Bunting battles past Anderson to reach last eight
"I tried to put that at the back of my mind but I just couldn't and for whatever reason I couldn't find my best form. I'm so happy with the win but I just need to get to bed, I'm shattered."England's James Wade averaged 102.5 and had checkouts of 126, 121 and 108 as he thrashed Wessel Nijman of the Netherlands 11-5."It wasn't an amazing performance from me. I was just really fortunate the young lad didn't play how he can," 2007 winner Wade told Sky Sports."Who cares about doubles, who cares about averages. We just care about having a great time and the crowd enjoying themselves."Wade will play Gian van Veen next after the Dutchman, who knocked out defending champion Luke Humphries, beat compatriot Danny Noppert 11-5.
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The Guardian
a few seconds ago
- The Guardian
Gambhir's India can't escape the Fortis-verse on rain-hit day
Nothing does irony quite like Test cricket. Say what you like about the world's most desiccated, Miss Havisham-ish team sport, out there trailing around the post-colonial world still dressed in its yellowing wedding dress. It's definitely got a sense of humour. On day one of the fifth England-India Test this was expressed in cosmic terms, and a single bold and improbable dramatic arc. Talk about groundsmen a lot. Tell groundsmen they're nothing. One thing is for sure. You're going to find yourself spending quite a lot of time watching groundsmen. Or in this case watching the personage we must now refer to as controversial groundsman Lee Fortis, celebrity Oval pitch curator Lee Fortis, an otherwise peripheral figure with a name that sounds like an Anglo-Saxon burial site in Norfolk, but who was promoted in the buildup to this Test into an instrument of the sporting-political power struggle. And so it came to pass in the first two sessions at the Oval, as India and England traipsed on and off between the showers, and Fortis loomed, somehow inevitably, centre stage. Here is Lee Fortis striding about his domain in classic shorts and boots combos, like a proud, captive bear. Here is Lee Fortis tugging at a tarpaulin. Here is Lee Fortis all alone in his lime green field as the drizzle fell and the walkways around the ground took on the feel of a slowly sinking ship peopled only by pint-sozzled mariners in chino shorts, and watched from behind the plateglass by his chief adversary, India's head coach, Gautam Gambhir. In a Test series shot through with politics, rumblings and noises off, they've finally dragged in the bloke with the rake. Welcome to the Fortis-verse. It is the most unlikely turn of events. Fortis is familiar figure around here, a huge ambling man with the classic groundsman's shape, as though he's been hinged together out of sacks of cement and packed into a pair of shorts. Who thinks of the groundsman? What are they? They sit on mowers. They walk with sawdust buckets. They follow the seasons, disturbed only by their personal kryptonite, people walking near a rope, signal for instant and uncontainable explosions of boggle-eyed fury. And yet, look a little closer, squint at the magic eye picture, and something else has begun to emerge here, the groundsman as instrument of power and conspiracy. By 2pm on Thursday afternoon, 48 hours on from that unnecessary spat with Gambhir, Fortis had been memed and replicated and spun out across the global hive mind. Oval curator breaks silence. Fortis v Gambhir: the full story. Who is Lee Fortis and what does he mean? There are Fortis YouTube clips (jerky spat footage; weird ad hoc media huddle) that have been viewed two million times. Lee Fortis stuns fans with body transformation. This simple Lee Fortis trick will change your life for ever. Seventeen times Lee Fortis broke the internet (No 12 will shock you!) More fuel was added overnight as R Ashwin labelled Fortis a habitual offender. Really? It's not the first time he's yelled at people to get off his square? You shock me. Meanwhile, the groundsman community has sprung to his defence, a Facebook page speaking for this maligned minority demanding respect, understanding, a safe space for its members. What next? A Fortis spin-off vehicle. The Fortis origins story. A Fortis male grooming range. Jake Paul calls out Lee Fortis in sensational Vegas standoff. Or perhaps it won't come to that. Because this is at the same time absolutely nothing, chaff, gossip, and also a grim little episode that reflects poorly on Gambhir in particular; and perhaps also on the general power dynamics of elite cricket in its current form. The initial incident was a standard stramash over practising too close, or so Fortis said, to the square. Gambhir's response was furious. Any situation where you end up wagging a finger and shouting, 'You're nothing, you're just a groundsman, nothing beyond that,' is one that has lost any sense of scale. Later Fortis was swarmed by Indian journalists and gave the greatest no comment interview of all time, unveiling a technique that should be urgently coached to all celebrities and politicians, which basically involves just saying 'I'm not ... You're not ... I'm not really,' to every question. