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After triggering Morgan Gibbs-White’s release clause nearly two weeks ago, almost every Tottenham Hotspur fan would’ve expected a deal to be completed by now.

However, when dealing with Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, a deal was never going to be straightforward, but no one could’ve predicted what has happened since.

The Reds have claimed that Thomas Frank’s side made an illegal approach for his signature, resulting in his secret release clause now becoming public.

It’s unclear whether Forest are set to report the club over a potential deal, with all contact between the two sides now ceased as a result of the approach that was made for his signature.

Given the recent delay in a move for the England international, other targets are subsequently being considered in North London, with multiple names entering the mix in the past few days.

The latest on Spurs’ hunt for new signings this summer

Ardon Jashari has emerged as a surprise option for Spurs in the midfield department as of late, with the Swiss international set to depart Club Brugge this summer.

The Belgian outfit are said to be demanding a fee in the region of £32m for his signature this window, but could face stiff competition from Italian side AC Milan for his signature.

However, another name has entered the mix, with Frank’s side now turning their attention to a deal to sign Atlético Madrid star Conor Gallagher, according to TBR Football.

The report claims that the Lilywhites have made contact with the Spanish outfit over a potential move for the 25-year-old midfielder during the summer window.

It also states they could be open to offloading the Englishman should they receive an acceptable offer after paying £33m for his signature 12 months ago.

Why Spurs’ latest target would be an upgrade on Sarr

Pape Matar Sarr was a key member of Spurs’ midfield department during the 2024/25 campaign, ending the season with a staggering 55 appearances across all competitions.

The Senegalese international has already made over 100 appearances for the Lilywhites after making his debut for the club back in the 2022/23 season.

He has the potential to become a club legend in North London should he continue on such a trajectory, having time to develop further given his tender age of just 22.

Such a deal to land him a couple of years ago reflects the sensational business the hierarchy have conducted in recent years, now looking a bargain given his £14.6m transfer fee.

However, he may struggle to keep hold of his starting role in the 2025/26 campaign should they complete a deal for Gallagher, with the Englishman having the potential to replace him in the side.

When comparing their stats from the recent season, the Atlético star managed to better him in various areas, highlighting how much of a brilliant addition he would be to Frank’s side this summer.

Gallagher, who’s been labelled a “monster” by one analyst, registered more combined goals and assists, offering the side an added goalscoring threat despite his deep-lying role.

Games played

32

36

Goals & assists

6

5

Pass accuracy

87%

86%

Passes into the opposition box

0.8

0.5

Tackles won

1.8

1.6

Tackle success rate

54%

48%

Take-on success

41%

36%

Recoveries made

5.9

5.4

He also completed more of the passes he attempted, with more of which going into the final third, showcasing the talent he possesses with the ball at his feet.

However, his defensive talents are just as impressive, winning more tackles per 90 and achieving a higher success rate in regaining possession – potentially being the perfect box-to-box option in Frank’s midfield department.

Whilst it’s unclear how much the LaLiga outfit will be demanding for his services this summer, it’s evident that he would be an upgrade on the options currently at the manager’s disposal.

If he can replicate such form in North London, it would be a fantastic piece of business, subsequently allowing the club to move past the current saga over a deal for Gibbs-White.

Their own Ekitike: Spurs eyeing move for Arsenal's "golden" striker target

The prolific gem could be something really special at Spurs.

1 ByJack Salveson Holmes Jul 21, 2025

Sunderland have now submitted a bid for a proven Premier League player who is capable of scoring “worldies”, according to a new transfer update.

Le Bris outlines Sunderland's pre-season training plan

The Black Cats are getting closer to their Premier League return all the time, with Regis Le Bris working on having his squad as prepared as possible during pre-season.

Sunderland’s manager has been discussing what he wants to see from his players during their trip to Portugal, with focus on the “dynamic” within the team.

Le Bris will know that further signings are needed before the end of the summer transfer window, though, with talks reportedly underway over a move for Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka, and now a fresh update has emerged.

Sunderland submit formal offer for Xhaka

According to Bild [via Sport Witness], Sunderland have now “made advances” to sign Xhaka, submitting a bid for the former Arsenal man. While the Swiss is valued at £17m, the offer in question is believed to be “less” than that, as the Black Cats look to get a cut-price deal over the line.

