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Manchester United have been linked with a shock swoop to sign Ross Barkley from Luton this summer, in a pursuit spearheaded by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

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• Barkley signed by Ratcliffe at Nice
• In fine form for relegation-threatened Luton
• United need midfield reinforcements

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Barkley has been linked with a shock move to United by The Sun, having previously impressed new owner Ratcliffe during his time at Nice. When he was with the French club, reports suggested that Ratcliffe actually pushed manager Lucien Favre to play him more often for the Ligue 1 club.

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• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The report suggests that United are looking to reinforce their midfield as they are willing to sell Casemiro and send Sofyan Amrabat back to Fiorentina. Barkley would not be a prohibitively expensive target, as Luton may well need to sell if they are relegated.

• Getty Images
  

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Barkley has made 20 appearances in the Premier League this season, scoring three goals and registering three assists. He is spearheading Luton's attempt to avoid relegation, with the club currently 18th, one point behind Everton, although another points deduction would dramatically alter the complexion of the survival race.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR BARKLEY?

  Luton play Manchester City in the fifth round of the FA Cup in midweek. They will return to Premier League action next weekend against Aston Villa.

K Gowtham’s six-for consigned Mumbai to only their fifth innings defeat in the Ranji Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Dec-2017PTI

Offspinner K Gowtham’s six-wicket haul engineered Karnataka’s innings-and-20-run thrashing of Mumbai, and helped book their berth in the semi-finals. Faced with a first-innings deficit of 397 runs, Mumbai were bowled out for 377 in their second innings in what was only their fifth innings defeat in Ranji Trophy history.Resuming the fourth morning on 120 for 3, Mumbai’s overnight batsmen, Suryakumar Yadav and Akash Parkar, batted solidly for nearly 25 overs, with Suryakumar going on to bring up his 12th first-class century. The pair had added 98 runs for the fourth wicket, when Suryakumar was run out for 108. Parkar then added 52 runs in the company of Siddhesh Lad (31), but Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar struck with the last ball of the 84th over to have Lad caught behind by CM Gautam. Mumbai slipped further when Vinay and Gautam combined again for a caught-behind, as Mumbai captain Aditya Tare departed for a duck 3.2 overs later.Mumbai slipped to 295 for 7 as Gowtham broke Parkar’s resistance. Gowtham then proceeded to raze the lower order. He first trapped Dhawal Kulkarni, who shepherded Mumbai’s rearguard in the first innings, and then bowled Karsh Kothari to reduce Mumbai to 333 for 9. However, debutant Shivam Dubey, who had taken a five-for, put up a valiant fight with a 91-ball 71 that included seven fours and four sixes.Along with fellow debutant Shivam Malhotra, Dubey tried to force Karnataka to bat again, but Gowtham had Dubey caught by R Samarth, ending a last-wicket stand of 44. While the second-innings bowling honours went to Gowtham, Vinay finished with eight wickets in the match, and was awarded Man of the Match for his 6 for 34 in the first innings, which included a hat-trick.

Cricket in Jammu and Kashmir has struggled against the odds for decades, but with poster boy Abid Nabi ready to take the step up to the big league, things may be about to take a turn for the better

Nagraj Gollapudi05-Dec-2006

Abid Nabi is 20. He stands 6 feet 2 inches tall, has wide, strong shoulders, and wants to bowl fast. A year ago he caught Dennis Lillee’s attention at an MRF Pace foundation bowling camp. Lillee alerted Greg Chappell, and soon Nabi was bowling in the India nets.He is nippy, bowls with a smooth and clean action, and along with Punjab’s VRV Singh, who has already played for the country, he represents hope for Indian cricket in its quest for that ever-elusive species: the genuine fast bowler.But Nabi is not merely a fast-bowling prospect. He may not be aware of it, and may not want to contemplate the significance of it, but it is more than merely India’s fast-bowling hopes that are riding on his shoulders.Nabi is no ordinary cricketer. He represents Jammu and Kashmir, a state locked in a bloody conflict over identity, one where the concepts of patriotism and nationalism are shrouded in grey, and where overt allegiance to the Indian mainstream brings perils. For years Jammu and Kashmir has had only a token presence in the Ranji Trophy. No international match has been played in the state since 1986. Rains forced the abandonment of the fifth ODI of the India-New Zealand series in Jammu in 1988. No cricketer from the state has ever come close to being picked for India.Much depends on whether Nabi succeeds. It could potentially revive cricket in Kashmir. More importantly, he can be a bridge, a symbol. That cricket can heal was demonstrated by India’s historic tour to Pakistan in 2004. During that last international in Srinagar in 1986, the crowd cheered for the visiting side, Australia. Would they do the same if Nabi is part of the team?***Ghulam Nabi Ahanger, Nabi’s father, has always been a keen follower of cricket. In 1983, when international cricket came to Jammu and Kashmir for the first time, he bought a 50-rupee ticket to watch India play Clive Lloyd’s West Indies. But more than a decade later, when his son started showing a liking for the game, he tried to dissuade him.The Nabis, who come from fairly humble circumstances, felt there was no scope in taking sport seriously, especially in troubled times. “We thought then that education was the best option for our children,” Ahanger says over tea at the family’s three-storey house in Srinagar, which they share with three of Nabi’s maternal uncles and their families.In the beginning Nabi did not think of playing cricket for a living. But as encouragement came his way from his coach and senior team-mates, he began to dare to hope. “I became hopeful that I can become someone and get good things,” he says.In the limited opportunities he has found to play for his state, he has already made some strides. This season he narrowly missed out on a place in the Challenger Series teams and the North Zone Duleep Trophy squad.Bowling in the nets at Mohali, in the presence of his heroes, Nabi learned valuable lessons. “Every senior told me to look after my physical fitness, and that if I continued to work hard, I could get a chance anytime.”***Does Nabi’s ambition go against the grain of the local thinking in his state? Does it mark a departure from a way of life that is thought to be conditioned towards seeking azaadi from the Indian mainstream?

