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Endrick ganhou a atenção de todo o mundo nos amistosos da Seleção Brasileira contra Inglaterra e Espanha, disputados em março, e Andreas Pereira parece ter sido impressionado pelo jovem. Em entrevista ao canal “Five”, do ex-zagueiro e lenda inglesa Rio Ferdinand, o jogador do Fullham foi questionado sobre a joia do Palmeiras e “explicou” o sucesso do companheiro de Brasil.

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– Endrick… eu não sei a palavra em inglês, no Brasil nos falamos ‘iluminado’. Sabe quando um monte de gente está prestes a nascer, e Deus fala: ‘Esse é o cara’. No treinamento, se você acerta o travessão, a bola para no pé dele e ‘boom’, gol. Deu rebote, a bola para no pé dele e gol. Ele é incrível, sempre está no lugar certo, sempre querendo melhorar. Ele é um monstro – disse Andreas Pereira.

O meio-campista também foi destaque nos últimos amistosos da Seleção, em março. Contra a Inglaterra, o jogador do Fullham entrou em campo no segundo tempo ao lado do jovem do Palmeiras. Foi de Andreas, inclusive, o passe para Vini Jr. na jogada que gerou o gol de Endrick na vitória do Brasil por 1 a 0.

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Andreas PereiraEndrick

The Mets have agreed to a blockbuster trade with the Rangers that will send second baseman Marcus Semien to New York in exchange for outfielder Brandon Nimmo, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

It’s a big trade involving a pair of standout players. Semien had a .669 OPS in 2025, along with a 3.3 bWAR. He launched 15 home runs and 62 RBIs while stealing 11 bases. A Gold Glove winner in 2025, Semien is one of the best defensive middle infielders in baseball, and he can provide tremendous value in that regard for the Mets.

As for Nimmo, 32, he slashed .262/.324/.436 with 25 home runs, 92 RBIs, 13 steals and a 2.9 bWAR. He signed a long-term extension with the Mets in 2022––an eight-year deal worth $162 million. Nimmo was one of the longest-tenured players in franchise history and had become a fan-favorite throughout his decade with the organization. He was also one of just 11 players ever to appear in more than 1,000 games for the team.

Semien is under contract for three more years, collecting $26 million in 2026 and ‘27, and $20 million in ‘28, after which he’s due to hit unrestricted free agency. Nimmo, on the other hand, is locked down through the 2030 season and will make an average of $20.5 million per season.

Both the Mets and Rangers were among the biggest spenders in terms of payroll in 2025, each ranking inside the top seven. Despite that, they both underperformed and missed the postseason. They’ll both be hoping the offseason trade can improve their chances of reaching the playoffs in ‘26.

The weekend of baseball is here, and two streaking teams look to continue its form in a measuring stick matchup for each club.

The Houston Astros and New York Mets have erased slow starts to the year to get back to .500 and in the Wild Card picture in its respective leagues, but who will have the edge in the series opener on Friday?

I have bets for EVERY game on the loaded Friday night card, catch it all below.

Marlins vs. Phillies Prediction and Pick

Pick: Phillies (-235)

No team struggles more against left handed pitching than the Marlins, who are last in OPS against southpaws. 

Philadelphia should build on its NL East lead. 

Nationals vs. Rays Prediction and Pick

Pick: Nationals (+135)

The Nats are a strong underdog pick in a battle of two teams flirting with getting above .500 as we hit the halfway point of the season. 

Washington will start lefty Mitchell Parker, who can showcase his fine control and elite breaking ball pitches, against a Rays team that is about league average against lefty pitching. 

Rangers vs. Orioles Prediction and Pick

Pick: Orioles (-135)

While Max Scherezer may give the Rangers some upside in this matchup, the team isn’t hitting well enough in the month of June to trust as underdogs against an elite Orioles team. 

Texas is 28th in OPS in the month of June and has a below average bullpen as Scherezer still may be eased into his role in just his second start of the season. 

