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The attacking midfielder totaled 31 goal contributions during the regular season, and could yet be a future option for Gregg Berhalter

There is no doubting who the biggest star is in MLS anymore. Lionel Messi will wear that crown for as long as he calls Inter Miami his home, drawing in massive crowds wherever he goes. He may not have been able to lift his new team into playoff contention in 2023, but as the postseason rumbles on without him, the league remains abuzz from it's first brush with 'Messi-mania'.

As well as the biggest name, Messi is almost certainly the best player in MLS right now. But despite his quite ridiculous nomination given how little he played in the league due to his injury problems, he will not be taking home the MLS MVP award for 2023. That prize is Acosta's.

Lucho Acosta has spent the past season spearheading FC Cincinnati's best-ever regular season, as they were crowned Supporters' Shield winners while also earning a place in the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup, where they were beaten by Messi and Miami.

Acosta tallied 17 goals and 14 assists across all regular season competitions, and as a result, was handed the MVP honors. Actively in the process of acquiring his United States citizenship, the 29-year-old is also looking to earn eligibility to represent the U.S. men's national team, and potentially play a role in the 2026 World Cup on American soil.

What the diminutive Acosta lacks in size, he makes up for in skill, intelligence and awareness across the entire pitch. If Gregg Berhalter has the opportunity to add Acosta to his ranks, it automatically raises the standards of the USMNT.

From a failed move to Paris Saint-Germain to turmoil with D.C. United, and now MVP with FC Cincy, Acosta has adapted and continued to excel in MLS. Now, he's finally being recognized for his brilliance.

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  Where it all began

  Acosta could barely have gotten a better footballing education as he worked his way through the youth ranks at Boca Juniors; the Argentine giants known as the club of the late, great Diego Maradona.

  At just 21, Acosta made the move to the United States, joining D.C. United on loan in 2016 from his beloved Boca. He made an instant impact, with three goals and eight assists in his first season, and United turned his initial loan deal into a permanent one during his first year with the club.

  Two years on, Acosta was regarded as one of the best players in MLS, and his lore only grew after D.C. added legendary Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney to their ranks. The duo even scored what might be the most famous goal in league history, while Rooney dubbed Acosta as "one of the best I've played with" during his time in the capital.

  However, after a collapsed transfer to PSG, Acosta left United in 2020 on a free transfer, joining Liga MX side Atlas, but returned to MLSwith Cincinnati in 2021 as a Designated Player. Now, two years on, the Argentine has turned Cincy from cellar dwellers to MLS Cup challengers.

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  Parisian dreams up in smoke

  In January 2019, Acosta was the darling of MLS. Flourishing alongside Rooney, he asserted himself as one of the brightest up-and-coming players in the league. Meanwhile, with Miguel Almiron having completed a $27m move from Atlanta United to Newcastle of the Premier League months prior, all eyes were on MLS for who the 'next Almiron' would be.

  PSG certainly felt that Acosta fit the bill, and they pursued him like hawk late in the MLS transfer window. Per The Athletic, then-GM of D.C. United, Dave Kasper, traveled with Acosta to Paris to meet with the French giants through an 'unnamed intermediary' – but that's when the deal began to collapse.

  The intermediary appeared to give false information to both parties ahead of time, and the two sides couldn't come to an agreement regarding a fee for Acosta, who United valued at $13-15m, while PSG's offer was $9.1m.

  Whether Acosta would have made the grade at such an established European powerhouse is anyone's guess, but PSG's interest highlights the level of talent we are talking about here.

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  A captain & a champion

  When FC Cincinnati joined MLS as an expansion franchise in 2019, they were genuinely awful. There's no point in holding back or trying to frame it in a polite manner. They were awful, and it wasn't just one year of it; it was three-straight seasons where they finished as the worst team in MLS, managing just 14 league wins in that stretch.

  Their fortunes changed in the summer of year three, though. Acosta arrived, and they built a squad around a player who had previously shown so much potential in MLS, but left due to the club refusing to build around him and provide the talent needed for him to truly succeed. Cincy didn't make that mistake.

  Come 2022, Acosta's first full season with the Orange and Blue, he was named captain, and they qualified for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Progress.

