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Bayern Munich star Harry Kane's latest strike in the club's 5-0 win over Stuttgart in the Bundesliga was clocked at an incredible speed. Kane was on the pitch for a little over 30 minutes but it was enough time for him to score yet another hat-trick this season as the Bavarian side extended their unbeaten league run to 13 matches and are 11 points clear at the top of the table.

Kane's stunning strike in Bayern's thumping win

Kane did not feature in Vincent Kompany's starting lineup as Chelsea loanee Nicolas Jackson started up front. The England captain was only introduced in the 61st minute. It took just five minutes to open his scoring. Kane received a pass near the centre circle and made a solo run down the middle. The striker then launched a pile driver from distance as the ball flew into the goal like a rocket.

Bayern Munich later confirmed on social media that Kane's effort was clocked at 128 km/h from 25 yards away from the goal. Kane later doubled his tally from the penalty spot in the 80th minute, before completing his treble from Michael Olise's assist.

AdvertisementGetty Images SportWhy did Kane start against Stuttgart?

After starring for Bayern, Kane revealed why he was left on the bench during the crucial game, as he told reporters: "It's something I'm not used to, but I did it a couple of times this season. The boss wanted to keep me fresh and save energy. I came on after 60 minutes with a couple of other guys and we were able to exploit the space and get the goals. We had a tough battle in the cup mid-week and today we faced one of the best teams in the league away, but we looked stronger in the last half an hour and punished them."

Kompany then added: "I had this change in mind before the game started. We have 4 games in 11 days. If I start Harry every game and he plays 90 minutes, I'll get questions about why he always plays. Every time we played Stuttgart, we've always grown stronger as the game progressed. I felt the spaces would be bigger when Harry came on. It was a good moment for him to come. And he did what he does."

Will Kane return to Spurs?

Amid rumours of Kane exiting the Allianz Arena next summer, his former club Tottenham Hotspur have reportedly shown interest in bringing back one of their finest players of all time.

Kane, however, has been warned not to return to a former club as Spurs icon Stephen Carr said: "He left and even the fans in the end understood that he needed to leave in order to win something. He deserved to win something, which he has now. I’m sure he will win more this year. He had unbelievable success there [Spurs], is a legend there, and I think he is still looked at like that. 

"He scores goals regardless but whether he would have that same success, I don’t know. It would be great if he did go back, but I think he will be looking at it differently. After leaving Tottenham, giving up on the English goal record – he would have caught [Alan] Shearer the way he was going – he’s not going to get younger, he does adjust his game, but I get the feeling he will stay there or go somewhere else in Europe. He might want another challenge, rather than going back to Tottenham."

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GettyWill Kane stay at Bayern?

Kane has offered no indication that he is considering a change of scenery, having spoken on a regular basis of how happy he and his family – including wife Kate – are in Bavaria. He is tied to a contract through 2027 that may yet be extended.

For one weekend only, legendary St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will return to the team that made him famous.

Molina is set to serve as a guest coach for the Cardinals' games against the Chicago Cubs on Friday and Saturday, St. Louis manager Oli Marmol told reporters Friday via Katie Woo of . The 43-year-old Bayamon, P.R., native retired from Major League Baseball after the 2022 season.

“He reached out to (president of baseball operations and John Mozeliak) and me, asking what we thought about him being in uniform,” Marmol told "‘My response was an easy one: Absolutely.”

Molina played 19 seasons with the Cardinals, in which he became one of the most beloved players in franchise history. He made 10 All-Star teams and won the World Series twice, claiming nine Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger.

"Anytime you get the chance to have someone like Yadi around your players, you take it,” Marmol said. “It’s a no-brainer. The experience, the leadership, the presence he brings—it impacts everyone."

St. Louis, which is currently 58–58 and 5.5 games out of a National League wild-card spot, could use the help.

Thursday's game between the Red Sox and Yankees was the Cam Schlittler show, as the New York pitcher struck out 12 in a transcendent playoff debut. However, one other Yankee briefly took the spotlight in the eighth inning.

With one out, Boston left fielder Jarren Duran lofted a foul ball straight up in the air down the third-base line. New York third baseman Ryan McMahon attempted to chase it down—only to quickly run out of real estate.

That turned out to be no matter, as McMahon snared the ball inside the Red Sox dugout—tumbling inside and just barely bracing himself with his hands to prevent injury.

The catch instantly recalled some of the Yankees' finest-ever postseason defensive plays, such as shortstop Derek Jeter's flip play in 2001 against the Athletics.

