Yesterday NY Times/Siena released POTUS opinion polls for several swing states. Trump is having a large lead over Biden in many of these states. But the catch here is that they didn't put Kennedy and West as the options. So it was a direct poll between Trump and Biden. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/us/politics/biden-trump-2024-poll.htmlTrump is leading in 5 of the swing states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada), while Biden is leading in Wisconsin. Georgia: Trump 49, Biden 43 Pennsylvania: Trump 48, Biden 44 Michigan: Trump 48, Biden 43 Wisconsin: Trump 45, Biden 47 Nevada: Trump 52, Biden 41 Arizona: Trump 49, Biden 44
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America is a country where you can expect to see freedom there and that's the reason for many people they prefer to visit this country. However, the problem with America is that's a bit hard for people to take a visa for this country and people from some countries like North Korea and Iran and some other similar countries. If the visa issue was just for people from North Korea and Iran, then it would have been OK. Anyway, I don't think that a lot of football fans from these countries attend the world cup in person. But here the issue is that getting a US tourist visa is a cumbersome process for people from any of the third world nations. So if someone from India or Nigeria want to watch the world cup in the United States, they need to go through all the red tape and multiple visa hearings and still there is no guarantee that they will be able to travel to the US.
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The second ODI match between Bangladesh Women and Pakistan Women will be played today at Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. Pakistan won the first ODI after blasting out Bangladesh for a total of just 81 runs (Sadia Iqbal took 4 wickets, while Umm-e-Hani and Nida Dar picked up 3 wickets each). Bangladesh women would be looking forward to recover from this defeat. But then, this is a series of 3 ODI matches and they need to win both their remaining matches to win the series. BTW, Bangladesh had won the T20I series which was played earlier.
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In around two weeks time, we will get a complete picture of who is going to participate in the 2024 T20I World Cup. 18 out of the 20 participants are already known, as all regional qualifiers except the one from Africa is complete now. The African qualifiers are being conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a total of 16 teams took part in two tournaments. Top 2 teams from each sub-regional tournament then proceeded to join 4 other teams in the second round. Next phase will start on 22nd November and the top 2 teams will qualify for the world cup.
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Today's Afghanistan vs Australia match is going to be very interesting. If Afghanistan can win this one somehow, then they are almost confirmed of a semi-final spot. And worse, there is a good chance that Australia may not qualify for the semis. So this match is like do-or-die for the Australians. Australia is in good form BTW. They have won 5 consecutive matches till now. And one advantage for them is that even if they lose the match today, they have one more match remaining. And it is against one of the weaker teams (Bangladesh).
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Although Bangladesh are 7th in the points table, it is not yet confirmed whether they will qualify for the 2025 Champions trophy. England at 10th position are having two remaining matches - against Netherlands and Pakistan. If they win both these matches, then they can overtake both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Also, for both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, next matches are against tough opposition (Australia and New Zealand respectively). Netherlands may not qualify for the Champions trophy, and I am interested to know who will be the other unfortunate team to get that distinction.
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Ricky Ponting found giving friendly advise to SA players while commentating yesterday. Here it is in my words:
This isn't a knock-out game, go guns blazing. If you don't overcome your weakness of chasing right now, what will happen in knock-out phase where it'll be do or die? You can't expect to always win the toss and decide to bat first. First of all, Bavuma needs to go. There are more deserving players out there and the South African selectors can't select him as the opener everytime just because he is black. He is not only underperforming himself, but also dragging down the entire team with him. Anyway, it is almost confirmed that they will finish either at the 2nd or the 3rd position in the points table. Therefore they will avoid facing India in the semis. But even then, they need to formulize a strategy against the possible opposition (Australia / New Zealand / Pakistan).
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NZ have this thing in there minds also that they need to win against SL to secure there place in semis. Beating England by a big margin won't be easy thing for Pakistan. Turning point for Pakistan in this tournament is there loss against Afghanistan and Afghanistan. NRR of NZ right now is 0.396 while that of Pakistan is 0.036, there is huge difference.
Both New Zealand and Pakistan are going to face weak teams in their last remaining group phase matches. New Zealand will be facing Sri Lanka, while Pakistan will face England. New Zealand has now lost 4 matches consecutively, although they were a bit unlucky in their last match. If there was no rain interruption, then they would have won against Pakistan. But then, they have only themselves to blame for the wayward bowling. Pakistan reached 200/1 after 25.3 overs, and as per the DLS laws, they were ahead and walked away with 2 points.