  This time around, however, has been the stuff of dreams. Cincy went seven games unbeaten to start the season, and only suffered one loss through their first 22 matches in all competitions. Acosta kept scoring, assisting and leading them to glory, and the Argentine even earned the captains' honors for MLS in their 2023 All-Star game against Arsenal in July.

  The 2023 regular-season campaign from Cincinnati has gone down in league history as one the best-ever, only second to the 2021 run by the New England Revolution. Acosta was named on the ballot for 2023 MVP, and is now the first-ever winner of the award for the Orange and Blue. He almost single-handedly turned the franchise around, and is now being touted as an individual who could do that on the national stage – only not with Argentina.

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  Berhalter's next dual-national?

  The 2026 World Cup is still over two years away, but the USMNT's planning for the tournament – which America will co-host – began the minute team crashed out of the 2022 edition in the last 16.

  One aspect of that planning, that admittedly began before Qatar last winter, has been the convincing of dual-nationals to commit to joining Berhalter's squad. Berhalter has been part-coach, part-recruiter over the past few years, and has secured the services of enough players to make his roster one of the world's most talented.

  Christian Pulisic, Timothy Weah, Yunus Musah, Antonee Robinson, Malik Tillman, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jesus Ferreira are just some of the high-profile names to have committed themselves to the U.S. cause in recent times, while the successful pursuit of Folarin Balogun earlier in 2023 left fans abuzz with anticipation as he rejected England's advances. Recent dual-national call-ups Kristoffer Lund, Kevin Paredes and Lennard Maloney could yet become reliable members of the squad in the build-up to 2026, too.

  Next on Berhalter's radar is Acosta, who earlier this year started his American citizenship process with a dream of playing for the USMNT. In June, Acosta told that he would "obviously" accept a call-up to the squad if it arrived. The Argentine midfielder added: "It’s one reason I started (the citizenship) process."

  Securing Acosta's services would offer the USMNT a veteran presence in their incredibly youthful attack, while allowing them to have an alternative to Gio Reyna at the No.10 position. Reyna's injury history is a cause for concern, and there is no clear back-up for the Borussia Dortmund youngster in the current U.S. squad. Acosta ticks every box that the USMNT need.

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.

Vinicius Junior has trolled Almeria following his 'handball' goal for Real Madrid, with the Brazilian claiming to have used Copacabana beach tactics.

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• Brazilian grew up playing on sand
• Put that schooling to go use with Los Blancos
• Helped Ancelotti's side to dramatic win

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  The Samba star helped his La Liga employers to recover from falling two goals down at Santiago Bernabeu to their rock-bottom opponents. His effort, which came after Jude Bellingham had converted from the penalty spot, helped to level matters on the day.

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• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Dani Carvajal snatched a 99th-minute winner for Real – making club history in the process – but it is Vinicius’ goal that has sparked the most controversy. Almeria claim that the South American bundled home with his arm – meaning that said effort should have been ruled out.

• WHAT VINICIUS SAID

  Vinicius is not having that and has shared a video of his own, in which the ball appears to come off his shoulder. He says that is a trick he picked up when playing on the beaches of Brazil, with every part of the body used to keep the ball off the ground and hit the target. He has said: “Great goal!!! This is how I always did it on Copacabana beach.”

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• WHAT NEXT FOR REAL MADRID?

  Vinicius, who is now fully recovered from the injury that he picked up back in November, has registered four goals through his last three appearances for Real. He bagged a hat-trick against Barcelona in the Spanish Supercopa final and has helped them to cement their standing one point behind Girona in La Liga – while still boasting a game in hand.