Yankees vs. Blue Jays Prediction and Pick

Pick: Blue Jays (+100)

New York has dropped nine of 10 games and it may not get easier against the Blue Jays left hander Yusei Kikuchi.

The Yankees lineup has been shallow around MVP front runner Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, and the team is below average in OPS this season against left handed pitching, which Kikuchi is. 

With that in mind, I’ll keep fading the Yankees. 

Rockies vs. White Sox Prediction and Pick

Pick: Rockies (+105)

It’s tough to decipher the difference between these teams, each team is more than 25 games under .500, and with that in mind I’ll grab the underdog Rockies in a game that features two futile clubs. 

Astros vs. Mets Prediction and Pick

Pick: Astros (-115)

Two of the hottest teams in baseball in the month of June meet in Flushing, New York on Friday. 

I’ll side with the road favorite Astros, who have finally gotten on track this season and will start one of its more consistent starters in Ronel Blanco. 

Blanco has been pitching above expectations this season, but not more than Jose Quintana of the Mets, who has posted an xERA of 5.14 with a 15th percentile hard-hit percentage. 

Both teams are playing its best, but I’ll give the nod to Houston. 

Padres vs. Red Sox Prediction and Pick

Pick: Red Sox (-155)

Nick Pivetta is an underrated arm in the American League postseason picture. A savvy veteran who does a good job at forcing soft contact, Pivetta has continued to strike out batters at a high clip (81st percentile). The righty has an ERA of 4.06, but his xERA is slightly lower at 3.95. 

Boston is rightfully a considerable favorite, but its the only side I can back. 

Pirates vs. Braves Prediction and Pick

Pick: Braves (-180)

Atlanta is just outside the top 10 in OPS against left handed pitching, and should have little issue knocking around Martin Perez, who is in the fourth percentile in terms of xBA and has an xERA of 5.70. 

Cubs vs. Brewers Prediction and Pick

Pick: Cubs (+115)

I can’t trust Colin Rea of the Brewers, one of the most regression bound pitchers in baseball. 

Rea is in the bottom 10 percentile in xERA, xBA and strikeout rate, a futile trio to be included in. 

Meanwhile, the Cubs lineup is far below the quality of the Brewers, but the team has the edge on the mound with Jameson Taillon, who has a 2.90 ERA with an elite hard-hit percentage (80th percentile), which can limit the ability for Milwaukee to have a big outing at the plate. 

Guardians vs. Royals Prediction and Pick

Pick: Royals (+100)

The Royals maintain a strong home record at Kauffman Field, 28-15 at home, and I like the team’s chances of winning a second straight against the Guardians. 

Cleveland will start Triston McKenzie, who has struggled all season, and it can get worse. McKenzie has no control of his pitches this season, his 14% walk rate is in the fourth percentile, and has an xERA of 5.24. 

The Royals lineup is struggling, but at home I like the team to handle McKenzie. 

Reds vs. Cardinals Prediction and Pick

Pick: Reds (+110)

I view this game as a coin flip, so I’m inclined to go with the underdog Reds who have a slight pitching edge on Friday. 

Frankie Montas isn’t striking out batters at the same clip as he has in the past, but has done an excellent job of limiting hard contact with an increased blend of off-speed pitches. 

The Reds have been the better team at the plate of late, 11th in OPS this month compared to the Cardinals at 16th, and I’ll take them as road underdogs. 

Tigers vs. Angels Prediction and Pick

Pick: Angels (+100)

The Tigers aren’t the upstart contender we envisioned in the preseason, and shouldn’t be favored against many teams on the road when starting Kenta Maeda. 

Maeda has seen his strikeout rate dwindle to 17%, about 10% lower than last season, and its shown in his spike in ERA to 6.00. 

Twins vs. Mariners Prediction and Pick

Pick: Mariners (-130)

Logan Gilbert should be able to navigate a surging Twins lineup and get the Mariners an impressive win. 

