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Australia’s attack takes advantage of a timid batting display, but could we have expected different?

Andrew Miller11-Jun-20252:55

Hayden: Australia won day one because of SA batters’ lack of intent

The agony was palpable as Wiaan Mulder and Temba Bavuma ground their way through a third-wicket stand of six that spanned 40 interminably accurate balls.Hard length on off stump… nip, bounce, rinse, repeat. Some balls were stared down, and patted straight back whence they came. Others seared past the splice, to the oohs of a stacked cordon and the groans of a packed South Africa contingent in the stands, whose previous sense of a day well dominated was retreating with every non-shot.Despite facing 132 balls in a fraught evening session, close to 50% of South Africa’s 43 runs came from exactly five scoring shots – a trio of driven boundaries from Ryan Rickelton at the top of the order, then two more fours in consecutive deliveries at the absolute close of play, as Pat Cummins over-reached in his bid for an inswinging yorker, and gifted David Bedingham a brace of leg-stump freebies.Related

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Yes, there was a certain dignity in South Africa’s strokeless defiance, most particularly from the captain Bavuma, who will resume on 3 not out from 37 balls on Thursday morning with another vast burden to shoulder. And yet, in between whiles, there were four very emphatic wickets – three of them bowled, and the fourth snicked to first slip – as Australia’s magnificent seam attack, all 955 Test wickets between them before the start of the WTC final, accepted the invitation to come at their opponents and bowl their best balls without any real threat of retaliation.”I thought the guys bowled pretty well, to be fair,” Steven Smith said at the close. “It wasn’t the easiest surface to come out and wallop it. The couple of times they went at it and tried to drive the ball, we got the edges. A couple [of them] played nicely when they were late and defending under their eyes. They were difficult to get out. It’s the kind of wicket you’ve got to be solid in defence and, when you get a loose ball, you pounce on it.”Smith’s logic was sound enough, and earlier in the day, it had been borne out in his own performance – a vital 66 from 112 balls that was as composed in its compilation as Beau Webster’s 72 had been neurotic: “for his first 30 balls, it didn’t look like he could spell ‘bat’,” as Smith evocatively put it at the close. As Kagiso Rabada proved with his own magnificent five-for, this pitch has plenty to offer to the very best in the business.1:45

‘Pretty cool to have it in the home changeroom’ – Rabada on his five-for

Even so, it was an atypical day of Test cricket for the many neutrals in the stands – in other words, the regular Lord’s clientele who have got used to watching England take a radically different approach to batting in recent seasons. And there were doubtless some conflicting emotions at play as a consequence.On the one hand, it’s fair to assume that most of those neutrals would have been urging South Africa to start giving it some welly (because, let’s face it, everyone loves an underdog in these parts, especially when they aren’t Australian). But also, for those with memories that stretch back longer than three years, there might also have been a ghastly realisation: yikes, this was us once.Whether or not Bazball is an actual thing that Australians acknowledge as a tactic, Cummins’ team saw the whites of its eyes on this ground two years ago. In the 2023 Ashes, England served up perhaps the diametrically opposite performance to today’s fare, particularly, in a first innings of such self-immolating recklessness that they wrecked their own chances of victory by swinging too high, too hard, and too often. Alex Carey’s instincts in the second innings may have ignited a furious final act, but the match – and the Ashes – were lost in that blizzard of over-eager aggression.Even so, the manner of that defeat was infinitely preferable to – and, in fact, a direct consequence of – the experience England had endured in their previous encounter with the Australians in 2021-22: a trial by paralysis, of precisely the type that South Africa experienced today.The Wiaan Mulder experiment at No. 3 didn’t come off•Getty ImagesThe nadir of that series was reached in the third Test in Melbourne – a strokeless surrender in which Haseeb Hameed, not unlike Mulder today, batted to the absolute limit of his brief in making seven runs from 41 balls across two innings, as Scott Boland served up the ridiculous second-innings figures of 6 for 7.And if England, in that moment, declared “never again”, and vowed to find a different way to shape their narrative, then it needs also to be acknowledged that they did so from a position of privilege: as a Big Three nation, with the financial clout to schedule 22 Tests in a WTC cycle, compared to South Africa’s 12, and with the certainty of selection that allows their players to chase their shots with impunity. Zak Crawley’s entire Test career has been built on the premise that one false move will not bring down either his ambitions, or those of the men around them.It’s not so simple for South Africa at this delicate juncture of their evolution. Win this Test, and the team’s development might yet be self-perpetuating – amid the interest and accolades that come from being world champions. Lose, however, and maybe it’ll be back to the square minus-one that they faced at the start of this cycle, when Neil Brand (remember him?) led a scratch first-class squad to get crushed in two Tests in New Zealand, while the main characters got stuck into the first season of the SA20.So, it’s hard to argue that South Africa played their cards wrong today. “One does not simply walk into Mordor and Bazball,” as that Boromir meme might have put it, not even when you’ve recruited one of the concept’s chief architects, Stuart Broad, to impart some mindset gems.1:28