McMahon ranks 20th in defensive bWAR among active players—he led the National League in the category with the Rockies in 2021—but some plays are too good to truly quantify.

TORONTO — More than an hour after his season ended in a heartbeat and winter took hold, Ernie Clement sprawled in his chair in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse, still in full uniform, nursing a Labatt Blue. His sliding shorts featured a hole in the right knee. His eyeblack stickers barely clung to his cheeks. His eyes brimmed with tears. 

He struggled to reckon with his loss. Not of Game 7, in which the Blue Jays fell, 5–4, in a shocking, back-and-forth, 11th-inning defeat to the Dodgers. Not of the World Series, which they at one point led three games to two, and on Saturday were two outs away from clinching. What hurt most, he realized, was that he wouldn’t get to come to work tomorrow. 

“Even if we’d won,” he mused, “I’d still be sad that it was over.”

That was the message the Blue Jays repeated over and over in their quiet clubhouse as Saturday night bled into Sunday morning. 

“Everybody loves each other in here,” said center fielder Daulton Varsho. “We enjoy being around this group, and that’s probably going to be the most hurtful thing.”

That they were so close only makes it worse. 

“It took them seven games to beat us,” said Kevin Gausman, who started Games 2 and 6. “I think if we play tomorrow, we beat ’em, but we’re not playing tomorrow.”

They had so many chances for a different ending. They loaded the bases with two outs in the second. They had runners on first and second with one out in the fourth, and a runner at third with no outs in the fifth. They loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, and they had runners at the corners with one out in the 11th. But they could not come through with a hit to put the Dodgers away, and the Dodgers clawed back with solo homers in the eighth, off Trey Yesavage, who started Games 1 and 5; in the ninth, off closer Jeff Hoffman; and in the 11th, off Game 4 starter Shane Bieber. 

“I feel for everybody in here,” said Clement. “We grinded so hard. I’d go to war with Jeff Hoffman every day of the week. I want him on the mound. I want Biebs on the mound. Those are guys who I would take a bullet for. And 99 times out of 100 those guys get the job done. Obviously, this wasn’t our night here. But I feel for those guys so much.”

He expertly handled a fired-up Karnataka attack to ensure his team didn’t fall behind in the semi-final