Australia’s performance chief said the forthcoming Sheffield Shield rounds would be key to finding out which players had the mental wherewithal to fit into the No. 6 slot in Australia’s Test side

Daniel Brettig22-Oct-2017Team performance chief Pat Howard has put batsmen around Australia on notice that the No. 6 spot in the Ashes batting order will be decided by their performances in Sheffield Shield rounds over the next month.Howard drew parallels between the race to seal one of the few uncertain spots in Steven Smith’s Test XI and the selection flurry that followed last year’s innings hiding by South Africa in Hobart – a fifth Test loss in a row that led to the resignation of the selection chairman Rod Marsh. He said that a host of players now had the chance to do what Pete Handscomb and Matt Renshaw had done then, earning their way into the national team through timely run-making.The search for a more stable middle order is key to Australia’s chances this summer, after a debilitating build-up of collapses over the past two years that has placed undue pressure on Smith, David Warner and Usman Khawaja to make runs at every opportunity or risk the rest falling away. Howard said the Shield rounds would be key to finding out who had the mental wherewithal to take up that spot, whether it would be an allrounder like Marcus Stoinis or any number of batsmen currently on the fringes.”The No.6 one I’m really positive about. It’s a really open race, much like it was between Hobart and Adelaide [last year] and there’s pressure on the domestic competition to perform,” Howard said. “We want the players to know there is pressure and if you can turn up here at the start of the Sheffield Shield season there is an opportunity and [you can] put yourself in the frame. It’s a batting role first and your skills after that are more than welcome. Looking for that and then that multi-faceted ability obviously won’t hurt.”We’re doing work in that [mental] space and it doesn’t happen in six seconds. No correlation between this statement and anything in Tests, but in limited overs, Marcus Stoinis averaging 85 or 90 batting at six and he hasn’t played a game in Australia yet. There are players who are trying to put their hand up and step forward.”Often, what you see in domestic cricket is they’ll be batting up the order and then the opportunity to play in the Test match will be further down. All of them are very good players. We’ve all seen them and score runs, we know they’re capable so that mental conversation is absolutely right and that’s where we’re putting that focus.”Howard revealed he had spoken with Usman Khawaja following the batsman’s complaints about selection policy on the recent tours of India and Bangladesh, where he was omitted for all but one of six Tests after an outstanding home summer. “I’ve spoken to Uzzie this week, so absolutely understand and I think … one of the things, if you want to be a good player at Test level, you’re going to have to be good against spin,” he said.Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

“Five of the nine Test-playing nations are very spin-friendly, so if you want to be playing all the Tests all the time, obviously [spin has] got to be part of your mix. The Ashes is at home, it’s a place Uzzie has had an outstanding record and so have the others and as he said, it’s reasonably stable, the side we’ll be putting out there, and I agree with that, there are a couple of opportunities.”Looking further ahead, Howard conceded Australia had let slip a long standing as the world’s pre-eminent ODI country, two and a half years on from lifting the World Cup on home soil. “I really think that’s fair and we want to make sure we address that,” he said. “In the Test format I’m really positive whilst we’ve had some mixed results, I couldn’t be prouder of some of the growth and some of the players.”Nathan Lyon, his efforts in Bangladesh were absolutely outstanding and I think the selectors and Nathan in particular, should be really praised for his efforts there. But ODIs we have some gaps there at the moment we need to address and we’re aware of that. We’re very good at home, and that’s great and nice, but the next World Cup is not at home.”It’s on small grounds … so we’re actually happy to address that and deal with that and actually have to chase down big scores because we expect there will be big scores in the World Cup in 2019, thinking a couple of years ahead. We need to evolve. It’s not crisis time, but we have to make sure. We’ve won four out of five last World Cups, Australia have a huge legacy here and we have to make sure we’re very focused on making sure we turn up for these.”Howard had little to say about the recent pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association, stating only that all organisations needed to review the way they conducted business at key times. The players were left out of contract for more than a month during the dispute, but Howard said he had been comfortable re-entering the Australian dressing room on recent tours following the signing of a fresh MoU.

