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BTW, The Chinese president was not present in this meeting nor did Zelensky and Putin. I can understand the problem with Putin & Zelensky, what I did not understand was why the Chinese premier thought of canceling his visit. A few days back he was present at the BRICS summit which for me looks kind of awkward. Do you guys think he canceled his visit because of the existing border issue with India or something else?
✂✂✂✂ A lot of drama is going on behind the curtains. For the last few years, India have been actively trying to move the manufacturing units from China to it's territory with a lot of success being achieved this year. On top of that, China believes that India is the reason why a number of participants have recently pulled out from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). And during the past few months, India managed to replace pro-China regimes with pro-India governments in smaller countries such as Nepal and Sri Lanka. China appears to be in the backfoot at this point. |
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Presently, there’s only one factor that makes Saudi clubs being, in a way superior and that’s in the case of funding. With their extremely deep pockets, they could try and entice any player they want into coming over to play. The issue of funding is a very important factor but that alone cannot even begin to make it superior. Don't be jealous. If the players want to move from UEFA leagues to Saudi Professional League, then they have solid reasons to do so. I agree that money is definitely one of the considerations. Obviously in the recent past, UEFA clubs used their deep pockets to steal American, African and Asian players. Now Saudi Arabia is giving them a taste of their own medicine. Overall, quality of football in UEFA confederation is on the decline (would make an exception for France and England). And once the star players depart from their leagues, the quality will go down even further. |
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The more we waited for this match, the more boring it become.Once time match had to be stopped due to rain and secondly their batting was very disturbing due to which this match because boring as much as it interesting.In this Asia Cup, Pakistan was going in full form but whenever Pakistan and India are in match-ups, Pakistan lose their senses due to which they have to face defeat.it can only be hoped that these two teams will meet again in the final. LOL.. perhaps this was the reason why Jay Shah came up with this tweet: https://twitter.com/JayShah/status/1701299080100716572Today’s #INDvsPAK has clocked 2.8 Crore concurrent users on @DisneyPlusHS - the highest for any India match in the history of digital. The previous best was #INDvsNZ 2019 @cricketworldcup semifinal with 2.52 Crore concurrent users 🇮🇳 #AsiaCup I am not sure whether Hotstar will be too happy with the way things turned out. Match got stretched over two days, and there were multiple rain interruptions. Although in terms of concurrent users Jay Shah can claim that the viewership was not impacted, but a lot of these viewers dropped out as a result of breaks. It was a great match yesterday, but could have been a much better experience for the viewers. |
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@JSRAW it seems that destiny was on team India’s side because first there was one additional day kept especially for this match and then the Indian player’s executed their plan’s perfectly but I hope that they don’t get carried away as they need to repeat this performance consistently. Lastly I believe that Pakistan will emerge stronger from this loss and further if these two meet in the finals once more then it’ll be an epic finale as Pakistan will be hunting for revenge.
Before yesterday's match I was almost sure that the final will be played between India and Pakistan. But now I am not that sure. There is a good chance that Sri Lanka will be able to qualify for the final, if they can defeat Pakistan on 14th September. Today's match between India and Sri Lanka is also important. If Sri Lanka wins somehow, then it will get very difficult for Pakistan to qualify. And there is always the chance of matches getting washed away. If all the remaining Super-4 matches get washed out, then India and Sri Lanka will qualify for the final. |
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Craze of cricket in india along with BCCI management has changed cricket altogether. Till 90s there was not much money in cricket and only England and Aus have strong influence in crikcet. But now bcci is supreme board in cricket along with England and Aus. IPL is growing bigger and bigger with every passing year and this is giving immense benefits to all players involved including broadcasters.
Two things are happening now. Popularity of cricket in India remains as it is, and that in other countries such as England and Australia are on the decline. As a result, now India is contributing to almost 90% of the ICC revenues, while the media rights fetch smaller amounts with each passing cycle in other regions. IPL will only get bigger and bigger. Very soon we will have ~20 teams playing in this league, and 4 months every year from the cricket calendar will be blocked for the IPL. In the end, we will get something similar to the situation in basketball, where NBA is dominating the sport and USA is almost unbeatable. |
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Biden's stats are looking up. Yet, isn't it odd how sometimes the underdog story appeals more to people, irrespective of the odds? Trump, with all the noise and pomp, versus Biden's more tranquil approach, can make the political spectrum look like a blockbuster movie versus a documentary. Biden might be the favorite for some, but he's so... well, let's just say he's so low-key. Sometimes, don't we all just crave a bit more drama? Odd logic, perhaps, but intriguing nonetheless
You are right. Although opinion polls were favoring Biden back in 2020, a lot of people were saying that there are undercurrents in favor of Trump. That never happened (unlike the case in 2016). Back in 2016, Trump's support (especially in rust belt states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania) was underestimated. And in 2020, Biden's support was underestimated and I am sure that this remains true to this day. A good metric to measure this would be the midterms of 2022. Democrats did much better than what was expected from them. |
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This is first time I have seen Pak women team winning a match against a strong team. I don't know whether SA has sent there full strength team or testing new players in stead? This is first win of Pak Women team in there last five encounters, they have lost 4 out of 5 matches played. This is just first match and there are 2 more ODIs to be played, series is still very much opened.
