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'Baby Lukaku'. That is the nickname, coined by Romelu Lukaku's former team-mate Kevin Mirallas, that Belgian journalists love to use when they write about Promise David. It's easy to see why, too, with the Union Saint-Gilloise striker one of European football's most unsung talents, a true Hidden Gem.

The striker is physically and mentally strong and is very fast. Weapons with which he can force something in every game. With his profile, it is not surprising that Premier League clubs such as West Ham United are closely following him. And yet David does not dispel all doubts.

David appears clumsy, wild, certainly no clinical finisher, and his lack of concentration is apparent. David is an enigma to scouts. He can't tread water, but he can swim easily from A to B. The black Michael Phelps, he calls himself in Similarly, David can play a terrible game, yet still manage to get his name on the score sheet. That may actually be his greatest quality. It drives his coach, David Hubert, crazy. But Hubert can't ignore him, because his striker can score anytime, anywhere. And his five-year plan? He's ticked that off in a year and a half. Promise David has found his way.

Lukaku-esque

If there is one goal that perfectly illustrates just why Mirallas, who now works as USG's attacking coach, compares David to Lukaku, it was his striker against Royal Antwerp in March 2025. In the opening game of the Jupiler League championship play-offs, David was played in behind the Antwerp defence as Rosen Bozhinov pulled out all the stops to fend the striker off.

"As I ran, I felt a claw at my neck," the striker told podcast about a goal that quickly went viral on the internet. "When I took a shower later, it hurt badly because he had literally torn the skin off my neck. I bled throughout the entire match and didn't even realise it."

"I headed straight for the goal, seeing nothing but green," David continued. "I didn't want to dive or fall. Then he grabbed me again. I thought, 'You f*cking dick!' I swung my arms back and my shirt ripped. I was happy about that, because every time he pulled on that shirt, it felt like I was choking."

With only half a shirt left, David finally broke free from Bozhinov, though the defender had slowed him down just enough for a team-mate to catch up. David, though, produced a simple body feint to leave the second defender in the dust before sliding the ball into the net, slapping his chest powerfully and screaming mightily in celebration.

"I was subbed and then took a look at my phone," he said. "The goal had already been posted on social media and it looked horrible. It was just assault!

"Our sporting director has that shirt hanging in our new training facility, alongside all kinds of other historic kits from Union's history. He said, 'This shirt symbolises Union: it's about resilience, strength and not giving up." It is precisely those three things that symbolise David's unusual career path, too.

AdvertisementWhere it all began

As a child, David always was an energetic boy – "My teachers thought I was a good kid, but also that I was a distraction to others," he recalls – as he grew up in Brampton, Ontario, a city that also has links to his fellow Canada internationals Cyle Larin, Atiba Hutchinson and Tajon Buchanan.

However, it was not in Canada, but rather in Lagos, Nigeria, where David discovered his love for football. As a toddler, he lived there with his grandparents, while his uncle was a huge Chelsea supporter.

"I'll never forget him picking me up at my grandmother's house," David told . "I sat on the back of his motorbike and we rode to the bar together to watch the matches."

Upon moving back to Canada, David looked for a hobby to pour his energy into. At first, it was the piano, but when it broke – "That really p*ssed me off!" – David went looking for something else, and soon found his new love: football.

'F*ck you moment'

David initially joined Toronto FC's academy, but at the age of 15 he was let go. He then spent three years with semi-professional outfit Vaughan Azzurri before, having turned 18 in 2019, he was offered a move to Europe to join Croatian third-division side NK Trnje. It proved, however, to be a painful moment in his young life.

"Things happened in Croatia that I didn't even dare tell my parents about," David recalls, before revealing the racist abuse he suffered from his coach in Zagreb. "He didn't want black people, Africans, on his team. He said bizarre things to me.On one occasion, my team-mates didn't translate what he had shouted during a training session until a month later because they found it too awful. Everyone froze the moment he said it. It was something like,God forbid I ever put a black player in my team.'"

David was sent back to the youth team, where he was able to rediscover his love of the game under a different coach, Rajko Vidovic. When Vidovic became the coach of the first team shortly afterwards, he provided the prolific striker an opportunity, one which David took immediately.

"It was the biggest f*ck you momentof my life," David says of the goal he scored moment after coming off the bench for his debut. "It felt like revenge on that one man."

David soon left Zagreb, however, and moved to the United States and USL outfit FC Tulsa. The switch did not prove to be a success, and he soon headed back to Europe, joining Maltese side Valletta.

"I lost a cup final there," David remembered. "That broke me. I've cried three times in my life when it came to football, that match was one of them. My niece Liz was in the stadium at the time and she took a photo of me on the big screen just as I was crying. Man, I'm ugly when I cry."

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The big break

By the time a spell with a different Maltese club, Sirens FC, had also ended in disappointment, David was 21 and his dream of a career as a professional footballer seemed very far away.

