Fans kept guessing
IT WAS a fairly routine weekend of Premier League action, with little that raised the eyebrows really, save for perhaps the Leicester-Everton result.
The Foxes are turning around their fortunes after the sacking of Craig Shakespeare, but it is worrying times for Everton – despite giving Ronald Koeman the boot last week, the Blues occupy 18th spot on the table with just eight points from 10 matches.
It was a nervy start to the weekend for Manchester United fans, who were kept guessing about Jose Mourinho’s tactics – would he continue the negativity and settle for a draw or has he realised that he got it completely wrong against Liverpool and Huddersfield?
The three points were what was needed and they got it with a sublime strike from Anthony Martial – it was a hard-fought performance and a well-deserved win that kept them five points adrift of Man City, who won against West Brom.
November will pose a few challenges for the top two – City next face Arsenal, are away to Leicester and Huddersfield, and close out the month hosting Southampton, while Man United are away to Chelsea next Sunday, followed by home games against Newcastle and Brighton, and an end-of-month assignment away to Watford.
Third-placed Spurs are already eight-points off the pace of log leaders Man City and have Chelsea and Arsenal breathing down their
necks, both on 19 points.
THERE was plenty of action in the world of sport this past weekend, which included MotoGP, F1, Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight bout, the Currie Cup final, Telkom Knockout Cup, tennis, cricket T20 and ODI, and hockey.
F1 was a snooze-fest for me – it started off with some firstlap drama that involved Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel – contact that forced Hamilton and Vettel to pit, then tapered off into a procession (exciting bits might have been watching Vettel and Hamilton working their way through the pack from second last and last respectively after pitting) and ended with Verstappen claiming race honours, and Hamilton winning his fourth driver’s crown.
Although Hamilton was lapped and finished ninth, his closest rival in the drivers’ championship Vettel finished fourth, which wasn’t enough to take the title fight down to the wire.
With Mercedes clinching the constructor’s title and Lewis the driver’s, the remaining two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi will at best offer battles for “scraps” – Vettel and Bottas can fight for second and third spots in the driver’s champs and there could be some movement in the constructor’s table – Williams, Torro Rosso, Renault and Haas could shake things up by adding to their points tally in the last two races of the season.
I’VE heard a lot of people talking up Bangladesh and trying to make them sound better than they actually are, as a way to perhaps suggest that they’re not minnows who have claimed a few big scalps and therefore were worthy opponents of the Proteas.
Let’s be honest – they are minnows and certainly aren’t in the league of the Proteas, India, Australia or England.
I’m going to use ICC rankings to paint a picture of where Bangladesh is relative to cricket’s big wigs, and after I’ve done that I’m going to dismiss the rankings system from a Proteas perspective.
In Test match rankings, India are first, followed by South Africa, and Bangladesh are a distant ninth; for ODIs, it’s South Africa first, India second and Bangladesh seventh; and for T20s, top spot goes to New Zealand, second to Pakistan, sixth to South Africa and 10th to Bangladesh.
I’ll repeat – Bangladesh are not in the same league as the Proteas and it’s foolish to suggest that they are. They are, however, able to cause major upsets particularly at World Cups but have a long way to go in terms of their development before they become a force to be reckoned with.
In ODIs, they could certainly become more credible opponents than the likes of the West Indies and Sri Lanka, who have been struggling of late. The Proteas completed their whitewash of Bangladesh in all three formats and are understandably delighted.
I just don’t get the fixation with the rankings – apart from the annual cheque for the topranked nation, I don’t get this obsession we have to be No 1 and to brag about it – surely our priority should be working towards winning the next World Cup? And the best way to do that would be to play worthy or better opposition.
Personally, I’d like to see less of the bragging about rankings, and more by way of results/ trophies at major events.