South Africa managed to win the second ODI by a good margin. They are going through a state of flux, after the retirement of some of the key players. Also, Pakistan had the home advantage, as the matches are being played at the National Stadium in Karachi. This time they managed to bundle out Pakistan for a total of just 168 (Pakistan was struggling at 49/6, but then a partnership between Aliya Riaz and Fatima Sana added a lot of respectability to their innings). Experienced South African bowlers, including Ayabonga Khaka, Masabata Klaas and Nadine de Klerk scripted the victory for Proteas this time. Right now the series is tied 1-1. Final match of the series will be played on 14th September. |
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Update from 2024 ICC Women's T20 World Cup qualifier:
Europe: Scotland and Netherlands have secured qualification to the tier-2 qualifier tournament.
Asia: Thailand and United Arab Emirates qualifies for the next round, with Nepal and Hong Kong missing out
East Asia-Pacific: Vanuatu goes to next round. Japan and Indonesia misses out
Americas: USA goes to next round
Africa: Qualifiers are yet to start (2 slots)
Ireland and Sri Lanka will take part in the global (tier-2) qualifier tournament, along with teams that have qualified from continental qualifiers.
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Out of the 11 countries in BRICS, I would say that two members are having a lot of bargaining power at the moment - India and Saudi Arabia. Both these nations are considered valuable by the BRICS bloc, and at the same time during the ongoing G20 summit also both these nations were pampered by the other members. On the other hand, Russia and China seems to be losing their dominance. Recently Italy decided to pull out from the Belt and Road Initiative. Brazil and South Africa were never influential enough to start with. Right now, BRICS looks very imbalanced.
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On a side note I don't know how many times Argentina has suffered in Bolivia because they play in a very high above sea level there so it has been difficult.Most likely tomorrow will be different as they are reigning World Champions but I would be cautious here for that above sea level.
This is a very controversial topic. Bolivia has a number of good quality football stadiums in different parts of the country, but they insist on playing their qualifier matches at the Estadio Hernando Siles in La Paz, which is located at an elevation of 3,637 meters above sea level. Other teams are not happy about this, and several times they have complained against scheduling matches in this venue. In 2007, FIFA actually came up with a rule that no World Cup Qualifying matches can be hosted in venues that are 2,500 meters above the sea level. But then in 2008, Bolivia managed to get a special exemption for Estadio Hernando Siles. |
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Bumrah was amazing but he needs to careful with his recovery, he's too valuable. Miyan also looks good, if Pandaya keeps bowling like that then it's a big plus for India. Shardul doing well so far but the biggest talking point is Kuldeep, he's on a different level when he's high on confidence.
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What this means is that there is no room for Mohammad Shami in the squad. If I had to make a choice between Siraj and Shami, then I would rather go for the latter, as he has more control and consistency. But with two pace-bowling allrounders in the squad (Pandya and Shardul), only two full-time pacers are needed and that means that Shami will be kept out. And in the spin department, Kuldeep is cementing his place in the XI, which means no additional slots are available apart from that of the allrounder (Jadeja). So obviously no chance for Chahal and Axar. |
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Portugal destroyed their opponent Luxembourg.Not satisfied with the 4 goals scored in the first half, Portugal scored 5 goals in 6 shots in the second half and managed to score 9 goals in total.We can say that it rained on their opponent as a rain of goals.Thus, Portugal, who made 6/6 in the group, has definitely guaranteed their exit from the group. In the other matches in the group, there were again matches where the hosts were defeated.Iceland managed to defeat Bosnia-Herzegovina with a last minute goal.Bosnia-Herzegovina dominated the match in general, but they failed to find a goal and this cost them a little bit.
Slovakia, on the other hand, won without difficulty against an easy opponent and with this win they moved into 2nd place.
LOL.. until this point, Luxembourg was doing pretty OK. They managed to defeat Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland, and managed draw against Slovakia. But Portugal showed no mercy and absolutely destroyed them (still they should be proud of the fact that they have 10 points from 6 matches). And it was nice to see some of the younger Portuguese players performing well in this match. I am talking about Gonçalo Inácio, Gonçalo Ramos, João Félix and Diogo Jota. Qualification is not a worry now for Portugal. They are far ahead of the other teams. |
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Everyone knows that Germany (similar to the case with many other UEFA nations such as Netherlands, Danmark, Belgium.etc) is a team that is on the decline. But no one actually expected them to go down against a team like Japan by a margin of 1-4. And this is the team that is favored as one of the top teams in Euro 2024 by the sportsbooks. I am not underestimating Japan. They proved their mettle during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, when they managed to defeat Germany and Spain in Group E. Even then, AFC teams defeating top UEFA teams is a scenario that was unimaginable a few years ago.