"My parents wanted me to come home," he said. "Until then, they had always supported me. But they had lost hope. I asked them for one more opportunity." That opportunity soon arose in Estonia with Kalju FC. At that point, David drew up an ambitious five-year plan that would end with him playing and scoring at a World Cup.

"The idea was to either play football really well, or be a loser," said David when summing up his thoughts at the time to podcast. "I really didn't want to go to school."

Things didn't start well for him in his new home, however. David was regarded as a 'project' and was initially integrated into Kalju's youth team. There, however, he scored a lot of goals and was eventually promoted to the first team. But any suggestion that David was finally on the right track were soon put to bed.

"I remember playing a match," he recalled. "We were 2-1 up at half-time and I was playing pretty well. They lured us in and then played long balls, so as an attacker I didn't put any pressure on them when we were leading. I walked into the changing room and the president grabbed me by the neck and dragged me out before saying, Is this how you want to play? Don't you know what your father does to keep you here? I'm 60 and I move more than you do!'

"In the second half, I scored again and we won 4-3. All my team-mates were celebrating in the dressing room but I was in the shower crying because the president had just called my father and agent and said it was a big mistake to bring me to the club.

"I didn't have an apartment, but was staying in a hostel. At the same time, all my friends from home were graduating. I had my father's credit card with me because I wasn't earning any money from football. That's when I really thought, 'What am I doing with my life?'"

Those emotions eventually subsided and David worked hard to secure a regular role in the first team. In the 2024 season, he scored 14 goals in 16 games, but despite interest in his services from leagues higher up the food chain, Kalju initially refused to let David leave under any circumstances: "It was insane. I begged them, 'Please release me'. Those times made me understand how people feel when they have to work a 9-to-5 job they hate."

David's plea worked and Kalju reached an agreement with USG in the summer of 2024 for David to move to Belgium.

Our reporters pick their key takeaways from the 2025 tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Nov-20252:47

Moonda: ‘India’s World Cup win worthy of being turned into a movie’

There’s a new world orderMove over Australia, it’s India’s time. Don’t pretend you didn’t hear, or even utter a groan every time Australia were mentioned during this tournament: “Ugh, not them again!” Until… last Thursday night in Navi Mumbai when Harmanpreet Kaur and her team declared they’d had enough, this was their house and the Australians were just renting it on a short-term lease.Evicting them in the semi-final proved both harder and easier than expected. It took the innings of a lifetime from Jemimah Rodrigues to seal India’s place in the title match. Australia were culpable too, their bowlers struggling to cut through a batting line-up that had found its mojo and their fielders struck by a rare case of the fumbles (interspersed with some outright brilliance).As if to highlight what that victory meant, an emotional Harmanpreet gave way to a more familiar, business-like one for the final. The way she nonchalantly tossed the ball up to herself and caught it at the end of Sunday’s comfortable win over South Africa then stalked around calmly marshalling her team for celebrations gave an air of “job done”.For the first time, there is a team other than Australia, England or New Zealand on the trophy. Can India add their name alongside those three and West Indies on the T20 version next year? – The India team lifts a long-awaited World Cup trophy•ICC/Getty ImagesSouth Africa, your time will comeSouth Africa have made three successive women’s finals – two at the T20 World Cup and now their first at an ODI tournament – and these achievements are part of the bigger picture across their whole cricketing ecosystem. South Africa are the only country to make the knockouts of every tournament across men’s, women’s and under-19 cricket since February 2023, and they’ve also made six finals. Their conversion rate, though, is cause for concern with only one trophy (the World Test Championship mace) in the cabinet.Still, for a women’s set-up that only professionalised a dozen years ago and who are under a coach that has only been in charge for ten months, this was an unexpectedly good result. It showed depth and development from players who will form the core of their future: from Nadine de Klerk’s coming of age finishes with the bat to Nonkululeko Mlaba ending as their leading wicket-taker for a second successive tournament. In the ever-resilient spirit of a nation that backs itself to go again, South Africa will know the best is yet to come. Closing the gapThis World Cup hinted at a shifting balance in the women’s game. If India’s win over Australia in the semi-final signalled a new era, Bangladesh and Pakistan’s spirited campaigns underlined how quickly the gap is closing. Bangladesh pushed South Africa deep into the final overs, and nearly stunned England. Pakistan, meanwhile, had Australia struggling with the bat before Beth Mooney’s rescue act and looked set to topple England before rain intervened.These sides impressed with their disciplined bowling attacks – Bangladesh’s spinners and Pakistan’s seamers often dictating terms – but their batting still lacks the consistency and composure needed to finish games against top-tier opposition. Stronger infrastructure and sustained investment will be central to their rise. Add to that India’s World Cup triumph, which could well be the spark that drives these subcontinent teams to believe they too can dominate in the future. – Related