Gilbert has an ERA of 2.71 while showcasing pinpoint command (86th percentile) with the most devastating breaking ball pitches in the bigs this season (100th percentile in terms of run value). 

He’s a must bet at a small price tag. 

Athletics vs. Diamondbacks Prediction and Pick

Pick: Diamondbacks (-155)

Arizona is the third best hitting team against left handed pitching in terms of batting average (.272), which sets up nicely against J.P. Sears of the Athletics. 

Dodgers vs. Giants Prediction and Pick

Pick: Giants (-110)

The Giants will hope Logan Webb can continue to string together consistent efforts with a 94th percentile groundball rate, and limit the power of the Dodgers with his command, 86th percentile walk rate, to get the Giants a win against its high priced division foe. 

Meanwhile, the Dodgers will turn to rookie Landon Knack, who has shown some promise, but his 2.10 ERA is supported by a 3.28 xERA.

Cardinals designated hitter Willson Contreras didn't like a called third strike while he was at the plate against the Pirates on Monday night.

As he faced an 0-2 count in the bottom of the seventh inning in a tight game, he was called out on strikes following a pitch that landed down in the zone. From the replay, the pitch appeared to be a strike, clipping the bottom of the zone, but Contreras still took exception.

He looked back at home plate umpire Derek Thomas and was ejected from the game, which caused him to get incredibly heated as the Cardinals coaching staff tried to hold him back. As he was pushed back toward the dugout, Contreras tossed his bat toward the field as he continued to yell at Thomas, and the lumber hit one of his own coaches.

When he eventually got into the dugout, an entire bucket of Hi-Chew was thrown onto the field, creating a messy scene the team's batboys had to clean up. It's unclear if Contreras tossed the bucket of candy or not. You can watch the wild sequence below:

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol was also ejected per MLB.com's John Denton. Also, according to Denton, the coach that was hit with Contreras's bat was Brant Brown—St. Louis' hitting coach.

A lot of fallout for what appeared to be a correctly called strike. Despite the situation, the Cardinals held onto their lead and defeated the Pirates 7-6 Monday. We'll see if there's any further punishment following Contreras's outburst.

The Dodgers are gearing up for a title defense, slated to take on the Reds in MLB's National League Wild Card. With the series is set to get underway on Tuesday, Sept. 30, the team got some injury news on a pair of key players on Monday.

Max Muncy spoke to reporters and informed them that he'd be available for L.A. on Tuesday. Muncy had missed a chunk of the season with an oblique strain, but returned from the IL on Sept. 8. He's since been hit by multiple pitches, all against the Giants, and ended up missing the final few games of the season while dealing with a bruise on his leg. Fortunately, he appears to be good to go for Tuesday's playoff opener.

The other update the team received was to do with catcher Will Smith. The 30-year-old hasn't played since Sept. 9 and is dealing with a fracture in his right hand. Per Fabian Ardaya of Smith is expected to swing a bat Monday and could face live pitching Monday evening, if swinging feels okay. His status for the series remains uncertain.

The Dodgers finished the 2025 season as the No. 3 seed in the National League, and winners of the NL West. They're looking to become the first team since the 1998-2000 Yankees to win consecutive World Series titles, and having stars such as Muncy and Smith available will be critical towards achieving that goal.

First pitch for Tuesday's game in L.A. is slated for 9:00 p.m. ET.

Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger is expected to opt out of his contract in New York and test free agency this offseason, according to a report from ESPN's Jorge Castillo.

The Yankees lost their ALDS tilt with the Blue Jays earlier this week, ending their season. The news regarding Bellinger's future is the first to trickle out of the Bronx since the franchise's postseason elimination.

Bellinger posted the second-highest wins above replacement (WAR) of his nine-year career in 2025, as he hit .272 with 29 home runs and 98 RBI. He also stole 13 bases and posted an .813 OPS.