Ehsan Mirza, the treasurer at the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) doesn’t think so. Mirza’s family owns a successful carpet business, and Mirza also runs the popular Amateur Cricket Club (ACC), where Nabi, among others, plays. Mirza says that at this point in time he perceives no opposition to Nabi – or anyone else from the state – playing for India. “The state’s politics has never influenced JKCA matters,” he says.
Dar Yasin, who took the photographs that accompany this feature, quit playing cricket after a police encounter near where they were playing a Sunday match in the early 1990s left one dead. He thinks the common man is getting increasingly desperate to see a Kashmiri face in the Indian dressing room. “People have been complaining for a long time that nobody has been selected from Kashmir. There’ve been some good players, but they were rejected on the basis of being Kashmiri,” he says.Terrorism has ripped holes in the delicate fabric of Kashmir’s beauty. It has dried up investment and employment opportunities that may otherwise have come the state’s way. That India is taking its place as a global economic power is not lost on young Kashmiris, who are ready to take risks to better their lot.Samiullah Beigh, 20, a tall, upcoming fast bowler, and Nabi’s team-mate, thinks they can’t move forward by playing safe all the time. “If I want to be a great player, I have to sacrifice something.” Beigh is in his final year at engineering college, and aims to devote all his time to the game once he graduates.Mirza understands that if things don’t improve in the state’s cricket soon, youngsters will start looking elsewhere. “They are very ambitious and try to excel at everything they do,” he says. The Nabis are impatient too. They have gone through hardship, lived with fear – and continue to do so. Now there is hope, in the form of their son. They cherish dreams of the day when he finally plays for the country and makes Kashmir proud.Will Nabi live up to the expectations and turn into India’s next pace sensation? Only time will tell. For now, he is the poster boy of Jammu and Kashmir cricket and has become something of a benchmark.Nineteen-year-old Mohammed Mudasir, who started to take a serious interest in the game two years ago, and attended the MRF camp in 2006, says his parents are now asking him to work harder and follow Nabi’s example.Nabi understands the responsibilities of being a role model. Sitting on the grass at the picturesque Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium, he talks of how happy he feels when young cricketers approach him for advice. He himself hardly had the benefit of such inputs when he was rising through the ranks.***For every Nabi who makes it to the verge of the big time, there are dozens who fall by the way. The lush environs of Jammu and Kashmir have produced abundant talent, but it has often withered away for want of nurture.Players such as Abdul Qayyum Bagoo and Surinder Singh Bagal – who Sourav Ganguly once said was the fastest bowler he had faced – may not have become household names, but they did make it to the fringes of national selection. They may have gone all the way had they had support. Who knows what such talent would have achieved with proper guidance?”We were sidelined because we came from a weaker state,” says Idrees Gundroo, a Jammu and Kashmir fast bowler of the 1980s. “Had we got these opportunities now, as the board is giving these days, we would’ve made it to a decent level.” It is only now that the likes of Nabi have Farooq Abdullah, the JKCA President, throwing their weight behind them.Still, being a cricketer in Kashmir is hardly easy. The years of conflict have taken their toll. The JKCA has been reduced to a two-room office after the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) took over the complex. Cricketers have to walk past hoops of barbed wire that cordon off the association’s premises. CRPF jawans stand guard outside, not letting even officials and players in without identity cards.

