The announcement that the world snooker championships would remain at Sheffield's Crucible theatre until 2045 was not just a surprise... it was a major relief for a neglected northern giant.
"With very heavy hearts, we want to share that we've lost our baby during pregnancy. The past weeks have been filled with a kind of sadness that's hard to explain, and we're still trying to come to terms with it all."
With very heavy hearts, we want to share that we've lost our baby during pregnancy. The past weeks have been filled with a kind of sadness that's hard to explain, and we're still trying to come to terms with it all.
Bell insists that time batting against the red ball is still fundamental to the modern player. He emphasizes the value of scoring runs in first-class cricket and how it sets you up, learning how to bat, how to build hundreds, and how to stay out there for multiple sessions.
I'm just really looking forward to being in a tournament and not talking about my left calf. I've had a long journey from my ACL return, so I'm just honestly so excited, so grateful to be back here and just be playing football, enjoying training, enjoying all the things that come in, come with the team.
Today we crush the Hula Hoops and strut into the era of billionaire owners and player auctions, with a side dish of geopolitics. Each player will be listed in turn and the highest bidder wins their labour for six weeks in the summer.
9th over: Australia 81-0 (Voll 63, Mooney 18) Sree Charani comes into the attack with her left arm orthodox spin. Mooney takes a single and Voll decides it's time for another slog sweep, this time for the first six of the match. There's an appeal for lbw next ball, but there's a clear inside edge from Voll. Australia are applying some serious pressure to India here it's much improved batting from Sunday's match.
In the city where a few handfuls of rupees were melted down to make the original Calcutta Cup, it was Scotland who lost their shape when the heat started to rise and the pressure to build. England won by five wickets and though it was, in the end, emphatic it was not exactly a rediscovery of peak form, even if Tom Banton appeared to have located his with a 41-ball 63 that powered his team to victory.
After bowling Scotland out for 152, England racked up 155-5 in 18.2 overs, with Jacob Bethell scoring 32, Sam Curran 28 and Will Jacks (16 off 10 balls) hitting a six and a four to finish the job. England wobbled at the start of their chase as the new white ball swung under the floodlights with the sun going down. Phil Salt fell third ball to Brandon McMullen for just two and when Jos Buttler picked out McMullen off Brad Currie, they were 13-2.
Not to say that a lot of Australians would exactly have been tuning into the Sydney Ashes Test hoping to hear that England were doing well, but at least seeing a couple of sessions yield a score of 211 for three felt normal. The run rate was trending towards the adventurous, but it was a day within the accepted frame, and that is a template that not many days this series have been able to match.
It was not just the digits next to Bethell's name, 142 not out from 232 balls, 15 fours, but the manner in which they came about. This was pure spun silk, elegance personified, all back-foot punches and pull shots struck with Swiss clock precision. Remarkably, it was also his maiden first-class century. No specialist England batter has ever achieved this feat in a Test match, just handful of wicketkeepers and bowlers.