Meanwhile, Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes has discussed the 32-year-old’s future: “Granit is a very important player for us, for the team and for the club.

“Our main interest is to keep him. Sure, there is interest in him, we need to speak to the player to know what his ambitions are. But one thing is clear: There would only be a transfer in a win-win situation.We still have a three-year contract with the player and are very happy with him.

“We have big goals for the next few years. That’s why there can only be a transfer if it’s good for all sides. We’ll have to wait and see. But our goal is for Granit to stay with us.“

Xhaka stands out as such a shrewd option for Sunderland this summer, so it is exciting to see progress being made in their pursuit of him.

The Leverkusen stalwart is now a 137-cap Switzerland international, showing how vastly experienced he is, and he has been hailed as a “lovely technician” by Joe Cole, also lauding the ex-Gunners star for his ability to score “worldies” from distance.

Better signing than Henderson: Sunderland open talks to sign £17m "monster"

Sunderland could now win a far better signing than Jordan Henderson by picking up this £17m leader.

ByKelan Sarson Jul 17, 2025

Xhaka knows the Premier League inside out, making 225 appearances in the competition during his Arsenal days, so he could be an invaluable addition to Sunderland’s midfield, combining tactical discipline with an eye for the spectacular.

The start of Glasgow Rangers’ season has now become clear, after a busy week of draws and fixture releases.

First, the Russell Martin era will begin with a Champions League second qualifying round tie against Panathinaikos, with the first leg at Ibrox coming up as soon as 22/23 July, before the pair reconvene at the Spyros Louis Olympic Stadium a week later.

Then, on Friday morning, it was confirmed that Rangers will travel to Fir Park to take on Motherwell in their Scottish Premiership opener on 2 August; a potentially tricky fixture.

Before all of that, the Gers will need to be busy in the transfer market, so are they about to get two signings over the line?

Rangers set to sign new defender

According to a report by Mark McAdam and Sahil Jaidka of Sky Sports News, Rangers ‘have agreed a deal’ with Bournemouth to sign defender Max Aarons, adding that it is a ‘straight loan’ with no option or obligation to buy included in the deal.

Aarons has fallen out of favour on the English South Coast, seeing just 130 minutes of action, across four appearances, for the Cherries last season, thereby spending the second half of the campaign on loan at Valencia, albeit this did not go to plan, playing a mere 208 minutes for los Murciélagos.

Nevertheless, still only 25 years old, the right-back was very highly thought of when he first broke through at Norwich City, almost joining Tottenham Hotspur for a huge £15m as a 19-year-old, so he still has plenty to offer, looking to reignite his career in Govan.

So, would he shine alongside another of Rangers’ summer arrivals?

How Max Aarons would link up with Kwame Poku

As previously noted by Darren Witcoop of Team Talk, Rangers are ‘set to sign’ winger Kwame Poku, who has been massively ‘in-demand’, after leaving Peterborough United as a free agent.

Poku, who is just 23 years old, scored 12 goals and registered 11 assists for Posh this season, helping them win back-to-back EFL Trophies at Wembley, hence why Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony asserted that he will “be a Premier League star in the future”, estimating that Poku will one day “cost £30 million”.

So, let’s assess his statistics this season.

Kwame Poku EFL League One statistics 2024/25
Statistics	Poku	League One rank
Minutes	2,058	223rd
Goals	12	11th
Goals per 90	0.52	7th
Assists	8	5th
Assists per 90	0.35	1st
Shots per 90	2.71	12th
Goals per shot	0.19	18th
Big chances created	9	28th
Successful dribbles per 90	1.9	2nd
Statistics courtesy of FBref.com and SofaScore

As the table shows, despite limited minutes, Poku ranked highly for goals, assists, shots, and big chances created, while he is also a proficient dribbler.

If any Rangers supporters are skeptical about the fact he was playing at EFL League One level, well, Global Football Rankings believes that England’s third-tier is the 53rd strongest division in the world, just ten places below the Scottish Premiership.

