The man wearing No. 50 for the Los Angeles Dodgers looks decidedly different this season.

Mookie Betts is in the midst of the most baffling season of his career, one that, to this point, defies explanation. The star shortstop is recording career lows across the board on offense despite playing in all but nine of L.A.'s games and is rating as a below-average hitter for the first time in his career. His struggles at the plate have led to some serious questions for the defending World Series champions.

With Betts looking like a shell of himself, the Dodgers have a big hole at the top of their lineup just as the season heads for the stretch. L.A. has a 4 1/2 game lead in the National League West, but their recent struggles have made a repeat championship look less likely. They need their star to hit like he's capable of doing.

Given what we’re used to seeing from the eight-time All-Star, his Statcast page is downright depressing. While his plate discipline rates have remained elite, his batted-ball metrics have sharply declined.

What follows is a look inside the numbers of Betts’s most challenging season to capture the wide-ranging nature of his travails.

3 — Home runs in the last 49 games for Betts. In that time he is slugging .307 with an OPS of .578.

91— Betts's wRC+ this season, the lowest of his career, meaning he’s been 9% worse than the average MLB hitter. It’s 49 points lower than his 2024 number (140), 74 lower than in 2023 (165), and 94 lower than his career-best of 185 in 2019.

.238 — Betts's batting average, the lowest of his career by 26 points, and 51 points lower than in 2024.

.146 — Betts’s batting average against breaking balls, down from .250 last season and .309 in 2023.

.309 — His on-base percentage, the lowest of Betts's career by 31 points, and 63 points lower than in 2024.

.370 — Slugging percentage, the lowest of Betts's career by 74 points. The previous low came during his rookie season in 2014. It's also 121 points lower than in 2024.

.679 — OPS, the lowest of his career, 184 points lower than in 2024 (.863) and 308 points lower than in 2023.

.317 — Expected weighted on base percentage, the lowest of Betts's career and 114 points lower than his career-best of .431 in 2018. It is also 39 points lower than in 2024.

.404 — Expected slugging percentage, the lowest of his career, 43 points lower than in 2024 and 202 points lower than his career-best in 2018.

5.5 — Betts's barrel percentage, which is 0.5 points lower than in 2024, but 6.9 points lower than in 2023, and 8.6 lower than his career-best (14.1) in 2018.

34.1 — His hard hit percentage, a career-low, 5.4 points worse than last season and 14.4 percent worse than 2023.

83.8 — His contact percentage, which measures the percentage of time he makes contact when swinging at pitches. This will shock you but it's the lowest of his career.

88.3 — Betts's average exit velocity, down 4.1 mph from his career-high of 92.4 in 2023. And, yes, a career-low.

68.8 — Betts’s bat speed, which ranks in only the 11th percentile of MLB. It’s also down 2.5 mph from 2023, when he ranked in the 38th percentile.

66.7% — The percentage of games the Dodgers won through April 14, when Betts’s OPS was .954.

56.5% — The percentage of games the Dodgers have won since April 15, during which Betts is slashing .226/.292/.338 for an OPS of .630. Los Angeles is still a good team without Betts at his best, but his performance could be the difference between a good and great Dodgers team.

270 million — Amount of dollars left on Betts's contract after this season, with seven years remaining. That total includes $115 million in deferred money he'll receive from 2033 through '44. His luxury tax hit will be $30.4 million annually.

Betts is an eight-time All-Star, a seven-time Silver Slugger, a three-time World Series champion and the 2018 American League MVP. He deserves more time to work out of this months-long slump. The Dodgers haven't suffered terribly even with him struggling and their typical wave of pitching injuries, as they still have a decent lead atop the NL West.

It's possible the move to shortstop has had an impact on Betts. He's 32 with a slight built at 5'10" and 180 pounds if you buy his measurements. The physical toll of playing short every day could be contributing to his struggles at the plate.

The Dodgers could move Betts back to the outfield—where he's a six-time Gold Glove winner—and take some of the daily wear off of him, but their lack of infield talent is an issue. Miguel Rojas, Hyeseong Kim and Tommy Edman aren't top-level replacements, and it's far easier to find a corner outfielder than an everyday shortstop.

It’s also possible one of baseball’s most consistent performers of the last decade is entering the next, less productive stage of his career. The decline in bat speed coinciding with reduced exit velocity especially backs up that concerning notion. Perhaps a change in approach is needed before the playoffs begin and the games really start to matter for the Dodgers.

