The brave new dawn of English one-day cricket began with record numbers of runs scored, quite a lot of runs conceded, rapid-fire centuries, thrillingly unsuccessful rain-affected run chases and even a familiar batting collapse. The outcome was that England trailed New Zealand 2-1 with two games of the series left to play. Still, it was a bit of a novelty for England fans accustomed to slow and joyless defeat. “We’re not getting too deep with our thinking and planning, we’re just talking about playing with great intent in everything we do,” England’s stand-in coach Paul Farbrace explained. There was no such joie de vivre from Australia’s Test side, who ground the West Indies clinically into the dust with a 277-run victory in Kingston for a clean sweep of their two-match series. Meanwhile, India and Bangladesh played out a rain-affected draw in Fatullah.
Football rolls on … and on
The primary law of sporting perpetual motion is that modern football can never be stopped, not even for long enough to make sense of Sepp Blatter’s resignation statement. The Copa América kicked off in Chile with several of the tournament’s big guns slow out of the traps: Argentina held 2-2 by Paraguay and much-fancied Colombia tripped up in a 1-0 defeat by Venezuela in the group stages. In Canada at the opposite end of the Americas, the Women’s World Cup ploughed on, with Brazil and Japan among those booking early places in the knockout rounds. In Europe, meanwhile, an interminable and otherwise unremarkable weekend of Euro 2016 qualifiers was bookended by Wales’s outstanding 1-0 win over Belgium and Greece’s less impressive 2-1 loss to the Faroe Islands. England won 3-2 in Slovenia, and the Republic of Ireland and Scotland played out a 1-1 draw.
Froome hits cycling form
Perhaps the golden age of British road cycling is not over yet. Chris Froome overcame the disappointment of his recent Giro D’Italia showing to claim victory in the Critérium de Dauphiné. Froome, the 2013 Tour de France winner, appears to be hitting form for this year’s event at just the right time after the outcome of the eight-stage Criterium was decided in the final couple of kilometres. “I think the team are ready for the Tour,” said the Team Sky rider, “and I think I’m almost ready.”
Nadal reaches high on grass
He may no longer be the king of clay, but Rafael Nadal showed that rumours of his decline may be premature by taking the grass court title at Stuttgart in straight sets over Serbia’s Viktor Troicki. “I’m really, really happy. It’s my second win this year and it gives me a lot of confidence,” said Nadal, after his 66th career title and fourth on grass, all of which puts him in good stead for Wimbledon –which begins later this month.