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First the wickets, then the runsThis World Cup started with a few collapses and the trend spread across to the flatter pitches, which were mostly rolled out in Indore and Vishakhapatnam early on. Guwahati and Colombo, meanwhile, saw lower scores as the tracks were slower and had more purchase for the spinners. The first 21 games of this tournament featured only three 300-plus scores before Navi Mumbai came into the picture, where the average total batting first in the league stage was 271, while Guwahati had the lowest of 186.By the time it was curtains for this World Cup, the 133 sixes smashed were the most in a single edition, going past the 111 in 2017 and well ahead of the 52 in 2022. As another sign of the game progressing towards bigger scores overall, this World Cup also had an average scoring rate of 5.14, again comfortably the highest in an edition, overtaking 4.69 in 2017. – Smriti Mandhana gets plenty of support from the home crowd•ICC/Getty ImagesThe Navi Mumbai buzzDY Patil Stadium attracts some genuine women’s cricket fans – the Bucket Hat Cult, a group of young people who enhance the cricket-watching experience from the stands in India’s matches with their customised chants for each player, being a prime example. India’s semi-final against Australia (34,651) and final against South Africa (39,555) were well-attended there, but so were some of the league games: India vs Bangladesh (25,965, a record for a league game in any Women’s World Cup, ODI or T20I) and India vs New Zealand (25,166, the previous record).In Guwahati and Indore, the spectators probably did not know what to expect, given the lack of women’s internationals and WPL games there. Holding the World Cup in these cities was, in part, to spread the game, and due to the unavailability of some regular grounds like the M Chinnaswamy (not in use since the stampede earlier this year), Chepauk (relaying the outfield) and Eden Gardens (renovation). The monsoon would have been a threat to earlier league games being staged at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.The Navi Mumbai leg showed how regular exposure to a product generates enough buzz to develop interest, which can be capitalised on at a World Cup. A lesson would be to build on India’s victory and schedule more matches at tier II and tier III venues, instead of directly using them at a showpiece event. – Sophie Devine celebrates a wicket with Suzie Bates•ICC/Getty ImagesWhere to for New Zealand?As holders of the T20 World Cup and with a farewell to their long-serving captain Sophie Devine at her last ODI World Cup, New Zealand had plenty to inspire them but still failed to ignite the event. They put on a series of middling performances, with only one win in the end, and though rain affected their tournament adversely, they will be concerned with the lack of contributions from their younger players. Devine was their leading run-scorer and Lea Tahuhu their best bowler, which leaves the question of where their next generation will come from and how quickly they can make the step up.Similarly West Indies, who were absent at this event after failing to qualify, will wonder how they can find their way back. With Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh improving, an eight-team field leaves little room for the Caribbean team unless there are major improvements, so it’s just as well the 2029 edition will include ten teams. There are no guarantees, however, and their challenge, like that of the subcontinental teams mentioned, is the lack of financial support their women’s cricket receives. Add to that the complicated logistics of arranging training camps and monitoring the domestic game across different islands and their task is enormous. –

Vidarbha allrounder Harsh Dubey chipped in with 84 in a game where Rishabh Pant took body blows

Shashank Kishore08-Nov-2025Dhruv Jurel struck his fifth first-class century and second in the match, to strengthen his case for a middle-order spot in next week’s first South Africa Test in Kolkata.Jurel struck an unbeaten 127, rescuing a floundering India A innings for the second time in the match, as they declared on 382 for 7, setting South Africa A 417 to win in a little over three sessions. The visitors were 25 for 0 at stumps, with openers Lesego Senokwane and Jordan Hermann surviving 11 testing overs from Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna.Siraj was particularly menacing, testing the inside and outside edge of Senokwane in his last two overs, where there were as many as three appeals for caught behind that were turned down – all superb decisions by umpire Akshay Totare – before he shouldered arms and survived a close leave to one that just missed the off stump. Siraj’s spell read 6-2-10-0.Related

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Jurel came in to bat with India A reeling at 108 for 4 when Rishabh Pant, the captain, retired hurt on 17 after copping multiple blows on the body and helmet by fast bowler Tshepo Moreki. Prior to this, India had lost KL Rahul after he managed to add just one to his overnight 26 when he was bowled off a nip-backer from Okuhle Cele.Jurel found an ally in allrounder Harsh Dubey, who took on the role of the aggressor early on in their partnership. Having had very little bowling to do in the first innings, Dubey proved his batting chops in making 84 as he put on 184 for the sixth wicket with Jurel. Dropped at slip off the very first delivery, Dubey used his feet well to loft spinners Prenelan Subrayen and Kyle Simmonds down the ground. He was also excellent while sweeping.At the other end, Jurel blunted a fired-up Moreki by defending with a straight bat and playing as close as he could to the body. Against spin, there were no half measures: he was either fully forward while driving, or assured while rocking back to cut. For much of his innings, Jurel hardly played across the line.On 49, Jurel had a massive slice of luck when he lunged forward to defend a sharp turner from Subrayen as the ball bounced back onto the stumps in a manner reminiscent of Siraj’s dismissal at Lord’s off Shoaib Bashir to signal England’s victory earlier this year, except this time the bails remained intact. To his credit, Jurel cashed in on that luck, getting past a half-century – it took him 83 deliveries to get there – and then shifting gears to cruise past three-figures.South Africa A took the second new ball immediately upon being available and struck off the second delivery when Dubey was out driving to the slips. That is when Pant returned to bat and quickly pounced on anything loose to charge towards a half-century. Pant got hit for a fourth time with a short ball, from Tiaan van Vuuren, the left-arm seamer, as he tried to pull. On 65, he attempted a slog that he top-edged to the wicketkeeper to drag the innings to a close.