The opener was dropped after the selection committee said they were unaware of the “shoulder pain” due to which he had failed to report to the ground for the game against Mumbai on Thursday

Arun Venugopal09-Feb-2018M Vijay has been left out of the Tamil Nadu side for the remainder of the Vijay Hazare Trophy after he “failed to report” to the ground for the game against Mumbai on Thursday due to “shoulder pain”. The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) made it clear in a press release that the state body, the selection committee and the team physio were unaware of Vijay’s injury.According to a top TNCA official, Vijay didn’t turn up to the SSN College ground, the venue of the match, on Thursday, and informed coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar about his injury at about 7.30 am, an hour and a half before start of play. With Tamil Nadu already hamstrung by an injury to opener Abhinav Mukund, Vijay’s unavailability was the last thing they needed. Ganga Sridhar Raju eventually slotted in as opener alongside Kaushik Gandhi.A source close to Vijay said the batsman was shocked by the development and was waiting to clear the air with the TNCA.Vijay, 33, played Tamil Nadu’s first two matches against Gujarat and Goa and scored 11 and 51. He has now been replaced by batsman Pradosh Ranjan Paul for the remaining matches.”How can we find a replacement at the last minute?” another TNCA official asked. “Vijay didn’t report to the ground and neither did he inform the selectors about his injury. It was very disappointing to say the least.”Vijay was unavailable for a comment on the matter.The TNCA is understood to have been unhappy with Vijay’s “attitude” over a period of time. “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened,” a top TNCA official told ESPNcricinfo. “The selectors weren’t even inclined towards picking him in the four-day squads [for the Ranji Trophy] in the first place because of issues with his attitude and general aloofness.”The official, however, confirmed the TNCA hadn’t initiated any disciplinary proceedings yet. “At the moment it’s only the decision of the selectors to not pick him,” he said. “In the future, once national players confirm their availability for a tournament they have to play the full competition. They can’t pick and choose matches. This issue might come up for discussion at the Executive Committee meeting of the TNCA.”India offspinner R Ashwin, who has picked up seven wickets in three matches so far, is also set to miss Tamil Nadu’s fixture against Andhra on Sunday. The official, however, clarified that Ashwin had sought the permission of the TNCA in advance, and the association, in consultation with the selectors, granted his request.

Chelsea's Sam Kerr looks to retain her title, but team-mate Guro Reiten and four other top players stand in her path

The PFA Awards have been a highlight of the footballing calendar for 50 years, and the organisation have now revealed the shortlist for the 2023 Women's Players' Player of the Year, with six brilliant players fighting it out for the gong.

Chelsea's Sam Kerr returns in an attempt to retain her title, while the Blues' Norwegian star Guro Reiten also finds herself as a nominee. The west London club have had a player win the award four out of the last five years.

Former Manchester United star Ona Batlle, who just reached the World Cup final with Spain, is also nominated along with Manchester City and Jamaican sensation Bunny Shaw, while Aston Villa's Rachel Daly and Arsenal's Frida Maanum close out the nominees.

Find out more about the six-woman shortlist below…

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  Sam Kerr | Club: Chelsea FC | Nationality: Australia

  Chelsea's Australian striker returns on the ballot sheet in an attempt to retain her title as the PFA Women's Players' Player of the Year. Kerr scored 29 goals across 38 appearances in all competitions for the Blues during the 2022/23 campaign, earning Chelsea's Player of the Year award en route to becoming a WSL champion for the fourth-straight season.

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  Rachel Daly | Club: Aston Villa | Nationality: England

  Leading scorer of the 2022/23 WSL campaign, Daly notched 22 goals in league play and 30 in total across all competitions. Daly was named WSL Player of the Season following her terrific 2022/23 campaign, which also saw Aston Villa reach their first-ever FA Cup semi-final.

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  Guro Reiten | Club: Chelsea FC | Nationality: Norway

  Reiten's brilliant 2022/23 campaign saw her win the FA Cup with Chelsea and top it off with a WSL title for the fourth-straight season. The Norway international had 13 goals and 19 assists across all competitions for the Blues and was particularly important when Kerr was absent through injury.

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  Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw | Club: Manchester City | Nationality: Jamaica

  The 2022/23 season was an outstanding campaign for Shaw, who scored 31 goals across all competitions while adding nine assists along the way for Manchester City. The 26-year-old attacker extended her contract in May through to 2026 after her record-setting season.