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O Flamengo enfrentará o Millonarios, da Colômbia, na estreia da Libertadores. Um ponto de dificuldade para a equipe carioca seria a elevada altitude do local onde fica o estádio do time sul-americano. No entanto, a partida pode precisar ser realocada.

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➡️Com R$100, você pode faturar R$2000 na Lance! Betting com o futuro campeão da Libertadores 2024!

O motivo da possível troca de palco do jogo é o show da artista pop Karol G no El Campín, casa do Millonarios. A região do estádio conta com mais de 2.600 metros de altitude.

Ainda não há data oficial para a realização da estreia do Flamengo na Libertadores. Contudo, é certo que o jogo acontece entre os dias 2 e 4 de abril.

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A apresentação da cantora está marcada para 5 de abril. Porém, de acordo com informações da imprensa colombiana, a prefeitura de Bogotá possui acordo para que o estádio seja entregue à produção da artista a partir do dia primeiro do próximo mês.

➡️ Grupos da Libertadores 2024 são definidos; veja o resultado do sorteio

Ou seja, o Millonarios pode precisar mudar de casa. Segundo o jornal “El Tiempo”, o clube pretende manter a partida em seu estádio apesar do imbróglio.

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Caso a mudança aconteça e o Millonarios altere a partida para outra grande cidade, como Cáli (1.018 metros), Medellín (1.495 metros) ou Barranquilla (18 metros), o Flamengo se beneficiaria de reduções consideráveis de altitude.

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Manchester United have endured a phenomenal upturn in form over the last couple of weeks, as seen by their run of three Premier League victories in a row.

Ruben Amorim appears to be finally silencing the doubters, after being subject to countless barrages of criticism from supporters and pundits across the country.

However, his work in the transfer window is largely to thank, with his additions from the recent summer transfer window already having an immediate impact at Old Trafford.

Bryan Mbeumo arrived in a £71m deal from Brentford and has already taken the role as the Red Devils’ main talisman, as seen by his tally of five goals in his first nine league outings.

Despite the additions within the final third, Amorim and the hierarchy are still hunting for a new central midfielder to take the first-team squad to the next level in the near future.

Man Utd’s hunt for a new midfielder in January

Over the last couple of months, United have been hugely touted with a winter move for Nottingham Forest star Elliot Anderson, after his phenomenal start to the 2025/26 season.

The 22-year-old has started all nine Premier League games to date, resulting in his maiden England call-up to Thomas Tuchel’s squad – subsequently cementing his place as a regular starter.

However, any deal could prove to be a somewhat expensive one, with Sean Dyche’s side currently demanding a fee in the region of £100m for his signature.

He’s not the English midfielder currently in their sights, with Borussia Dortmund star Jobe Bellingham another target for the Red Devils, according to one Spanish outlet.

They have reported that Amorim’s side are preparing a €50m (£42m) offer for the 20-year-old despite only joining the Bundesliga outfit back in the recent summer transfer window.

It also states that the player is growing frustrated with his lack of minutes, having only started two league outings in 2025/26 and featured for a total of 208 minutes.

Why United’s £42m target would be the perfect Casemiro replacement

Many United fans expected Casemiro’s minutes at United to be extremely limited this season after struggling to impress, some Amorim took the reins back in November last year.

The Brazilian, who’s now 33, has even been called into question by numerous pundits over the last few years, many of whom have claimed he’s no longer at the level required for the Premier League.

Jamie Carragher infamously said that ‘the football has left him’ and recommended that the former Real Madrid star move to Saudi Arabia or America to end his career.

However, he’s been a key component of Amorim’s side this campaign, subsequently featuring in eight of the nine league outings – even scoring twice and notching an assist.

Casemiro’s latest goal came in the recent triumph over Brighton and Hove Albion, stepping up to the plate when the manager and team needed him most.

Despite his recent form at Old Trafford, there’s little denying he’s entering the final years of his career at the top level, with his current deal at the Red Devils set to expire in the summer of 2026.

The supporters shouldn’t worry about a potential departure, especially if the rumours around a move for Bellingham come to fruition in the winter or summer transfer window.

Whilst the Englishman has struggled for action in the current season, he’s still managed to produce numerous incredible stats that would see him be a monster hit with the fans in Manchester.

Bellingham, who’s been labelled “one of the best midfielders” by the Second Tier Podcast, has completed 88% of his attempted, whilst ranking in the 89th percentile for touches per 90.

Games played

8

Minutes played

208

Pass accuracy

88%

Touches per 90

84.8

Tackles made

2.2

Duels won

6.5

Aerials won

71%

Fouls won

1.7

Such figures highlight his incredible ability with the balm at his feet, with such a skillset adding yet another talented technician to the heart of Amorim’s first-team squad.