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Pakistan included 4 pacers in their playing XI for today's match (Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Wasim). None of them are looking effective. BTW, what is the logic in going with such a pace-heavy attack in M Chinnaswamy Stadium? It is not a ground that supports pace and seam bowling. They should have gone with 3 pacers and included an additional batsman in the place of either Wasim or Hasan Ali. BTW, New Zealand has reached 125/1 after 20 overs. They look well set for a total of around 350-360.
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New Zealand looks set for a good total of around 350. Devon Conway got out after getting a good start, but now Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson are batting quite confidently. None of the Pakistani bowlers are looking threatening. Neither the pacers (Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf) nor the spinner (Iftikhar Ahmed) has troubled the New Zealand batsmen. Looks like Pakistan will be the latest team to get kicked out of the world cup. They need a couple of quick wickets, or else this match will completely slip out of their grasp.
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Maxx O'Dowd run out Ackermann run out Sybrand Engelbrecht run Out Edwards run Out van Veek stumping Out
The Netherlands batsmen were too quick to score runs which resulted in 5 players being run out. But if he could have batted carefully without hurrying, then maybe so many wickets of the Netherlands would not have been run out like this. Really pathetic. They perform like this, and then complain that the full member nations are not giving them enough chances. Three batsmen got good starts during today's match (Max O'Dowd, Colin Ackermann and Sybrand Engelbrecht) and all of them got needlessly run-out. The way vd Merwe got Engelbrecht run out was shocking. The ball directly went to the fielder and still he sprinted for a run, and in the end got the set batsman out. And with today's defeat, Netherlands's chances of qualifying for Champions trophy in 2025 will vanish to thin air.
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Well done Nepal! Despite limited resources, they did it. Big boost for emerging and associates cricket. I had a good feeling when I watched the Nepal team put up a fight against India in the Asia Cup and the Asian Games so for me this news didn't come as a big surprise. 18 out of the 20 slots are now filled for the T20 World Cup in 2024. United States and West Indies got direct entry since they are the hosts (this is perhaps the only way ICC could get their blue-eyed boys USA to the world cup). Ireland and Scotland qualified from the Europe qualifier, Papua New Guinea from EAP, Canada from Americas and now Nepal and Oman from Asia. Two slots from Africa will be decided by end of this month (most likely it will be Zimbabwe and Namibia). BTW, the world cup itself is just 6 months away. It will start on 4th June 2024.
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Everything you mentioned is true and many pundits already comparing this team with a 2003-07 Australian World Cup team (Watched Jarrod Kimber's YT video analysis) but we need our A game in knockouts too, just 2 more complete performances in semis and Finals.
Remember 1 bad day or 30 minutes of bad cricket could cost an entry into the finals and potentially the World Cup.
Well.. I agree. If the opponents are either South Africa or Australia, then it will get interesting. Proteas are in supreme form at the moment, while Australians are known to perform well during the knockout phase. If India loses the toss then it will immediately put them in backfoot during matches against these teams. Also, it is important not to get carried away after the massive 302 run win against Sri Lanka. Anyway, I just hope that the 12-year old jinx is finally broken. It has been a wait that has stretched for more than a decade.
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After losing the second wicket for 73 runs, Netherlands lost 5 batsmen to collect 100 runs. The interesting thing is that out of 5 batsmen, 3 batsmen have run out. I would say 3 Dutch batsmen got run out today due to inexperience. Probably Netherlands will lose all wickets before 150 runs. Netherlands just lost another wicket. Netherlands lost 6 batsmen f or 113 runs. Netherlands collected 66 runs in the first 10 overs. And in the next 15 overs, Netherlands mustered just 46 runs. Maybe the team will lose the remaining four wickets before 150. The performance of Afghanistan's bowlers is very controlled.
Once again the Dutch top order and middle order collapses. But this time the collapse occurred after they got a good start. Max O'Dowd and Colin Ackermann took them to 73/1 at one point and then they lost quick wickets to be at 134/7. The way some of the Dutch batsmen got themselves out was just shocking (example is Scott Edwards). Sybrand Engelbrecht is batting along with Roelof van der Merwe, but I don't expect them to get to 200. And in order to have any chance of winning, they need to get to at least 250.
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Billionaires declaring all of their wealth is for charity, is the biggest scam of modern times. The best example is Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft). This guy never pays any tax, because he has transferred all of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The trust claims that their target is to make the world a better place to live, by fighting against infectious diseases and natural calamities. But a large part of the expenses came from "speaking fee" and other forms of legalized bribes provided to various political figures.
