The U.S.-China Rivalry

The US and China are the 2 greatest rivals in the 21st century. It’s American democracy vs Chinese socialism at the level of Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal in the 2008 Wimbledon Men’s Final. Who’s the better player? American democracy or Chinese socialism?

Over 5,000 virtual match tickets sold! Thank you all involved especially the kind supporters of @SpursOfficial 🙌

Time to give our virtual ticket holders a match preview of our team and tactics! Don't tell anybody!

Goalkeeper - Mr. Thomas from No. 25 - Good positioning & never unsighted.

Full-backs - the Jones brothers from No. 23 - Always give the opposition a roasting. Different gravy.

Centre-backs - the Phillips family from No. 29 - Coordinated, good teamwork & never leave any gaps between them.

Left winger - Mr. Speed from No. 11 - Speed by name. Speed by reputation.

The awesome role of backspin in swing bowling and dipping yorkers: A thread.

If you've ever bowled any kind of seam in your life, you know that your fingers impart a backward spin on the ball as you release it.

Turns out, this is important in multiple ways.

First up, releasing the ball with backspin gives it rotation about its horizontal axis, much like a cycle wheel.

Much like a wheel, this enables the seam to stay upright (or slanted) without wobbling.

This is conservation of angular momentum.

This is important, because if the seam is wobbling around, it's almost impossible to get swing.

So your fingers naturally put backspin on the ball, which keeps the seam well-behaved, in a line, which is essential to even generate swing.

Turns out, this is not the only way it's important.

Remember when they talk about bowling fuller when it's swinging?

That's to give the ball more time in the air. More time = more swing = more lateral movement. Also, late swing.

Fine. But what does backspin do?

Backspin enables the ball to hang in the air for longer.

Why? Because of something called the Magnus effect.

The Magnus force is due to this backspin, and it lifts the ball.

The ball hits the ground later than it would if there were no backspin.

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

#onthisday #cricket

One just had to close one’s eyes & the graceful, lithe run up could be seen, leap before delivery, head tilted to the left, right hand close to the chest left raised in front of the face, and then the left arm extended outwards as the right came around to send down the delivery

All through the 1980s with more cricket being telecast one found almost every cricket pitch, from coaching centres to school games, full of bowling actions that were almost exact replicas of the great man’s. Yes, Indians could bowl pace, successfully, and Kapil had shown the way

Anyone with more than a few paces in his run up seemed to follow in his excellent steps, at least as far as running up to the wicket was concerned. Almost every young lad in the country aspiring to bowl pace at any level of the game emulated the action.

From the early eighties, some occasionally tried to model their run up on Malcolm Marshall, although few managed the pace. One or two made a decent caricature of Imran Khan. But by and large, the template remained uniformly Kapil.

A Thread:
Debunking the Myth that Ron was never a midfielder

Likes and retweets are all appreciated😍

Actually, this wouldn't be something we debate on provided your birth wasn't delayed😭 but it is what it is and am going to enlighten you newbies.😁
Take a seat and watch cox I won't be repeating myself after this, so I need your full attention. You can pause the p*rn for now😉

Back in 2003 when Ron was signed by united, Beckham had just been sold and left a berth on the right side of the mid. Ron came and took over his position as well as his shirt(the famous No 7). He was a kid with dazzling skills and swept fans off their feet with his play on debut

In his first season, he won united player of the year while scoring only 6goals in 40appearances 😭(can you explain to me how a forward can win by scoring this few) and he won this as a midfielder(still the only outfield player to win the award most times)

In his second year at United(2004), Ronaldo was named in UEFA TOTY as a Right midfielder, this time winning it without scoring a goal in the UCL(i mean how can a supposed forward make it to UEFA Toty without scoring a goal) yes, you were thinking right😉 he was built different😁

I'm starting to think Marvin Lewis is one of the more underappreciated NFL coaches of the past couple decades. Staying 16 years in one place is TOUGH, and I feel like people have forgotten a lot of context along the way.

In the 12 years before Marvin Lewis arrived, the Bengals were 55-137. In the two years since he left, they are 6-25-1. That's 14 years and 0 playoff appearances.

Lewis was 131-122-3 with 7 playoff appearances.

Lewis took over a 2-14 team in 2003. His first three years, he went 8-8, 8-8 and 11-5.

He got his QB in Year 2 in Carson Palmer and reached the playoffs in Year 3. But on his very first throw, Palmer tore his knee.

So, we begin the narrative that Lewis was 0-7 in playoff games. Fair criticism to a point. But here were his seven QBs for those playoff games:

Jon Kitna after 1 throw
Carson Palmer
Andy Dalton
Andy Dalton
Andy Dalton
Andy Dalton
AJ McCarron

The Bengals, who have a cheap owner as GM, not only struggled to find Marvin Lewis a QB but also struggled to get him much of anything. They consistently let good players walk, from Carson Palmer to Marvin Jones to Kevin Zeitler to Eric Steinbach to Leon Hall to Reggie Nelson.