Varun Shetty at Eden Gardens29-Feb-2020If you watched Anustup Majumdar lift Bengal from a first-session collapse for the second match in a row on Saturday, you would find it hard to believe that he has only played in 63 first-class matches.On a chaotic batting day for Bengal, Majumdar expertly handled a fired-up Karnataka bowling line-up to ensure his team didn’t fall behind in the semi-final on the very first day. After being put in, Bengal were reeling at 67 for 6 by the first over after lunch before Majumdar batted with the lower order to stretch their innings to 275 and into day two with a wicket in hand.Since his debut in 2004. Majumdar has had a stop-start journey, which has included stops at the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Pune Warriors, India A, East Zone, and most recently Railways before a return to Bengal. In that time as a first-class cricketer, Majumdar has had two stellar seasons in his career, averaging 90-plus in both, where he made three centuries each. But his unbeaten 120 on Saturday was only his ninth overall. After an ordinary stint with Railways in 2015-16, Majumdar decided to return to Bengal but wasn’t picked for the 2016-17 season.Three seasons later, having quit his job with Railways in 2018 to play cricket full time, the 35-year-old is one of the men who has kept Bengal in the hunt for their first final since 2006-07. At no point in this hard path back into the team did he contemplate quitting, the batsman said at the post-day press conference.”I’ve left my job to play cricket,” he said. “The thought of leaving cricket doesn’t occur to me.”To Karnataka, it might seem like the thought of departing from the crease itself might be anathema to Majumdar. Their discipline had built enough pressure to dismiss an out-of-form top order cheaply, and a lack of proactive batting only contributed further to Bengal’s fall. Most dismissals bore the usual signs of nervous batting – hard hands, overt aggression, failure to put bad balls away.But there were none of those when Majumdar was on strike. He started solid and watchful, but without slipping into defensiveness. A lot of his early runs came from sweetly-timed boundaries through the covers, and that would remain his most lucrative scoring region for the rest of the day. It was indicative of a pitch that wasn’t as menacing as the green hue – or the other batsmen – had made it appear.His batting plan seemed simple enough – play late, play straight, and get behind the ball. From that base, he drove elegantly on the up and off the back foot with little trouble, even indulging himself occasionally by clipping the fast bowlers wide of mid-on from outside off. A lot of it was made easier by having Shahbaz Ahmed at the other end, with whom he had made a seventh-wicket stand of 171 after Bengal had fallen to 46 for 5 in their quarter-final against Odisha.”Shahbaz and I are stroke makers, we play positively. When Shahbaz came in and started playing his shots, it made me confident that even I could play my shots and be aggressive. So we started attacking and it became the turning point for us,” Majumdar said. “After Shahbaz came in, the match opened up a little. He hit some of their good balls for a couple of boundaries and 30-40 runs into the partnership, they started pulling their lengths back because of it.”Anustup Majumdar drives through the off side•PTI That early counter-punch in the Majumdar-Ahmed stand involved forceful back-to-back boundaries off Ronit More from both of them in consecutive overs. It was almost a signal for a change in pace. After scampering to 66 for 5 in 30 overs, Bengal added 209 in the last 52 overs of the day.But the partnership with Ahmed itself only lasted until a superb straightening delivery from around the wicket by Abhimanyu Mithun hit Ahmed’s off stump. At 139 for 7, Bengal still had a predicament. That was when No. 9 Akash Deep, the young fast bowler who is having a breakthrough season with the ball, played a crucial hand. Akash, who can hang around but is also capable of hitting big sixes, was the main supporting act as he and Majumdar put on 103 for the eighth wicket.”I would say it was Akash who changed the complexion of the match,” Majumdar said. “They never thought Akash would play such a knock. They never thought we would put together a century stand for the eighth wicket. He played fearless cricket.”Akash’s resilience was also down to the fact that Majumdar recognised his partner’s strengths – literally and in terms of skill – against spin, and kept him on strike mostly at the end from which offspinner K Gowtham was bowling. Akash hit him for three sixes in an innings of 44, and suddenly Karnataka’s four-bowler attack was under some strain as their holding bowler was being unsettled.And in that period, Majumdar himself stepped up the scoring. Their partnership came at 4.54 per over, and on a drying pitch, Majumdar looked even more impenetrable. The booming extra cover drives prompted permanent protection on that boundary throughout the final session, but Majumdar was now also pulling and hooking effectively.He survived two referrals that were never close, and only had one distinctive moment of trouble when he jumped down the track and looked to smite Karun Nair’s medium-pace over the leg side to try and bring up his hundred. By then, a few hundred local supporters had been cheering for him and Bengal for close to an hour as the team went past 250.When he did finally get it – pulling Mithun behind square off the front foot – the applause was loudest from the Bengal dugout. Just over a week ago, he had pulled off a similar knock for them, and he had kept them in it once again.Majumdar said he rated this knock higher than the 157 he got against Odisha, because of the opposition. On a pitch that’s easing out, and against an opposition that has the luxury of bringing in KL Rahul as an extra batting option, it’s too early to say whether Bengal have enough runs. But the last time he made two hundreds in a season, Majumdar had gone on to make a third and, at the very least, he has kept the prospects of that repeat alive.