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But I think the current war will have an impact on the 2026 World Cup. Even though the Middle East conflict is between Palestine and Israel, this war also brings the names of allied countries such as the United States. I think this war will have a lot of influence geopolitically. It is possible that the 2026 World Cup will be postponed if this war spreads and becomes a global crisis.
LOL.. World Cup getting postponed as a result of war? That is not even remotely possible. First of all, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has been limited to these two countries. Western nations haven't stepped in directly, although they are sending weapons, equipment and mercenaries to support Russia. Similarly, Russia's allies (Iran, DPRK and China) have also refrained from intervening in a direct manner. The same is applicable for Hamas vs Israel war. No one wants to get directly involved. Even pro-Hamas nations such as Qatar and Turkey have shown remarkable restraint.
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Afghanistan is strong side because of their batting and bowling unit. Netherlands is new and not so much experience in world cup cricket. Afghanistan played 6 matches so far in this world cup and they have win 3 match against world champions team England, Pakistan and Srilanka with 8 points and 6th postion on points tables. Netherlands aslo played 6 matches in this world cup they win only 2 match one against Top team South Africa and Second is against Bangladesh, they are 8th Positions in point tables. Winner of this match between Afghanistan and Netherlands will have more chances to qualify for Champion trophy.
In terms of experience, both the teams are at the same level. Netherlands was part of the 2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League (scrapped for the second season), and as a part of this tournament they played 24 ODI matches against full member nations. And they do have very experienced players such as Wesley Barresi, Logan van Beek and Roloef van der Merwe. So it is not actually correct to label the Netherlands as an inexperienced team. They maybe an associate nation, but there is no dearth of international experience for sure.
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Afghanistan players are in very good form now. They won 3 out of 6 matches. They have defeated teams like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England. I don't think Netherlands will be a tough opponent for Afghanistan. Because Afghanistan players are more confident now. Moreover, the Netherlands team is not very experienced. It will not be easy for Netherlands batsmen to stay at the crease against Afghanistan's bowling lineup. But Afghanistan's weakness is the erratic performance of their batsmen. Afghanistan cannot collect big unless the top order players perform well.
Like I mentioned previously, Netherlands won 2 out of 3 matches where they batted first. They won against South Africa and Bangladesh and they lost to Sri Lanka in a very close match. So if Afghanistan wins toss today and elects to bat first, then there is not much of a chance for a Dutch win. But if Netherlands wins the toss, then definitely it is going to get interesting. And in almost all the occasions, the Dutch top and middle order failed, while it was the lower order (especially Edwards, Logan van Beek and Roelof van der Merwe) who rescued them.
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He won't do it. He'll want to wait for the verdict first and this will take at least a year. Then, if he gets 30 years or more, there's a chance he'll do it.
For a young guy, getting out at his 60s or 70s is like a death sentence, especially that he's a weak looking guy. If he got into a prison camp he might survive, but in a normal federal prison he won't make it with all those street thugs around. He'll end up as someone's girlfriend.
Should we care about him? It wasn't a mistake that he made. It was years of stealing before he got caught. He knew what he was doing. I'd be more willing to release Ross than SBF and Ross is in for life.
LOL.. do you really think that this guy will spend more than a few weeks behind bars? He made hundreds of millions of USD worth of donations to various political causes (the vast majority of which went to the Democrat Party), and his parents are very rich and influential. He may get sentenced to a lengthy jail term, but I don't think that he will serve more than 1% of that time in a proper prison. Ross Ulbricht's case was different. He was from the other extreme of the political prism and he went against the system. You can't compare Sam Bankman Fraud to Ross Ulbricht.
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Afghanistan already have done a good job in world cup as they have won 3 games. There only mistake is that they lost to weakest side of this tournament i.e Bangladesh. For Afghanistan it's like winning the World Cup. NZ already know that rest of there games are very crucial to qualify for semis. Pakistan have not secured any win so far against strong teams so there chances are less for semis.
Afghanistan is already a full member and therefore they should strive to enter the semi-finals. For a team like Netherlands (being an associate member) it will be great news just to defeat 2-3 full members. But that is not the case with Afghanistan. If they can't enter the semi-final stage this time as well, then questions will be raised about their test status (similar to the ones that are being raised for full members who failed to qualify this time - West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe). Defeating Netherlands today should move them close to a semi-final slot, but two more tough matches await them in group phase.
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