The 30-year-old Bellinger spent the first six seasons of his career with the Dodgers, before two seasons with the Cubs and this season with the Yankees.

The Mets are adding to the back end of the bullpen by making a major splash in free agency. New York has reportedly agreed to a three-year, $45 million contract with reliever Devin Williams, according to multiple reports.

The deal includes $5 million in deferred money each season ($15 million total) and a $6 million signing bonus that will be prorated across the three years, per MLB insider Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Williams, 31, spent the 2025 season with the Yankees. He was a marquee offseason acquisition by the organization, who got him in a trade with the Brewers last winter. Williams failed to live up to his lofty expectations for the Yankees, recording a -0.3 bWAR with a 4.79 ERA, 90 strikeouts and 18 saves in 60 2/3 innings.

Prior to his down year in ‘25, Williams, a two-time All Star, had three consecutive seasons with a sub-2.00 ERA while dominating in a late-innings relief role in Milwaukee. In his career, he owns a 3.02 ERA with a 14.1 K/9 and 86 saves across 308 appearances.

The addition of Williams doesn’t take the Mets out of the running to re-sign Edwin Díaz, who hit free agency this offseason. New York remains interested in bringing Díaz back even after shoring up the bullpen with a three-year contract for Williams, per MLB.com’s Anthiny DiComo.

Greg Chappell, Mike Hussey and Brad Hodge go through the talent pool to pick two separate squads each

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jun-2020In the era of Covid-19, the cricket calendar will need be redrawn and there will be a crush to fit in all the fixtures that were deferred. It has even been suggested that two formats could be played at the same time. While that may not actually happen, it throws up some intriguing selection questions.If we consider playing a Test and a T20I on the same day, West Indies would probably have the fewest selection headaches, given they already have very different five-day and limited-overs squads.Tests: Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Shai Hope, Darren Bravo, Shamarh Brooks, Roston Chase, Jason Holder, Shane Dowrich, Rahkeem Cornwall, Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel.T20Is: Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cottrell, Sunil Narine.But how would the three best-resourced sides in the world – England, India and Australia – fare in having two teams play at the same time in a Test and T20I?Australia have already gone down the path of picking two separate international teams, when, in 2017, the T20I side took on Sri Lanka at home while the Test team was in India. We asked recent selector Greg Chappell and former batsmen-turned-commentators Michael Hussey and Brad Hodge to pick two squads of 12 for the challenge. The idea is to treat the matches as equally important and pick the best balanced squads.ESPNcricinfo LtdGreg Chappell: My focus was to get the best team for both formats. Obviously Smith and Warner could fit easily into each, as could Starc and Cummins. I must admit I was not prepared to weaken the Test team to bolster the T20I team. Both teams are competitive in my view. And, to me, Cameron Green is the next superstar of Australian cricket. He is a genuine prospect with bat and ball, but I think his future is as a batsman who can offer some quality overs. Cameron is a batsman of rare talent. At 6ft 7in, he could become something very special. I would bat him at No. 6 to start with, but I reckon No. 4 is his long-term position. The sooner he gets to play at this level, the sooner he will become the player that he should be. He has proven that he can make runs at the first-class level, so the sooner he can prepare and play alongside Warner, Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, the sooner he will work out what he needs for the highest level from these champions.ESPNcricinfo LtdMichael Hussey: The process I went through was: I wrote down the Australian Test No. 1-12, then a T20I 1-12, and I put the players in that are definitely Test and definitely T20 players. With the gaps, I tried to find the right balance in a team with players who were maybe just outside the squad. David Warner was a tough one because he’d be a first pick in both the Test and T20I teams, but I wasn’t that confident in the other openers in T20. I know there’s D’Arcy Short, but I just thought Usman Khawaja was too good a player not to have involved, so that’s why he’s at the top of the order in Tests. Steven Smith in the middle is probably more effective in Test cricket, although very effective in T20s as well, and then Mitchell Starc is a tough one as well. His ability in white-ball cricket, particularly with the new ball and at the death in T20s, is just so good. I felt I could cover him in the Test team with the likes of James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins – more sort of Test specialists. It wasn’t easy, but two pretty good teams, I reckon, and hard to beat.Getty ImagesBrad Hodge: I thought Warner was irreplaceable in the Test side given his record opening the batting and averaging 50 is substantial, even though he has an unreal T20 record. I felt you could still replace him – you might not get the same output, but you’ll get something close to it with Marcus Stoinis or Chris Lynn up the top. If you took him out of the Test side, I think Australia are completely vulnerable to the new ball. Khawaja, I didn’t put him in just because he’s been dropped, and Nic Maddinson has scored a pile of runs in the last two years of Shield cricket and deserves a chance. With Stoinis and Moises Henriques, I went for more experience – taking Smith out of that XI along with Warner – ahead of Short and Mitchell Marsh.MSK Prasad, Kiran More and Ajit Agarkar each picked a Test and T20I team for India here. And Ian Bell, Mark Butcher and Graeme Swann picked XIs for England here

