Thread:
Happy Birthday @therealkapildev
Kapil Dev was always present, in every cricket-crazy consciousness of India of my boyhood

#onthisday #cricket

The Premier League schedule can just about handle the games that have been postponed... so far.

But the league is on the brink of a fixture crisis, and the failure to entertaining agreeing curtailment / abandonment options may come back and bite them hard.

From the initial fixture build there were three Premier Lague catchup dates built in - the midweeks of March 2, April 20 and May 19.

However, these placeholders were primarily for teams which reached the Carabao Cup final and/or the FA Cup final.

Added to that, even without COVID postponements, if a PL team were to get the semis of the Champions League or Europa League and the final of both domestic cups there aren't enough spare midweeks to fit those games in.

Looking at you, Man City, Man United and Tottenham.

Now it looks like we have the added complication of Tottenham v Fulham being postponed.

If at least one of those clubs remains in the FA Cup through to Round 5, the game can only be played on March 2.

But it could get even more complicated.

If Tottenham reach the Carabao Cup final, they also have to rearrange (coincidentally) Fulham v Tottenham which is due to be played April 24.

If Spurs go far in the UEL and to the FA Cup final, they will have nowhere to play TWO matches before the season deadline of May 23.

1/? A thread...Why am I right about certain aspects of strategy, even understanding it better than Nicklaus? Far too often players of past generations hold their playing background out as an appeal to their authority. I did not play on the PGA Tour, why?

2/? I didn't specialize in golf until high school which left my true playing experience far behind my peers. I then transferred schools after my freshmen yr & had to sit out 1.5 yrs. I then played spring my 3rd yr & fall my 4th b4 breaking my leg in Feb my redshirt jr yr

3/? After breaking my leg I didn't touch my clubs for almost 18 months. I got a job in real estate in Dallas after graduating & played golf on my bday (July 4) at Gleneagles in Plano & shot 68. I stewed all night watching fireworks & dreamt of professional golf.

4/? The right blend of emotion from fireworks w/friends, a great round of golf that day, & the perfect amt of beers & I decided I was going to quit & play professional golf. I won my 1st mini tour event six weeks later with 67-68. Following yr I traveled the Hooters Tour w/...

5/? Chad Campbell & Chris Riley & knew I had the physical skills they did but I only won twice on that Tour while Chad won damn near every week. I attributed it to my being an over the top hothead. Truly world class basket case. This is b/c I was a perfectionist & couldn't...

If you are a 90s kid, you’ve seen everything in Indian cricket. Start & End of SRT, Match-fixing, some embarrassing displays in England & Australia, some individual heroics & some deserving team wins. You’ve seen Dravid grind it out, you’ve also seen 81 all out (1/n)

If you are a 90s kid, you are mentally tough. You expect your team to put up a fight, more often than not, you ended up in disappointment. You’ve digested everything. You’ve laughed & cried. Sometimes both at same time (remember Perth ‘08). Too much depends on Tendulkar you’d say

Now you are in your late 20s early 30s. You see your team travelling to Australia. Kohli is leaving early after embarrassing Adelaide loss. Injuries are in bucketful. Covid restrictions mean they have to struggle for an XI. You write off your team mentally before Boxing Day Test

Rahane is captain now. He’s known for his silent aggression & counterattacking play. Pujara, Ashwin, Bumrah stand up with him, they create magic. India win Boxing Day test convincingly to shun off 4-0 critics (you loved this as a 90s kid, dont you). Yes, Gill is born!

1-1 & its Sydney. Media tries to play games. You’ve seen this before. But this is new India! They are determined. Bowlers get us back in the game & well, India tries to win, later save the match. Enough has been documented on Vihari & Ashwin. Stuff of legends! Momentum: India

The Melbourne Stars' 10 years of Big Bash history is genuinely some of the most hilarious sports in Australian history. Don't do this normally but, a thread:

BBL01: a somewhat conventional semi final loss to Perth, but look at the batting lineup they were rocking, they had Matty Wade at 8. 2/88 chasing 175 until Ben Edmondson (!) takes a double wicket maiden.

BBL02: The hilarity begins. Faulkner "captains" as Warne is risking a ban for slow over rates from the H&A stage. Scorchers need three off the last ball and Faulkner bowls a noey. Calamity. As an aside, Alex Keath on debut goes 1-0-27-0.

BBL03: Stars go 8-0 in the H&A with a NRR of 2.2. Utterly dominant. But it's a knockout 1 v 4 in the semi and you know what happens...Hobart restrict them to 141 and Paine makes 65 as they chase it down easily.

BBL04: Third time in four years, Stars lose a semi in Perth. Only chasing 145, with KP batting with Luke Wright, nine wickets in hand at halfway, all out 126.

(THREAD)

There will be no real theme throughout this thread like I usually have. Simply wanted to talk about a couple of topics from the past few gameweeks.

Let’s start with Leicester assets that have a great schedule coming up with eve, LEE, ful, wol. It seems like...

Rodgers has decided the front 3 now with Maddison, Barnes and Vardy. Let’s compare them per start over their last 4 games:

Barnes vs Maddison vs Vardy

xG: 0,49 - 0,12 - 0,35
Touches in the box: 5,25 - 1,33 - 6,67
Shots: 3,5 - 2 - 3,33
Shots on target: 1,5 - 0,67 - 0,67

xA: 0,11 - 0,13 - 0,23
Key passes: 0,5 - 2,67 - 0,67
FPL points: 6,5 - 7,67 - 4

Interestingly enough it’s actually Harvey Barnes that has shown the most promise out of the Leicester attack in recent weeks, especially if you look at value for money with Vardy being...

considerably more expensive than Maddison and Barnes. Barnes is the cheapest and the lowest owned Leicester attacker. He is definitely a differential that I am looking towards despite it being tough to fit in all the great midfielders in FPL this season.

Kane vs Son

Kane over the last 3 games (LEE, FUL, shu) vs the previous 3 games (liv, LEI, wol)

FPL points: 29 - 6
Goals: 3 - 0
Assists: 1 - 0

xG: 2,07 - 0,22
xA: 1,64 - 0,05