Fintan O’Reilly of Total Football Analysis labels Poku a ‘thrilling playmaker’ who is ‘great in tight spaces’ and a ‘very intelligent passer’, while writer Kai Watson believes that the Ghanian international to be a “strong ball carrier”.

Thus, he will surely enjoy playing alongside Aarons given that, as noted by Tom Quartly of Breaking the Lines, he possesses breathtaking acceleration and a propensity to get forward and join his team’s attacks, while also able to ‘recover incredibly quickly if he makes a mistake’ defensively’.

His former manager at Norwich, Daniel Farke, described Aarons as “outstanding”, adding “I can’t praise him enough… maybe there is not that much more space to improve.”

Thus, in summary, both Aarons and Poku are very exciting talents, who both have the potential to get even better so, if they are deployed down the same flank, they could form an unstoppable duo as Martin’s new-look right-hand side.

He's like Jelavic: Rangers eyeing move to sign "powerful" £4m CF for Martin

Rangers are seeking a few signings ahead of the Champions League qualifier against Panathinaikos.

By
Ross Kilvington

Jun 20, 2025

Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada ran through the top order as Afghanistan folded for 56, their lowest total in T20Is

Andrew Fidel Fernando27-Jun-2024

Tabraiz Shamsi picked up three quick wickets to hasten Afghanistan’s end•ICC/Getty Images

South Africa’s quicks ravaged Afghanistan’s top order, taking five wickets inside the first five overs, to send the opposition spiralling towards their eventual 56 all out in the first semi-final of T20 World Cup 2024.Then, although they lost Quinton de Kock early, Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks calmly navigated the small chase on an exceedingly tricky Tarouba pitch.For a team infamous for playing jittery cricket in the knockouts, this win was dominant and clinical. South Africa left next to nothing to chance. They bowled beautifully, fielded well, and weathered some difficult early overs while pouncing on the loose balls.Related

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As their reward, they have their first ever berth in a men’s World Cup final, and continued their unbeaten run in the tournament, which now is up to eight matches. The margin of victory, by nine wickets and with 67 balls remaining, underscored the control they exerted on this match, from start to finish.Jansen and Rabada rip out the top orderThe Tarouba surface not only offered lateral movement but also a lot of bounce early on. With the heights that Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada bring to the table, South Africa had a great attack to exploit conditions.Kagiso Rabada flattened Mohammad Nabi’s off stump•AFP/Getty Images

Jansen struck at the end of the first over to remove Afghanistan’s batter of the tournament – Rahmanullah Gurbaz – who edged a ball angled across him to Hendricks at slip. In his next over, Jansen bowled Gulbadin Naib through the gate with a delivery that darted back into him.Rabada’s first over sent Afghanistan really into a nosedive. He jagged two balls back and hit timber on both occasions. The ball that clipped the top of Ibrahim Zadran’s middle stump was the killer – Ibrahim at that point was Afghanistan’s best hope of getting to a good score. Fourth ball, he took out Mohammad Nabi’s off stump with an even more stunning delivery. That over was a double-wicket maiden.Nortje and Shamsi do the restWith the top five gone, and their middle order having failed to produce much right through the tournament, Afghanistan were seriously struggling. Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi closed down the innings from there. Nortje had Azmatullah Omarzai (the only Afghan batter to get to double figures) caught at deep point, then later knocked out Rashid Khan’s off stump.Shamsi bowled a leg-stump line to the right-handers and kept getting them lbw as the balls rushed onto them. They reviewed all three decisions, but the on-field umpires had given them out, and umpires’ calls on impact were good enough.Jonathan Trott and Rashid Khan during the innings break•ICC/Getty Images

Farooqi and Naveen can’t wreck South Africa’s top orderComing into this match, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq had 29 wickets between them. Their only chance of defending such a paltry score was running through the top order together.Farooqi added to his tournament-high wicket tally in his first over, setting de Kock up with some big outswingers before jagging one back in and making a mess of his stumps.And Naveen should have had Markram the next over, but most of Afghanistan’s players didn’t hear the thin edge to the wicketkeeper, and Rashid wasn’t sure enough of it to review the decision.Markram and Hendricks take the chase homeThere were still testing moments, as the pitch continued to play up, still often keeping low. But whenever Afghanistan bowled poor deliveries, South Africa’s batters pounced. The fifth over itself yielded 13 runs – more than a fifth of the target. South Africa got home in the ninth over, sparking restrained celebrations, even though this was a historic victory for them.