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion It is a fairly simple divvying up at this point. Gambhir was always in the wrong here. First because all groundsmen are grumpy. They have to venerate, love and fetishise this patch of green. They have the artist's temperament. They feel the hand of history. They basically just want you to stay off their square and stop playing cricket. But mainly Gambhir was wrong because of the ugliness of his choice of words, and the sense of punching down. England got to show their boorishness in Manchester. This was India's turn. India's coach is a born-to-rule type, high caste Hindu, private schoolboy, son of a wealthy industrialist, BJP politician, a Jay Shah man, a Modi guy. It sits a little uncomfortably to hear anyone with such privilege dismissing a bloke with a bucket as 'nothing', unqualified to make demands of his betters. In this context Gambhir v Fortis speaks, if you choose to see it, to the way India wields its commercial and political power in this sport; to the sense that here is an overlord nation that can basically do what it wants, that is in effect untouchable. This is the most unfavourable version of events. More prosaically Gambhir does just love a fight, is essentially a grudge in a cap, outspoken and commendably feisty. In a happier turn there was at least a kind of rapprochement at the start of play between Fortis and India's players, a little wary banter and some smiles. After which, once the showers had cleared, it was a case of the groundsman's revenge, as Gambhir got to watch India's batters sparring and hopping and nicking as the ball leapt and jagged about on Fortis' chosen strip. England's pace attack had looked rusty at the start, both Jamie Overton and Josh Tongue perhaps paying tribute the 2.5m distance rule by almost missing the cut part of the pitch. But they chipped away and found movement. Shubman Gill had batted with sculpted elegance, all perfect arms, shoulders, lines, balletic in the way he shifts his weight, then ran himself out trying to take a single to Gus Atkinson's right hand in his follow through. With India on 204 for six at the end of play the series already felt a little safer. Hopefully the age of Lee is also done. Andy Warhol would later revise his most famous line to the more depressingly accurate 'in 15 minutes everyone will be famous'. Fortis had his day in the gloom. With any luck hands will now be shaken, an unpleasant tone revised, and the whole thing can be safely packed away in the shed behind the pigeon nets.
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
Josh Tongue's wild bowling breaks India but England's fifth-Test hopes hurt by Chris Woakes injury
Josh Tongue 's first ball of this fifth Test at The Oval travelled so far down the off-side it was heading for Lord's by the time it hit the boundary rope for five wides. A moment later, he sent the ball off in the direction of Eden Gardens for five more. It was one of the worst overs you're likely to see in a Test match: India hit a solitary single and jumped from 18-1 to 30-1. Tongue was unplayable, just not in the way he might have imagined. The morning's conditions had seemed like a bowler's paradise, on an unpredictable green pitch under skies so murky that groundstaff switched on the floodlights before midday. Shubman Gill lost India's 15th toss in a row in all formats – a feat with a probability of 1 in 32,768 – and England's stand-in captain Ollie Pope naturally elected to field. But England failed to take full advantage, and Tongue was not the only one with a wayward radar. Gus Atkinson, Chris Woakes and Jamie Overton all delivered erratic spells, serving up 15 wides and 30 extras, a generous chunk of India's 204-6 at stumps. Atkinson was certainly the pick of the bunch, trapping Yashasvi Jaiswal on his pads, as Pope broke his own unwanted streak of 14 failed DRS attempts and celebrated gleefully like the wicket was his own. Atkinson also pulled off the sharp run out of captain Gill, who momentarily lost his senses running for a single that was never there, before later drawing an edge from Dhruv Jurel. Woakes, who had lured KL Rahul to chop on to his own stumps, ended with disaster, tumbling over the boundary to save a four and injuring himself in the process. He yelped in pain before being attended to by medics and helped from the field, his arm in the kind of makeshift sling that tends to suggest a dislocated shoulder. With no specialist spin bowler, England's remaining three seamers face a heavy workload to finish off this Test. The bigger picture for Woakes is that his hopes of making the Ashes squad this winter are in doubt. Aged 36, there may not be many more opportunities for one of England's most reliable performers over the past decade and more. Yet no one encapsulated England's rollercoaster day more so than Tongue. His disastrous over was a tough watch as his planted foot slipped all over the crease, where a pile of sawdust failed to offer any added grip. He had the ball swinging but that was no good thing, because once it chose its rogue trajectory it was never turning back towards duped wicketkeeper Jamie Smith. But gradually Tongue steadied himself, and a change of ends by Pope proved wise. He started to find a dangerous length that flirted with the top of off-stump, and his pace cranked up over 90mph. His awkward technique, with a bowling arm which tilts beyond the perpendicular, was sending the ball down at devilish angles which soon brought rewards. Tongue's two wickets were almost carbon copies of one another, spearing the ball in towards the left-handers Sai Sudharsan and Ravindra Jadeja from around the wicket, before jagging it off the