for €35 million (£30m/$38m) and replaced him with Belgian defender Koni De Winter from Genoa. However, Allegri has decided to switch to a three-man defence, but with just four central defenders – Fikayo Tomori, Matteo Gabbia, Strahinja Pavlovic and De Winter – the club are exploring another signing.

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While Milan’s main transfer focus remains on landing Rasmus Hojlund, the need for defensive depth has grown urgent. Allegri’s tactical shift has increased the demand for rotation options, particularly with a long season ahead. The 23-year-old Italian has impressed in his first year at Leicester following his €14m (£12m/$15m) move from Atalanta, offering experience and physical presence without the hefty price tag of other targets such as Parma’s Giovanni Leoni or Fiorentina’s Pietro Comuzzo, both valued at around €40m (£34m/$43m).

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Okoli made 24 appearances for Leicester in the 2024-25 season, finding the net with a header in a 2-2 Premier League draw against Brighton in April. His current contract runs until June 2029, and his interests are represented by the same agency that manages Milan midfielder Samuele Ricci, who joined from Torino this summer. Seen as a realistic and affordable signing, Okoli is being monitored closely as the Rossoneri prepare for their opening fixture.

Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT FOR AC MILAN?

The Rossoneri will kick off their 2025-26 campaign this weekend against Bari in the Coppa Italia first round, and the club are expected to intensify their defensive search before the transfer window closes. If talks progress, Okoli could arrive in time to provide crucial depth for Allegri’s new-look backline.

Big picture: Pakistan confident, Australia shorthanded

Australian soil has mostly been the site of nightmares for Pakistan over decades. But ignited by fiery bowling from quick Haris Rauf, Pakistan are on the verge of a rare series victory in Australia and go into Sunday’s decider at the Optus Stadium highly confident after a nine-wicket hammering of the world champions in Adelaide.It can, of course, be fraught with danger to feel any type of certainty over such a volatile team but Pakistan deserve to enter the third and final ODI in Perth as favourites. They probably should have already wrapped up the series if not for Pat Cummins’ late heroics with the bat at the MCG.Pakistan bounced back superbly with a masterclass in the second ODI, blowing away Australia’s batters with skilful pace bowling before impressive young opener Saim Ayub treated Australia’s frontline attack with disdain.It’s hard to recall a more clinical performance by a visiting team in Australia. Pakistan, whose white-ball coach Gary Kirsten quit amid upheaval just a week before the tour, can almost sniff an unlikely series victory and they will face a weakened Australia.Cummins, Steven Smith, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Marnus Labuschagne won’t play as they start preparing for the first Test against India.Josh Inglis will become Australia’s 30th ODI captain and has the tough task of galvanising a new-look team in conditions that will once again test their batting-order preaching all-out attack. There will be considerable pressure on misfiring openers Matt Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk, who have both copped criticism for their shot selections across the two games.While the series is viewed as an entrée to the blockbuster Test summer, as underlined by modest crowds in Melbourne and Adelaide, there is added significance for both teams ahead of the upcoming Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

Form guide

Australia LWWLL (last five ODIs, most recent first)
Pakistan WLLWWJosh Inglis will lead Australia for the first time•AFP/Getty Images

In the spotlight: Josh Inglis and Haris Rauf

Josh Inglis, 29, will make his captaincy debut for Australia and also will lead his team in the subsequent T20I series against Pakistan. Given his heavy workload with the gloves, Inglis has never taken the reins of Western Australia or Perth Scorchers in the BBL, but his leadership credentials and tactical nous are widely regarded. He did captain a very strong Prime Minister’s XI in a first-class match against West Indies two years ago. The England-born Inglis started the season in sublime form and was even bandied around as a possible left-field option to solve Australia’s Test opening dilemma. Inglis continued to look in good touch in the opening two games but failed to convert starts. On a ground he has long dominated in the BBL, Inglis looms as Australia’s key batter as he bids to start his captaincy on a winning note.Haris Rauf has been undoubtedly the standout performer so far this series with eight wickets to rattle Australia. He’s been unplayable at times on helpful surfaces and he has created doubt over whether Australia’s batters can handle rapid pace. Rauf should relish the extra bounce at the Optus Stadium, but he will need to not get carried away. He should strive to replicate the discipline he showed in Adelaide marked by a superb line and length delivery – reminiscent of Test cricket – to nick off Labuschagne. If he can finish off the series in style, then his performances across the three games will go down in Pakistan’s fast-bowling lore.