Setting their sights on fresh targets, Aston Villa have now reportedly joined the race to sign an impressive £42m midfielder who already has a goal to his name at Villa Park.

Aston Villa face difficult summer

Whichever direction Aston Villa go down this summer, they must approach with caution. Their PSR concerns are likely to limit their spending unless they complete some ruthless sales. Those concerns make their defeat against Manchester United to cost them a Champions League place on the final day all the more frustrating for Unai Emery, who failed to hide his anger at the time.

Now, weeks on, it’s simply a situation that the Midlands club must prepare for. Rumours have already arrived as to who could be heading for the exit door as somewhat of a sacrifice for the Villans and it seems as though not many names are off the table completely.

Among those most mentioned has been Emiliano Martinez. The Argentine looked to be bidding an emotional farewell to Villa Park in the final home game of the season, sparking rumours that he could yet depart amid interest from the likes of Atletico Madrid.

Losing Martinez would be a frustrating but perhaps necessary blow for all involved at Villa Park, who could then have the chance to welcome incomings of their own. Already, Zepiqueno Redmond looks set to arrive on a free transfer from Feyenoord to commence Villa’s summer business, but they won’t want to stop there.

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With Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford on their way back to their parent clubs, Emery has important roles to fill in his side and Villa have seemingly turned their focus towards signing a Premier League rival as a result.

Aston Villa racing to sign Mikkel Damsgaard

According to Caught Offside, Aston Villa are now racing to sign Mikkel Damsgaard from Brentford this summer. The Bees reportedly value the Danish midfielder at as much as €50m (£42m) amid interest from the Midlands club as well as Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and West Ham United.

Villa Park received a first-hand glimpse of Damsgaard’s quality when he scored Brentford’s only goal in an eventual 3-1 defeat at the hands of Emery’s side. Even in the face of defeat, however, the 24-year-old showed what he’s capable of.

With 11 assists to his name last season – a number that only Mohamed Salah, Jacob Murphy and Anthony Elanga bettered – Damsgaard was often at the centre of Thomas Frank’s praise.

The Brentford boss told reporters after victory over Leicester in December: “He just got better and better.Today he was fantastic in every way possible. He had another performance and also did an assist. He ties our team and games together amazingly. It’s cool to see.”

Finally realising his potential, it may not be long before Damsgaard is on the move away from Brentford and perhaps even towards Villa Park if the Midlands club make their move this summer.

Fulham have reached out and made contact over signing a former Real Madrid player, as Marco Silva’s side begin planning for next season.

Fulham competing for European qualification

Just seven points separate ninth from fourth in this hotly-contested Premier League race for Europe, and Fulham are still in with every chance of competing in the Conference League, Europa League or even the Champions League.

Club "moving" to sign "very important" Fulham star with unique offer planned

Marco Silva’s side could lose him.

ByEmilio Galantini Apr 3, 2025

While the latter competition is unlikely, Silva will be looking to end the season as strongly as possible to give Fulham the best chance to see their names in the Europa or Conference draws next season.

Tottenham are looking at Silva as a potential replacement for Ange Postecoglou, and if they decide he’s the right man for the job, then this could well be the 47-year-old’s final season at Craven Cottage.

Liverpool (home)

April 6th

Bournemouth (away)

April 14th

Chelsea (home)

April 20th

Southampton (away)

April 26th

Aston Villa (away)

May 3rd

The tactician will want to end his Fulham career on a high if he does decide to part company, and what better way than sealing a European qualification place? After they disappointingly crashed out of the FA Cup to Crystal Palace.

Unfortunately for Silva, some very tough tests await his side over this final stretch of the campaign, including Premier League title frontrunners Liverpool, this season’s surprise package Bournemouth and a crunch west London derby against Chelsea.

Qualifying for Europe will also go a long way to attracting the best players possible to Fulham this summer.