Steyn: Doing it in big games has become a habit for Starc

But what’s a team to do when faced with one of the very best attacks in Test history, on a pitch which, as Smith put it, was “doing enough all day… [with] a bit of variable bounce and a bit of sideways movement”?More of the same, presumably, when Bavuma and Bedingham resume on the second morning, with brighter sunshine in prospect, but with a dry surface already itching to bring the spinners into play – if and when they are required. For Smith didn’t anticipate any significant deterioration in the ball’s hardness until the 40th over, which was when Webster’s first-innings effort had been able to escape the pressure and develop into something meaningful.But for that to transpire in the current conditions, South Africa’s remaining batters will need to endure for the best part of the morning session without further error – and even then, as Carey showed with the ill-conceived reverse-sweep after tea that triggered Australia’s dramatic loss of five wickets for 20 runs, you’re as likely to be damned for doing as you would be for sticking to your original plan.At moments such as these, though, you’re still entitled to wonder whether it’s more reckless to roll the dice, or to dig in with such blinkered determination that you’re closing yourself off to the inevitable.

The Ashes can wait for now as white-ball campaign prepares to get underway in Christchurch

Cameron Ponsonby16-Oct-2025Christchurch. The city of scooters.Contrary to popular belief, not everything runs smoothly in New Zealand. The Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre, for instance. A $500 million major sports complex was scheduled for completion in 2015, but when you walk past the site that’s a kilometre down the road from Hagley Oval, the builders are still there. A flat white occasionally takes four minutes to arrive rather than three – and cricket is being played in October.This month’s T20I against Australia, on October 1, was the earliest New Zealand had ever played a home international. Two weeks later, Wellington and Otago are currently playing a pre-season friendly, even though the start of the domestic season is still over a week away. The only team playing competitive cricket in New Zealand currently, is New Zealand. The scooters are good though.But if the timing of this series is considered far too early, and the construction of the local swimming pool considered far too late, then the vibes and morale in both camps is just right.Unusually, in such a crammed cricketing calendar, both sides managed to carve out quality time together in the lead-up to their showdown, which will consist of three T20Is followed by three ODIs. England were down in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world, with bungee jumps, skydiving and jet boats available to all.”I was just playing golf,” said Harry Brook.Meanwhile, New Zealand were in Hanmer Springs. An idyllic location consisting of thermal pools, hiking and quiet pubs where the team could get to know one another, and new head coach Rob Walter, that bit better. There are also, at the thermal pools, waterslides.”They got a hammering,” said former No.1-ranked T20I bowler, Jacob Duffy.Jordan Cox will be given a chance at No.7 after his maiden fifty against Ireland•PA Photos/Getty ImagesConditions in Christchurch, where the first two T20Is will be played, are mixed. The mornings and afternoons consist of a strong sun and a jumper wrapped around your waist, while the evenings require multiple layers all at once. The wind that whips round Hagley Oval isn’t for the faint-hearted, and the night-time T20Is will see hands shoved in pockets and jumpers required for players and spectators alike.But, in an oddity of the modern bilateral series, both teams are at close to full strength. Injuries, rather than rest and rotation, are the core reason for any absence. England have left Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith and Jofra Archer at home until the ODIs, but otherwise captain Brook has his full deck to play with.”We’ve got a great opportunity here against a very strong side to go out there and try and capitalise on the momentum we’ve already made,” Brook said. “The last game we played together as a full group, we got 300.”Because of England’s recent ODI woes, it is easy to forget that in T20Is they have been strong, losing only one of their last seven bilateral series. Similarly, New Zealand’s recent T20I record is excellent. The recent defeat to Australia aside, they have lost just one of their previous 11 bilateral series. While a lack of context remains the perennial problem for these series, quality is one thing that the coming week won’t be lacking.As has become customary with this England side, they named their team a full two-and-a-half days before the start, with Sam Curran and Jordan Cox the notable inclusions at No. 6 and 7 respectively.Related