After enduring perhaps the most disappointing 2025 season of any team in the league, the Orioles wasted little time this offseason trying to ensure the ’26 campaign is a different story.

A month ago, the team traded the super-talented but oft-injured Grayson Rodriguez for Taylor Ward, then signed two-time All-Star closer Ryan Helsley to a two-year deal over Thanksgiving weekend. Wednesday, though, saw the biggest move yet, as Baltimore has reportedly agreed to a five-year, $155 million deal with former Mets star Pete Alonso.

The move has huge ramifications, of course, for both the Orioles and Alonso’s now former team. For Baltimore, Alonso represents another massive addition to an offense that ranked 24th in runs scored a year ago. He and Ward hit a combined 74 home runs in 2025, and Alonso’s 195 blasts since ’21 rank fourth behind only Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber.

How Alonso’s presence impacts the roles of some of the Orioles’ younger bats remains to be seen. Before his signing, Baltimore projected to use Adley Rutschman, Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo at catcher, first base and DH. Alonso makes that setup more crowded, and it stands to reason that one of those youngsters (most likely Mayo) could be used as a trade chip for a starting pitcher that the O’s still desperately need. And that’s not the only logjam that needs sorting out, as Baltimore has an abundance of corner outfielders but no obvious solution in center field (your mileage may vary on Colton Cowser’s viability as an everyday option there).

As for the terms of the deal, five years for a player entering his age-31 season who’s quickly approaching DH-only status has very little chance of aging well. For a team that will be making deferred payments to Chris Davis for another 12 years, it’s a bit of a surprise Baltimore jumped back in the saddle on a player with a similar bat-first profile. Then again, as Andrew Friedman once said, “If you’re always rational on every free agent, you will finish third on every free agent.” Consider that fifth year the price for being irrational.

And then, there are the Mets. One day after All-Star closer Edwin Díaz signed with the Dodgers, they now watch another longtime organizational stalwart and fan favorite opt to sign elsewhere. Those developments undoubtedly sting—especially considering the Mets were also a massively disappointing team last season—but it’s not as if those two players are irreplaceable. Under Steve Cohen’s ownership, New York has been linked to basically every big-ticket free agent, and the club will continue to be a possible landing spot for Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger and Munetaka Murakami, among others.

Any of those external options could very well end up working out better than Alonso and Diaz would have over the next handful of years. But the fact that two of the Mets’ most productive and popular players of the last half decade decided to leave town certainly adds to the bad vibe that has clung to the organization for the past six months, and cranks up the urgency to do something——to stop the perceived skid from spiraling into further disaster.

But squaring the series is a must as the best route to a good time in Australia has always been simple: winning

Vithushan Ehantharajah27-Nov-20252:51

Ehantharajah: This defeat will hurt for England

You do not just come to Australia for the Ashes, you come for the heat.No amount of factor 50 can prepare an English soul for what it is like to be a cricketer under the full, scorching might of a country and its peoples hellbent on making you regret daring to harbour ambition on the way in. As the current England squad have realised early in this tour, the sun might be the most forgiving bit.English cricketers always love coming here, until the actual cricket ruins it, as per two of the 24 days they have just spent in Perth. For the best part of a day, and certainly at lunch on day two of the first Test at the Optus Stadium, leading by 99 with nine second-innings wickets still intact, there was nowhere else they’d rather be.That remains the case. England are only 1-0 down, genuine positives to hold dear even if the noise around them feels more like this is a campaign on the verge of derailing. They arrived in Brisbane on Wednesday a little more wary of the world around them, and certainly under no illusions that “playing Australia” is not simply about squaring up to an Australian Test team set to be reinforced by talismanic captain Pat Cummins.By all accounts, confidence remains high, if a little dented. And while the scale of the country was known to most of them before they touched down at the start of November, even with only five of the squad carrying previous Ashes tour experience, the focus upon them could not be clearer.Related