Imran Tahir raised Derbyshire’s hopes of back-to-back victories by taking five wickets on his debut as Durham collapsed on the second day of the Division Two match at Chesterfield

ECB Reporters Network04-Jul-2017
ScorecardImran Tahir claimed a five-wicket haul•Getty Images

Imran Tahir raised Derbyshire’s hopes of back-to-back victories by taking five wickets on his debut as Durham collapsed on the second day of the Division Two match at Chesterfield.The South African, who is playing for his sixth county, celebrated by sparking the decline that saw Durham lose 4 for 18 in 43 balls either side of tea before the visitors rallied to avoid the threat of following-on.Derbyshire controlled the game for much of the day with Billy Godleman falling two shot of a century as he and Gurjit Sandhu took their 10th wicket stand to 102 before the home side were bowled out for 368.Durham were going well at 119 for 1 but after Jack Burnham played on to Tahir and 16-year-old off-spinner Hamadullah Qadri bowled Michael Richardson for 64, the visitors crumbled before Paul Coughlin with an unbeaten 62 and Barry McCarthy guided them to 274 for 8, 94 behind.Derbyshire’s first objective at the start of the day was to get to a fourth batting point which was achieved after a 35-minute rain break with Godleman and Sandhu frustrating the bowlers for another 15 overs before Godleman was caught behind hooking at Coughlin.Sandhu followed his unbeaten career-best 48 by taking the new ball but Richardson and Cameron Steel added 52 before a mix-up saw Steel run out for 21 in Tahir’s first over.The legspinner’s second over gave no indication of what was to come as Richardson dispatched him for two fours before Burnham drove him over extra cover for six.But when Burnham tried to whip a ball from off stump and chopped on, Durham’s hopes of a decent reply faded as Qadri followed his record-breaking five-wicket haul at Cardiff last week by beating Richardson in the flight.Paul Collingwood was bowled pushing forward at Tahir in the first over after tea, Ryan Pringle was lbw playing back to one that sung in from Sandhu and Graham Clark was the sixth to go with Durham still 205 behind.The threat of the follow-on loomed when Stuart Poynter sliced a drive to point and Tahir bowled Matthew Potts with the next ball but Coughlin and McCarthy denied Tahir to keep Durham in the contest.

Martin Williamson05-Dec-2005

A&C Black, 319pp rrp £22.50

I recently heard someone dismiss the C&G Cricket Year, now in its 24th year, as a poor man’s Wisden. That is has survived so long and continues to flourish should be an indication that it deserves respect in its own right. But aside from its English bias – coverage not writing – the similarities are few.I must confess that I was an avid reader of the book when it first came out – then it was under the sponsorship of Benson & Hedges – and the first ten or so issues were a perennial Christmas must-have. But then I drifted onto other things, and so I was interested to know what had become of the publication.What I enjoyed in the original was that it complemented Wisden. While the Almanack provided a mass of statistics and scorecards, the B&H put flesh on those bones. It reported in some depth on overseas matches – domestic games from the Caribbean to Pakistan and Australia warranted potted reports and an abundance of pictures. Armed with Wisden and the B&H, someone who wanted to know what had happened across the world just about had it all at his fingertips.A decade and a bit later, the world has moved on. The internet means that scores from the extremities are now almost instantly available, and even Wisden has taken the plunge and uses pictures liberally. But that very progress appears to have led to the C&G withdrawing back to its core audience. It is now unashamedly aimed at the UK market, with little more than passing coverage from elsewhere. Take Australia. Their whole year is given 12 pages, five of which are text, five scorecards of Tests, and VB Series potted scores so brief as to be, frankly, useless. It’s the same elsewhere.But the UK coverage is good. It presents a review of the English summer in a more colourful and less wordy format that the Almanack, and in time for the lucrative Christmas market – no mean feat given that that now almost drags on into October. The format of the book means that the layout is user friendly – the font can be read by people with anything other than hawk-like vision for one thing – and the lavish use of colour pictures really enhances the written word.But therein lies the other major gripe. Wisden does offer a high standard of writing, and its reputation means that it can attract the cream of the crop. The C&G, under the editorship of Jonathan Agnew, is far more limited, in terms of space and, I assume, budget. Agnew himself, aided by Mark Baldwin, contributes large swathes of the England pages, and does so effectively. But although there are some good essays dotted here and there – Charlie Austin (who is Cricinfo’s man in Sri Lanka) writes with first-hand experience of the effect of the tsunami – they are too few and far between to really satisfy those looking for something more than a quick ten-minute flick. Major issues which dominated English cricket – the Zimbabwe tour and the BSkyB TV deal, to name two – are given no more than a few lines in Agnew’s editorial.I was left with a feeling of not really knowing who this book is aimed at. When I first bought it, I remember thinking that I need it and Wisden to cover all the bases. I still need Wisden; the C&G is now no more than a welcome addition … but not a vital one. Times have moved on, and there is a suspicion that the C&G has not quite kept up.