Out of possession, the youngster has been just as impressive, making 2.2 tackles per 90 to date, whilst also winning 6.5 duels per 90 – highlighting his workmanlike style.

Other tallies, such as a 71% aerial duel success rate and 1.7 fouls won per 90, showcase his all-round ability, which has made him a constant nuisance to countless opponents.

£42m may seem a hefty sum of money for the Dortmund star, but it certainly could prove to be a fantastic piece of business if he reaches his full potential.

At just 20, he has bags of time to develop further, whilst also offering the club a long-term replacement for the experienced Casemiro into 2026/27 and beyond.

Not Mbeumo: Man Utd's "world-class" star is now becoming Amorim's new Bruno

Manchester United have hit the jackpot on one star who could reach Bruno Fernandes’ level.

1 ByEthan Lamb Oct 28, 2025

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank is a massive admirer of one Premier League star, and the Lilywhites can see themselves securing a deal for him next year.

Tottenham's rumoured transfer plans for January amid £100m boost

The Lewis family made a statement of intent last week, with Spurs’ ownership pumping £100 million of new capital into the club via ENIC.

On the back of this, it is reported that technical director Johan Lange, CEO Vinai Venkatesham and the new-look Lilywhites boardroom could be gearing up for an active January, and this £100m windfall is just the first of ENIC’s cash injections.

The club’s rumoured transfer plans suggest a focus on bolstering both their attacking options and defensive depth, with several high-profile names linked to a potential move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

One of the standout targets is reportedly a proven goalscorer who can provide the clinical finishing Spurs have often lacked.

Strikers like Dušan Vlahović have been frequently mentioned in the media, with the Serbian’s fairly impressive Serie A goal record — having scored at least 14 goals per season since his breakout campaign in 2020/2021 — making him an attractive option to lead Tottenham’s frontline.

Doubts currently surround Dominic Solanke’s reliability when it comes to fitness and the long-term future of Richarlison, so a new number nine could well be one to watch.

Meanwhile, defensively, Spurs may look to add depth to cope with the physical demands of the Premier League and compete on four fronts.

The winter window could provide an opportunity to bring in experienced defenders who can cover multiple positions, with their over-reliance on star centre-back duo Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero a real cause for concern.

Ange Postecoglou suffered when either one of the pair were unavailable for large periods last season, and despite bringing in Kevin Danso earlier this year, it is believed that Spurs chiefs are considering another central defender signing in January.

The Lewis family’s fresh backing with new funds provides Spurs with the financial muscle to pursue top targets when the window reopens, and their investments could be seen as crucial steps in Tottenham’s long-term strategy to close the gap on England’s elite.

One of their first orders of business could be the permanent signing of midfielder Joao Palhinha, who’s been a revelation since joining Frank’s side on an initial loan from Bayern Munich in the summer.

Tottenham see themselves triggering Joao Palhinha buy option

The former Fulham star’s imperiousness in the engine room has seriously impressed both on-lookers and Frank, with Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg reporting that the noise surrounding Palhinha’s potential indefinite stay is “positive” right now.

The Portugal international’s loan deal includes an option to buy worth up to £26 million, and Tottenham can genuinely see themselves triggering Palhinha’s clause as things stand.

The 30-year-old has been an outstanding addition for Frank, quickly becoming a vital presence in midfield and forming a solid partnership with Rodrigo Bentancur.

His impact was felt almost immediately, with the ex-Sporting CP star’s combative style and energy providing Spurs with the steel and stability they desperately needed.

One of Palhinha’s standout performances came away to Man City, where he showcased his ability to break up play and disrupt one of the league’s most potent attacks. He got on the scoresheet too, as Spurs secured an impressive three points at Eastlands.

Palhinha’s remarkable overhead kick against Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup was also a highlight-reel moment, but perhaps his most memorable contribution thus far was the dramatic last-minute equaliser against Wolves.

His sensational side-footed finish into the bottom corner earned Frank’s men a vital 1-1 draw and kept their early-season momentum alive, with Spurs fans already hoping to see him stay beyond 25/26.

أعلن حسين عبد اللطيف، المدير الفني لمنتخب مصر مواليد 2009، القائمة النهائية للمعسكر المقرر إقامته خلال شهر ديسمبر، ضمن برنامج إعداد المنتخب للفترة المقبلة.

وشهدت القائمة انضمام المهاجم ياسين رضوان لاعب سيركل بروج البلجيكي، بعد تنسيق بين لجنة المحترفين بالاتحاد المصري لكرة القدم والجهاز الفني للمنتخب.