The key stats takeaways from the first half of IPL 2020

Bharath Seervi13-Oct-2020 Bat first, win the match
Teams batting first have won 75% (21) of the 28 matches, while chasing sides have won only seven games. Five of the seven wins by chasing teams were completed in the final over. In the four previous IPL seasons, from 2016 onwards, in each season the teams chasing have won more games than those batting first. The average first-innings score so far has been 181, the highest in any IPL season. Teams batting first are averaging a high 36.59 runs per wicket. In none of the previous 12 seasons have teams batting first averaged over 30.ESPNcricinfo LtdSpinners play key roles in defending targets
The spinners have contrasting numbers between the first innings and second innings. In the first innings, they average 40.60 runs per wicket, while their average when defending targets is just 22.91. Of the three venues, Abu Dhabi is the only venue where the spinners have been equally effective in both innings. In Dubai and Sharjah, the difference between first and second-innings averages is huge.ESPNcricinfo LtdIndian batsmen on a roll
There have been 12 innings of 80 or more, of which nine have come from Indians. Of the three 80-plus knocks by overseas batsmen, two came in the same innings – Faf du Plessis (87*) and Shane Watson (83*) against Kings XI Punjab; Jonny Bairstow’s 97 is the other. It is not a regular sight to see overseas batsmen not dominating the list of top scores: in the last four seasons (2016 to 2019), Indians have scored only 50% of the 80-plus scores, but this year the share is 75% so far.ESPNcricinfo LtdMumbai’s batting bosses all phases
Mumbai Indians have been the best batting team in terms of scoring rates in each of three phases of the innings – Powerplay (run rate of 7.97 in the first six), middle-overs (8.77 between overs 7 and 16) and the death overs (13.26 in the last four). In each of these phases, their batsmen average over 30 runs per wickets. Kieron Pollard has scored 138 runs at strike rate of 222.58 in the death overs, which is the most by a batsman in that phase this season. In the Powerplay overs, Quinton de Kock has been Mumbai’s key performer with 119 runs at 130.76, while Suryakumar Yadav has topped in the middle-order with 133 runs at 144.56. Mumbai batsmen also have the second-best ratio of balls to sixes (12.57); only Rajasthan Royals have hit sixes more frequently, every 12 balls. Chennai Super Kings are the worst in the balls per six ratio (23.54).ESPNcricinfo LtdESPNcricinfo Ltd Delhi’s bowling unit most economical
Delhi Capitals are the only team with an economy rate below eight this season (7.90). In their first seven matches, they have also taken the most wickets (51) and conceded the fewest boundaries (120). In the tournament so far, six bowlers have taken five or more wickets at economy of less than eight and average of below 20. Three of them are from Delhi – Kagiso Rabada, Axar Patel and R Ashwin. Their other key wicket-taker Anrich Nortje has taken eight wickets at economy of 7.21 and average of 25.25.ESPNcricinfo LtdSharjah vs Abu Dhabi and Dubai
Clearly Sharjah has been the most batting-friendly venue among the three venues. The average run rate at Sharjah has been 9.67 whereas at Dubai and Abu Dhabi it is 8.34 and 8.16 respectively. However, Dubai is catching with Sharjah in terms of frequency of sixes. At Sharjah a six is hit every 16 balls while at Dubai it is 20 balls per six. At Abu Dhabi, batsmen take 32 balls for every six. Seven 200-plus totals have come at Sharjah, all in the first seven innings and none in the next five.

Venue Mats Run rate Runs/wkt Balls/Six Ave 1st inns score 200+ totalsSharjah 6 9.67 31.25 16.76 209 7Dubai 12 8.34 27.88 20.32 178 4Abu Dhabi 10 8.16 27.98 32.18 169 0

After being “surprised to get a game”, Pattinson is at present joint-fourth on IPL 2020’s wicket charts

Vishal Dikshit10-Oct-20203:57

What’s behind the success of Anrich Nortje and James Pattinson?