Apart from the pitch at the Sher-i-Kashmir, which was once fast and is now flat, the entire Kashmir region doesn’t have a single turf wicket. Back in 1996, when after a seven-year lull some senior cricketers and JKCA officials came together to get cricket going at the stadium again, they found it difficult to locate the playing square under the grass, which had grown two-feet tall.Sher-i-Kashmir continues to languish: the wicket lies barren; the stands are the ones that were installed for the first time in 1983; the scoreboard is lost among the branches of the beautiful Chinar trees that circle the ground; there are no toilets or drainage facilities, no dressing room for the players, no showers. The B ground adjacent to the main one has two practice wickets, but both of cement.The JKCA says its hands are tied since nothing can be done without the army’s permission, even if it is the association that owns the land. Mirza says the JKCA has been asking the security forces to vacate the premises for the last six years in vain.As an alternative arrangement, Mirza has signed a contract with Kashmir University (KU) under which the JKCA will maintain and use the university’s two grounds for the next three years. A new turf wicket and two practice wickets have already been constructed at the KU grounds for the use of the ACC.It may be too little too late, though. Their patience wearing thin, the likes of Nabi and Beigh are now looking to play outside the state as much as possible. Nabi made his Times Shield debut this year in Mumbai. He thinks playing outside the state more “will fast-forward my development”.Says Beigh, “Earlier we used to play just for the sake of pride and honour and it was a big thing to play one match for the state. Now, after being at the MRF for four months, I am more hungry to prove myself on the national front. I never felt the other bowlers [at MRF] were any special.”If Nabi does eventually make it to the Indian side, he could be the harbinger of a new chapter in the history of Jammu and Kashmir cricket. “If we get one break – Nabi – then there will be a stream of players following him,” Mirza says. Abdul Majid Kakroo, the former India football captain, who played between 1981 and 1989, and once was on a terrorist hitlist, says sport can only help unite. “If Nabi goes on to play for India, it will silence the skeptics who feel that India treats Kashmir as an outsider.”As for Nabi himself, he only wants to take his state forward. Kashmir is the rabbit of Indian domestic cricket and Nabi aims to change that. “I want Jammu and Kashmir to move forward. Aage ka toh pata nahin (I don’t about what will happen in the future).”

If there are two specialist spinners in a 15-man squad with a pitch like the Oval, someone offering variety should be allowed to absorb some overs and take some pressure off the faster men

Kern De Freitas06-Apr-2008

Sri Lanka found the escape hatch against West Indies yesterday at the Queen’s Park Oval on a pitch that looked wonderful for shot-making, but still provided a bit of assistance for the bowlers.With two days left in this intriguing contest, Sri Lanka reached 268 before Muttiah Muralitharan offered a catch to Daren Powell off Jerome Taylor to bring the innings to a close and set the home team a tricky target of 253.Just after lunch, though, they were languishing at 99 for 6 when the dangerous Chamara Silva had departed. It was a 138-run partnership between Thilan Samaraweera and lower-order left-hand batsman Chaminda Vaas that kept the Sri Lankans in the game and frustrated West Indies for the better part of the day. Thus, the case of the missing spinner again resurfaced.With due respect to captain Chris Gayle – who, to prove my point, eventually separated the duo – he cannot be considered the answer to West Indies’ need for variety in their attack. In fact, this ‘one-track’ attack, though not lacking pace, looked a little bit flat at times, once the Sri Lankan pair had played themselves in.Gayle has not shown the propensity, or at least the desire, to bowl several overs on the trot as a specialist spinner would, like, say the ultra-successful Muralitharan. Murali accounts for a big chunk of Sri Lanka’s over rate on a constant basis, a huge part of the reason he recorded his 63rd five-wicket haul at the Oval yesterday.Suffice to say that the region cannot truthfully boast of a spinner of the calibre of Murali. With that being said, if there are two specialist spinners in a 15-man squad with a pitch like the Oval – which has something for batsman, fast bowler, and spinner – someone offering variety should be allowed to absorb some overs and take some pressure off the faster men.The closest a specialist spinner got to the West Indies team was 12th man Sulieman Benn, bringing his team-mates water. Why pick them if you won’t play them?Then there’s hometown hero Amit Jaggernauth, who put Trinidad and Tobago into the Carib Beer Challenge Final against Jamaica with simple figures of 10 for 79, only his personal-best figures in regional cricket, last weekend against Barbados.Perhaps they’re worth a shout, or even a look in. Otherwise, spin might just be the next creature on the endangered species list in the Caribbean.

James Anderson produced his best figures at Old Trafford as England reduced South Africa to 220 for 9 at the close, still well behind their first-innings 362

The Report by Andrew Miller05-Aug-20172:21

Moonda: Anderson doing what SA would want from Steyn

Honours conferred on active sportsmen don’t always work out as their instigators might have intended – Sir Andy Murray, for one, hasn’t had much to cheer about since being asked to arise in the New Year’s Honours. But for James Anderson, Lancashire’s most prolific Test wicket-taker, the chance to ply his trade from the newly conferred James Anderson End at Old Trafford merely raised his game to heights he has rarely matched in six previous matches on his home ground.By the close of the second day, Anderson’s figures of 4 for 33, his best in Tests at Old Trafford, allied to a brilliant display of ball-striking and strike-farming from Jonny Bairstow in the morning session, had pushed South Africa to the brink of surrender in the series. They limped to the close on 220 for 9, still trailing by 142, with Kagiso Rabada’s last-ball dismissal summing up their futile situation.Anderson’s day was split into three acts, all of them originating from in front of his new fiefdom by the ground’s grand old pavilion. First he strode out with the bat to a hero’s welcome from the crowd, and responded with a vital and undefeated cameo at the end of England’s first innings – 4 not out from 15 balls providing an obdurate foil to the brilliant Bairstow, who reeled off the bulk of a 50-run stand in 9.1 overs for the last wicket before being adjudged lbw for 99 by the tightest of margins. On Bairstow’s watch, England had added 102 runs to their overnight 260 for 4 to turn a dicey position into a dominant one.