outside edge and into Smith's waiting gloves. It was all the more bamboozling that Jadeja's wicket came at the end of an over which began with more wild, expensive wides. Perhaps this was the most difficult part of India's day: not just the hostile batting conditions but the fact that they had no idea what was coming at them at any given moment. At least when facing Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad there is a rhythm, a set-up, a storyline they build using in-swingers before, plot twist, the out-swinger. There was little of that consistency here, instead a barrage of balls that were too short, too long, too wide, too bad, and all of a sudden far too good to cope with. India's resistance came from the unlikely source of Karun Nair, brought back into the side to beef up the batting in what looked like yet another unconvincing line-up by the tourists in this series, featuring two spinners on a pitch that is a seamer's dream. Nair dug in, calibrated his line of sight in the darkness and began asserting himself, bringing up a confident 50 shortly before stumps. And so a day which should have been England's felt like something of a score draw. England have six wickets, but it cost them 200 runs and a bowler's shoulder. The next time they will embark on day one of a Test match, England will be walking out at Perth for the start of The Ashes in November. With Jofra Archer rested here and Mark Wood still injured, this was a chance for the support cast to make their pitch for travelling to Australia, but perhaps only Atkinson could claim to have bolstered his case. Yet oddly, Tongue managed to turn one of the worst mornings of his career into something of a success story, taking two scalps with identical jaffas, ripping it with the sort of pace and height and angle that would come in handy in an Australian summer. About 70 yards behind the beaten batsmen, Stuart Broad nodded his approval up in the commentary box. Around the wicket to left-handers? England used to have someone very good at that.
The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Tom Brady's Birmingham primed to touch down in the Championship
Unsurprisingly, Tom Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion and global sporting icon, is braced for the challenges that await Birmingham City, where he is a minority owner. 'Just because you were successful last year doesn't mean you're going to be successful this year,' he says, alluding to a season that culminated in promotion and a record-breaking tally of 111 points. 'You have to put the same amount of work, commitment and discipline in – sometimes more – because the stakes only get higher. When the competition gets tougher, the margin of error gets smaller.' It is his final answer in an interview that takes in everything from the 'blue-collar nature of Birmingham', which he compares with Cleveland and Cincinnati, to the Championship landscape and the bubbling rivalry with Aston Villa, which he was educated on during his first visit to England's second-biggest city after acquiring his 3.3% stake. It is a moment detailed in the opening scene of Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues, the Prime Video documentary series released on Friday, as he travels past a giant mural depicting Jude Bellingham and Trevor Francis. 'What's the other team here?' he asks. 'Fuck them … gonna fuck them up too,' he says, smiling. Brady and Tom Wagner, the Birmingham chairman, are in bullish moods for our interview. Wagner's mantra is 'if you can't say it, you can't do it' and he is adamant Birmingham will return to the Premier League. But when? 'The sooner the better,' he replies. 'I think it would be great for the city of Birmingham to have an inner-city derby that brings fans together in a non-violent way; we don't want it to be peaceful, we don't want it to be violent either, but we want to allow them the joy of experiencing that great rivalry again. I love reading the comments from Villa supporters, but I think it's beyond that. There's so many other great clubs we would love to compete against.' The series contains colourful characters, differing generations of supporters. 'We've had so many rebirths,' says one, Paul Collins, 'but they've all been phantom pregnancies.' There is a potted history taking in Barry Fry urinating in all four corners of St Andrew's to lift a curse and other amusing moments. 'I fell in love with fixing businesses,' says Wagner, the co-founder of Knighthead Capital, the multibillion investment fund that acquired a controlling stake two years ago. On their arrival at Birmingham, one-third of the ground had been condemned, there was no hot water in the men's toilets and no heating in the executive offices. 'We're not even close to being done, and now we're embarking on an even more ambitious feat,' Wagner says of plans to build a sports quarter on a 60-acre site with a 62,000-seat stadium, more than double the current capacity. 'We want to compete at the top level of the Championship [this season].' After their final home game last season, Wagner enjoyed a mic-drop moment, telling those present: 'The best part of the story is just beginning. I promise you this is not the best day we will enjoy together.' Perhaps the most surreal moment of the series is Sir David Beckham, among the VIP guests for Birmingham's home win over Wrexham last September, explaining to Brady the insulting chants Birmingham fans are directing at their Welsh counterparts. What else did Beckham teach him that night? Brady laughs. 