Team news: Mass changes for Australia

Quick Sean Abbott, who played in the series opener, is likely to return for Australia along with experienced allrounder and Perth local Marcus Stoinis. Hometown heroes Lance Morris and Cooper Connolly will be in consideration, while quicks Spencer Johnson and Xavier Bartlett are also in the squad.Australia (probable): 1 Matt Short, 2 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 3 Josh Inglis (capt, wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Aaron Hardie, 7 Cooper Connolly, 8 Sean Abbott, 9 Spencer Johnson/Xavier Bartlett, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Lance MorrisAfter such a comprehensive victory in Adelaide, Pakistan are set to remain unchanged.Pakistan (probable): 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), 5 Kamran Ghulam, 6 Salman Agha, 7 Irfan Khan, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Mohammad HasnainSaim Ayub treated Australia’s attack with disdain in the second ODI•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Pitch and conditions

A fast and bouncy surface is expected at a ground that aims to mimic the famous conditions at the nearby WACA. But runs usually flow at the ground in white-ball cricket as batters target the relatively short straight boundaries.”The same three principles… pace, carry and bounce but more of a batter’s wicket. Lots of runs,” WA Cricket head curator Isaac McDonald told ESPNcricinfo.It has been a relatively mild spring in Perth and pleasant temperatures in the mid-20s are expected throughout the day fixture.

Stats and trivia

• Salman Agha has the fifth-highest strike rate (94.86) in Pakistan’s history of batters who have faced at least 500 deliveries.
• Glenn Maxwell needs 50 runs to reach 4000 in ODIs.
• The teams have never played an ODI at the Optus Stadium. Pakistan held a 4-3 edge at the WACA.
• Only two ODIs have been played at the Optus Stadium. In front of more than 53,000 fans, England’s 12-run victory over Australia in January 2018 was the first official sports event at the Burswood ground, while South Africa beat Australia by six wickets later that year.

Quotes

“We go to Perth with a clear plan, a clear method. We’re committed to the style we want to play.”

In-form captain has team-mates running out of superlatives and home crowd loving every moment

Andrew Miller14-Aug-20216:00

Root or KP – England’s greatest batsman?

We cannot keep asking more of our star players. That has been the message from the ECB high command in recent months – including on the eve of this Test, when Tom Harrison, the chief executive, insisted the board were committed to a “people first” policy, for the remainder of England’s summer campaign and, most significantly, on into this winter’s Ashes.”It’s no longer acceptable to go ‘once more unto the breach dear friends’,” Harrison said, with Covid restrictions foremost in his thoughts, but with England’s insane itinerary right up there at the top of everyone else’s. For despite such stirring rhetoric, there really is no other way. The reality for England’s cricketers, in the sport’s post-pandemic panic, is that every day is Groundhog Day, every next-biggest occasion ever is just another day on the treadmill.But just as Bill Murray discovered while hanging out in Punxsutawney, some days can still be better than others if you can find it within you to seize the moment. And when you’ve ploughed on for as long as Joe Root has, willing yourself to perform in empty echoing stadiums for months of bubbled-up existence, then to emerge into a sunlight Saturday of a Lord’s Test, in front of a packed and enraptured crowd, with your own family looking on from their box in the Grandstand … well, there couldn’t really be a more perfect stage for a masterpiece.Related