Bairstow’s 99, Moeen’s best series

15 Players from England to be dismissed for 99 in a Test. Jonny Bairstow is the latest addition to this rather unlucky set. Bairstow also become the first player since Ricky Ponting in 2008 to be dismissed for 99 against South Africa.
12 Average runs addedThree different pairs have been tried by South Africa during this period but the highest stand has been 21.
3 Number of instances Toby Roland-Jones has dismissed Hashim Amla in this series. In 21 balls he has conceded 7 runs and has got him out three times.
20 Wickets for Moeen Ali in the series so far – the most he has taken in a series. His previous best was 19 wickets against India in 2014.

Then, armed with the new ball and doubtless eager to christen his end of the ground with a wicket worthy of the name, Anderson wasted no time in making his mark. Dean Elgar, South Africa’s anchorman, lasted just three balls before being pinned on the shin by a trademark Anderson inswinger to the left-hander. South Africa reached lunch on 12 for 1 after four testing overs.His most telling intercession, however, came midway through the evening session, when he returned in the 39th over to lively up what had been a meandering South Africa innings. His team-mates had, by that stage, fronted up to keep England in command: Toby Roland-Jones continued his improbable stranglehold over the mighty Hashim Amla by dismissing him for the third time in as many innings – appropriately enough, with a strangle down the leg side – while Moeen Ali, enjoying a superb run of form with the ball, applied a mercy killing to a tenacious but teetering stay from Heino Kuhn, inducing a low edge to slip in the second over of his spell.At 131 for 3, Temba Bavuma had been settling into a dogged but essential stay, in partnership with his captain, Faf du Plessis. But in the whirr of a bowling arm, Anderson accounted for both in the space of three balls – first, a snarling inswinger on a full length, that Bavuma attempted to leave but instead saw kiss the top of off stump, before du Plessis was late coming forward to another perfect-length delivery, and inside-edged on to his own stumps for 27.James Anderson produced a three-wicket burst from the James Anderson End•Getty Images

With the wind behind him, Anderson could have made it three in nine balls as Theunis de Bruyn flinched a searing lifter into the gully off the splice, where Keaton Jennings made brilliant ground to his left but couldn’t cling on with one hand. And then, to compound England’s momentary frustration, Quinton de Kock was reprieved from the very next ball, dropped by Ben Stokes at slip as he squeezed a cramped cut off Moeen.But England’s progress wasn’t dented for long. With fizzing full-length discipline, allied to a threat of movement and a short ball up his sleeve, Anderson ensured that South Africa’s only instinct remained survival. He conceded a solitary run from his next three overs, and that off a yorker to de Kock that all but wriggled through his defences.De Bruyn, who had got off the mark with an unexpectedly emphatic reverse sweep off Moeen, eventually dented Anderson’s figures a touch with a firm clip for four through midwicket. But, as if affronted, Jimmy made him pay with his very next ball – full, straight and bursting off the edge to Joe Root at second slip, as he completed a brilliant, innings-wrecking spell of 7-3-13-3.England’s erratic dominance continued straight after the evening drinks break, when Keshav Maharaj, on 1, edged Moeen off the tip of Bairstow’s gloves and away through his legs to safety. Maharaj briefly cast off his shackles – and surprised a crowd who seemed to be having a post-prandial snooze – by crashing Moeen over long-on for a vast six to save the follow-on, but three balls later, he was pinned plumb in front of the stumps and had given himself out before umpire Kumar Dharmasena had a chance to raise his finger.At 167 for 7, the ever-dangerous de Kock was South Africa’s last real hope of parity, but he seemed as muted, as he had earlier been in the field. He needed 39 deliveries to reach double figures, scored the second of his two boundaries via a thick edge through third slip, and had already survived a tough stumping opportunity on 16 when Stuart Broad found his outside edge for Bairstow to atone with a well-judged leap to his left.The final overs were a mishmash of intent and reticence from England, who were keen to wrap up the innings, but not so keen that they would be required to face any overs before the close. Dawid Malan even entered the fray for an exploratory over of all-sorts, before Broad set the seal on a day of largely unchecked dominance, Stokes swooping brilliantly in the gully to break a determined ninth-wicket stand of 31.The only minor note of discord in England’s day – at least where a hugely contented crowd was concerned – came when Bairstow missed out on what would have been a richly deserved and wildly acclaimed century.Having resumed on 33 not out overnight, Bairstow lost Roland-Jones and Moeen to an aggressive spell from Rabada in the first half-hour of the day, but took it upon himself to counterattack with the confidence of a man who is in the midst of an 18-month golden period. He was especially harsh on Morne Morkel, cracking him for four fours in 12 balls, and Duanne Olivier, whose first over included a towering six down the ground as he charged into the 90s, but despite Anderson’s most worthy efforts, three figures would prove elusive.With just a single needed for his fourth Test century, Bairstow elected for the sweep against Maharaj. He planted his foot outside off stump, but not far enough to satisfy Dharmasena, whose on-field verdict was upheld on review with the edge of the ball just satisfying the parameters of DRS. A groan of anguish went up from the ground, but Bairstow had done his bit. Not least, in setting the stage for the man that the crowd had really come to watch.