طالع.. مدرب منتخب مصر: حمزة عبد الكريم أفضل من ثنائي الأهلي.. ويوضح تفاصيل عرض برشلونة

ويملك اللاعب عدة جنسيات وهي الفرنسية والبلجيكية والمغربية إلى جانب الجنسية المصرية، حيث يأتي ضمه ضمن خطة الاتحاد لاستقطاب المواهب المصرية الناشطة في الدوريات الأوروبية.

ويأمل الجهاز الفني لمنتخب مصر للناشئين أن يساهم معسكر ديسمبر في تجهيز اللاعبين بالشكل الأمثل، وبناء قاعدة قوية للمنتخب استعدادًا للاستحقاقات المقبلة. قائمة منتخب مصر مواليد 2009

حراسة المرمي: مالك عمرو – محمد عبيد – آسر عبده – مصطفى تيتو – طارق عاشور – أحمد حمادة.

خط الدفاع: محمد السيد الديزل – أدم يوسف – سيف الدين تامر – عبد الله عمرو – عبد الله الزناتي – عادل علاء – يحيي طارق – أحمد الشرايدي.

خط الوسط: عمر عبد الرحيم – سيف كريم – يحيي شيتوس – أحمد صفوت – ياسين موسى – أحمد رجب غالي – دانيال تامر – أحمد بشير – عبد القادر حمادة – زياد سعودي– محمد جمال – عمر فودة.

خط الهجوم: مازن وائل – أدهم حسيب – ياسين رضوان- خالد مختار.

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O Fluminense anunciou nesta terça-feira (7) a contratação de Thiago Silva, que retorna ao clube carioca após 16 temporadas. Cria de Xerém, o zagueiro assinou contrato válido até julho de 2026 e vestirá a icônica camisa 3.

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➡️ A boa do Lance! Betting: vamos dobrar seu primeiro depósito, até R$200! Basta abrir sua conta e tá na mão!

O jogador, que atualmente defende do Chelsea, da Inglaterra, poderá atuar pela equipe de Fernando Diniz a partir do dia 10 de julho, quando a janela de transferências internacionais será aberta. Com isso, o zagueiro estará à disposição da comissão técnica para as oitavas da Copa do Brasil e Libertadores – caso o Fluminense consiga a classificação.

Após disputar três temporadas pela equipe profissional do Fluminense (2006 a 2008), Thiago Silva se transferiu para o futebol europeu, onde se tornou ídolo do Milan, PSG e Chelsea. Pela Seleção Brasileira, disputou quatro Copas do Mundo e duas Olimpíadas.

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A notícia do retorno do zagueiro movimentou as redes sociais. Emocionados, torcedores do Fluminense comemoraram a contratação e elegeram Thiago Silva como “o maior zagueiro do mundo”. Confira a seguir alguns comentários.

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The Blue Jays were defeated Wednesday by the Red Sox in an AL East rivalry clash, and the last out was certainly one the team will be hoping to forget.

Catcher Alejandro Kirk hit a line drive into right field and began making his way to first base. He certainly didn't run with too much urgency, as despite the ball reaching the outfield, he was thrown out by Wilyer Abreu at first base.

Addison Barger, who was the runner on first base, looked on in disbelief after his teammate was thrown out at first base to end the game, clearly displeased with what had transpired.

Toronto had been held off the scoresheet until the ninth inning when Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a solo shot to get them on the board. A win was unlikely given the six-run deficit, but Kirk getting thrown at first base was certainly an unceremonious way to end the game.

With the Blue Jays losing and the Yankees beating the White Sox, the teams are now tied atop the AL East at 90-68. Boston meanwhile, is three games back in the division with four to play, but is inching closer to clinching a wild card spot.

He shouldn’t have been out on the park at all, but Southee ended up striking the most decisive blow for New Zealand