Andreas Pereira has been linked with a return to Brazil as well, so the Whites may also need to sign a quality new wide player to replace the former Man United winger.

Fulham make contact over signing Deportivo sensation Yeremay Hernandez

According to TEAMtalk this week, Deportibvo La Coruna sensation Yeremay Hernandez is on their radar. Hernandez’s excellent form for the La Liga 2 side this season has attracted interest from the likes of Chelsea, according to reports in Spain, but it is now believed that Fulham are ready to go toe-to-toe with their cross-town rivals.

The 22-year-old can play on either flank, bagging 11 goals and four assists from out wide, and he is seen by many as a young player with serious potential.

TT report that Fulham have made contact over signing Hernandez already, with the former Real Madrid academy gem also scouted by Arsenal and targeted by Brentford.

However, it is Fulham who’ve made a head start by instigating an approach, and it is believed they’re extremely keen on the £30 million Spaniard. Hernandez, it is claimed, would be seen as a “perfect” option for Silva, who wishes to reinforce his wide options a a top priority.

There’s plenty of cream in the batting line-up and spin attack, but New Zealand’s seam attack looks a bit squishy

Deivarayan Muthu16-Feb-2025 • Updated on 18-Feb-2025

How do they look?

The previous ICC tournament, the 2024 T20 World Cup, was a nightmare for New Zealand in the Caribbean, but the versatility in their ODI squad and familiarity with the conditions, especially in Pakistan, has had them dreaming big once again.Since 2019, no visiting team has played more ODIs in Pakistan than New Zealand (11). New Zealand also have batting depth down to No.8, where their captain Mitchell Santner is likely to slot in, and eight bowling options in their potential XI, if you include Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell. With the bat, Ravindra and Mitchell could disrupt spin like they demonstrated during the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. Though New Zealand don’t have a wristspinner in their squad, their fingerspin-bowling allrounders – Santner, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips in particular – provide them with immense balance. Among them, Bracewell and Santner himself can bowl in the powerplay.Related

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While there’s plenty of cream in the batting line-up and spin attack, the seam attack looks squishy. Both Lockie Ferguson, New Zealand’s most experienced fast bowler, and Ben Sears have been sidelined from the tournament with injuries. In their absence, Will O’Rourke offers pace and bounce, but he is yet to get a taste of an ICC tournament. This might leave Matt Henry with plenty on his plate.

Who are their opponents

New Zealand will kick off the tournament against hosts Pakistan in Karachi on February 19 before they will face Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on February 24. They will then travel to Dubai to meet India in the last group game on March 2.

Likely best XI

1 Devon Conway, 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Tom Latham (wk), 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Matt Henry, 10 Jacob Duffy, 11 Will O’RourkeReserves: Will Young, Mark Chapman, Nathan Smith, Kyle JamiesonDaryl Mitchell’s sweeps and reverse sweeps could disrupt spin•AFP/Getty Images

Player(s) to watch

Nobody typifies the more than Daryl Mitchell in this current New Zealand side. In his first ICC tournament in the 2021 T20 World Cup, in the UAE, he fronted up to open the batting and has since established himself as a middle-order mainstay. He is adept at sweeping and reverse-sweeping and pumping the ball down the ground – shots that mess with the lengths and lines of spinners. Mitchell also tends to rise to the big occasions. Cases in point: the 2021 T20 World Cup semi-finals against England and 2023 ODI World Cup semi-finals against India.Mitchell’s childhood buddy Mitchell Santner could also play a vital role with his subtle variations and leadership skills.

Key stats

• Since the 2023 ODI World Cup, New Zealand have the best run-rate among 20 teams between overs 10 and 40. In fact, they are the only team with a run-rate of over six (6.26) during this phase.
• Since the 2023 ODI World Cup, Santner has picked up 26 wickets in 18 innings at an excellent economy rate of 4.57.

Recent ODI form

New Zealand have won two of the three bilateral series they’ve played since making the semi-finals of the 2023 ODI World Cup. A number of the seniors missed all three series – two at home and one away in Sri Lanka – before a near full-strength New Zealand side enjoyed an unbeaten run to the tri-series title in Pakistan. They decimated Pakistan in the final in Karachi, where they will meet Pakistan once again in the Champions Trophy opener on February 19.