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There are many countries that are made of migrants. Here's a map showing this, the darker the region, the more migrants there are.  You can see that the US is not the one with the most amount of migrants. Once again, attempt is being made to treat legal and illegal immigration at equal footing. If you look at the map, you will find that GCC nations such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait do have a higher proportion of migrants to the population. But the plus point here is that all of them are legal migrants. Illegal immigration is a punishable offense in most of the countries (unlike the case in USA, where illegals are provided with funds from taxpayer money). This is an issue that is present only in the US/EU. And the only reason is lack of enforcement of laws by the left-wing. |
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Lewandowski and Salah are at the end of their career so they might consider a move to the Saudi Pro league next season. They both have won almost everything there's to win except for the Ballon D'or which seems impossible for any of them to win in the future because they're out of been the favorites as we have new generation of youngster like Mbappe and Haaland that'll be fighting for the title. Soon there won't be much left for this duo to do in Europe and they'll want to retire like the rest by headings to the Saudi Pro league. Salah would be the most tempted as his forward teammates Sadio mane is already in the Saudis enjoying his football and the money.
Well.. I thought that Salah is no longer in the radar of Saudi clubs? He had rejected their offer a few months back, right? Al Ittihad went all guns blazing for Salah, but Liverpool rejected all of their offers. The Saudi club was willing to pay a massive £150 million in transfer fees. Liverpool wanted Salah to stay with them, as they are aiming for the title race at English Premier League. However, Saudi media is reporting that Al Ittihad hasn't given up. They are going to further crank up the offer and it is going to get really crazy. BTW if this doesn't work out, then Al Ittihad may settle for Richarlison instead of Salah. Talks are ongoing now with Tottenham, as per media reports. |
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LOL.. defeat by 228 runs. Even Nepal put up a better performance against India. If you remember, Nepal managed a total of 230 against India and almost succeeded in batting the full 50 overs. On the other hand, Pakistan got blasted out for just 128 runs in 32 overs. This is why we call Pakistan as an unpredictable team. If everything goes in their favor, then they can defeat the no.1 team by big margins. But on even days, they get thrashed like what happened yesterday. First and foremost, they need a quality spinner in their team. Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed conceded a total of 123 runs in just 15.4 overs.
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Some of the big teams made a come back in this round. Spain thrashed Georgia by a margin of 7-1 and thereby secured the second position in Group A. Now they are behind Scotland (who have 15 points from 5 matches). In Group B, Netherlands managed a big comeback and now they are in second position behind France. Other surprise is from Group G, where Hungary is leading now with 10 points form 4 matches. September round is completed in this group, and the win by Hungary over Serbia is having a big impact.
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Pakistan vs India cricket match stopped due to rain yesterday. But, this is the biggest match so ACC decided to give a reserve for this match. Now, today is the reserve day and the match will start in the next 10 to 20 minutes. But, what is this stupid behavior from the ACC, Every match is stopped due to rain. We can't see any single match.  It is pure stupidity from the ACC. They scheduled the match in Sri Lanka, during peak monsoon season. India was demanding that matches should be held outside Pakistan and in the end we got in to this mess. A more appropriate venue was either Oman or the United Arab Emirates, but then again the BCCI and other full member boards wanted the matches to be hosted in Sri Lanka so that they could get the maximum gate collection. No consideration was given to the fans, who need to travel between Pakistan and Sri Lanka so many times in between two weeks. There is yet another rain delay at Colombo. I am not sure when the match will start again. |
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Have to give the credit to Marnus Labuschagne. This guy entered into Test cricket as a concussion replacement for Smith and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
In the ODI, he didn't fire up much and due to this reason he wasn't regular in the ODI setup but here he comes again as a concussion substitute and won the last match and today also proving his worth.
The partnership between David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne has so far added 138 runs at 7.5 runs per over. Anrich Nortje went for almost 12 per over. Don't know what is going on with the South African bowlers. Quality pacers like Nortje and Rabada are getting hammered all around the park. And also don't forget the fact that this is a home series for South Africa. Looking at the form of the Australian batsmen, I would say that they will be the favorites to lift the trophy during ODI World Cup in 2023, followed at some distance by Pakistan. |
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SL has lost 4 wickets and scored 150 runs after 34 runs. If Bangladesh can get few more wickets then there is a chance that they may restrict SL to 250 or less. At the moment Bangladesh focus must be to restrict SL to lowest possible target. If SL can give a target of over 250 runs then it won't be easy to chase against strong SL bowling lineup.
Sri Lanka may end up with a total of 250-260. That should be enough to get full points from this match. Bangladeshi batting attack is looking very brittle, and Sri Lankan bowlers are in good form. So the probability is that Sri Lanka will win this one. Sadeera Samarawickrama is batting beautifully at this point, but the problem for Sri Lanka is that tailenders are at the other end. If Bangladesh can keep Sadeera out of strike, then they can restrict Sri Lanka to a smaller total and then build up some pressure on them. Anyway, I am just glad that there have been no rain interruptions till now. |
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