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The lessons learned from the last three weeks are not limited to the perils of driving on the up outside off stump. Though Brendon McCullum, Ben Stokes and Joe Root have spent the last couple of months publicly and privately bringing newbies up to speed on the attention they will garner, this has been a crash course in how confronting sporting Australiana can be.The front pages of the smirked at them at every venture to a coffee shop. The throngs of reporters and cameras at media events in the lead-up to the opening Test was, all told, full-on but welcome. Granted, some of the questioning jarred – on “moral victories” and Jonny Bairstow’s run-out two years ago – but all it did was confirm what they knew. This really was the series that matters most. Hold onto your butts.What the management could not prepare the players for was the relentlessness of it all. Even before England were thrashed by eight wickets, those – including Stokes – who hit the Joondalup Resort Golf Course were surprised to see cameras (and drones) waiting for them on the ninth hole. Television crews, having caught wind of the team’s plans, set themselves up on an adjoining public park to skirt any infringement on private property.The tourists and cameras rented at the same course on Monday, two days after the “shellshock” of Travis Head’s match-clinching century. Elsewhere, Jofra Archer and Shoaib Bashir were shot leaving an aquarium, a vision opportunity almost certainly tipped off by the former’s innocent Instagram story post.Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Harry Brook look bewildered as they leave the field in Perth•Getty ImagesThe cultural differences between cricket on either side of the globe matter here. English cricket is a different world, and much of that is down to Australia’s media landscape.For two months of an Ashes cycle, the game over here is so much more important, and that much more entrenched in the national consciousness, to an enviable degree. Talkback radio and TV news culture thrive. A case in point – crosses back to the east coast had reporters up and outside the Optus working from 3am on matchdays.The spare three days meant plenty of gaps to be filled and, increasingly, more damning assessments of the England team. The extremes of this all have made for morose and – and, cards on the table – at times entertaining filler.The Ashes brings out the America in Australia; every spot on the sporting discourse spectrum at least three deep. There are still four matches and about six weeks to go and we’re already at the “Philadelphia rage” stage, where minutes separate the extremes of febrile gloating and fevered critiques.Right now, the discourse is clear. Travis Head is father. Usman Khawaja is for the glue factory. Golf is for whiny losers, except when Australia do it, of course. Apart from you, Uzzie. England, by the way – trash. Bazball? Kids, avert your ears.Unfortunately for England, Brisbane might be the most Philadelphia in this corner of the globe. The shot to the forefront of English minds during the 2013-14 tour in their crusade against a certain “27-year-old medium-pace bowler” (Stuart Broad). Who knows what they have cooking leading up to the second Test at the Gabba, which kicks off next Thursday.

“These Big Bad Wolves and Babadooks dishing out regular hot takes presents a new challenge for a generation of cricketer often doomscrolling on Instagram”

Another fascinating dynamic unique to all this is the rise in ex-pro podcasts. Australia’s scene has been thriving for some time, but this might be the first Ashes series where their prevalence cannot be overlooked or undersold.Matthew Hayden’s headline-grabbing promise to waltz nude across the MCG if Root went hundred-less this series came via this medium, on All Over Bar The Cricket, which he hosts with former Australia team-mate Greg Blewett and former Sheffield Shield cricketer-turned media personality James Brayshaw. That Brad Haddin is joining TNT’s coverage for the second Test is in no small part due to his presence on the engaging Willow Talk Cricket Podcast, as one of three co-hosts alongside Adam Peacock and Australia Women stalwart Alyssa Healy.That’s not to ignore Haddin’s place as a prime rabbler of the English. But Australia overflows with main characters involved in previous English Ashes nightmares. And the presence of these Big Bad Wolves and Babadooks dishing out regular hot takes presents a new challenge for a generation of cricketer often doomscrolling on Instagram. It’s not the spiders in the mailboxes you have to worry about, it’s the Australian legends in the reels.Jofra Archer is interviewed on arrival at Perth international airport•Getty ImagesAnd so, at a time when Ashes battles are being fought on more frontiers than ever before, England need to find their happy realities. It is worth noting there is plenty of mid-ground here, even if England feel like they don’t have a footing in that either.The situation over the Canberra match against the Prime Minister’s XI is a great example of this space. Former Australian cricketers Stuart Law and Peter Siddle are two who have come out in the last few days to offer reasons why shunning Manuka Oval – and valuable pink ball experience – is understandable, given the lack of bounce this weekend will not prepare them adequately for the Gabba.It is a stance at odds with the mountains of ire on this topic, most of it from the UK. And as ever, the result of the second Test will govern truly how big a misstep it is. Losing the first Test gives them less wiggle room and it surely cannot be a great stretch to suggest playing cricket helps you get better at playing cricket.At the same time, there is an argument to be made that had most of the squad headed to Canberra – thus changing plans that have been in place since the home summer – it would have been a sign of panic.That might be the takeaway from all this: England are not panicking. Yet.They feel they did a lot right in Perth in terms of preparation and even in the Test, for half of day one and the first session of day two at least. Players trained hard and did not spend their spare time worrying about the optics. Their spare time was just that; fishing trips, visits to Rottnest Island and Cottesloe Beach and, yes, golf.Even the Lions combined work and pleasure by putting miles into their legs with a running exercise combined with a treasure hunt across Perth. De-stressing with one eye on how others might judge is stressful.The program for Brisbane is not all that different. They will enjoy the courses and various waters before locking back in from Saturday, starting with a morning session at Allan Border Field. Then comes four training sessions at the Gabba ahead of the Test, with Monday’s and Wednesday’s taking place at night for some invaluable work under lights.Keeping level is paramount. Squaring the series next week a must. The best route to a good time in Australia has always been simple – and that’s by winning.