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• Switch Hit: Black Caps and Pat's back knack

Curran, previously unfavoured by the McCullum regime, will play a full role as an allrounder, as he has also been included as the fifth bowler. While Cox, off the back of winning the PCA Player of the Year award, will play an unfamiliar finisher role to stake his claim for a place at the World Cup. Jos Buttler, who went down with a stomach bug on the journey over, is now fully fit and will open the batting and keep wicket.England are at pains to stress that the focus of this series … is this series. A bit of T20 World Cup preparation, yes, but the Ashes will come later. And while they may mean it, it’s hard to imagine they really believe it. How could they?Gus Atkinson, for instance – who is not part of the white-ball squads – arrived today to begin his individual preparation to take on Australia, while Mark Wood and Josh Tongue are due to land next week to do the same.They will work with bowling consultant Tim Southee, the former Kiwi legend who has been part of England’s coaching staff over the summer. He had been expected to leave his role following this series and not be part of the Ashes coaching squad. However, this looks subject to change with Southee currently earmarked to stay with the group in Perth for the warm-up against the Lions and for the first Test before leaving to play in the ILT20.”It’s something I’d love to be a part of,” Southee told talkSPORT. “But obviously there’s a few things to go through first.”New Zealand are boosted by the return of Rachin Ravindra and captain Mitchell Santner, but are still missing several players through injury including Finn Allen, Adam Milne, Will O’Rourke, Glenn Phillips and Lockie Ferguson. Kane Williamson and Ben Sears are also absent.”I think we missed him last series,” Duffy said of his captain Santner, whose return has seen Ish Sodhi miss out on selection. “Not only his four overs, but his leadership too. There’s still a few guys missing out, but to have a couple big more horses in the tanks is not going to hurt us.”Even with their number of injuries, New Zealand’s pace attack remains daunting, with Duffy backed by the likes of Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Zak Foulkes. The exciting Bevon Jacobs, who was picked up by Mumbai Indians just under a year ago, before he’d even made his international debut, is also expected to feature.All in all, whether it’s October or not, the contest is well poised and an exciting series of high-quality cricket awaits. And that can never be too early in the year.England XI: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (capt), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Tom Banton, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Jordan Cox, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Liam Dawson, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Luke Wood.

Liverpool are prepared to splash the cash on two Premier League stars in January in a bid to derail Arsenal's title charge. Defeat at Manchester City last weekend means the Reds sit eight points behind the Gunners after the opening 11 matches of the season. However, the club seem willing to back Arne Slot in the New Year as they look to make up the gap on Mikel Arteta's men.

• Liverpool's title defence faltering

  Goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku compounded a miserable afternoon for Liverpool as they crashed to a 3-0 loss at Manchester City earlier this month. The result means the Reds have already lost more league games this season than they did last, with their title defence already faltering.

  Liverpool spent big to bolster the squad over the summer, signing Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Giovanni Leoni. The club also convinced star men Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk to extend their star at Anfield, though were unable to retain Trent Alexander-Arnold's services, the right-back opting to leave his boyhood club for Real Madrid.

  Despite a summer of hefty investment, Liverpool are struggling and return to domestic duties this weekend eighth in the table, level on points with rivals Manchester United, having lost five of their last six league matches. Slot will hope to return to winning ways when they welcome Nottingham Forest to Merseyside on Saturday.

