In shocking Cubs news, starting pitcher Shota Imanaga is now a free agent, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reported on Tuesday.
Chicago chose not to pick up the three-year option on his contract, and then Imanaga declined his $15 million player option. It was originally expected that Imanaga would remain in Chicago.
The Cubs could still retain the veteran lefty if they extend him a qualifying offer, which would cost $22.025 million for the 2026 season. Imanaga would then have the option to accept or decline that offer. If he turned it down, he would officially become a free agent, and the Cubs would receive draft pick compensation when he signed with a new team.
Imanaga just finished up his second season with the Cubs after his All-Star campaign in 2024. In 25 regular season starts, the Japanese star posted a 3.73 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP over 144.2 innings pitched. He threw 117 strikeouts, while giving up 117 hits and 62 runs.
The ace made his postseason debut this year during the Cubs’ division series run. Imanaga started one game and appeared in another, posting an 8.10 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. He had six strikeouts and gave up eight hits and six runs.
The Cubs will now look to fill Imanaga’s spot in the starting rotation for the 2026 season. And, quite a few teams looking for a pretty strong starter will show interest in Imanaga in return.
يستعد فريق ريال مدريد، بقيادة المدرب تشابي ألونسو، لخوض عدة مباريات في بطولتي الدوري الإسباني ودوري أبطال أوروبا، وذلك خلال شهر ديسمبر لعام 2025.
ويمتلك ريال مدريد 33 نقطة حيث يحتل المركز الثاني في جدول الدوري الإسباني، بفارق نقطة عن برشلونة المتصدر، حيث عانى الملكي من 3 تعادلات متتالية مؤخرًا.
اقرأ أيضًا | مواعيد مباريات برشلونة في شهر ديسمبر 2025.. تعزيز صدارة الليجا
في حين يحتل ريال مدريد المركز الخامس في جدول دوري أبطال أوروبا، مرحلة الدوري، حيث يمتلك 12 نقطة بعدما خاض 5 مباريات وخسر في واحدة فقط. مواعيد مباريات ريال مدريد في شهر ديسمبر 2025
أتلتيك بلباو وريال مدريد، مباراة مُقدمة من الجولة التاسعة عشر من الدوري الإسباني، يوم الأربعاء 3 ديسمبر 2025، 8 مساءً بتوقيت القاهرة، 9 بتوقيت السعودية.
ريال مدريد وأتلتيك بلباو، الجولة الخامسة عشر من الدوري الإسباني، يوم الأحد 7 ديسمبر 2025، 10 مساءً بتوقيت القاهرة، 11 بتوقيت السعودية.
ريال مدريد ومانشستر سيتي، الجولة السادسة من دوري أبطال أوروبا، يوم الأربعاء 10 ديسمبر 2025، 10 مساءً بتوقيت القاهرة، 11 بتوقيت السعودية.
ألافيس وريال مدريد، الجولة السادسة عشر من الدوري الإسباني، يوم الأحد 14 ديسمبر 2025، 10 مساءً بتوقيت القاهرة، 11 بتوقيت السعودية.
ريال مدريد وإشبيلية، الجولة السابعة عشر من الدوري الإسباني، يوم السبت 20 ديسمبر 2025، 10 مساءً بتوقيت القاهرة، 11 بتوقيت السعودية.
You could feel the elation rippling from the pitch. It was palpable. It was a reminder of what this squad are capable of doing to the best teams in the world. Liverpool had beaten Real Madrid in the Champions League for the second year running.
Following the professional win over Aston Villa to stop the rot of a four-match skid in the Premier League, head coach Arne Slot must have felt his side had turned a corner, but last weekend’s sobering loss at Manchester City showed the Reds have merely gone in circles.
Liverpool were outfought across every inch of the Etihad Stadium, and Slot will be chagrined after being outplayed by Pep Guardiola on the tactical chessboard. Granted, he’s not the first coach to lose such a battle against the Spaniard.