Karthik Krishnaswamy08-Feb-2020Keep the ball away from his off stump. Stay in that wide channel: sixth stump in name, more like tenth in reality. Make him long to feel bat on ball. Move him across his stumps. Then bowl one at the stumps, with a bit of inward movement. And hope he’s having a slightly off day.Teams try this plan all the time against Virat Kohli. It works sometimes, and doesn’t at other times, but when it does, it’s often memorable: think back to Vernon Philander at Newlands, or Trent Boult at Old Trafford.New Zealand didn’t have Boult on Saturday. Or Matt Henry. Or Lockie Ferguson. All three members of their first-choice ODI pace attack were out injured.The man leading their attack in their stead would have been out too, if New Zealand had any sort of bench left over in the midst of their injury crisis. Illness should have ruled him out, but Mitchell Santner was a few degrees ill-er, and New Zealand could only afford to have one of them sit out. By the end of this day, they would have Luke Ronchi, their assistant coach, come out as substitute fielder.And so we came to the sight of Tim Southee, ball in hand, ghostly expression on face, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but Eden Park.Illness aside, Southee came into this game under a certain amount of pressure – from New Zealand’s fans, certainly, if not from his team management. He had gone for 85 in his 10 overs in the first ODI, spraying the ball around and looking nothing like his best self. Before that, he had bowled two losing Super Overs in consecutive T20Is.Southee didn’t begin particularly well on Saturday evening. He was getting the ball to swing away from the right-handers under the lights, but every so often he was offering up a freebie. Short and wide at the end of his first over, full and wide midway through his second, and Prithvi Shaw slapped both to the off-side boundary.But a well-defined plan can often snap a bowler’s radar back into place, and Southee discovered this when Kohli walked in, after Hamish Bennett had sent back Mayank Agarwal at the other end.Southee had seven fielders on the off side – including, at one point, three slips and a gully – and only mid-on and fine leg on the leg side. To execute the Kohli plan, he would have to be precise with his line and length.And Southee, grimacing between deliveries, clutching his hip every now and then, walking back to his mark pale-faced, was just that. The swing, perhaps unusually for white-ball cricket, was persisting into his third over. Kohli reached out for an outswinger and missed. He drove at the next one and sliced it squarer than intended, towards backward point rather than into the covers.

‘We came to the sight of Tim Southee, ball in hand, ghostly expression on face, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but Eden Park – almost by default.’

At the other end, making his debut, Kyle Jamieson had bowled Prithvi Shaw with an inducker. Now he nearly had Kohli caught-and-bowled, the reflex chance refusing to stick in his left hand. Then he teased Kohli with more wide-of-off-stump bowling. Kohli left two balls alone, and pushed or jabbed the rest into the off side.When Kohli came back on strike to Southee, he moved down the track and across his stumps, to get closer to the pitch of the ball and manufacture a double into the vacant square-leg region. Southee responded with the widest outswinger of his spell, wide enough to make the umpire signal wide.Kohli, continuing to shimmy out of his crease, jabbed the next two balls into the off side, and left the last ball alone.After eight overs, India were 47 for 2 chasing 274. Kohli had negotiated this sort of situation numerous times, but on 8 off 18 without a boundary, he was looking just a touch edgy, just a touch too keen to assert himself. Or this could simply be hindsight arranging events into an easily recognisable shape.Either way, Southee bowled three more balls to Kohli on Saturday evening, and two of them – either side of a single to get off strike – were offcutters angled into the stumps. Kohli missed both of them.It’s rare for Kohli to miss two incoming balls in a row, but that’s what happened at Eden Park. Southee, with a bit of help from Jamieson, had caused a little kink to appear in Kohli’s technique. His eagerness to walk across his stumps was causing his head to fall over ever so slightly, and that, combined with the big gap at midwicket, was causing him to play around his front pad and across the line of the ball. At his best, Kohli would have hit both balls towards mid-on, with a straight bat.On this day, both balls beat his inside edge. The first could have been lbw had the umpire thought so. The second, fuller, seam scrambled in the air, left no doubt in anyone’s mind, brushing the front pad before crashing into middle and leg stumps.This was the ninth time Southee had dismissed Kohli in all international cricket. No other bowler has dismissed him as many times. The moment might have given way to an explosive celebration on another day, but Southee, still under the weather, barely managed a smile as he exchanged weak high-tens with his team-mates.He somehow got through another over, to end with first-spell figures of 6-0-33-1. That could have been that, given his state, but he came back in the 19th over for another spell, New Zealand deciding to bowl him out early and allow him to go off the field for good.This four-over spell was perhaps even better than the first one. The length was a little shorter in deference to the ball’s age – though the swing hadn’t entirely gone away – and to the short straight boundaries, and cross-seam deliveries were interspersed among seam-up balls that continued to wobble this way and that. Kedar Jadhav, batting on 9 off 32, looked to drive one that wasn’t quite pitched full enough, and spooned a catch to cover.Ravindra Jadeja, new to the crease, struggled with the angle across him and the movement from just short of a length. There was a poke and a miss, a couple of nervy jabs into the off side, a wild yahoo after jumping out of the crease, and an educated slash that flew over the slips for four.And then, having bowled 10 out of the first 25 overs of India’s innings, having taken two out of five wickets, Southee dragged himself off the field, all expression drained from his face as his team-mates’ pats rained on his back.