• Stats: Joe Root reaches 9000 Test runs as superb 2021 form continues

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Root has had plenty reason to wave his bat in triumph in the course of his extraordinary 2021. But few milestone moments have dripped with more glee than his jab into the covers off Jasprit Bumrah, armed with the second new ball on Saturday afternoon. He scampered the single then veered abruptly towards his family in the stands, punching the air with a delirium that only the most devout can know.For Root isn’t just going to the well for England, time and time again. He’s living in the well. He’s so immersed in the day-to-day pressures of carrying the fortunes of his team that he’s become at one with his surroundings, at peace with the pressure of treading water for hours at an end, knowing that if he dares to stop swimming, everyone is liable to sink. Today he soared, and it was glorious.”Joe and I, when we were walking out, we were just smiling at each other,” Jonny Bairstow said at the close, after an innings of 57 that ended up being less than a third of his captain’s tally, but is still, remarkably, the only other half-century to have come from one of his team-mates this series.”How good is it to walk out on a Saturday at Lord’s, with one of your best mates?” Bairstow added. “That’s exactly what it was. Our partnership was about having fun while we were out there, and to have a full crowd back at Lord’s, with the new stand, with family and friends, was really special. That Lord’s buzz, or hum, or however you want to phrase it, was most definitely back.”Mohammed Siraj congratulates Joe Root on his unbeaten 180•Getty ImagesMuch like James Anderson’s first-innings five-for, hindsight confers an inevitability on Root’s magnificence that circumstance really shouldn’t allow. It was a point put to him in the lead-up to this match – as he opted once again to do his captain’s media duties two days out from the Test, in a bid to cocoon his game-brain and filter out the noise for an extra 24 hours.”How are you Joe?” was the gist of the final question, almost as an afterthought at the end of a 20-minute interrogation, featuring topics including the return of Moeen Ali and the wider failings of a team that had been outplayed in each of their first three Tests of the summer, the longest they’d been made to wait for a home victory since their struggles against Sri Lanka and India back in 2014.He insisted he was fine – but then so too, you suspect, did Ben Stokes last month, when he fielded that SOS after the white-ball Covid outbreak, and broke off his recuperation to lead out a squad of reserves. Today, however, Root offered up the most ringing affirmative he could muster, an innings so serene it was as though the solitude of his supremacy had bought even his classically tailored game an extra yard of response time.Soft hands, calm choices, unhurried strokeplay – at least until his white-ball savvy surged to the fore as Anderson got peppered in the day’s frantic closing moments. He barely presented a straight bat through the V at any stage of his innings, relying instead on nudges off his legs for the balls that veered too straight, and needle-threading judgement on his favoured off-side, which made a mockery at times of Virat Kohli’s attempts to bung up his options with a trio of short covers and two slips to check his dab to third man.And in keeping with the need to think happy thoughts to haul England through this summer’s predicament, Root’s running between the wickets was able to step up an extra notch once he had linked up with sidekicks in whom he could fully trust – Bairstow in the first instance, but Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali too, a trio whose white-ball world-beating counts for more than perhaps it ought to in the cramped confines of this itinerary. In the end Bairstow was bested by the short ball – a method he cannot really plan for when ruling the roost in one-day cricket – while Buttler and Moeen made just 50 runs between them. But they between scratched out half-century stands, and gave Root the ballast he needed to drag the match towards parity.None of this is sustainable. It’s barely even credible – much as in 2018, when India’s 4-1 losing margin was a travesty, it beggars belief that they are not already 1-0 up from Trent Bridge, and pushing for a second. But like a high-wire act over Niagara Falls, Root’s progress is both utterly compelling, and so inexorable, you start to believe he might just get to the other side without looking down.