But the Reds are struggling to do the basics, and are such a far cry from the level of last season, when they dispatched so many opponents and won the league title with relative ease.
Tactical imbalances have been clear all season, and it’s obvious that Liverpool are missing Luis Diaz, who is doing so well with Bayern Munich this season.
If the problems continue for Slot, FSG may be forced to sign a new version of the Colombian.
Liverpool looking to replace Diaz
Florian Wirtz’s struggles since leaving Bayer Leverkusen and joining Liverpool for £116m this summer have been well documented.
The German playmaker, 22, is one of the most talented footballers out there, but he’s yet to find the physicality and fluency to succeed in the Premier League, and he might want to take a leaf from Diaz’s book in that regard.
Aside from Diaz’s potency in the final third, he is relentless in his work rate and rapid besides, adding width and dynamism down the flank. Liverpool need some of that, and appear to have found a candidate.
Indeed, according to Spanish sources, sporting director Richard Hughes has registered Liverpool’s interest in Real Madrid star Rodrygo, who has fallen well down the pecking order under Xabi Alonso.
Arsenal and Chelsea are also keen on the Brazil international, while Manchester City’s intrigue was confirmed by Fabrizio Romano this summer.
Florentino Perez wants €90m (£79m) for the versatile forward, but given his reduced role at Real Madrid over the past year or so, FSG would likely push to whittle down that hefty price tag.
What Rodrygo would offer Liverpool
Rodrygo finished the 2024/25 campaign at a low ebb. A few terms ago, the 24-year-old was regarded as one of the best wingers in the world, but a limited role at Real has precluded that tag from staying put.
This season, Alonso has handed Rodrygo only three starts across La Liga and the Champions League. He hasn’t yet scored, racking up two assists on the continent. This all points toward a divorce from the Santiago Bernabeu, for this is one of the most exciting and talented wide forwards in Europe, and he should have a role at a side that reflects that.
Liverpool could offer him this. Slot wanted to provide Rio Ngumoha with a pathway to the first team during the summer, and that is ostensibly why Diaz was not directly replaced.
This has proved a mistake, with the 17-year-old as yet untrusted to start games and feature prominently.
Rodrygo has the maturity and the world experience to not just challenge Wirtz and Cody Gakpo for a starting berth but stake his claim for a starring role deep into the Anfield pitch.
Sometimes, statistics must be viewed through a wider context. Take Rodrygo’s woes in the Spanish top flight last year, only scoring six goals and supplying six assists across 30 matches.
Poor, right? Well, Rodrygo was only afforded 12 starts by Carlo Ancelotti, and Sofascore data suggests he missed just one big chance, underscoring his clinical nature.
Real Madrid's Rodrygo
Furthermore, the South American maverick posted six goals and assists apiece from left wing last year, despite only being handed a berth on that side 12 times across all competitions. At Liverpool, it is the left which beckons, and there he could refashion that world-renowned status that has been seen on the biggest stages before.
And even after this testing period, Rodrygo’s underlying quality does not lie, evidenced through many tactical similarities with Diaz across the past 12 months.
Goals
0.31
0.47
Assists
0.23
0.20
Shots taken
2.78
2.92
Shot-creating actions
4.71
4.21
Pass completion %
85.4
83.0
Touches (att pen)
6.49
6.27
Progressive passes
4.40
4.21
Progressive carries
5.91
3.73
Successful take-ons
2.47
1.98
Ball recoveries
3.75
4.40
Tackles + interceptions
2.09
1.36
It’s curious to note that the tactical differences between the two are not that great. And this in spite of Rodrygo having fallen to the Los Blancos fringes well before the managerial shift this summer.
With Alonso at the helm, it’s patent that Rodrygo will not enjoy the regular minutes that his talent deserves. After all, Luka Modric once described him as being among the club’s “world-class superstars”.
Diaz has found remarkable prolificness since switching Liverpool for Bavaria in August, and while such levels were rarely sustained at Liverpool, with the Premier League notoriously difficult, there’s no denying Liverpool miss Diaz and his athletic profile.
