Interesting.
So it looks like Trump is on an upwards trajectory at the time, he was close but still slightly below, but that recently has changed, and it looks like it's continuing upwards.
Still a lot of time until the election, and many things can happen, but certainly interesting.
There are two things going on here. First of all, Trump got a boost from the mugshot drama and then Biden's approval is at historical lows. Job Approval is at -12 to -16 now, which is much worse that the ratings that Trump had when he was in power. One major contributing factor to Biden's continued poor show is the rising crude oil prices. When Trump was in power, crude oil was trading at $40-$50 per barrel. It has gone up by 2x now. And this is going to have a direct impact on the retail inflation inside the United States. |
|
|
|
Players like Neymar and Benzema were signed by Saudi clubs exactly for matches like this one. But injury woes threaten to derail their plans. Neymar is yet to make his debut for Al Hilal, and Benzema is currently out of action as a result of hamstring injury. Benzema's injury was uncovered during the match against Al Wehda, where he was substituted just before the half time. He is 35 years old and no longer young. This may result in more recovery time before he is back in action. The match BTW, will start in around 12 hours from now. |
|
|
|
|
I am not sure what they are going to do with Mohammed Al-Rubaie. Yassine Bounou is their first choice goalkeeper, while they also have Ahmad Abu Rasen, Mohammed Al-Owais, Abdullah Al-Mayouf and Habib Al-Wotayan. If they want Bounou as the regular keeper and Rubaie as his injury cover, what they are going to do with all the others? And as far as I know, the new contract between Rubaie and Al-Ahli was valid until January 2024. They are breaking this contract to bring him to Al Hilal. And why did Al-Ahli agreed to this? If Édouard Mendy gets injured, what they are going to do?
|
|
|
|
I think that at the end of the day this whole thing will work in favor of Trump.
I can see a president being elected from jail.
Just check the opinion polls, and it is very clear. The latest opinion poll for POTUS 2024 elections was released by Economist/YouGov yesterday. Trump is leading Biden by 1 point (44-43). Of all the polls released during the last 7-8 days, Trump is leading in three polls, while Biden is leading the other two by one point. I am still not sure whether the lead is going to hold, but obviously the mugshot drama seems to have helped him to stay in the media limelight. And there are talks about getting Vivek Ramaswamy as his running mate. If it happens, then it would be another game changer. |
|
|
|
South Africa have observed their pitch condition well and they decided to field first as wickets are helpful because winning the toss and fielding first will make it easier for Africa to play with the target later on, but they did not know that Australia would be able to score so many runs by batting in the first innings. African bowlers could not bowl controlled which is why South Africa lost by such a margin in the first T20 match. There are still two matches left in the series so South Africa still have time and opportunity to do well in this series. We expect South Africa to work on the mistakes that were made in the first match and do better in the second match. South African selectors have their hands tied. As per the transformation quotas, they need to select a fixed number of colored players and it doesn't matter whether they are performing well or not. One example is the selection of Temba Bavuma to the team. He faced just two balls and got out for a duck, off the bowling of Marcus Stoinis. He didn't played any competitive cricket for the last 5 months and was directly dropped in for this match against Australia. Anyway, they have two more matches remaining, and both of them will be played at the same venue (Kingsmead in Durban). |
|
|
|
|
Disastrous for Bangladesh. Shakib al Hasan just got out to the bowling of Matheesha Pathirana. They are about to review it, but I believe that the catch was taken cleanly by the keeper. Now Bangladesh is at 36/3 and they are really struggling against the Lankan bowlers. Pathirana strikes in his very first over by removing the most dangerous batsmen in Bangladesh playing XI. The pitch seems to be giving a lot of support for both the pace and spin bowlers, and Bangladesh needs a pair of batsmen who could dig in and battle it out for a while.
|
|
|
|
|
Sri Lanka is an entirely different team when they play at home. Bangladeshi batsmen are in trouble. After 8 over, they are struggling at 25/2, with Najmul Hossain Shanto at the crease along with Shakib Al Hasan. Mohammad Naim and Tanzid Hasan are already back in pavilion. Sri Lankan bowlers (especially their spinners) have been wonderful, and so far Maheesh Theekshana and Dhananjaya de Silva have picked up one wicket apiece. Now we need to remember that Hasaranga is not playing in this match, so the Bangladeshi batsmen will get an opportunity to face less experienced bowlers soon.
|
|
|
|
|
This is crossing a limit. Why these Europeans always behave like cry-babies? No one ever complained when a lot of Asian, Latin American and African players decided to opt for the UEFA leagues instead of their own local leagues. Leagues in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Japan and Nigeria suffered as a result of this. However no one ever published any news articles examining the negatives that non-European leagues had to deal with. Now the Saudi clubs are giving Europeans a taste of their own medicine and suddenly there is so much hue and cry. There can be no better example for hypocrisy.
|
|
|
|
|
Dictators who have been ruling with an iron fist for many decades are being overthrown in countries such as Niger and Gabon. Only positives can come out of all this. Omar Bongo was one of the worst rulers in Africa. Despite the huge petroleum deserves in Gabon, the country was in deep poverty because Bongo stole all that wealth and used it to purchase luxury villas and other real estate in France. From what I have seen, people have come out in support of the new regime. The same is happening in Niger as well. Popular support is with the new leaders.
|
|
|
|
Trading in local currency is only beneficial to the country that's issuing out their own currency. It's a trend as of late only because USD would normally be the intermediary currency, but for sanctions on Russia and a high inflation rate.