Champions Trophy history

In 2000, New Zealand secured their first-ever world title when they won the ICC knockout in Nairobi. The Black Caps haven’t clinched a world title since. They came close to winning the Champions Trophy once again in 2009, when they eventually lost to Australia in a Trans-Tasman final in Centurion.

In a turn of events too improbable for Hollywood, a cricketer from Afghanistan became a feted hero deep in the heart of Texas

Peter Della Penna31-Jul-2023One of the burgeoning traditions that has quickly become a staple of the first season of Major League Cricket in Texas, as it is in the IPL, is the sea of flags in the stands. Almost all of the franchises involved in each night’s match made sure to have stacks of flags ready to hand out to fans as they walked in through the gates of Grand Prairie Stadium.There were hundreds of neon green Seattle Orcas flags waving in the grandstand at Sunday night’s final. These were engulfed by thousands of blue MI New York flags. Being a sporting event in the USA, a few fans brought in Old Glory to twirl around, and another American flag arrived into the stadium before the start of play courtesy of a parachute jump team.But the flags that arguably stood out most of all at Grand Prairie Stadium were the distinct tri-colour black, red and green of Afghanistan. Seemingly in every corner of the stadium, there was at least one, and usually two, Afghanistan tricolour banners parading around and being waved in tandem.Related

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Two decades ago, when the US military invaded Afghanistan, the latter’s national cricket team did not exist. A men’s side playing under the aegis of the Afghanistan Cricket Board did not appear in an Asian Cricket Council tournament – let alone an ICC one – until June 2004. On that day, Nawroz Mangal opened the batting with a century while an unknown 19-year-old spinner named Mohammad Nabi led the bowling attack taking 3 for 28 in a four-wicket loss to Oman at an empty Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur. Rashid Khan was just a five-year-old boy then.Fast forward 19 years to a scene in Grand Prairie, Texas that would have seemed infinitely more ludicrous than the moment in “Back to the Future Part II” where Marty McFly gets out of Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine to walk into the centre of Hill Valley in October 2015. A very confused Marty, played by Michael J Fox, looks up at a flashing neon news ticker to see an update that the Chicago Cubs have just beaten a team from Miami – a baseball franchise that didn’t exist in the Back to the Future realm of 1985 – to win their first World Series since 1908.Nicholas Pooran scored an extraordinary hundred in the chase•SportzpicsIt’s highly improbable that even the brilliant mind of Robert Zemeckis could have concocted a Hollywood story where a boy from war-torn Afghanistan in 2004 becomes one of the biggest stars in international cricket and is feted by the masses in the Lone Star State in the summer of 2023. Texas is a place with as nascent a cricket heritage as the one Afghanistan had in 2004, which was a time when most Texans’ – like most other Americans of the time – only thoughts about Afghanistan revolved around hunting down Osama bin Laden.But when Rashid showed up for his first match in Texas for New York on the night of July 17 – fresh out of a business class seat on a flight from Bangladesh where he had just finished captaining the Afghanistan T20I side – the fans in Grand Prairie Stadium went delirious. It was sheer pandemonium in the front row of section 101 on the southwest grandstand of the venue near where Rashid was fielding on the boundary at wide long-off. Things got so rowdy from a crush of fans crowding the front five rows in search of selfies and autographs during the first innings when New York were fielding that extra security guards had to be re-assigned to the area to disperse the throngs of fans who did not have tickets in the section.It was no surprise, then, that when the starting line-ups for the final on Sunday night were shouted over the loudspeakers by stadium public address announcer Aaman Patel – who himself is another too-good-to-be-true character, a North Carolina native who was one year old when Afghanistan played their first match in 2004 – that Rashid got the most raucous ovation. And even on a night when New York stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran scored one of the most extraordinary centuries in a T20 franchise league final anywhere in the world, it was Rashid who continued to be the pied piper for fans all around the ground.Rashid Khan registered figures of 4-0-9-3•SportzpicsThough the match had been announced as a sellout for weeks, there was some mild curiosity as to what the atmosphere would be like without the presence of the Texas Super Kings in the final. Though the crowds at the 7200-capacity Grand Prairie Stadium had been consistently healthy throughout the tournament, only matches involving the hometown Super Kings had been sellouts prior to the final. But the long traffic lines coming off the South Belt Line Road Exit to the stadium entrance at Lone Star Parkway, which were snaking around the adjacent Lone Star Racetrack parking lot 90 minutes before play, quelled any doubts that the inaugural MLC final would be anything less than a grand occasion.As special as Pooran’s unbeaten and chanceless 137 not out off 55 balls was – studded with 13 sixes and a hundred which arrived after just 40 balls – the screams, shouts and cries for Rashid before, during and after his sensational spell of 3 for 9 (seriously?! A 2.25 economy and 19 dot balls on a night when every other bowler went for more than a run a ball) were relentless from start to finish, and continued well after Pooran jammed out a yorker through fine leg for the winning runs. During the victory celebrations on the field, there were regular calls in the stands from fans shouting for an autograph or a selfie with, “Nicky!”, “Polly!” “Trent!” and “David!”But outside of the appearance made by New York’s billionaire owner Nita Ambani, who showed up along the sidelines to take pictures with her team’s joyous fans, the only other person requiring a robust security presence to keep over-exuberant fans from losing control in their zesty fervour to get close to their hero was “Rashid! Rashid!” After spending a considerable amount of time taking selfies and signing autographs with fans, Rashid was finally yanked away by the New York team officials, who were waiting for him to come back to the team bus before commencing with further victory celebrations back at the team hotel.Over the course of the last three weeks, there were a series of far-fetched fantasies most people would never have believed possible a generation ago. A sold-out cricket stadium to watch a domestic franchise league in Texas, let alone anywhere else in the USA, would have seemed more miraculous than turning water into wine. But a globetrotting, multi-millionaire, best-T20-bowler-in-the-world legspinner from Afghanistan being showered with pure unadulterated love by American sports fans on US soil would have simply been far too good to be true. At Sunday night’s Major League Cricket final in Grand Prairie, Texas, seeing was believing.