Rodrygo could be the perfect tonic to turn the ship around. After all, Alonso doesn’t seem to want him, and Liverpool require just the profile.
Whether the Reds manage to pull off an audacious winter swoop is anyone’s guess, but Premier League rivals are also on the hunt, and Hughes needs to pull something off if this season is to be viewed as a success.
Liverpool star is quickly becoming their biggest "disaster" since Keita
Arne Slot has a Naby Keita-style situation on his hands with this expensive Liverpool flop.
Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg says an investigation into allowing private investment into the BBL is “unashamedly” with a view to making it the second best T20 league in the world behind the IPL, but stressed it would not go ahead if it came at the cost of Australia’s traditional New Year’s Test at the SCG.CA released a statement last week regarding the next evolution of the BBL after Boston Consulting Group (BCG) had been commissioned by the CA Board earlier this year to assess the current model and future structure of the BBL, with a series of recommendations presented to the board earlier last week.A “recommendation of alternative forms of investment and ownership to realise the potential for growth, including consideration of private investment” was one of the key points presented by BCG.Related
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CA said in the statement that BCG’s report “will now be subject to a thorough exploratory process before any decisions are made about the potential implementation of recommendations, and any associated timelines.”Speaking on on Wednesday in Melbourne, Greenberg said that BCG’s entire report would not be published due to it containing sensitive commercial information but reiterated that CA were merely investigating the possibility of private investment into the BBL and what it would mean for cricket as a whole in Australia.He did admit that part of the vision CA had for the league was for it to be second only to the IPL in terms of it’s global standing.”Well that’s certainly the vision of everyone in cricket here in this country is to make sure that we run a league and we run a T20 tournament that is sitting just beside or behind or adjacent to the IPL,” Greenberg said. “It’s going to be very hard to chase the IPL, given the scale of cricket in India, but unashamedly, we want to run a league that comes second. And to do that we’re going to need to make sure that player availability and player salaries are commensurate with everything else that goes on around the world, and there’s one thing you need for that, you need money, you need investment. We’d be naive if we weren’t asking ourselves these questions and making sure we’ve got an eye on what’s next.BBL clubs are currently fully owned by CA and operated by the state associations•Getty Images
“Nothing has been decided at this point in time. The report does tell us that the BBL is in a very healthy position, but one thing we’re sure of is we don’t want to take that for granted. So it’s incumbent on us, as leaders of the sport, to look at what the future might hold for us.”Private investment has been a discussion point around the BBL ever since it’s creation as a rebrand of the state-based Big Bash in 2011. But CA has long resisted the idea to maintain 100 per cent control of the tournament and the clubs in order to create a summer schedule for broadcasters where it sits underneath the key Test matches in Melbourne on Boxing Day and in Sydney at the start of each New Year.Another recommendation from BCG was the the BBL started later than it’s current start date of mid-December. News Limited reported that the New Year’s Test in Sydney may be under threat as a result as private investors, if they were to hold majority stakes in BBL clubs, would demand Australia’s Test players be fully available for the tournament as is the case in the IPL and now the Hundred in England.But Greenberg was firm in his belief that the Sydney Test would not be moved to a different date in the calendar.”I hail from Sydney so I’d like to return back there at one point in time,” Greenberg said. “So, no, it’s certainly not on the agenda.”CA has kept a very close eye on how the ECB has handled the sale of the Hundred franchises in England and is continuing to watch closely as the competition enters a transition year with three teams set to be renamed and rebranded next season by the new private owners.Greenberg rejected a notion which has been raised in some quarters in Australia that allowing private investment into the BBL would be akin to “selling the farm” to the highest bidder.”It couldn’t be anything further from the truth,” Greenberg said. “We’re looking at ways to put money into cricket so that all parts of cricket can continue to flourish. So for me, this is much less about selling something. It’s more about what the future looks like and trying to ensure that we can continue to put money and resources into grassroots and performance pathways, and so we can be secure, and we can be the sport of choice, and we can continue to be the country’s national sport. None of that will happen if we sit still on our hands and think that everything tomorrow will be like yesterday. We’re living in a world that’s moving at speed.”What this report’s looking at is certainly not looking at putting any private capital into the league. It’s rather the clubs themselves. So that’s the first point. So retaining control of Australian cricket, I think, is fundamental.”Greenberg said he had already received emails from private investors that he “hadn’t heard of” who were interested in having a conversation about either investing in or owning BBL clubs. But he reiterated that CA were a long way from reaching a point where the conversations with investors could actually take place.He admitted there was apprehension from a large number of current stakeholders in Australian cricket following last week’s release but wanted to allay any fears.”The Chairman (Mike Baird) and I are at pains to point out that this process, this project will only work if it benefits everyone, and when I say everyone, I mean the total circumference of Australian cricket,” Greenberg said. “I mean players. I mean all of our states and territories, and I mean grassroots and the future of cricket too. If there’s opportunities for everyone to thrive and grow from a project like this, then I think it will solve the problems itself. But if clearly we can’t answer that question, then I think the project fails. So we will be very collaborative, as we have been from the start.”