This and other vital issues are tackled in this month’s Briefing

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Jun-2020The Briefing Do you remember what cricket was like? The smell of fresh-mown leather, the sound of willow hitting stumps, fast bowlers delivering devastating googlies, batsmen shining their bats vigorously on their groins. That was the basic gist, right? It’s been a while.The route forward
As cricket plots its short-term future, several proposals for how the game can be made viable in the time of coronavirus have been put forward. Many, including the ICC’s cricket committee, have recommended not using saliva to shine balls, with some suggesting an artificial substance should be allowed for that purpose. The West Indies tour of England could go ahead in some form, though there will not be any spectators in attendance, though it is possible Dominic Cummings is due another eye test by then.What else could change? Socially distant bum pats? Close fielders unnerving batsmen with fake coughs, instead of sledges? Spraying hand sanitiser instead of champagne at trophy presentations?And if there are no fans in the stands for the foreseeable future, can it really be a legitimate India v Australia Test series without thousands yelling “Kohli is a w***er” at the SCG? Plus, just who will be around for Ben Stokes to call a “f**king four-eyed t**t”? What kind of future is that?Shane Warne has no problems with Steve Waugh
As there has been very little cricket actually played in the past month, we’ve been trawling social media for theatrics, but one place you will absolutely not find any drama is Warne’s Twitter feed. Just read this tweet about Steve Waugh, in which Warne insists he’s “said 1000 times I do not hate S Waugh at all” before two sentences later going on to say “Steve was easily the most selfish cricketer that I ever played with.” Obviously, there can be no resentment in this relationship. Even though Warne tweeted twice more last month throwing shade at Waugh – specifically about his lopsided run-out record – the man has just spoken out in the clearest terms. Some of his best friends are Steve Waugh. Let it go. It’s nothing. Guys!Rising to the challenge
Wimpy cricketers may all be holed up at home, but the game’s true heroes picked up their briefcases, sucked in their paunches, buttoned up their suits, and got stuck in to the vitally important task of governing the game. A big ICC directors’ meeting was held last week, and with the game in such peril, what better time for cricket’s thought leaders to show real leadership? What exactly does a road map for international cricket starting up again look like? Can biosecure environments actually make tours possible? And what can we do about this hugely anticipated T20 World Cup, which is supposed to start in less than five months? These are all major challenges requiring urgent address. But instead of discussing any of this in depth, the directors just talked at length about an information breach, presumably to the press, and deferred the real meeting to June 10.Further adventures in administrative boldness
Sri Lanka Cricket, meanwhile, insisted forcefully that Colombo needed a huge new 40,000-capacity stadium in order to host future ICC tournaments, for which Sri Lanka had not yet won hosting rights, making a show of inaugurating the project alongside a government minister. Less than a week later, when it was clear public opinion was against the project, the government rowed back on their commitment to providing land for the stadium, and SLC immediately switched to pretending it found the whole idea ludicrous to begin with. “What fifth stadium? What’s wrong with the four we have? And in the middle of a pandemic? Whose dumb idea was this?”Cricket Australia fam
As one of the wealthiest cricket boards on the planet, Cricket Australia is better placed than most to weather the financial storm that the pandemic has wrought. Which is why, in these harrowing times, the board has committed to stick fearlessly by its executives, making an inspiring commitment to pay them 80% of their salaries while the board weathers this challenge. Almost everyone else at the board, meanwhile, gets knocked down to 20% of their previous pay, and now possibly faces redundancy.Next month on The Briefing:- “This is what I’ve been saying the entire bloody time!” Cameron Bancroft reacts to proposals that foreign substances should be used for ball management.- Sri Lanka Cricket revisits the new stadium project. Unless the government doesn’t want to. They don’t? Oh… okay… I mean… yeah, it’s a waste of money. Obviously. Always said that.- Warne’s non-hate for Waugh continues: “Look, I absolutely do not hold a grudge. I just think it’s funny that for that Barbados Test in 1999…”Briefings

We find out by using a model that looks at how much the top batsmen and bowlers outperform the average player by