The South Africa batter on the importance of the occasional cheat meal, and her love of braai

Interview by Annesha Ghosh19-Mar-2021What do you like eating most in any given week?
. That’s probably because I’m South African, we all like to eat braai. Around the world, braai is known more as barbecue. I am a big meat-eater, so if I can have meat during my meal, I’m always happy and it puts a smile on my face.Of all the venues you’ve played in to date, where did you find the food most delicious?
During the 2017 ODI World Cup [in England], Leicester County Cricket Club served us delicious food. At the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat, where we played in 2019, I loved the Indian delicacies.As far as cooking goes, what would be your claim to fame?
I think my husband would say cannelloni. That’s one of his favourites and I enjoy making cannelloni. And if I am pressed for time I go for something Mexican, like a fajita or a burrito bowl. It’s quick, easy, and delicious.Are you the best cook in the family?
No (). I’ve been on tour so often and been playing cricket most of the time, I am grateful that my mom did most of the cooking. It was only after I got married that I realised, “Whoopsie! Mom’s not around, so I’ve got to step up.” I’ve got a few go-to meals, but every time I get back, I feel like I’ve forgotten everything. I don’t remember how to make the food! So we just then have to make a braai and I stick to a side salad, which is pretty easy.If you could pick one team-mate to cook meals for you for one year straight, who would that be?
I’d go for a WBBL team-mate, in the Melbourne Stars family: Holly Ferling. She’s made some really good food for us on tour and she’s extremely good at baking. I have got a sweet tooth, so if I’ve got to be stuck with a team-mate for 365 days, she’ll spoil me.What sort of fast food is allowed in the South Africa women’s team?
The biggest thing about fast food is [that it] is processed. You can try to stay away from processed food and instead eat real ingredients when it’s freshly made. In South Africa and elsewhere we’ve got Nando’s, which is a really healthy option. You can get good flame-grilled chicken.That being said, I do feel every now and then you’ve got to spoil yourself, just be human, and have that occasional cheat meal. I’m big on treating myself. For me, it could be a pizza or a pasta. The point is just don’t overdo it or do it too often.

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