And what’s the lowest score a batter has a Player-of-the-Match award for?

Steven Lynch14-Jun-2022I spotted that Mustafizur Rahman took 28 wickets in his first ten ODIs. Was this a record? And what’s the most by anyone in any spell of ten ODIs? asked Khaled Hossain from Bangladesh

Mustafizur Rahman’s tally of 28 wickets in his first ten one-day internationals for Bangladesh – starting with 5 for 50 and 6 for 43 against India in June 2015 – has been bettered only by another left-arm seamer, New Zealand’s Mitchell McClenaghan, who managed 29; the West Indian Ottis Gibson also took 28.The purplest ten-match patch at any stage in ODIs belongs to Pakistan’s Waqar Younis, who claimed 35 wickets in ten games between April and November 1990, a run that included five five-fors, three of them in succession, and even one wicketless match. Ajantha Mendis once took 34 wickets in ten ODIs for Sri Lanka, while Rashid Khan of Afghanistan and Oman’s Bilal Khan (earlier this year) have both managed 32.All nine Bengal players who batted reached 50 in their recent match against Jharkhand – is this a record? asked Peter Dayson-Smith from England, among others

This was reasonably fresh in the memory, as a few weeks ago I answered a similar question after seven Surrey players reached 50 in an innings against Kent. And so it’s easy to confirm that Bengal’s nine half-centuries against Jharkhand in Bengaluru last week is a record for any first-class innings, beating eight by the Australian tourists in their match against Oxford and Cambridge University Past and Present in Portsmouth in 1893. There have been 26 instances of seven scores of 50 or more in an innings, including Surrey’s total of 671 in that match in Beckenham in May, which remains the highest in first-class cricket without an individual century.In the same round of Ranji Trophy quarter-finals, in Alur, Mumbai thrashed Uttarakhand by 725 runs, another first-class record: the previous-heaviest defeat by a runs margin was 685, by New South Wales against Queensland in Sydney in 1929-30, in the match in which Don Bradman made 452 not out, the highest score in first-class cricket at the time. There have been heavier innings defeats, the grand-daddy of them all being Pakistan Railways’ victory over Dera Ismail Khan in Lahore in 1964-65, by the little matter of an innings and 851.What’s the lowest all-out Test total that included a 200-run partnership? asked Vipul Shah from India

There have so far been four completed innings in Tests which were less than 300 but nonetheless featured a partnership of 200 or more. Lowest of all is Australia’s 284 against West Indies in Brisbane in 1968-69, which included a stand of 217 between Bill Lawry and Ian Chappell (no one else made more than 17).When Pakistan made 288 against West Indies in Georgetown in 1999-2000, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq put on 206, quite a recovery from 39 for 5. India’s 293 against England at Headingley in 1952 included a partnership of 222 by Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar, while South Africa made 296 vs India in Kolkata in 2009-10, with a stand of 209 between Alviro Petersen (who was making his debut) and Hashim Amla. New Zealand’s 283 against West Indies in Kingston in 1984-85 included a stand of 210 between Geoff Howarth and Jeff Crowe – but only nine wickets fell in that one as Jeremy Coney had broken his arm and was unable to bat.If we look at innings which were not all-out, Pakistan’s 230 for 3 to beat New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1984-85 included a partnership of 212 between Mudassar Nazar and Javed Miandad.Asif Ali faced only seven balls and made 25 runs in his Player-of-the-Match performance against Afghanistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup•ICC via GettyI noticed that Aiden Markram has played 31 Tests, and has not yet taken part in a draw – is this a record? asked Keith McKenzie from South Africa

You’re right that the South African batter Aiden Markram has so far taken part in 19 Test victories and 12 defeats – and no draws yet. This is indeed a record: Jason Gillespie took part in 26 Tests before playing in a draw, while his Australian team-mates Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden had 22 and 21 respectively; the 19th-century England allrounder Johnny Briggs played 20 Tests before his first draw.Markram currently has the most Tests in a complete career without a draw, although he might yet lose that distinction. George Lohmann, another 19th-century Englishman, played 18 Tests without ever featuring in a draw; next comes Alok Kapali, who played 17 Tests for Bangladesh and lost them all. Keaton Jennings has so far appeared in 17 Tests for England, all of which ended in definite results, while Shimron Hetmyer has played 16 for West Indies.In the second match in Sri Lanka, Matthew Wade was Man of the Match for his 26 not out from 26 balls; he didn’t bowl, or make any catches or run-outs. Has anyone won the award after scoring fewer than this as their only formal contribution to a T20 international? asked Rohan Kennedy from Australia