“I run out of superlatives, to be honest”Jonny Bairstow marvels at the feats of his captain

For his achievements in 2021 are already sensational. In the course of this innings, Root first skittered past Graham Gooch’s former England record of 8900 Test runs, then pushed on past 9000 too, and at a younger age than anyone bar the one Englishman ahead of him in the run-charts, Alastair Cook.By the time he’d run out of partners on 180 not out, Root’s tally for the year was close to double that of any other batter in world cricket – 1244 to Rohit Sharma’s mid-match tally of 669 – and while England’s overloaded itinerary is a contributory factor, the comparison with his peers is even more revealing.By the end of England’s innings, Root had scored almost four times as many runs in 2021 as his next most prolific team-mate, Rory Burns (353), and more runs than the rest of England’s top six in this match combined.He’s made five of their six centuries this year, including each of their four 150-plus scores, and is only one shy of England’s all-time record of six in a calendar year. And, as if further proof was needed of the burden he has carried for his side, in this match he even had to see off two hat-trick balls in the same innings. His first ball came in the wake of Haseeb Hameed’s golden duck on Friday; and his 277th came 152 runs later, as Ishant Sharma started a new over, fresh from delivering Sam Curran his own first-baller.”I run out of superlatives, to be honest,” Bairstow said at the close. “He means a heck of a lot [to the team], like he does to English cricket.”To go into second place in the leading run-scorers in the history of the English game is very special, to pass 9000 Test runs in this game is extremely special, to score another 180 not out at Lord’s is great, isn’t it, and to see him in the form that he is, playing the way he is, it’s awesome to be out there with him, putting on partnerships with him, and enjoying every single moment of it.”And as a consequence, he’s on the brink of his masterpiece now. A year to stand comparison with any of the greats that have gone before. Richards in 1976, Ponting in 2005… even the most prolific of them all, Mohammad Yousuf, whose 1788 runs in his annus mirablis in 2006 included nine centuries in 19 innings. That’s as many as Root himself has now played, but he’s still got 12 more scheduled before the New Year. As might have been mentioned once or twice, England’s itinerary really is something else.But more immediately, Root’s got the chance to prove a point about his contemporary credentials. The mutterings in recent seasons were that he had slipped out of the fabled “Fab Four” of modern batting – his century at Trent Bridge last week had been his first on home soil since India’s last tour in 2018, notwithstanding the fact that his role in England’s World Cup triumph had caused a wavering in his Test focus.But now it’s Kohli who’s feeling the heat for his own relative dip in standards. In consecutive series against England in 2016-17 and 2018, he amassed the small matter of 655 runs at 109.16, and 593 at 59.30. Likewise, Steve Smith racked up 687 runs at 137.40 in Australia’s 4-0 rout in their last home Ashes in 2017-18; then followed that up with 774 more at 110.57.Root, right at this moment, has 353 runs at 176.50, with potentially seven more innings to come. The same, in fact, as his next most prolific colleague for the entire year. It may not be fair to expect Root to keep giving more to the cause. But when you’re in a zone quite like this, who would ever wish it to end?

Jos Buttler’s side retain faith in their fundamentals despite fifth ODI defeat in a row

Andrew Miller31-Jan-2023Anyone who has ever worked to a deadline knows how exquisitely zen the onset of panic can be. It doesn’t work every time, or for everyone, but sometimes – particularly for those who know they have the aptitude but find the application harder to come by – there’s nothing quite like a ticking clock to focus the mind and force the issue at hand.So wakey wakey, England’s world-beating 50-over team. We see you there at the back of the class, feet up on the table, yawning your way through your mocks in Australia and South Africa. But, with eight months to go until the defence of the title so thrillingly won at Lord’s back in 2019, and with just four more ODIs to come this side of the summer, perhaps now’s the moment to allow some urgency to drive the agenda?Or perhaps, on second thoughts, now really isn’t the time. Life moves pretty fast, as another famous slacker, Ferris Bueller, once put it. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.Related