Frank Chester lost an arm and a playing career but found fame as an official

Paul Edwards19-May-2020In the pre-avian era (that is before Dickie Bird) sales of far outnumbered those of autobiographies that actually described what it was like to stand in Test matches. To an extent this was a tribute to the success of the famous instructional book that was first published in 1957 without Smith’s name in its title, yet quickly grew in both length and popularity. But the absence of umpires’ personal tales also reflected the status of officials in first-class cricket. Of course they were essential but the game was not about them; rather like children in well-ordered nurseries they were better seen than heard.This was perfectly understandable; but as subsequent histories have shown it also risked neglecting an important strand of the game’s social history. And had not Frank Chester written in 1956 we would not now have the reflections in retirement of the man who, in the words of cricket historian RL Arrowsmith, “set new standards and raised the whole conception of what an umpire should be.”ALSO READ: Odd Men in – Stan McCabeImmediately after the Second World War the majority of those professionally involved in English cricket shared Arrowsmith’s view. Tourists, too, had benefitted from Chester’s acute discernment. In the 1938 Trent Bridge Test, he judged that Donald Bradman was caught at the wicket by Les Ames off Gloucestershire’s Reg Sinfield. As it happened, it was one of only two wickets offspinner Sinfield took in his single England appearance. But Chester’s decision also had an impact on Bradman, who described it as the cleverest ever made against him. And there was no sly criticism lurking within that complement. Rather, it was a salute from the best batsman in the world to the official he regarded as the finest umpire he ever encountered. Nearly 12 years later Bradman recalled the incident with characteristic precision:”The ball turned from the off, very faintly touched the inside edge of the bat, then hit my pad, went over the stumps and was caught by Ames. Whilst all this was happening amidst a jumble of feet, pads and bat, I slightly overbalanced and Ames whipped the bails off for a possible stumping. There was an instant appeal to the square-leg umpire, who gave me not out, whereupon Ames appealed to Chester at the bowler’s end, and very calmly, as though it was obvious to all, Chester simply said, ‘Out, caught,’ and turned his back on the scene.”Chester was only 43 years old when he sent Bradman on his way quite late on the second evening of that game. Had things turned out differently it is not absurd to think he might have been playing, albeit enjoying a swansong, in that Ashes series. A quarter of a century earlier Chester’s three Championship centuries and 44 wickets for Worcestershire had brought him praise from WG Grace and a tribute in . “Having begun so well, Chester should continue to improve, and it seems only reasonable to expect that when he has filled out and gained more strength he will be an England cricketer,” said the Almanack. Chester was 18 years old and everyone at New Road called him “Nipper”; 12 months earlier he had been awarded his Worcestershire cap. He had wanted to be a cricketer since his childhood in Bushey. “My future seemed stocked with happiness,” he reflected.In 1914 Chester made his career-best 178 not out against Essex at New Road but a few months later he joined the 22nd Division of the Royal Field Artillery and was soon packed off to join the general madness in France. Having survived the second battle of Loos, he was sent to Salonika, where he was wounded in the right arm by a piece of shrapnel. Gangrene set in and the arm was amputated. Had penicillin been available, Chester’s career as a professional cricketer might have been saved.”When the bitter truth had penetrated my numb brain in the hospital ward in Salonika, I wondered whether life was worth living,” he wrote. “My case was psychological as well as physical, for nothing could restore my ability to follow the only trade I knew and loved.”The initial shock was as much as I could bear… My young heart was bursting with the desire to resume where I had left off but on the bitter battlegrounds overseas I met disaster… To adjust myself physically to new employment was not the only necessity; somehow I had to submerge the mental anguish of not being able to play the game which had been my life.”