Australia’s Matthew Wade won the match award in the second T20 international against Sri Lanka in Colombo last week for his run-a-ball 26, which came after he entered at a tricky time – 80 for 5 in the ninth over, chasing only 125. You’re right that he didn’t otherwise feature on the scorecard, although that wouldn’t show, for example, any particularly good pieces of fielding; Wade did keep wicket through a Sri Lankan innings that included no extras.However, Wade’s 26 balls is a long way from the smallest involvement by a player who ended up with the match award in a T20 international. Playing for Pakistan against Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup in Dubai in October 2021, Asif Ali was given the award after having an active involvement in only seven deliveries, from which he hammered 25 not out. Brad Hodge (21 not out) faced eight balls for Australia against South Africa in Durban in 2013-14, as did Dinesh Karthik (29 not out) for India vs Bangladesh in the Nidahas Trophy final in Colombo in 2017-18 (he did also complete a run-out while keeping wicket). Against England at The Oval in 2009, Ramnaresh Sarwan won the award for his nine-ball 19 not out as West Indies chased a rain-reduced target.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Emi Martinez threatened to "beat the sh*t" out of Cristian Romero for his rash tackles in the World Cup final after fouling France's Kylian Mbappe.

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• Martinez reveals half-time Romero threat
• Tottenham star had fouled Mbappe
• Argentina beat France in World Cup final

• Getty Images
  

  WHAT HAPPENED?

  Tottenham defender Romero flew into a challenge with France star Mbappe in the first half of the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar last December. The South American side won the game on penalties after a 3-3 draw but at half time, Villa keeper Martinez pulled his fellow countryman aside to warn him about his reckless challenges in an effort to stop him getting sent off.

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• Getty
  

  WHAT EMI MARTINEZ SAID

  He told : "I know Cuti's (Romero) weakness, I remember in the final against France he went with both feet against Mbappe. He grabbed the ball, everything. And at half-time I grabbed him by the shirt and told him, 'If you get kicked out, I'll beat the sh*t out of you after the game'.

  "I have to tell Cuti 'Please, stop hitting'. Cuti plays like that, on the edge of a red card, and I'm always catching him in that sense. But he's impressive."

• Getty
  

  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Argentina won their third World Cup crown in one of the greatest finals of the tournament's history. Lionel Messi also finally achieved his dream to win this great trophy after many years of trying. Argentina got the win without having any players sent off, so maybe Martinez's chat with Romero did the trick…

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• WHAT NEXT FOR ARGENTINA?

  Argentina duo Martinez and Romero may cross paths again when they return to international action in the Copa America in June of next year.

M Vijay and Virat Kohli added 283 for the third wicket, utterly dispiriting Sri Lanka until Lakshan Sandakan gave them something to cheer with two quick wickets late in the day