So with Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia sidelined for the World Series due to a "deeply personal family matter,” his fellow Los Angeles relievers have been playing with the No. 51, Vesia‘s uniform number, written on their caps to honor the relief pitcher. But it wasn‘t just the Dodgers.
The Blue Jays bullpen, in solidarity with its Dodgers counterpart, also donned the No. 51 on their World Series caps during Los Angeles‘s Game 6 victory.
And the gesture was not lost on the Dodgers.
"I didn't notice until [Chris] Bassitt—actually after Bassitt struck me out and then I was looking up at the board to see the replay, and that's when I saw that he had 51," Dodgers outfielder Kiké Hernández said. "And instead of being mad that I struck out, I was kind of going back to the dugout thinking, 'Did Bassitt play with Vesia at some point?' And then after the game I saw that everybody had them."
The gesture clearly meant a lot to Hernández and the Dodgers.
"For those guys to do that, it's incredible," Hernández said. "They're trying to win a World Series, but they understand that this is—life is bigger than baseball, and baseball‘s just a game. For them to do that with the stakes—where we were at with the stakes, hat‘s off to them. And I want them to know that we appreciate them.
"Regardless of what happens tonight, we appreciate what they did."
Vesia was left off the Dodgers’ World Series roster
The Dodgers had said as part of a statement that Vesia, who appeared in 68 games for the Dodgers in the 2025 regular season and another seven contests in the postseason, "is away from the team as he and his wife Kayla navigate a deeply personal family matter."
The veteran lefthander was one of the Dodgers‘s most reliable relievers this season, posting a 3.02 ERA and 0.99 WHIP while recording 80 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings pitched.
Deportivo Rayo Zuliano e Athletico-PR se enfrentam nesta terça-feira (7), pela quarta rodada da fase de grupos da Copa Sul-Americana. A bola vai rolar a partir das 19h (de Brasília), no Estadio Nacional Brígido Iriarte, em Caracas, com transmissão da Paramount +.
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➡️A boa do Lance! Betting: vamos dobrar seu primeiro depósito, até R$200! Basta abrir sua conta!
As odds disponiveis no Lance! Betting apontam 8.2 para um triunfo do Rayo Zuliano, 8.2 no empate e 1.37 para uma vitória do Athletico na Sul-Americana.