Given the chance to bat at No. 5, David showed what could be possible for him in Australia’s T20 side

Alex Malcolm26-Jul-20252:37

Tim David smashes Australia’s fastest T20I century

A few weeks ago, prior to heading to the Caribbean, Tim David revealed he had been having discussions with his personal mentors about the next phase of career.At 29, after 280 T20 matches, there was a danger he could be typecast like a cameo actor, destined to forever fulfill in the same role as a T20 finisher.The fruits of those discussions bloomed in Basseterre on Friday night. Having been given the chance to bat in the powerplay for just the third time in his Australian T20I career, with the other two being tactical in-game promotions in rain-shortened sprints, he scored his first T20 century blasting the fastest T20I hundred by an Australian and rescuing the team from a perilous position to mow down 215 with six wickets and 23 balls to spare.Related

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Is Green Australia's new T20 middle-order fulcrum?

David smashes fastest T20I century for Australia to make it 3-0

“I’ve spent a lot of time practising my power-hitting, and to be honest, now I’m trying to focus on shot selection,” David said in the post-match presentation after his breathtaking knock. “Because that power game is always there, and it’s what I built my game around, it’s important to make the right decisions at the right time and obviously, if you bat for a length of balls without getting out, then you get a chance to make big scores.”David not only debunked some misconceptions about his batting capabilities, he destroyed them. His shot selection was superb from ball one in this innings. Even though he scored a boundary off his first ball, with a controlled pull behind square, he picked off five singles off his next six balls with Australia under enormous pressure at 65 for 3.Mitchell Marsh had chewed up 12 dots balls in his 19-ball 22 while Cameron Green had faced six in his 14-ball 11 with both innings marred by a series of wild hacks and ill-advised stroke choices trying to keep up with the double-digit required rate.ESPNcricinfo LtdDavid did nothing of the sort. With Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie in control of the initial post-powerplay period, David respected the tight lines and lengths, controlling his hands to play high percentage strokes to the sweepers. He waited for the right length and whenever they missed it disappeared with a controlled swing of the bat. He did not face a dot ball until he was 19 off 8 but his only risk was a lofted drive over cover for six.”A lot of the practice I’ve been doing recently over the past six months has helped a lot,” David said in the post-match press conference. “It’s about shot selection and not actually trying to hit it too hard. And it felt tonight like I wasn’t trying to hit it too hard, and it probably ended up with some good percentage of being able to hit the ball over the ropes.”That lone dot clicked him up a gear. He smashed his next four balls for six in same over off Motie. His only miscue was a safely toed edge trying to play a high percentage cut to a wide short ball from Hosein to set a new Australian record for the fastest T20I half-century. Either side of that he hit Hosein out of the ground.West Indies skipper Shai Hope oddly chose to follow those two overs with an over of offspin from Roston Chase. Such was the confidence of David, he turned down a single to long-on despite Australia still needing 75 from 54 to win with Mitchell Owen at the other end.He left a wide yorker next ball, his fourth dot of the innings and his third in four balls faced. Another player might have overswung at the next to make up for the momentum-killing inertia. David’s next two swings were smooth and powerful, and the fourth umpire had to run the replacement box of balls out twice.Tim David celebrates the fastest T20I century by an Australian off 37 balls•Getty ImagesThe only time David struggled was when he neared his century. His only other true miscue came on 90 when he failed to clear deep midwicket, but Brandon King did him a favour by spilling a simple chance on the rope.He admitted the thought of a rare T20 century had got to him.”I don’t play for records, but certainly I didn’t think I’d get the opportunity to score hundred and it is your childhood dream to score hundred for Australia,” David said. “That was definitely in the back of my mind, and the position I’ve been playing, I probably played a lot of T20 matches now and obviously I’ve never scored a hundred, so it was a little bit of foreign territory for me for a little bit.”But I’m just really thankful I had Mitch Owen out there who’s scored a couple recently, and my younger team-mate, but he’s certainly had the experience and helped me through.”It was his first century in any professional cricket since he made two List A centuries in three innings for Surrey in August 2021. Having considered batting David higher in the T20I order for some time prior to this series, it is the type of innings that might make Australia’s selectors revisit David’s potential as an ODI finisher in the wake of Glenn Maxwell’s retirement.Regardless, he proved he is more than a one-trick pony in T20 cricket and Australia’s rebuild towards the T20 World Cup is looking ominous as a result.

Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni was left stunned by AC Milan's derby victory despite them failing to create sufficient chances throughout the game. While the 26-year-old believes his team registered a good display against Massimiliano Allegri's side, he sounded critical of the opposition securing just one clear chance through Christian Pulisic, which decided the fate of the fixture.

Inter dominate but go down

From ball possession to the number of shots recorded by the two parties, Inter led in every aspect in the famous Milan derby last Sunday. While Cristian Chivu's side earned nine corners and successfully implemented five shots on target, compared to one corner and three shots from Milan's end, they left the pitch empty-handed as Pulisic bagged the solitary goal of the game in the 54th minute. Bastoni, who has been the defensive leader alongside Francesco Acerbi, was left gutted with the outcome. 

AdvertisementAFPBastoni slams Milan but praises his team

Despite the result, Bastoni was critical of their arch-rivals and claimed he couldn't remember them registering any goal-scoring opportunities apart from the goal. He said on "It's difficult to make a lucid analysis of this match, I don't remember any clear chances for them apart from the goal. Sorry, we will have to make a lucid analysis even if sometimes finding answers to defeats like this hurts. Sometimes you prefer to lose badly to have room for improvement, this time for me beyond the episodes we played a good game. I don't know, in Naples there were important carelessness, with Juve and Milan there is little to say. I should also see it again because on the pitch the sensations are sometimes different. But it seems to me that at least we were equal. Other times we had the feeling of being vulnerable, this time we were there. We had courage, holding one-on-one with [Rafael] Leao and Pulisic. There was no feeling of being able to concede goals."

Notably, this was Inter's fourth defeat of the Serie A campaign, which has now compelled them to sit on the fourth place on the table. A win, on the contrary, could have seen them take the pole position for the meantime. Bastoni commented: "It's a wake-up call because four defeats is a lot, but I also think that defeats need to be analysed. I would be much more worried seeing Inter out of the game with their heads or without character. I don't see that. As long as there is this mentality and this spirit, I'm sure things will go well."

Inter boss highlights mistakes

While Bastoni spoke of having a thorough analysis, coach Christian Chivu admitted his disappointment in the result, saying: "The frustration is not just what we created, it’s the performance, the focus, as we hardly allowed any counter-attacks, despite knowing the two strikers could cause us problems. The one time we lost the second ball in midfield, they scored. This is football. I take home the good performance, as the lads kept going to the end, despite the disappointment of conceding the goal, and the frustration after hitting the woodwork twice. They tried to score in every possible way, and that is the spirit I want to see.

"When you suffer the fourth defeat in 12 rounds, that is too many. However, the table is still pretty tight, so we are up there and need to deal with this frustration, because losing a game like this can leave a mark." He further stated, "We are all in this and all responsible, for good and bad. We all could’ve done better, we could’ve scored earlier, or dealt with the moments of the match better. Our duty now is to get back on our feet, as on Tuesday we have an equally important match."

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Getty Images SportInter have a tough week ahead

Inter just have two days to prepare for the Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid, whom they face this Tuesday. Following a cooling period, they'll face Pisa in the Serie A on Sunday. However, the game against the Spanish giants is going to be the more crucial one of the two. They are seated third in the Champions League table, with four wins and share the same points as Bayern Munich and Arsenal. 

The Guardians did it. Somehow, they actually did it.

With a 5–2 win over the Tigers on Tuesday night, Cleveland completed an improbable comeback and tied Detroit atop the American League Central. A team that was eight games under .500 and 15.5 games out of the division race in early July now has a 56.3% chance of winning it.

Conversely, the Tigers, who held baseball's best record on July 8, have fumbled it. An epic collapse has seen them fall into a deep slump that’s snowballed into a complete September collapse.

How did this happen? Let's go inside the numbers to get a better look.

40 — Wins for Cleveland on July 6, 88 games into the season. They fell eight games below .500 on that date after being swept at home by the Tigers.

45 — Wins for Cleveland since July 7, a 45–24 record (.652), second best in baseball behind the Milwaukee Brewers.

15.5 — Games the Guardians trailed the Tigers by on July 8.

10.5 — Games the Guardians trailed the Tigers by on Sept. 1.

9.5 — Games behind the Tigers on Sept. 10.

3.96 — Team ERA for the Guardians on July 6, 18th in baseball.

3.30 — Team ERA for the Guardians since July 6, best in baseball.