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After all, England spent most of 2022 proving – to one extreme or another – that a positive mental attitude can overcome all obstacles, be it a record of one win in 17 prior to Brendon McCullum’s appointment as Test coach, or the seizing of the T20 World Cup in spite of a litany of injuries that would have derailed a less composed squad.And so, even though Jos Buttler’s men have just flunked their way to five consecutive ODI defeats – a run of failure unmatched by England since the summer of 2014 – there is still plenty justification for taking it easy right now, and trusting that the team’s proven knowledge of their subject matter will more than compensate for a lack of exhaustive cramming between now and the big day.After all, what’s the point of scaling endless peaks if you’re not permitted to climb back down to base camp occasionally, to take stock of your latest achievement and gird your loins to go again? Barely two months have elapsed since England won the World Cup! But don’t you dare rest on your laurels… there’s a World Cup to win!It’s little wonder that, in response to a recent Twitter enquiry about the cause of the team’s apparent downturn in white-ball fortunes, Ben Stokes – the main man of 2019 and current Bazballer-in-chief, who announced his ODI retirement last summer due to the insane workload he was facing across formats – responded: “Begins with S ends with E and has chedul in there as well”.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhatever the nuance of their current situation, there’s certainly no sense that England are right back to square one in their preparations for their World Cup defence. There’s been a lack of finesse to their efforts from 2020 to date, with 15 wins and 14 losses since that momentous day at Lord’s, but the team remains – by a whisker – the most attacking batting line-up in the world in that period, rattling along at 6.14 runs per over, compared to India’s next-best figure of 6.13.And as Moeen Ali, who featured in that 2014 downturn, put it in the wake of England’s series-sealing loss in Bloemfontein on Sunday, the current squad is not “in a position like before [the 2015 World Cup], where we were terrible and building a team”.”We’re more experienced, used to different conditions, and going to India where we’ve played a lot of IPL, I feel we’ll be ready to go,” Moeen added. “Results don’t show it yet, but I think we will be better than we were.”And yet, do England even have a chance of being as good as they were not so long ago? Regardless of the stars who may or may not bring their A games for the main event, the bald stats of their ODI performances between the last two World Cups are extraordinary, and point to the extent to which the ECB has given up on the format that, for four years up until 2019, it seemed to care for more than any other.Defeat in Bloemfontein was England’s fifth in a row•Getty ImagesBetween their elimination from the 2015 World Cup and their victory at Lord’s in 2019, England played 98 ODIs, winning a hefty 65 of them – or two in every three. They used 32 players in that period, but the core remained extraordinarily stable. Excluding Jofra Archer, who only qualified on the eve of the tournament (but including Alex Hales, whom England weren’t afraid to banish in the same timeframe in spite of his experience) each of the 12 men who formed the core of that World Cup 15 played at least half of the available games, with Eoin Morgan himself missing just six.Compare that to the current febrile situation. Since the World Cup win, England have played 32 ODIs, with just 11 more scheduled before their defence gets underway. Already, however, they’ve churned through 37 players, of whom just four have featured in more than 20 games. And if those stats are skewed by the Covid outbreak in July 2021 that forced England to field, in effect, their third XI for three matches against Pakistan, then equally the squad has lacked the volume of contests to mitigate for such holes in their preparation.In the three full years between the last two World Cups, England played nothing less than 18 ODIs annually, with a high of 24 in 2018, with which Morgan’s men perfected the front-running attitude that allowed them to embrace the mantra of favourites. In three complete years since 2019, however, they’ve played 9, 9 and 12 – their lowest workload in the format since 1995, offering barely even an opportunity to keep their muscle memory attuned.Stokes, incidentally, was the 22nd player to feature in the format in this post-2019 period. He made his ODI comeback against India in March 2021, 20 months after his heroics against New Zealand, but then binned off the format ten sporadic matches later, protesting with some justification that he could not give “100% to the shirt” while also giving his all to the rebooting of England’s Test fortunes.

Begins with S ends with E and has chedul in there as well https://t.co/U2aF9FOSDw

— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) January 27, 2023