Advertisement

• Getty Images Sport
  

  Reds no stranger to investing in January window

  And while Liverpool were reluctant to splash the cash in the January market following a summer spending spree, the Merseyside powerhouse are prepared to back Slot in the New Year as they look to get their title push back on track and halt Arsenal'w push for silverware. According to DaveOCKOP Liverpool have two Premier League stars on their radar as they seek to close the eight-point gap between themselves and the Gunners.

  Liverpool have previously invested in the squad in the winter window, notably signing Van Dijk, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo in 2017, 2022 and 2023. And another winger signing may be on the cards in January.

  DaveOCKOP revealed that "Liverpool will conduct preliminary talks with Bournemouth this weekend over the signing of Antoine Semenyo. Liverpool's sporting director Richard Hughes, who played a key role in signing Semenyo at Bournemouth from Bristol City for a modest £10.5 million back in 2023, is believed to remain a strong admirer of the 25-year-old. It is thought that the Cherries would demand around £75 million for the Ghana international should Liverpool decide to formalise their interest."

• Getty Images Sport
  

  Semenyo and Wharton targets for champions

  Semenyo has been a revelation for Bournemouth this season, scoring six goals and providing three assists for the Cherries, though he has failed to directly contribute to a goal in his last four league outings. The Ghana international was linked with a move away from Bournemouth over the summer but instead put pen to paper on a five-year deal with the south coast side.

  Liverpool aren't the only side believed to be interested in Semenyo, with Premier League rivals City, Tottenham and United also credited with an interest in the winger. And Semenyo isn't the only top-flight player the Reds are looking into signing in January if reports are to be believed.

  "DaveOCKOP can exclusively reveal that Liverpool are holding initial talks to discuss signing Crystal Palace and England star Adam Wharton in 2026," a separate report read. "Just like Semenyo, Wharton has also been a player whose profile has exploded over the past couple of seasons.

  "During a period of unprecedented success for Crystal Palace, including both an FA Cup and Community Shield wins for the first time ever, Adam Wharton has been a key part of the club winning those trophies."

  Wharton has been a key man for Palace since his arrival from Blackburn Rovers in January 2024 and his form for the Eagles hasn't gone unnoticed. United have been credited with an interest, while City and Real Madrid are also believed to be keeping tabs on the England international, who made just his second senior start for the national team against Albania on Sunday night.

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• Liverpool out to bounce back from City loss

  Liverpool are back home on Saturday as they take on Nottingham Forest to Anfield in a navigable run of games as the Reds look to build up some momentum. Indeed, they follow up their game against the Tricky Trees with a Champions League tie against Eredivisie outfit PSV before they round off the month with a trip to the capital to take on West Ham.

  Slot's side then kick off December with a home game against high-flying Sunderland before back-to-back away games against Leeds and Inter in the Premier League and Champions League, respectively. 

Rajput hopes his team can bounce back and push for T20 World Cup qualification

Shashank Kishore10-Sep-20252:21

Can UAE take away anything from this thrashing?

UAE coach Lalchand Rajput has said that they were overawed by India’s spin twins after they suffered a nine-wicket defeat in their Asia Cup opener on Wednesday. Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy picked up a combined 5 for 11 in 4.1 overs as UAE were bundled out for 57, their lowest T20I total.”To be very honest, it wasn’t a turning track,” Rajput said. “It was a good wicket to bat on, but the skill level these bowlers have got, and especially the wristspinners, they will always turn on any type of wickets. And the way they were bowling, the length they were bowling [did the trick].”Related

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• Stats – The shortest T20I that India has ever played