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✅ FICHA TÉCNICA RAYO ZULIANO X ATHLETICO-PR COPA SUL-AMERICANA – FASE DE GRUPOS -QUARTA RODADA
🗓️Data e horário:terça-feira, 7 de maio de 2024, às 19h (de Brasília) 📍Local:Estadio Nacional Brígido Iriarte 📺Onde assistir:Paramount+ 🟨Árbitro:Angel Arteaga (VEN) 🚩Assistentes:Alberto Ponte (VEN) e Freker Colmemares (VEN) 🖥️VAR:Carlos Orbe (EQU)
continua após a publicidade
⚽PROVÁVEIS ESCALAÇÕES NACIONAL-PAR (Técnico: Elvis Martinez) Luis Corredor; Edison Penilla, Hermes Rodríguez e Diego Melean; Kenin Ulises Urueta, Edwin Castro, Albert Barboza e Angel Faria; Gerardo Padron (Yeferson Paz), Saimon Ramírez e Junior Colina
ATHLETICO-PR (Técnico: Cuca) Bento; Léo Godoy, Kaique Rocha, Gamarra e Esquivel; Fernandinho, Erick e Christian (Zapelli); Julimar (Canobbio), Cuello e Pablo
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
Cricket, for all that, had given Nair plenty of chances between that tweet and this game. He had had to wait a full season and move to a new team before making his domestic comeback, but had, thereafter, scored more runs (3035) and hundreds (12) than anyone else in India’s first-class, List A and T20 domestic competitions. This included an otherworldly season of 50-overs cricket in which he scored five hundreds in eight innings and averaged a ridiculous 389.50. He had won a Ranji Trophy and reached a Vijay Hazare Trophy final with Vidarbha. On top of all that, he had played 10 County Championship matches across two seasons for Northamptonshire and scored 736 runs at 56.61.For a lot of viewers, though, Sunday night was that one more chance Nair had been waiting for. Only hardcore fans follow cricket outside international matches and the IPL, and this dictates media coverage of the game, which in turn dictates where the eyeballs go, which in turn dictates…Related
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All this creates a sense among the wider cricket-consuming public that while domestic cricket exists and matters, it only matters in a stepping-stone kind of way. When India calls someone up after three or four strong seasons for their state team, news reports usually frame the story in a “, X is rewarded for years of domestic ” kind of way.And so, here was Nair, getting one more chance, finally. Here he was, introduced for the first time in IPL 2025, in DC’s fifth game of the season, introduced as an Impact Player at 0 for 1 in a chase of 206.For all the runs and hundreds he’d scored leading up to this moment, though, there was still reason for Nair’s fans to feel a bit of trepidation. He had had his share of sparkling moments in 76 previous IPL games, but on the whole his time in the tournament had been stop-start, with more stop than start. He’d come back now, having unlocked a new level of prolific in domestic cricket, but he was about to face Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah in a 200-plus chase.Before he could face those two, though, he had to survive a tricky first ball, a pinpoint inswinging yorker from Deepak Chahar. And he did this in a way that portended good things, radiating a sense of stillness and certainty, seeming to have all the time in the world to move his front leg out of the ball’s way and bring a straight bat down to keep it out.Karun Nair had a rollicking time batting against Jasprit Bumrah•Getty Images”Quite honestly, I had the confidence that I’ve played before and I know how it’s going to be, and it’s nothing different, and I’m not going to be facing anything new,” Nair said in his post-match press conference. “But in my mind it was just about going out there and giving myself a few balls and just getting used to the speed of the game and the atmosphere.”I just told myself, give yourself time, play normal shots, and then improvise when needed, and fortunately everything came off.”His innings was true to those words, except the normal shots he played at the start came with abnormal levels of timing and poise. He hit three fours off the first four legal balls he faced from Boult – he had only faced three balls before this – and each of them was a normal shot, but you need to be in eerily good rhythm to play them the way Nair did.