I realised it was essential for an umpire to concentrate as much as any batsman, that his job was specialised and required the maximum efficiency of all faculties… I would set myself only the highest standardsFrank Chester

Chester first umpired a match at The Oval on August 5, 1918. It had taken some persuasion to get him to Kennington and he was wearing a white coat over his hospital blues. The game was nothing more than a one-day single-innings match between an England XI and the Dominions, but Jack Hobbs, Frank Woolley and Charlie Macartney were all playing. The young umpire found his duties fairly congenial and he was moved to be back among cricketers again. It was the only world he knew. “Take it up seriously, Chester,” Pelham Warner said. “One day you’ll make a fine umpire.”It would be nearly four years before Warner was proved right. In 1919 Chester just about survived on his small pension. His marriage and the birth of a son then made the need for proper employment all the more pressing. In he revealed without explanation that but for the death of his father he would have become a poultry farmer. Instead he was accepted on to the first-class umpires’ list for 1922.Chester was 27 when he made his first-class debut as an umpire in the match between Essex and Somerset at Leyton. Almost all his colleagues on the list were over 50 and had begun wearing white coats when their services in cream flannels were no longer required. “He regarded it not as a retirement job, but as his life’s work and applied to it a shrewd brain and a forceful character,” Arrowsmith wrote. But Chester’s character was to be tested. His account of life as a rookie umpire surrounded by time-served former professionals reveals yet again the extent to which inter-war cricket was saturated by status and deference.Although complemented on his umpiring by JWHT Douglas and John Daniell, the captains in that game at Leyton, he gave out two other skippers on the first day of a game later that season. (Chester is not specific about the match in question but research suggests it may well have been the Roses match at Old Trafford.) The reaction of his partner made it clear that for some umpires unwritten rules had more power than printed laws:”As we walked off the field my colleague said to me, ‘Boy, you won’t last long as an umpire.’
“‘Why not?’ I demanded in great concern.
“‘Because,’ came the amazing reply, ‘if you give skippers out, you sign your own death-warrant.’
“Now this was a slant on the game which was entirely new to me and I urged my fellow umpire to tell me what happened when he had to deal with a sound appeal against a captain. He disappeared into the pavilion without answering, so I came to my own conclusion.”There were other tough lessons. For example any sense of solidarity that existed between umpires in that era plainly did not extend to a young novice who was rapidly proving himself fitter, more alert and sharper than almost all his colleagues:”Whereas at the start of my playing career I received nothing but the wisest counsel and kindest consideration from the old professionals, I was favoured with little, if any, advice from the old umpires. They criticised my concentration and complained that I was taking the game too seriously. What rot! Even as a player I realised it was essential for an umpire to concentrate as much as any batsman, that his job was specialised and required the maximum efficiency of all faculties. I made it plain that I would set myself only the highest standards.”Umpire Frank Chester looks on as Fred Trueman bowls•Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesCounty cricketers, on the other hand, warmed to Chester. This was partly, perhaps, because he was a former colleague, but more likely because he plainly knew what he was doing. Just over two years after his first-class debut he was standing in the first of what were to be 48 Tests. All these games were played in England, of course, but