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy02-Dec-20172:12

Chopra: Vijay showed he’s India’s No. 1 opener

In deference to the Indian team management’s wishes, there was grass on the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch, but Virat Kohli, at the toss, wished there could have been more. It certainly wasn’t enough to turn New Delhi into Newlands, and India, instead of fighting for survival against snarling South African fast bowlers, settled into a typically subcontinental bat-first, bat-big pattern against a limited Sri Lanka attack, facing more spin (59 overs) than seam (31) on day one.For most of the day, Sri Lanka had nothing to cheer as M Vijay and Virat Kohli added 283 for the third wicket, their partnership an exhibition of relentless self-control and a hunger for runs that never tipped over into greed. India rattled along at more than four an over, and as the shadows lengthened, it seemed as if India would end the day only two down.But wristspin can do strange things, and Lakshan Sandakan, whose figures at that point read 20.5-0-109-0, sent down a deliciously-flighted wrong’un, slanting it across Vijay and asking him to reach out to drive. He didn’t pick the direction of turn, groped for the ball, and missed, dragging his back foot out of the crease in the process. Niroshan Dickwella, quick and nimble, did the rest.In his next over, Sandakan repeated the trick against Ajinkya Rahane. The line was a little wider this time, but again the ball landed on that perfect length, broke in the direction the batsman did not anticipate, and again Dickwella removed the bails with the batsman’s toe on the line. India had gone from 361 for 2 to 365 for 4. Sandakan, whose bowling until that point had made Sri Lanka yearn for the control of the absent Rangana Herath, was now doing what he had been picked to do.Still, this was India’s day. At stumps, Kohli was batting on 156, his third hundred in a row and the quickest – he only took 110 balls to reach three figures – of his 20 in Tests. In the process, he also became the fourth-quickest Indian batsman to 5000 Test runs, getting there in his 105th innings.Until the moment of Sandakan’s transformation, Vijay and Kohli had looked utterly secure. Aside from a couple of clearly not-out lbw shouts, their dominance had gone unchallenged, and, in an indictment of the two specialist spinners, the one bowler who had come remotely close to creating chances was the part-time offspinner Dhananjaya de Silva.On 122, Vijay drove early and sent the ball looping towards midwicket rather than the intended direction of cover; it fell just short of the diving Dinesh Chandimal. Then, on 154, he sent an uppish flick in the same direction. This time it eluded the fingertips of the debutant Roshen Silva. In between, de Silva also found Kohli’s leading edge, which fell between the bowler and mid-off.Bowling exclusively from around the wicket, de Silva ended the day with figures of 0 for 45 in 15 overs. Sandakan and Dilruwan Perera finished with a combined 3 for 207 from 44 overs.The foundation of Kohli’s innings was his supreme reading of the spinners’ length, and thereafter his footwork to pounce on marginal lapses. Before lunch, for instance, he took a massive stride out to a good-length ball from Lakshan Sandakan and bisected wide mid-on and deep midwicket with a whip of his wrists. On 68, he went the other way, deep into his crease, to shorten the length of an otherwise decent Dilruwan Perera delivery and bring his wrists into play once more to find the gap between short fine leg and deep square leg.For the quicker bowlers, a “good” length was a fairly small area on this pitch. When they strayed remotely off that area, Kohli and Vijay were quick to put the ball away. Vijay gave a good demonstration of this with a pair of boundaries in the 23rd over, off Lahiru Gamage: a cover drive, followed by a wristy on-drive, both off balls that were far from half-volleys. Kohli, meanwhile, raced from 43 to 55 courtesy three fours off one Gamage over, the pick of them an on-the-up drive through the covers.Vijay went to tea on 101, and resumed with a flurry of attractive boundaries – an inside-out cover drive off Dilruwan, a square-drive off Gamage, a reverse-paddle off Dilruwan. He would only hit one more four after that, though, as he took the singles on offer and made sure he would do everything in his power to keep his quest for that long-yearned-for maiden double-hundred alive. This time, it would really take a good ball to get him out.This hadn’t been true of Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara, who both got off to breezy starts before falling against the run of play.Once it became clear there was little help in this pitch for the quicks, Dhawan and Vijay were quickly on their way, driving freely on the up and hitting eight fours in the first ten overs. Sri Lanka brought on spin as early as the eighth over, and Dilruwan continued to worry his team with his inconsistent lengths, Dhawan picking up two fours behind point in his first two overs. But he grew a little greedy, and picked out deep square leg with a top-edged sweep on 23. Suranga Lakmal briefly lost the ball in the hazy atmosphere, and lost a shoe while hurriedly changing direction, but managed to hold on.It was Dilruwan’s 100th Test wicket. He might not be the most frugal of spinners, but he has the knack of taking wickets – his 100th had come up in his 25th Test, and no Sri Lankan had got there quicker. Muttiah Muralitharan had taken 27 Tests.In walked Pujara, whose last four partnerships with Vijay read 107, 178, 102 and 209. They seemed to be continuing from where they left off in Nagpur, while scoring twice as quickly, and Pujara in particular was putting the bowlers through the shredder, hitting four fours in the space of three overs, including two back-foot whips off marginally short balls from Dilruwan. But this time, the partnership would only get as far as 36.Lahiru Gamage broke it, Sri Lanka profiting from the same plan that had brought them Pujara’s wicket in the second innings in Galle in late July. Then, he had flicked a full ball from Lahiru Kumara to leg gully. Now, he tucked one off his legs in the same direction, just uppishly enough for Sadeera Samarawickrama to take a sharp catch falling to his left.

Football clubs are some of the biggest brands in the world these days, and GOAL brings you the top 10 most searched football clubs in 2021.

The year 2023 was monumental in football due to several iconic events. Cristiano Ronaldo broke ties with Manchester United to join Al-Nassr and kick off a Saudi Pro League "All-Stars" frenzy, eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi surprised everyone by moving to David Beckham's Major League Soccer franchise Inter Miami on the back of lifting the 2022 World Cup and solidifying his GOAT status, Manchester City winning the treble and more.

Needless to say, football teams were googled heavily across the calendar year. People across the globe search for football teams to keep track of their results, position in respective league tables, and the high-profile transfers in the football world.

If you're anything crazy like us, you might have wondered which clubs occupy football fans’ search engines the most. If yes, then you are in the right place to find it out. Here at GOAL, we present you with the list of the top 10 searched football clubs on Google.

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  Real Madrid | 44.5 million average monthly searches

  With Real Madrid winning the Champions League, La Liga, and the Spanish Super Cup in 2021-22, the bar was set extremely high for the 2022-23 campaign.