Openers Alishan Sharafu and Muhammad Waseem made 41 of their 57 runs, and the rest of their batters crumbled, failing to read Kuldeep both in the air and off the pitch. Varun, meanwhile, troubled them with the skid when he bowled length deliveries into the pitch.”For our batsmen, to be very honest, they were playing [against this quality of spin] for the first time,” Rajput said. “They were overawed by India’s big names. We should have batted 20 overs. But nevertheless, I think this is a learning process for us.”While taking stock of their defeat, Rajput said the team will be better for the experience. “See, this is a big platform for them,” he said. “It’s a learning process for our players as well. I’m sure these matches will give them a lot of confidence. We just have to move on from here.”While admitting the “batters weren’t patient enough to play out 20 overs that could have got them to 130-140,” Rajput didn’t want to be critical of his team after just one loss. He underlined how they’d shown decent application against spin during the recently concluded tri-series against Afghanistan and Pakistan.”We hardly got out to the spinners,” he said. “It was just one spinner that we got out and that was Abrar [Ahmed, Pakistan legspinner] in the second game [he picked up 4 for 9]. But we really played well in the tri-series. So yes, I think as I said earlier, these spinners are rare because wristspinners, like Varun Chakravarthy, even top players struggle against them.”Alishan Sharafu made a cameo for UAE•AFP/Getty Images

For UAE, every game at the Asia Cup is another opportunity to build towards their immediate goal, which is to qualify for next year’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. The Asian qualifiers are lined up hot on the heels of this tournament, and Rajput hoped his team would be able to pick up the pieces from a crushing loss quickly.It’s keeping this in mind that the team decided to experiment with their squad, and give fringe players a chance on their recent tour where they were beaten by Uganda. Prior to that, though, they beat Bangladesh 2-1 at home, and ran Pakistan and Afghanistan close in the tri-series, even though they lost each of their four matches.”It’s a process that we always carry forward. And we were really looking forward to the Asia Cup because we qualified after a long time,” he said. “And then we beat Bangladesh, that was a very good series for us. Then we went to Uganda. It was a series where we tried some more players. We beat other teams, but lost to Uganda.”The important thing for us is the T20 World Cup qualifier. We don’t have any much time in between. So Uganda was a series where we could try. And then the tri-series, we should have won a couple of games.”But again, crossing the line, something the better teams always do, we came close but could not. But definitely the players have started believing in themselves. But still I feel that we are a much better team and you will see in the coming matches as well. I’m sure we’ll improve because from here we can’t go low down. We are only going to go up.”

The Atlanta Braves have placed outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. on the10-day injured list after he was removed from Tuesday night's loss vs. Kansas City with tightness in his Achilles tendon, the team said Wednesday.

Speaking after the game, Acuna didn't sound optimistic about the discomfort he was experiencing.

"It's an injury; I'm worried," he said, per a write-up from . "It's more pain, but it feels kind of, I feel it a lot when I try to put pressure on it."

The outfielder noted that he first felt the pain when running the bases on Monday night.

"It happened when I scored from first to home on that play," he added, via an interpreter. "They are going to examine me tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes."

In their post on Wednesday, the Braves diagnosed Acuna's ailment as "right Achilles tendon inflammation." Though that's better than a tear, any missed time is surely a blow for the 2023 NL MVP, who missed the majority of his 2024 season with a torn ACL.

"It's an Achilles thing, it's going to take a while," team manager Brian Snitker added Tuesday. "He'll go on the IL, and hopefully in 10 days or so it'll clear up."

This wasn’t a day for the spinner, but it was certainly a day for India’s greatest spinner, with the bat, on his home ground

Alagappan Muthu19-Sep-20241:08

Why was Ashwin more comfortable than the top-order batters?

It’s lunch. The crowd is quiet. Maybe even bored. A bunch of them have come wearing Virat Kohli shirts. The silence when he fell is already in talks to get a guest spot on the next Quiet Place movie. Someone steps out of the Indian dressing room and begins walking on the field. That’s it. Just putting one foot in front of the other. People have been doing that since before the stone age. But it is enough to shoo the sombre straight off this morning.R Ashwin doesn’t need to do much to make this place come alive.