they included some of the greatest encounters in Anglo-Australian sporting history: Percy Chapman’s team winning the Ashes in 1926; Bradman’s 254 at Lord’s in ’30; Hedley Verity’s 15 wickets at Lord’s in ’34; Stan McCabe’s 232 at Trent Bridge and Len Hutton’s 364 at The Oval, both in ’38; Australia chasing down 404 at Leeds in ’48; Trevor Bailey batting 262 minutes for 38 and then bowling down the leg side to secure the draw at Leeds in ’53.Cricket matches as vintages…and Chester tasted them all. Only that last encounter had little bouquet but by then the pain from a stomach ulcer was impairing his judgement and making him far less tolerant of what he saw as histrionic appealing. “Nor were the Australians satisfied with the umpiring of Frank Chester, for so long the greatest of his kind but now in such poor health that he should not have been allowed to stand,” wrote EW Swanton of the umpire’s single appearance in his last Ashes series.Yet Chester was only 58 in 1953; in other words he was at the age when some of his contemporaries in the 1920s were just getting used to their white coats. For most of the previous three decades he had established new measures of excellence by which umpiring was to be judged. He did so partly because he saw the job as a profession rather than a means of making a few bob when the main business of one’s life was done. One wonders whether anyone before Chester had watched a game of cricket with greater intensity.”Sometimes you might say he was over-zealous and rhetorical,” wrote Neville Cardus, who was not averse to a drop of zeal and rhetoric himself. “He would give an lbw decision with his finger pointing vehemently down the pitch, as though detecting the batsman in some really criminal practice, and denouncing and exposing him on the spot.”It was, Chester might have argued, the best way he knew of doing his work. But he also knew it didn’t make up for Salonika.”There were often times when umpiring was anything but true enjoyment,” he wrote. “This was for a variety of reasons, among them the irritating conduct of the players, the poor remuneration between the wars for such long, intense hours, and the fact that it was always to me a poor substitute for the joys of playing.”When the Second World War broke out, Chester grew vegetables to make a little cash and umpired for the London Counties team. His fee for each of those games was £1. Only when his 1948 testimonial raised £3171 (plus nine shillings and five pence) did he know any measure of financial security. Before long, though, the game was to lose a little of its attraction for him. He saw no reason for the gesticulations of the 1948 Australians and sometimes gave his opinion on what he saw as ignorant appeals. By the mid-1950s it was time to go.Some might wonder what Chester would make of modern umpiring. It is little like asking whether Neville Chamberlain would have gone on Twitter. Even in the late 20th century the job of officials was changing. “I couldn’t see why I should stand there and have players looking at me as if I were a leper,” Tom Brooks said when he retired in the middle of the 1978-79 Ashes series. A few months later Cec Pepper also saw what was coming and stepped down. “Umpiring at the top now is full of comedians and gimmicks,” said Pepper, a notoriously flatulent official who was wont to ask non-striking batsmen if they wouldn’t mind kicking his farts to the boundary.Yet all umpires today owe something to the bloke from Bushey who used to put on a white coat over his civvies and umpire with his trilby at the slightly rakish angle favoured by National Hunt trainers. Occasionally his false arm might remind him of Salonika and the life he had been denied. But then he would crouch down again and watch Verity bowling to Bradman. Odd Men In

Also, have CSK found their best combination? And why Jordan over Mujeeb for Kings XI?

Karthik Krishnaswamy04-Oct-20202:11

Could Rahul have paced his innings better?