  Although they ended the season with three trophies, securing the Copa del Rey, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, it wasn't quite the campaign that Carlo Ancelotti's side would have hoped for, finishing second in the La Liga table, second in the Spanish Super Cup and were eliminated in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

  However, they have bounced back impressively in the new season, and there is no reason why they cannot again be major contenders for the biggest prizes despite enduring a full-blown injury crisis in the defensive department.

  In what was supposed to be a difficult season for Los Blancos, with Karim Benzema gone and no Kylian Mbappe to replace him, summer recruit Jude Bellingham has stepped up, and taken the football world by storm, while Vinicius Jr. has continued his fine form.

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  Manchester United | 33.8 million average monthly searches

  The Red Devils showed great promise in the first season of Erik ten Hag’s leadership, finishing third in the Premier League, winning the Carabao Cup (their first piece of silverware in more than half a decade), whilst also reaching the FA Cup final.

  But the 2023/24 campaign has so far proved a major step backwards, with Manchester United seemingly lurching from one crisis to another and seeing a number of their top stars failing to perform. They look like a team lacking identity, while eyebrows have been raised about Ten Hag's questionable man management and transfer policy.

  Now with the club’s new investor – the British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe – taking over the charge of all operations, including transfer dealings at Old Trafford, it seems the club are gearing up for a complete top-to-bottom overhaul in the next year.

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  Galatasaray | 32.4 million average monthly searches

  Back-to-back Süper Lig titles in 2018 and 2019 saw Galatasaray return to the top of Turkish football after a three-season title drought. However, another three years without a title followed, and the second most successful club in Turkish football history fell off dramatically, with their 13th place finish in 2021-22 their lowest ever across any Turkish top-flight campaign.

  Enter, Okan Buruk. And the man has well-and-truly transformed their fortunes. They went onto have an absolutely incredible season in 2022-23 and managed to win the league title against all odds.

  Gala supporters love nothing more than witnessing eye-catching dribbles, free-flowing football, and sensational goals. Recent seasons had been short on this, however. In that respect, 2023 is a return to form for the entire league, with flashy, silky players such as Wilfried Zaha, Hakim Ziyech, and goal-machine Mauro Icardi arriving at the club.

  The Turkish giants are also notorious for their hostile treatment of visitors to RAMS Park, and a return to European football has been a treat to watch. Their Ultras never disappoint with their atmosphere, and Tifos, which have another level of popularity all over the world; you might have come across the huge "Welcome To Hell" sign on the internet ahead of their Champions League clash against Man United.

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  Manchester City | 29.3 million average monthly searches

  Manchester City were the centre of attention of the football world in 2023, and for good reason— they enjoyed the most successful season in their history. They won the Premier League. They won the FA Cup. They, at last, won the Champions League.

  It finally all came together for the Citizens, who for long stretches of the season looked as if they wouldn't add anything to their trophy cabinet racked up in recent years. Talismanic striker Erling Haaland steamrolled his way through English football, and broke all sorts of goal-scoring records to power Pep Guardiola's side to a historic treble.

  But there was another tale of the medal around the necks at the Etihad. The Premier League champions were hit with 115 charges of breaching financial rules, and refused to cooperate with the investigations.

  They weren't just dominating the pitch; they were ruling the bank. They topped the Deloitte Football Money League, claiming the title of the football club with the most revenue worldwide, with a staggering $808.1 million (€731m) in the treasury. Forbes also chipped in, ranking them to be the world's sixth-most valuable club, at $4.500 billion (€4bn).

  Although they have looked a tad bid complacent at the start of the 2023-24 season, expect them to storm back into contention for nearly every club-level top honour by the end of the campaign.

This is the first instance of the India team getting a full-time, professional manager

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jul-2017Former Tamil Nadu captain Sunil Subramaniam has been named India’s administrative manager on a one-year contract. This is the first instance of the India team getting a full-time, professional manager, marking a departure from the system of ad-hoc appointments made by the BCCI on a tour-to-tour basis. Subramaniam will join the team before the second Test that begins on August 3 in Colombo.Subramaniam, 50, was picked by a committee comprising BCCI acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, CEO Rahul Johri and Committee of Administrators (CoA) member Diana Edulji, in accordance with the Lodha Committee’s recommendation approved by the Supreme Court. The committee, according to reports, had shortlisted more than 10 candidates before interviewing them. Subramanian said he would meet with Johri on Monday when he would be apprised of his duties. “It feels good to be a part of the team,” Subramaniam told ESPNcricinfo.During his playing days, Subramaniam, a left-arm spinner, picked up 285 wickets from 74 first-class matches. An NCA-certified coach, Subramaniam has acquired renown for having worked extensively with India offspinner R Ashwin in the past. Over the years, he has also coached teams in the Duleep Trophy and has been associated with the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Academy.On his appointment, a BCCI press release said: “He has a rich vein of experience when it comes to management and administrative capabilities, having served both public and private sector organisations for over 16 years.”