“I felt confident, I felt like I’m well-prepared to play in the IPL if given the opportunity, so it was all about me preparing the way that I have been all through the season, and waiting for my chance”Karun Nair
The first was a square drive off a good-length ball angled away from him, and all he did was lean on the ball and meet it with a slightly open bat-face. Everything hinged on the moment of contact with the ball: it happened right under Nair’s eyes, and it coincided perfectly with his transfer of weight from back foot to front. The same, impeccable timing went into another drive three balls later, this time between cover point and short cover, and in between there was a gorgeous square cut that showcased one of Nair’s greatest gifts, his ability to use his hands to manipulate his bat face to place the ball just so.A tick next to the box marked Boult; now how would he go against Bumrah? The answer: nine balls, 26 runs, three fours, two sixes. Here again was the same sense of stillness, but taken up a notch, because Bumrah was trying to wrench him out of shape with his changes of pace. They had no effect on Nair: he was seeing the ball beautifully, holding his shape until the ball reached him, and dispatching it where he pleased, with high-elbow lofts, flat-bat swats and wristy steers through and over the off side and, best of all, an effortless short-arm whip over square leg for six.2:05
Jaffer: Would like to see Karun go for the England Tests
And there was one major difference between his set-ups against Boult and Bumrah. Against Boult, he adopted a conventional trigger movement that took his back foot to off stump. Against Bumrah, his back foot went the other way, starting on middle stump and moving to leg. This was a man with a plan, fully prepared to seize this moment.”I felt confident, I felt like I’m well-prepared to play in the IPL if given the opportunity, so it was all about me preparing the way that I have been all through the season, and waiting for my chance,” Nair said. “I was doing my bit to prepare and be ready for the game, and then it’s always a tough call for the team management to pick 11 or 12 players. I’ve always respected that, and for me it’s about preparing and keeping the same process that I’ve followed, which has worked for me, and just being ready to go out there and perform for the team.”Every player will tell you that it’s all about the process, and while you might be tired of hearing it, it remains key to long-term success. It’s a truth that’s particularly hard for batters to internalise, because theirs is a pursuit marked by constant failure. Figuring out the processes that best worked for him – in training, in the middle, perhaps even in life – may well have been what took Nair from a lavishly gifted, high-ceiling batter who often went through frustrating spells of inconsistency and turned him to the run machine of recent years. All those runs and centuries in domestic cricket, in India and England, were both a byproduct of these processes and a means of reinforcing and refining them.Karun Nair showed his full range against the class of Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah•AFP/Getty ImagesBy the time Sunday night happened, Nair seemed fully secure in the knowledge of who he was and what he was capable of.This latter encompassed quite a range: from the stillness and “normal” shots against MI’s quicks in the powerplay to breathtaking improvisation behind the wicket when the fields spread out.Nair has made quick runs in the IPL in the past: his previous fifty, for Kings XI Punjab (as they were still known then) against Chennai Super Kings in 2018, had also come at a 200-plus strike rate. Perhaps never before, though, had this tournament witnessed this full flourishing of his talent.At 33, Nair had grabbed this chance that the IPL had given him. He was primed to do so, though, having grabbed all the other chances cricket had given him since that doleful December day.
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."
Head coach believes 50-over struggles are in a category of their own as attention shifts to Perth
Cameron Ponsonby01-Nov-2025Brendon McCullum conceded that England “clearly need to improve” in one-day cricket after they fell to a 3-0 clean sweep against New Zealand. ‘Go harder’ has been the mantra of this England team, with Harry Brook imploring his side to double down in their efforts with the bat after his side’s first collapse in Mount Maunganui a week ago. Two matches and two further batting failures later, however, McCullum has reset the party line and called for England to adopt a more considered approach.”Harry’s said before that we need to put pressure back on the bowlers, and there are times when we do need to be a little braver and put some pressure on the bowlers,” McCullum said following the defeat in Wellington. “And then there are other times where we’ve got to adjust to their lengths and lines.”Not necessarily in a high-risk sort of way but just by being brave enough – whether that’s coming down the wicket or moving around the crease – just get things going a little bit more and bounce off one