Himanish Ganjoo23-Oct-2020Virat Kohli averages 38.6 over 186 matches in the IPL (as of October 20, 2020), striking at 131, to go with a mountainous 50.8 average in T20 internationals. This frequently earns him a mention among the best T20 batsmen, according to many watchers of the game. It is no surprise, then, that a recent article examining Kohli’s anchor role, and questioning whether an anchor is needed at all in modern T20, was met with widespread uproar across the internet.Kohli does have almost unparalleled conventional stats, resulting from his strategy of knocking singles and doubles around before a final phase of risky hitting. This gets him high scores in some instances, but what of the times he cannot transition to that big-hitting stage of the knock? His slow approach leaves his team behind the ideal run rate. Kohli spends the first half of his innings minimising risk. If he gets out early, he has consumed deliveries and scored slowly, but he has not survived often enough to make up for it adequately. His net worth is a tug of war between how frequently he crosses the barrier, beyond which he starts scoring faster, and the slowness of his early innings.How can we gauge such a player’s gross impact over a whole season? Do his half-centuries and centuries cancel out the detriment he causes an innings when he gets out in his early phase? We can answer this using a contextual measure of runs, called the Runs Above Average (RAA). This quantifies how much the output of a batsman is better or worse compared to the average score in a given “situation”, which is defined by the innings phase, wickets lost before the ball is bowled, and ground.ALSO READ: Which current player is No. 2 among Test batsmen of all time when measured against the performances of the average player?Considering all IPL matches played since 2015, an average runs-per-ball score is calculated for each situation. For instance, the average runs scored per ball at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi in the powerplay with one wicket down in this period is 1.25. If a batsman hits a four in this situation, his RAA for that ball is 4 – 1.25 = 2.75. We can compute RAA for one innings, or a whole season, and it tells us the player’s contribution in comparison to an average player, had he played in the same situations.Looking at data from the IPL from 2015 onwards (until the KXIP vs DC match on the 20th of October), Kohli’s average RAA per innings by phase puts him in the “average” category before the death overs: -0.14 RAA in the powerplay, -0.41 in the middle overs, and 2.85 in the final four overs. He scores below the average batsman’s output in two out of three phases. He has a positive RAA at the death; how often that nullifies his below-par scoring early on can be quantified by his innings RAA. If this number is positive, he has made up for whatever he does early on, by making a net-positive contribution to the innings.Kohli’s mean innings RAA is 0.42, and he has a positive RAA in 44% of his innings. So despite scoring faster than most in the death overs, he does not enter that phase often enough to have a very high net-positive effect compared to the average batsman. In comparison, AB de Villiers has a positive contribution in 60% of his innings, and his mean RAA per innings is 5.8. The following plot shows Kohli’s runs against his RAA for all innings in the IPL since 2015. Many long innings have a negative RAA, which means that he wastes a large number of balls staying under the “average” expected scoring rate.Himanish GanjooHis season-wise RAA totals show his contributions over a whole season. Even in 2016, his bumper year, he scored only 40 runs over the average player in total. In the last two seasons, 2020 included, he has been a shade under average. His long innings do not make up for his sedate beginnings.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn comparison, here is the plot of runs vs RAA for Rishabh Pant. He too is slow at the start, but only two 20-plus run innings of his have a negative RAA. He does not cost his team runs if he gets a start, and most of his innings yield positive returns, accounting for context.Himanish GanjooThe average innings RAA (IRAA) tells us the typical innings-wise contribution of a batsman, and the average accumulated RAA value after facing ten balls in the innings (10RAA) tells us how quickly the batsman starts at the crease. Here is a plot of the two values for the 50 highest scorers in the IPL since 2015. Players with a 10RAA value of less than zero start slow: Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill are the “anchors” who make up this category. Shane Watson and Chris Gayle are notorious for starting slow (even if by powerplay standards), and MS Dhoni’s weakness against spin when he walks in is on display in his very low 10RAA score.Players who have a higher IRAA than 10RAA make up for their slow starts, but even among those, Dhoni, Gill and Pandey have a negative IRAA. Andre Russell, Pant, David Warner, de Villiers and Jos Buttler make up an elite cluster: they start in the positive and improve upon their contribution as the innings progresses. Interestingly, Sunil Narine loses relative value if he stays at the crease for longer: his 10RAA is very high, but his IRAA is lower.Himanish GanjooThe same metric can be used to tell how many runs a bowler concedes relative to the average bowler in a given situation. In a bowler’s case, a negative RAA is better, because it means he has saved runs compared to the expected rate. The following table lists the 15 players with the best average RAA values for bowlers, among those who have bowled 600 or more legal balls in the IPL since 2015. In Jofra Archer’s case, it effectively means that he concedes 5.39 runs fewer per innings than the “average” bowler would, bowling in the same situations.