Did KL Rahul score too slowly?The scorecard tells the story clearly enough. KL Rahul made 63 off 52 balls, scoring at 7.26 runs per over, while the other Kings XI Punjab batsmen made a combined 111 off 68, at 9.79. The Chennai Super Kings chased down their target of 179 with all ten wickets in hand and 14 balls to spare. Rahul’s innings clearly had a significant impact on the result.There is quite a debate around the anchor role in T20 cricket, and while most teams play at least one such batsman, there were times during Rahul’s innings when he seemed to be scoring far too slowly even for someone playing that role. At the end of the 14th over, for instance, he was batting on 46 off 44 balls.This has been a consistent approach from Rahul through this season. While his overall strike rate is a healthy 141.78, his strike rate over the first 30 balls of his innings is only 116.41. He’s capable of destroying attacks if he stays in long enough – he smashed 42 off the last nine balls of his innings against the Royal Challengers Bangalore to finish with an unbeaten 132 off 69 – but there’s always the risk that he could be dismissed before the final flourish.Getty ImagesThis is what happened against the Rajasthan Royals, against whom he made 69 off 54, and it happened again today, when he was caught behind off Shardul Thakur in the 18th over of the Kings XI’s innings. And the late assault against the Royal Challengers wouldn’t have happened if Virat Kohli hadn’t dropped two catches off him.As such, it seems a risky strategy – if it’s indeed what the team wants – if the Kings XI want Rahul to bat through their innings at a lower tempo than he’s capable of achieving, just to ensure there are wickets in hand later on. In T20, wickets in hand can simply mean wasted resources: you don’t want that with the likes of Nicholas Pooran and Glenn Maxwell in your side.Why did Kings XI go back to Chris Jordan, and not pick Mujeeb Ur Rahman?The Kings XI’s death-bowling issues have been widely documented and debated, and there’s no readymade solution in their squad. Chris Jordan hadn’t featured since going for 56 – including 30 in his final over – against the Delhi Capitals, but the other options Kings XI had tried since then – fast bowlers Mohammed Shami and Sheldon Cottrell, the medium-pace of James Neesham, the offspin of K Gowtham – hadn’t worked either.Jordan has more experience at the death than all the other Kings XI bowlers, and has made some crucial interventions in that phase for England in particular. Going back to him was simply an admission from Kings XI that they were best off trusting the most tried-and-tested of the limited options at their disposal.One option Kings XI haven’t tried so far, however, is the Afghanistan mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Mujeeb can bowl at the death, but he’s best known for his tight spells in the powerplay, a phase in which Shami and Cottrell had performed excellently for Kings XI before this match. Bringing him in would have been an uneasy fit, and Mujeeb wouldn’t have brought Kings XI the lower-order hitting ability that Jordan possesses.Have the Super Kings found their ideal combination?It’s too early to say, and there will be some grumbles that the Super Kings haven’t found room for Imran Tahir, one of the best white-ball spinners in world cricket, but their line-up now looks to have more bases covered than it did at the start of the season, when a number of players were unavailable for various reasons.The return to form of Shane Watson is a huge plus, of course, but with Ambati Rayudu and Dwayne Bravo back in the side after recovering from injury, the middle order wears a healthier look too. And the Super Kings possibly bat deeper than any other side in the tournament, with allrounders Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran followed by three very capable lower-order contributors at 9, 10 and 11, in Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar and Piyush Chawla.What has Watson done to regain his touch?Watson has proven his doubters wrong multiple times in the past – most memorably with a century in the 2018 IPL final following a lean run through the tournament – but he’s 39 now and there are more doubters than ever.Like always, the Super Kings management trusted him to come good again, and he did just that. What changed between the first four matches of the season and this one?For one, he’s spent some time in the middle and shaken off the rustiness that nearly every player in this tournament has had to deal with, thanks to the prolonged Covid-19-induced pause in world cricket. But at the presentation ceremony, Watson revealed that he’d also made a technical adjustment leading up to this game, which allowed him to get his head over his front leg and achieve better weight-transfer through his shots.Watch the two boundaries he hit off Cottrell in the third over of the Super Kings chase, over wide mid-on and back over the bowler’s head. Both are perfect illustrations of Watson’s head position helping him hit through the line with power and precision.