another.”Across the series, England lost 11 wickets in the opening 10 overs of the innings, compared to New Zealand’s four, and were bowled out in all three matches. Their innings in Wellington was their longest of the trip, batting for 40.2 overs before they were all out.”I think when we’re confronted with good, flat wickets, we’re a very, very good cricket team,” McCullum said. “I think we play a high-octane style of cricket and those conditions suit us. When the wickets have a little bit in them and they’re a bit more challenging, whether that be spin or seam or swing, we probably can’t quite adapt our tempo quick enough.Fewest runs by a team’s top four•ESPNcricinfo Ltd”We’ve got some talented players but, unfortunately, our performances at the moment in this form of the game aren’t quite up to scratch and we need to rectify that.”England’s top order combined for an historically poor series, managing just 84 runs between the top four, the lowest tally in one-day international history. Of the top six, only Brook, Joe Root and Jos Buttler made a score of 20 across the three matches.McCullum, however, does not believe it is a concern heading towards the Ashes, where Australia are expected to serve up similar styles of wickets. In the longer format, he argues that England have been able to counter different conditions well.”I like to separate it,” McCullum explained. “I think in T20 cricket we’re going really well and in Test cricket we have a pretty decent idea of where we’re at – and I think we’ve performed reasonably well, albeit we have a huge challenge ahead of us.Related
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“One-day cricket is clearly the area we need to improve, and my comments are more directed at one-day cricket. I think when we do come across the trickier conditions in Australia and Test cricket, we have a pretty good understanding of how we’re going to go about it. It doesn’t guarantee us anything but it gives us a level of confidence going into that series.”He also believes that, despite a number of players experiencing a poor run of scores, the likes of Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett and Root will be “better for the run” after getting a number of games under their belt.”They’ve marked centre a few times and gone through the process and I’m sure they’ll be better for it. With the prep that we’ve had with the other Test guys who’ve been here for a while too, we’ll have no excuses come Australia.”McCullum identified Jamie Overton as England’s “huge win” for the tour, after the bowling allrounder contributed with the bat in all three matches and put together his finest performance in ODI cricket in Wellington, scoring 68 runs and taking two for 32 with the ball.”I think there’s times when we think he’s a better player than he does,” McCullum said. “And on this tour he’s fully believed in the player he can be at this level. There’s not too many players around the world who can bowl 140kph, field the way he does and hit the ball as cleanly. It’s been a huge series for Jamie…he’s incredibly well liked within the group and we’re all delighted for him.”England’s next competitive fixture will now be in Perth, with the long-awaited Ashes series finally around the corner after years of build-up.”I’m proper excited,” McCullum concluded. “We’re incredibly respectful of the challenge Australia is going to present us and we know how hard that tour is going to be.”It’s going to require a team to stay together right throughout, to be as strong as we can to try and block out any of the outside noise. But we’re very respectful of who we’re coming up against, we’re so excited to get over there and we can’t wait to get started.”
Rest of India lost a wicket off the first ball of the third day of the Irani Cup
ESPNcricinfo staff03-Oct-2025
Rajat Patidar scored 66 for Rest of India•PTI
Vidarbha strengthened their grip on the Irani Cup fixture by taking a sizeable first-innings lead against Rest of India and then extending it to 224 on the third day in Nagpur.The day began with Rest of India on 142 for 5 in response to Vidarbha’s 342, with their captain Rajat Patidar and Manav Suthar at the crease. Vidarbha fast bowler Aditya Thakare struck with the first ball of the day, dismissing Suthar lbw after successfully reviewing the umpire’s not-out decision.Yash Thakur took the next two wickets, bowling Saransh Jain with a yorker and having Akash Deep caught at cover. Patidar had resumed his innings on 42 and got to 66 with ten boundaries before he was the penultimate wicket to fall – caught off fast bowler Harsh Dubey while trying to clear the long-off boundary.Thakur picked up the final wicket to dismiss Rest of India for 214, finishing with figures of 4 for 66 and giving Vidarbha a first-innings lead of 128.Vidarbha’s openers Atharva Taide and Aman Mokhade put on 42 for the first wicket in the second innings before Taide holed out to deep midwicket off Suthar. Mokhade fell for 37 in the 24th over, caught behind while trying to hook Gurnoor Brar. From 64 for 2, Dhruv Shorey and Danish Malewar steered Vidarbha to 96 at stumps, ahead by 224 runs with eight wickets in hand.