A slow surface that makes strokeplay difficult and large outfields in Nagpur can be turned into Afghanistan’s favour

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Nagpur26-Mar-2016They worried Sri Lanka with a rousing batting recovery, startled South Africa with a barnstorming start in a big chase, and left England gasping with their spin bowling. Three Super 10 matches against three Full Members, and Afghanistan created chances of winning each of them. They eventually fell short all three times, but the displays have only strengthened their belief that beating top opposition is not a distant prospect.On Sunday, Afghanistan will end their World T20 with a meeting against West Indies, who top their group with three wins in three matches. Afghanistan will be up against, perhaps, the most power-packed batting line-up they have faced in the tournament.But in Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shenwari and Hamza Hotak, Afghanistan have enough depth in the spin department to make life difficult for batsmen reliant on big shots on a slow pitch and one of the bigger outfields in Indian cricket. Afghanistan have played three matches at the VCA Stadium before, in the first round, and though they faced far weaker opposition at that stage of the tournament, they know the conditions.”Definitely, their batting is very [strong], but we have a very good spin department,” Asghar Stanikzai, Afghanistan’s captain, said on the eve of the match. “So where we can restrict them is, we will try to depend more on spinners, since the boundaries over here are longer and hitting the spinners will not be that easy. They are good strikers of the ball but we play good cricket, and are not just trying to give them a tough time but we are here to go back with at least one win [from the Super 10 stage].”Afghanistan have made massive strides since their first appearance at a world event in 2010, and Stanikzai said they were no longer content simply with pushing big teams hard. He was particularly disappointed that they had let strong positions slip against Sri Lanka and England, and said Afghanistan were close to being a “serious team” that would win matches regularly.”When we first appeared in that [2010 World T20] in West Indies, we were only thinking that we are playing with big names and most of us were very impressed with the players around,” Stanikzai said. “This time we are not only participating in this tournament but we were serious about it.”If you see our last three matches, especially against Sri Lanka and England, we have played very good cricket. To be honest, we could have won those games because we knew the strength of our team, but somehow we made mistakes and that’s why we couldn’t finish on a winning note. If you compare between 2010 and 2016, there is a lot of difference in the Afghanistan team, and in the next one or two years we will be a serious team and beat these Full Members very easily, as we have potential.”West Indies are already through to the semi-finals, but their coach Phil Simmons knows they cannot take Afghanistan lightly.”They’ve played well in all the games,” he said. “They’ve batted really well, [especially when] they were chasing a big score against South Africa, who we played yesterday. So they’ve been playing well and I know them from before [Simmons was Ireland’s coach from 2007 to 2015], so I know that they’re going to come to try and win. So we’ve got to just play properly.”While Afghanistan are clearly a team on an upward curve, there are fears that West Indies are heading in the opposite direction. They have failed to qualify for the ODI Champions Trophy in 2017, and have struggled in Test cricket for a number of years. They have been among the best T20 sides in the world, as their displays in this tournament have suggested, but some of their biggest stars in the format, including Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy, are in their 30s and could possibly be playing at their last ICC event.Simmons disagreed with the pessimistic view of the future, pointing to the fact that Bravo and Sammy are only in their early 30s, the fact that the current squad has performed so well while missing Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons and Sunil Narine, and the fact that West Indies have just won the Under-19 World Cup.”I’m not too sure how you write off guys at 30, 32 and 33,” Simmons said. “But to answer your question, yes, you can see it in the amount of players we have missing here. You see it in the young players coming up. You saw it in the Under-19 squad and you see it in the CPL at home, so it’s going to keep coming for a long time to come.”

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.