****

It’s nearly stumps. India’s score has been given a touch-up, from 34 for 3 to 329 for 6, and those same Kohli jerseys are up off their seats, swarming against the railings, phones out, horns blaring.Ashwin is on strike. Ninety-nine not out. He clips one of the easier balls he’s had to face for a single, in conditions that are, to put it mildly, not usual for the start of a new Test season in India. Fast bowlers have taken five of the six wickets that have fallen, and they have found sideways movement all through the 80 overs of play. This is not a day for the spinner. But it does become a day for India’s greatest spin-bowling pair. Ashwin punches Ravindra Jadeja’s gloves on his way to the other end as the applause flows uninterrupted.

****

India were 144 for 6 when Ashwin came in to bat. Bangladesh had let some of their good work slip in the morning session but weren’t quite so generous now. There was pressure from both ends. Hasan Mahmud’s skill at getting the red ball to nip both ways had catapulted him into rarefied space occupied only by Dale Steyn. From 2006, for almost two decades, the South African had been the only visiting seamer to pick up four or more wickets on the first day of a Test match in India. This was not a day for the spinner. Ashwin got on top of a 142kph Nahid Rana delivery and punched it hella smoothly in front of point to move from 1 to 5. This was already his day.Related

• Ashwin: 'Bowling and batting are very separate sports in the same game'

• Stats – Another Ashwin special at home

• Sparkling Ashwin-Jadeja rearguard hurts Bangladesh

• Mahmud keeps it simple to stand out in Bangladesh's attack

• Ashwin: In the last IPL, I felt like I needed to widen my game

There aren’t a lot of centuries by Indian batters from No. 8 and lower. Only 19. And of those, only two had faced worse odds. Harbhajan Singh made 115 after walking in with the score on 65 for 6 against New Zealand in 2010, and Ashwin himself made 106 after walking in with the score 106 for 6 against England in 2021. It is remarkable that he pulled off this rescue act while looking like he was having a net. He was in control of 86% of the balls he faced even while scoring over half his runs in boundaries. He just has this feel for conventional attacking shots.There were some chart-toppers here. One – an imperious, on-the-up cover drive off Mahmud – quickly erased the fact that he could’ve been dismissed the previous ball. Another – a cheeky little upper cut off Nahid Rana – had similar effect, supplanting any memory of how he couldn’t get out of the way of a previous bouncer from Taskin Ahmed. Two were shots that he had paid particular attention to in the week leading up to the game – sweeps. One went for six, the other for four. When the host broadcaster asked him about all this positivity, Ashwin said, “it helps that I’ve come off the back of a T20 tournament. Worked quite a bit on my batting and playing a few shots and of course, I’ve always been wafting my bat around outside off stump, not giving it a full monty, but on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you’re going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard.”ESPNcricinfo LtdIndia’s lower-middle order has been the difference in several Test matches, helping them preserve an impeccable home record over the last 12 years. So the dressing room was pretty chill, none more so than the captain, Rohit Sharma who took in part of the action while lying down on the floor.It is learnt that neither the BCCI nor the team management had asked for seamer-friendly surfaces for this series, even though they are facing the prospect of five massive Tests in Australia at the end of the season. Still, the local officials were quite deliberate in preparing this pitch, hiding it from the heat which has reached levels never before seen in Chennai in the month of September. The only time it was exposed to the elements was when it was being watered. It seems they felt, really strongly, that India would be well served having recent experience of playing against a red ball that refused to stop jagging about. #KnowledgableChennaiGroundstaff.Ashwin couldn’t have been happier for the way he had been tested. “I think it’s the old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red-soil pitch allows you to play a few shots. If you’re willing to get in line and sort of, whenever there’s width, if you can give it a bit of a tonk, it really helps. I love playing when there is bounce and carry so yeah, really enjoyed myself today.”R Ashwin and Chepauk: a match made in heaven•BCCITwo partnerships took India to 339 for 6 and both of them stood out for how there was no thought of taking a backward step. Yashasvi Jaiswal represented that quite literally by walking at Mahmud – from a starting position well in front of his crease too – to force the bowler to shorten his length and deny him the movement he was so adept at getting. Rishabh Pant looked extraordinary for time he was out there. He was sent in ahead of KL Rahul to present Bangladesh with a new challenge, bowling at two left-handers after they had made short work of three right-handers. India were in strife but they were switched all the way on and that made a big difference.By the end, Ashwin and Jadeja were scoring at nearly a run a ball, feasting on the kind of bowling that was never going to trouble anybody on day one of this pitch – spin. India actually scored more than a third of their total (127) against Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan even though they bowled a little more than one-fourth of the overs (29). Another example of their sharpness despite being under the pump.The Chennai crowd was ecstatic. At 38 years old, it is uncertain if Ashwin will play another Test in front of them. He had his family here. His friends were here. He saluted all of them when he reached his century – first the dressing room – and then to all corners. He averages 55.16 at this ground. His home ground. That’s not far off Sunil Gavaskar and way better than Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin. This was always going to be his day, two days after his birthday.