Even countries outside of BRICS are dumping USD from their reserves and trading through alternatives.
The only reliable alternative as of now for US Dollar is gold. But then gold doesn't have enough liquidity or mobility to be used as a currency for international trade. With every other currency (including Euro, GBP, CNY or JPY), the same issues exist which are present with the US Dollar. My guess is that BRICS will never be able to get to an alternative for the USD. Each of the member nations want their own national currencies to replace the USD and to be used as an international trade currency. it will be difficult to get to a compromise deal that is acceptable to everyone. |
|
|
|
I don't know why South Africa batted so strangely on their own pitch. South Africa knew their pitch condition very well. As the pitch was not bowling friendly, South Africa might have been able to provide a bigger target if they had batted first. The batsmen could not play well in batting for the target of 227 runs. The batsmen were under a lot of pressure. This team has the ability to score more than 200 if they play pressure free. However, the Australian bowlers bowled well. Tanveer Sanga and Stoinis managed to pick up 4 and 3 wickets respectively. A good performance by the batsmen and bowlers combined led Australia to an impressive 111-run win.
Out of the four Australians making their debut (Aaron Hardie, Matthew Short, Spencer Johnson and Tanveer Sangha), everyone performed well making significant contributions. Johnson and Sangha shared 5 wickets between them. And while batting, Hardie and Short made significant contributions. On the other hand, the two South African debutants (Gerald Coetzee and Dewald Brevis) disappointed their fans. A lot was expected from Brevis, but he got out for just 5 runs. And Coetzee was expensive when he opened the bowling. |
|
|
|
Sri Lanka should comfortably defeat Bangladesh unless there are some crazy upsets. They are missing some of their star players like Hasaranga etc, but they should be fine primarily due to home ground advantage.
India vs Pakistan is what I am mainly excited for later this week. The last time they played against each other was way back in 2022.
Sri Lanka obviously has an advantage. But that doesn't mean that today's match will be as one sided as the one between Nepal and Pakistan yesterday. Bangladesh's main players, including Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Shakib Al Hasan and Taskin Ahmed are available for this match. Sri Lanka has no room for complacence. At the same time, Sri Lanka also has fielded a full-strength side, with Kusal Mendis, Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana and Dhananjaya de Silva named in the playing XI. But even then, the absence of Wanindu Hasaranga will be felt. |
|
|
|
This season the competition for the title is getting fiercer after the teams Al Ittihad and Al Ahli also have many top European players coming and currently there are several teams that have fairly balanced strengths so it is very possible that we will see quite fierce competition in the title race.
Al Nassr is quite dependent on Ronaldo's performance, but this season Ronaldo's performance could be better because there are several new players that Al Nassr has brought in to support Ronaldo's performance, such as the presence of Sadio Mane, this is quite suitable to be paired with Ronaldo so that it makes this team's performance even better.
A number of star players (not just from UEFA/Europe, but also from CONMEBOL and CAF) are joining the 4 Saudi clubs that are supported by the Public Investment Fund. But the outcome is not always 100% positive. Some of these clubs have struggled to maintain team bonding and cohesion, as new players join their squad. And the remaining clubs within the league are finding themselves weaker than ever, as they are unable to put up any challenge against the superior clubs like Al Hilal and Al Nassr. |
|
|
|
In the first innings, Pakistan's runs could have been less and wickets could have fallen more if Nepal had fielded better, we noticed several fielding misses from Nepal and they missed several catches which were very easy catches. If they could have caught all the catches and fielded well then Pakistan's runs would not have been so high. Nepal's batting in the second innings looked like they might be in a hurry to give away wickets, two wickets in the last two balls of the first over, Nasim Shah again picked up multiple wickets in the next over, that is, if three to four wickets fall in the first two overs, then how can the game be played? Which team will come back, that's what happened in Nepal. Pakistan had a chance to win but we expected a bit better performance from Nepal.
At one point, Pakistan was struggling at 124/4. Then Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed were involved in a 214 run partnership for the 5th wicket. But before that, Nepal fielders had dropped a very easy catch from Babar. If that catch was taken, there was a very real possibility that Pakistan could have got bowled out for a total of less than 200. Associate nations such as Nepal doesn't have the luxury of being complacent at field. If they don't make use of the opportunities that they get, then the next one may come after many decades. |
|
|
|
Not little but way too much as it's a batters game. We have a fair amount of good bowlers in the current generation so this can't be an excuse IMO.
Small boundaries play a big role, also players are becoming fit and strong in comparison to the previous generation.