When the Mumbai Indians squad, covered in their PPEs, landed in the sultry August heat of Abu Dhabi for IPL 2020, James Pattinson was still in lockdown in Victoria, Australia, in 7 degrees Celsius. Pattinson, like most other players around the world, had not played any cricket for many months, and after being named as a replacement for Lasith Malinga, he had to suddenly fly to the UAE to face an additional 30-plus degrees and play two months of challenging T20 cricket.Pattinson was preparing for the Australian summer before that, and “luckily” he had been training with the white ball when he got a call for the IPL. But was he going to even get a game early on, joining a pace-heavy bowling attack, which included Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan and Nathan Coulter-Nile? As many experts had predicted, and Pattinson himself expected, he wasn’t in the Mumbai Indians’ initial plans. But Coulter-Nile arrived with a side strain and Pattinson “was surprised to get a game”, as he revealed before the game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.Since then, the Mumbai Indians have carved out a specific role for Pattinson, with the seamer moulding himself so well for it that they haven’t had to change their bowling attack even once in six games. The result: Pattinson is the joint-fourth among the top wicket-takers this season with nine scalps, only behind Kagiso Rabada (15), Bumrah (11), Boult (10) and Mohammed Shami (10).The role Pattinson has been given is to bowl two overs with the new ball, one in the 10-14-over period and the last at the death, which allows Bumrah to start bowling towards the end of the powerplay and keep two for the slog overs. One of the things that has worked well for Pattinson is that he is a hit-the-deck bowler, and that skill comes handy on pitches in the UAE where fast bowlers barely get any assistance. Pattinson aims for that short-of-a-length area, which he can use for extra bounce, or for cutters.ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data on length from this IPL shows that in powerplays so far, Pattinson has bowled about 55% of his 60 deliveries either short or short-of-a-good-length and conceded only 39 runs off those 33 deliveries while picking up one wicket.James Pattinson has bowled 10 overs in the powerplay in six games•ESPNcricinfo LtdHitting such lengths is a feature of the overall plan the Mumbai Indians have been following for a while now in the IPL.Another weapon Pattinson has used with great success this season – his maiden IPL – has been his change-ups, which he had been working on before the tournament. What else does a fast bowler do when pitches don’t offer swing or seam movement? Bowl some cutters, take the pace off the ball and wait for the batsmen to miscue the ball with your fielders at the boundary.Case in point: Pattinson was bowling a crucial 16th over with David Warner on 58 and the Sunrisers needing 70 off 30 balls, which is quite achievable in Sharjah. After slanting two slower deliveries across Warner from over the wicket, Pattinson came around the wicket and sent down a slow, short and wide legcutter that Warner chased desperately and ended up edging to short-third man for a spectacular catch by Ishan Kishan.Pattinson says planning for particular batsmen has been key to his and the Mumbai Indians’ bowling success.”It’s just the planning that goes into it,” Pattinson said on Saturday. “Before the game, we plan and work out our fields, different plans for different batters. It’s just about executing that. I think the confidence they have really rubs off on me, especially Trent and Boom [Bumrah] have great confidence in their ability. It’s great to have that rub off and you going to games with that confidence and knowing you’re surrounded by world-class bowlers.”It’s good to go out and play my part. I’ve got two really, really good white-ball bowlers in Jasprit and Trent, it’s nice to play a back-seat role for them and try and help out the team as much as I can.”Pattinson is also a lesser-known entity in the IPL because apart from his start-stop Australia career marred by injuries, the only T20 league he has played in is the Big Bash. He picked up 5 for 33 for the Brisbane Heat with the new ball at the beginning of the year but in the IPL his role is not restricted to opening the bowling. In the second half of the tournament, too, Pattinson could prove handy with his reverse swing, which captain Rohit Sharma, before the IPL, had said could come into play as pitches go through more wear and tear.For now, Pattinson is enjoying what he is doing: bowling alongside Boult and Bumrah and playing the back-seat role.