In need of another central defender amid their disastrous run of form, Liverpool have now reportedly been told how much they’ll have to pay to sign Ezri Konsa.

It was another sobering evening for those at Anfield, who watched on as Crystal Palace defeated Arne Slot’s for the third consecutive time. The Eagles have simply clawed away at the Reds time and time again this season and a young Liverpool side never truly stood a chance.

Losing 3-0 courtesy of yet more goals from Ismaila Sarr and a late Yeremy Pino effort, the Premier League champions are now out of the Carabao Cup and have lost six of their last seven games. They are a team in crisis.

When asked about his side’s latest defeat, however, Slot was quick to point out that his squad is weaker than it seems, using Manchester City as a comparison.

The Dutchman told reporters: “I saw Manchester City’s starting eleven and they didn’t have one starter from the weekend but it felt like their best team. That is a bit of an insight. Chelsea can bring Estevao in. After I made two substitutions tonight, we had six teenagers.”

After spending over £400m in the summer and breaking their transfer record twice, Liverpool are unlikely to get the sympathy that Slot asked for when looking at his squad last night. The former Feyenoord boss didn’t name a single first-team player on the bench and was ultimately made to pay the price.

Andy Robertson and Joe Gomez particularly struggled and the fact that Robertson was forced to play at centre-back exposed the big problem that the Reds must solve. Whether Konsa is the answer to that problem remains to be seen, though.

Liverpool discover Ezri Konsa price

After coming within hours of signing Marc Guehi in the summer, which would have solved their centre-back problem, it’s been back to the drawing board for those at Anfield.

Now, according to Caught Offside, Liverpool have joined the race to sign Ezri Konsa, who Aston Villa are ready to sell for £40m-£45m amid continued PSR problems.

Another Chiesa: Slot's treatment of Liverpool star is a "sackable offence"

Liverpool have a shrewd solution to one of their biggest problems this season.

By
Angus Sinclair

Oct 30, 2025

The 28-year-old also has interest from Manchester City and Newcastle United, but it’s Liverpool who will need his arrival the most if they miss out on Guehi in the summer.

It’s tough to match the season that Guehi is having, but Konsa has also shown plenty of potential at Aston Villa, who are beginning to find their form in the current campaign.

Described as a “Rolls-Royce” by former manager Dean Smith, Konsa is represented by the same agent as Ibrahima Konate and could now use that link to get himself a summer switch to Anfield.

Liverpool 0-3 Crystal Palace player ratings

It was more than 2500 days between IPL fifties, but Nair had churned out runs away from the limelight

Karthik Krishnaswamy14-Apr-20253:33

Nair: If team doesn’t win, your individual runs have no value

“Dear cricket, give me one more chance.”Karun Nair tweeted this on December 10, 2022, when he was at his lowest ebb as a cricketer. Here was a Test-match triple-centurion and a giant of the domestic game – a central figure in back-to-back treble-winning seasons for Karnataka – left out of his state team, across formats. He had only just turned 31.It was only natural, then, that this tweet gained a lot of traction on Sunday, April 13, 2025. Nair had played his first IPL game in nearly three years, and scored his first IPL half-century in nearly seven years – 2520 days, to be precise, the longest gap between IPL fifties for anyone, ever.

Our hearts are full pic.twitter.com/cau5zlrmcE

— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 13, 2025