This trend of having smaller boundaries have negatively impacted the pace bowlers who constantly bowl at speeds of around 150 mph. Examples are Dale Steyn and Mitchell Starc. Despite performing well in test cricket, these players have a poor record in T20 format, because of smaller boundaries that are used for that format. And in test cricket, most of the times they stick with standard boundaries, so it is not so much biased towards the batsmen. Once in a while we get to watch wonderful performances from some of the quality bowlers. |
|
|
|
Asia Cup starts today Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka game starts at 3:30 PM at Parle Clay in. Skipper Shakib Al Hasan says Sri Lankan team is undoubtedly eternally strong but we will try to start the first match with a win. Meanwhile, Tamim Iqbal Liton Das is not able to play due to the engine, it may affect the team because these three important batsmen are not playing. Undoubtedly, the bowling of the Lankans is very good, so the Tigers of Bangladesh should watch their ball and bat well and play a good game. Finally, those who play well on the field will win. Of course, best wishes for the Bangladesh team. May they play well and win.
Group B is obviously much more tougher compared to the other group, because all three teams are full member nations. In Group A, it is clear that India and Pakistan will qualify for the Super-4 stage, because the third team is very weak (Nepal). In Group B, they have Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and the competition is going to me much tighter. For today's match, Sri Lanka would be the overwhelming favorites. They have momentum with them, and the home advantage is going to play a very important part. |
|
|
|
Australia won this match by 111 runs and led the series by 1-0. Australia batting performance was pretty well in this match setting a huge target for South Africa 226 runs in a loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. While chasing down the target South Africa all out in 115 runs in 15.3 Overs. The player of the match is Mitchell Marsh for his batting performance of 92 runs unbeaten in just 49 balls. Tim David also played an important role scoring 64 runs in just 28 balls and reaching the Australian total of 226 runs. The bowling performance of Australia is very well especially Tanveer Sangha who picked up 4 wickets by just giving 31 runs in 4 overs and Marcus Stoinis picked up 3 wickets by giving 18 runs in 3 Overs.
Australia lost Travis Head in the first over, but then Matthew Short and Mitchell Marsh rebuilt the innings. In the first five overs, Australia raced to 69 runs, and by then the match was out of South Africa's grasp. Three quick wickets fell after that (Matthew Short, Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis) and things went quiet for a while, but then Tim David joined Mitchell Marsh at crease and fireworks restarted after a brief respite. In the end, the target for South Africa was too much for them to handle and as a result they crumbled against the Australian bowlers. |
|
|
|
|
As expected, the Americans thrashed Jordan by a big margin. In the opening quarter itself the Americans pulled off with such a big lead (31-12) and the Jordanians never managed to catch up. It is now certain that the United States would finish at the first place in their group (they have won all of their three matches). Greece managed to finish at the second place, and with 5 points they managed to finish ahead of New Zealand. Jordan, as expected has finished at the bottom in Group C. For the second round, United States is placed along with Lithuania and Montenegro in addition to Greece.
|
|
|
|
At last Pakistan got an easy victory against Nepal. As expected it happened like that only. Nepal did well in the initial overs while bowling, but couldn’t stop the mighty Babar. We have to also praise the brilliant batting done by Babar. We expected at least Nepal will give a bit of tough competition, but Nepal’s batting lineup was too weak against Pakistan’s dangerous bowling attack. Now all eyes on the 2nd Sept India vs Pakistan match. Let’s see which team wins this one. It's going to be a tough one for India. Pakistan is in exceptional form, and they are currently ranked at the top of ICC's ODI rankings table. India on the other hand, have dropped down the ranking, and some of their players such as Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer are returning to the team after extended breaks as a result of injury. And in the first match itself India need to take on Pakistan, with the match against Nepal scheduled for 4th September. But the advantage for India is that Pakistanis need to travel from Multan to Pallekele, while the Indian players reached there many days back. |
|
|
|
Saudi had unlimited money generated from selling its oil. Some top clubs in saudi pro legue are still interesting to hire some expensive players. It was not surprising me to see al hilal keeps recruit the new talent for its club.
Bounou will be the main choice by al hilal. The club is not yet stopping in approach the european player as well. That will be disrupting the european club as it's coming to the end of transfer window.
Saudi club keep going so crazily in the transfer season. FYI saudi transfer season will be gonna stop at the middle of september. There will be a lot of time to buy as many players as possible.
The main reason so many european coaches were seeing saudi as a threat for the club. It's caused by saudi club can disrupt their team when the transfer window for EU already closed.
Let's wait how many new players will keep come to the saudi pro league.
It's not like they have unlimited amounts of money. They know that the oil revenue is not very reliable. They have cut crude oil production by more than a million barrels per day and now they are the third largest producer in terms of output (behind Russia and the United States). They want to diversify their economy and the ruler (Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud) have been taking steps on this direction for the past many years. One of his initiatives is to make Saudi Arabia a global sporting hub. Investments in Saudi football clubs are a part of that move. |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