He has more than a few skills to be transferred in either direction, from the shortest format to the longest

Andrew Miller07-Feb-20212:30

What makes Jofra Archer special?

It’s a sign of the strange times that we live in, that two fast bowlers whose records and reputations precede them in India are only right now playing in their first Test match in the country – and on opposing teams as well.The Indian Premier League may be the stage on which both men have honed their crafts, but in their contrasting but complementary styles, first Jasprit Bumrah and now Jofra Archer have demonstrated an abiding truth about high-class fast bowling. It transcends time, place, formats and conditions – and it remains the most compelling factor in the game. Pace is pace, no matter where and how you use it, and pace with skill can be unplayable.Bumrah’s efforts ended up being rather buried beneath the mountains of runs that England piled up over the first two-and-a-bit days of this match. However, his ability to take the pitch out of the equation, unmatched in the contemporary game, was showcased by his three lbws on each day of the match – full, fast, inswinging and startling, as well as by arguably the single best ball of the match so far, a sensational late-dipping yorker that should by rights have unseated Ben Stokes before his vital 82 had got underway.On the third day, on the other hand, Archer’s efforts were front and centre of England’s surge into the ascendancy, and what’s more, they seized on the exact opposite approach to Bumrah, not to mention the exact same methods that earned him the accolade of MVP at the last IPL that finished in November. Aggression to the fore, accuracy unwavering, and most importantly for England’s burgeoning hopes in this campaign, a determination not only to embrace the uncompromising nature of the wicket, but to factor it actively into his methods.To be fair to England’s planning for this series, he’s hardly been alone in that. For the third match running, a different England new-ball bowler has nailed his methods in his first spell of the winter – but whereas Stuart Broad and James Anderson, in consecutive Tests against Sri Lanka, created their opportunities through relentless dot-ball pressure, Archer was more content to duke it out in his favourite T20 fashion, relishing the cut and thrust of the encounter, and encouraging errors through the batsman’s adrenaline as much as his own.Archer’s first five-over burst went for 25 runs but yielded two priceless wickets – Rohit Sharma scalped by a fast cutter that kicked off the deck as if was a Dukes ball in May, before kissing the edge through to the keeper. The other was burgled with pure IPL trickery, as Archer ripped his fingers down the side of the ball, luring a pumped-up Shubman Gill into a fatefully early push through the line to a diving Anderson at mid-on.Jofra Archer vs Rohit Sharma•ESPNcricinfo LtdFrom the outset, Archer’s blood was pumping, to a more visible degree than had ever been the case during his undeniably subdued performances during England’s summer series – epitomised by his comments during the Old Trafford Test against Pakistan, when he claimed that the wicket was not one on which to “bend your back”.It’s arguable that Archer’s point in that contest was misconstrued – it certainly seems that way after witnessing the ferocity of his approach both here and at the IPL – given that English conditions, even flatter pitches, tend to offer just enough assistance to reward the virtues of conventional line and length. Without ever slipping the handbrake in that Old Trafford game, he still contributed four wickets at 21.5 to England’s series-deciding win. And in the long term, if Archer can develop the versatility to thrive without going full throttle, he’ll be all the better set for a long and fruitful Test career, in all conditions.In the early years of the IPL, it was regularly stated that the best Test players were equipped to thrive in T20 cricket, but not vice versa – and for a time this was true, because the longer game still rewarded the sort of technical discipline for which white-ball cricket (as it wasn’t then called) was liable to cut corners. Test cricket is where you “build the brand”, as Kevin Pietersen infamously put it at the height of his stand-off with the ECB.But that attitude is palpably wrongheaded now – a decade has passed since David Warner broke the mould, and India have just ended Australia’s three-decade-long unbeaten run at the Gabba with a victory that was siphoned directly from the vim and optimism of regular T20 combat. And, as Archer showed in bucking every conceivable fast-bowling trend at the latest IPL, he has more than a few skills to be transferred in either direction.All told, Archer claimed 20 wickets at 18.25 in Rajasthan Royals’ campaign, but half of those came with the new ball in his Powerplay overs, at a stunning economy rate of 4.34 that was a testament, as much as anything, to his sheer unplayability. It was widely noted at the time, in fact, that he was adapting a Test-match attitude to his white-ball game, consistently targeting the top of off with judicious use of the bouncer – a weapon so ferocious, even in the UAE, that it actually improved his economy rate (to a remarkable 3.54) – while keeping even his more confident opponents guessing with his cunning armoury of cutters and knuckle-balls.And so it showed today, in a thrilling but short-lived joust with India’s openers. Over the course of the past three IPLs, Gill and Sharma had faced 18 balls from Archer, with a palpable lack of success. Each had been dismissed twice, for a grand total of 11 runs, and Sharma’s head-to-head on home soil is now particularly bleak – he had been dismissed by two of the first four balls that Archer had bowled to him in India, and he made it three out of eight in total today, as he flinched at a perfect pacey cutter, one ball after flicking a rare loose ball off his toes.As for Gill, there can’t have been many more scintillating sub-30 innings in recent Test history, as he too showed how transferable his short-form skills can be, not least against one of England’s established Test masters – his checked on-drive for four off Anderson was nothing less than a come-and-get-me plea from his as-yet unsponsored bat. But for India’s purposes, it proved too short and sweet. A blend of methods might yet be required in the second innings, if India are to back up their Australia heroics with another extraordinary turnaround in this contest.

Sthalekar, Bishop, Goswami, Clark, Vettori, Dravid, Guha and others welcome the switch from “batsmen” to “batters”

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2021Lisa Sthalekar
It is certainly something I know within Australia that we have been very conscious about. Even covering the WBBL when that was formed, the commentators Andy Maher, Mel Jones and myself really wanted to change the language to make it more inclusive. So we started to use batter, and it’s actually been a fascinating journey because we had female broadcasters around the world that were still saying batsman. And I still remember, in the 2017 [women’s ODI] World Cup, we were all together, and we had quite a robust discussion, saying, “Well, you know what? I am used to it. It is how it’s always said over here.” I guess the conversation was around if we don’t change it, who will? We’ll just accept it and keep moving on.Related

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Sambit Bal: Why we're replacing 'batsman' with 'batter'

I think what’s really important is, and maybe some males do not get it, is when you say “batsmen” or “Man of the Match” or when you say, “hey, boys” when you are in the backyard and you do this, girls kind of tune out because you are not talking to them or they don’t feel like you are talking to them. And that may not be the case for everyone. But, I guess, as commentators, we are trying to be as inclusive as possible. And there are men and women and boys and girls watching and listening to the game. So, why not use language that is inclusive to everyone that’s listening?Ian Bishop
I think it is respectful. Some people will say it is semantics, some people will say it is politically correct. No, I think it is trying to create a sense of equity even in the naming, the branding, the wording that we use in bringing parity to the men’s and the women’s game. I applaud ESPNcricinfo. I applaud all the stakeholders, who are willing to bring that balance to gender neutrality.