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe RAA does not consider the effects of preserving or losing wickets, because it seeks to quantify the player’s individual output in the context of the average player, and the ultimate currency of wins and losses is runs. Wickets affect team scoring in highly complex, non-linear ways that are beyond the scope of simple models.The RAA is useful to analyse a player’s career, or season, or a single innings. Can it be used to gauge a player’s contribution to a team’s winnings over a season? Can we calculate how much a player is worth in a team, relative to the average player? The Wins Above Average (WAA) metric does this, by effectively translating a team’s aggregate runs scored and conceded into win probability.ALSO READ: What is the template for a successful chase in the IPL?Using data of team performances over a season, a relationship can be formulated between the runs scored and conceded by a team and its win percentage. It must be noted that teams that chase and win score limited runs: they don’t need to score more than the target. To rectify this, the runs conceded and scored are adjusted in the case of chasing wins, where a margin of wickets and balls remaining is converted into the extra expected runs the winning team would have scored had they completed their innings. This ensures that all win margins are homogenised into units of runs scored, and a run tally that rewards teams for chasing wins can be calculated for every teamThe win percentage of a team in a season follows a “logistic” relationship with the ratio of the total runs scored to the total runs conceded*, which is represented by a curve shown in the following graph. Each dot represents one team in one year of the IPL since 2015. (As a sanity check, the curve shows us the logical result that a team that concedes as much as it scores should win 50% of the time, on average.)Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfo LtdHow is this useful in judging a player’s worth in terms of wins? We can replace a chosen player by an “average” player, by subtracting the chosen player’s RAA from his team’s run tally for bowling or batting. This replacement changes the team’s win percentage, in accordance with the relationship above. This difference in win percentage over a typical 14-match season is defined as the player’s WAA. Positive RAA values for batsmen, and negative ones for bowlers, correspond to positive WAA – these contributions are beneficial for their team results. This way, a player’s output in each season can be expressed in terms of their WAA, while accounting for the situations they have batted or bowled in. How many wins has a player contributed to in a 14-match season, over and above the average player’s contribution? The WAA depends not only on the player’s individual output, but also the quality of his team. A player in a weaker side has a higher WAA compared to another in a stronger team with the same RAA, because the former relatively contributes more to each win.Excluding the 2020 season, the best individual season for a batsman in the IPL is Pant’s 2018. He scored 684 runs, but his RAA was 168, which corresponded to 1.4 wins for his team. Pant, Warner and de Villiers feature repeatedly on the list of top batting seasons, all having at least one season with a WAA of 1 or more.ESPNcricinfo LtdAmong bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah has two campaigns at the top, with a WAA of 0.92 in his best season. He is followed by his Mumbai Indians team-mate Lasith Malinga, which shows why Mumbai have been generally successful over the past few editions of the league. Mustafizur Rahman comes fourth with his 2016 season, and it is no surprise that the Sunrisers Hyderabad emerged champions that year, with Warner’s season ranking fourth in the batting RAA table and Bhuvneshwar Kumar also featuring among the best efforts by bowling RAA. Narine, Archer and Rashid Khan make up the rest of the top ten.ESPNcricinfo LtdHere is the leader board for the current season, until October 20. Nicholas Pooran has been the most valuable batsman in a mostly lacklustre Kings XI campaign, his contribution being worth 1.37 games over the average player. Shikhar Dhawan’s rich vein of attacking form puts him in second place. KL Rahul, despite being the top run scorer, has a season RAA of just 5.8 because of his largely sedate approach, while Virat Kohli is at -2.9. Aaron Finch (-0.37), Dhoni (-0.26) and Kedar Jadhav (-0.25) have the worst season WAAs.ESPNcricinfo LtdAmong the bowlers, Rashid Khan and Archer are on top. Delhi’s Axar Patel, along with pace duo Anrich Nortje and Rabada are vital instruments in their roaring campaign, which is reflected in their places on the table. Chris Morris, the go-to death bowler for RCB this season has saved 40 runs over the season compared to an average bowler, given that he bowls in the toughest phase. Bumrah, after a cold start, has come back to his dependable ways. Surprisingly, Russell finds a place in the top ten with his crucial death bowling for KKR.ESPNcricinfo LtdMore complex methods that incorporate wicket-taking and wicket-saving ability are natural extensions to this model, but this serves as a first stepping stone to comparing player performances with the typical player in the league, contextualising their run outputs, and reading them in the language of wins for their team.* The log odds of victory taking all non-tied matches with results were fit to the ratio of the adjusted runs scored and conceded. The model parameters were significant at the 99% significance level, with an R2 of 0.59