'A few things that were being said … some of it I couldn't really fully understand because there's some thick accents that I'm not 100% educated on yet, but David's helped me out.' Another time we see Brady mastering his pronunciation of Birmingham en route to the training ground. 'I learned that pretty early on. When I first did my social media video [announcing my involvement], they said: 'It's Birmingham, not Birming-ham.'' Wrexham, also promoted last season, have become friendly foes. Wagner says other teams 'want in' on Birmingham's brewing competition with the Welsh club, owned by the Hollywood pair Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds. 'Rivalries are very important because they allow you to focus at a different level: your concentration, effort, it all becomes very maximised when you're playing against these rivals,' Brady says. 'The fundamentals of the sport [football], the tactics, are different to American football. It's a different sport but the values are very much the same.' After that win over Wrexham, there is a snapshot into the bigger picture, a reminder that this is business after Wagner congratulates manager, Chris Davies, and his staff. 'I'm going to go back upstairs, we've got 1,000 people we're trying to get to spend money in the club so that you guys can spend more next summer,' says Wagner, a former certified public accountant on Wall Street. One of his primary aims is building revenues to close the gap to clubs awarded parachute payments. Asked whether the numbers are where he expected this summer, Wagner says they have smashed this season's original target. 'My team loves it when they achieve a goal and I say: 'Well, now it's 10% higher',' he says. Commercial deals with Nike and Delta Air Lines help. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion 'We've achieved levels of revenue that no one has ever done in the Championship, save for clubs receiving parachute payments,' Wagner says. 'So, if we were to fast-forward a year – if we were fortunate enough to get promoted – our first year in the Premier League, I think we'll fall mid-table in total revenues, which is unheard of for a club just entering into the Prem. That's the way we think about the club and that's what our objectives are aimed towards – not just getting to the Prem, but then being there for good, and then ultimately becoming competitive.' Birmingham are looking forward but the appointment of Wayne Rooney backfired. The first episode touches on Rooney's tenure: two wins in 15 matches and 83 days in charge, a run that paved the way to relegation. Wagner says now he 'wouldn't trade that history for the world, because the lessons were invaluable'. We see an awkward, small talk exchange between Brady and Rooney and, later, with Brady stewing in the car after leaving the training ground, comes a telling remark. 'I'm a little bit worried about our head coach's work ethic,' Brady says. Rooney was sacked in January 2024 and Brady is reluctant to linger on the past: 'I have very high expectations for myself and certainly for a club and people I associate with, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Wayne. He's one of the greatest players to step on to a football pitch. And that was a couple of years ago, at this point Chris is our manager … I love Chris's work ethic, attitude, determination and humility.' On deadline day last summer, Birmingham made a splash after signing Jay Stansfield for a record-breaking £15m fee from Fulham. Episode three focuses on the England Under-21 striker's return to Exeter City, for whom his late father, Adam, also played. We hear from Taylor, one of Stansfield's younger brothers, who joined Birmingham as kit man during Stansfield's loan at the club, and their mother, Marie. 'As a footballer, he is just like his dad … he even runs like his dad,' she says. 'They both run with their pinky finger out,' Taylor says, smiling. Marie is in the stand opposite the one renamed after Adam, which Stansfield blows a kiss towards after scoring a penalty. Birmingham have been aggressive in the market this summer, too, with the returning Demarai Gray and the former Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi two of eight signings. More new faces are expected to follow. So, how does Wagner reflect on his time as chair? 'I think the biggest metric for us is the increased amount of interest that we have in the club from new and existing supporters, where we're now enjoying record levels of season-ticket sales,' he says of the 20,000 signed up this season and referencing the 15,000-strong season-ticket waiting list, a first for the club. It is apt that Birmingham host Ipswich, the last team to win back-to-back promotions to the Premier League, in the Championship curtain-raiser a week on Friday. The final episode takes in one of few hiccups under Knighthead: defeat in the Vertu Trophy final at Wembley in April. 'I don't like losing,' says Wagner. 'I'll back that up,' says Brady. 'We sold 50,000 tickets and when the last ticket sold, there were 23,000 people on the phone waiting to purchase tickets,' Wagner adds. 'Whatever we're doing seems to be resonating with people, in that they want to be a part of the journey. We knew it was a big club with a lot of supporters but I don't think we appreciated how many live and die with us on match day.'