2.9 — fWAR for Jose Ramirez since July 6, tied with Cal Raleigh for fifth in the American League. Ramirez is slashing .264/.358/.528 over that span with 16 home runs, 43 RBIs, 57 runs scored and 18 stolen bases, with a wRC+ of 136.

1.3 — fWAR for rookie starting pitcher Parker Messick since his debut on Aug. 20. That ranks fifth in baseball during that time. He's 3–0 with a 2.08 ERA and 31 strikeouts against five walks in 34 2/3 innings.

2.39 — ERA for starter Gavin Williams since July 6. He's 7–1 since then.

1.25 — ERA for starter Tanner Bibee in three September starts. He's 2–0, with a 0.65 WHIP and 21 strikeouts against three walks in 21 2/3 innings. That includes a complete game shutout two-hitter against the White Sox on Sept. 12.

Miles Robinson addressed the altercation that erupted at the end of the United States men’s national team’s 2-1 win over Paraguay during the November 2025 friendlies, offering clarity on how a late throw-in dispute escalated into a bench-clearing confrontation. However, both Robinson and Gio Reyna said the scuffle ultimately reflected the team’s character and commitment to one another.

Getty'That’s what got us the W'

Robinson said the altercation began with a U.S. throw-in after teammate Alex Freeman pursued the ball aggressively. According to Robinson, the sequence led to “one or two cheap shots” from Paraguay, escalating tensions until players from both benches became involved in a brief confrontation.

Robinson added that the moment reflected the team’s togetherness.

“It’s our throw-in, Alex [Freeman] takes the ball and then you know, one or two cheap shots,” Robinson said in his post-match interview with . “But it is what it is, we came out and we played with a lot of heart tonight, and I think that’s what got us the W.”

Reyna, who did not see the initial incident, echoed Robinson’s comments about the team’s competitiveness.

“Honestly, I have no idea [how it started]. I was kind of looking off to the side, and then Alex and someone from their team seemed like they weren't very happy with each other. Yeah, it's a friendly game, but it's a competitive environment. We wanted to win this game," Reyna said to "Obviously, we've played friendlies pretty much all last year. So yeah, it's important to get that competitive energy in this group and take it with us. I think it's great for Alex coming into another tough match on Tuesday against Uruguay.”

AdvertisementImagnTeam unity underpin USMNT’s approach

Despite the confrontation, Robinson stressed that the USMNT operates as one cohesive family that refuses to tolerate disrespect or intimidation. He highlighted the team’s collective mindset of fighting for one another and maintaining focus on the ultimate goal of winning. 

“Yeah, I mean, I think we’re one big family, we’re playing at home, so we’re not going to take anything,” Robinson said. “We came out, we’re trying to fight for each other, we’re trying to fight for our country, and obviously we came out, we got the W, and that’s what means the most to us.”

Getty Images SportDefensive focus

Reflecting on the team’s overall performance, Robinson praised the defenders for their hard work and dedication in training, particularly their emphasis on defensive organization. While acknowledging the significance of the win, he expressed belief that there is still considerable room for improvement in the team’s defensive execution.

“Yeah, I think we’ve been training really hard overall,” Robinson said. “I think we focused a lot defensively. The thing about tonight is we got the W, I think there’s a lot we can improve on. So that’s something we can definitely take back with us and learn from, and hopefully we can use this as a stepping stone for the future.”

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What comes next for Robinson and the USMNT

The USMNT will face Uruguay in its final match of the 2025 calendar year on Nov. 18.

Tejal Hasabnis has replaced Rodrigues in the India squad, while Arundhati Reddy has been brought into the playing XI for the second ODI

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Sep-2025India batter Jemimah Rodrigues has been ruled out of the last two ODIs against Australia because of a viral fever. Tejal Hasabnis has been named her replacement. Providing the update on Wednesday shortly before the toss in the second ODI in New Chandigarh, the BCCI said its medical team is monitoring Rodrigues.Rodrigues was in India’s XI in the first ODI, which India lost by eight wickets. She scored 18 runs off 26 balls from No. 5 as India put up 281 for 7. Arundhati Reddy, the fast-bowling allrounder, replaced Rodrigues in India’s XI for the game on Wednesday.A 28-year-old middle-order batter, Hasabnis has been around the national team since last year, making her ODI debut – the only format she has played internationally – in October 2024 in Ahmedabad against New Zealand. She has 140 runs from six innings, going at an average of 46.66 and strike rate of 78.65 with a best of 53 not out.India would be keen to have Rodrigues, a key figure in their line-up, back fully fit in time for the ODI World Cup, which begins on September 30 with the co-hosts – India and Sri Lanka – taking each other on in Guwahati.India squad for the last two ODIs against AustraliaHarmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Richa Ghosh (wk), Kranti Goud, Sayali Satghare, Radha Yadav, Sree Charani, Sneh Rana, Uma Chetry (wk), Tejal Hasabnis