Afghanistan leggie Rashid Khan once again proved why is he one of the best in the business when it comes to the shortest format of the game as he registered his third career T20 hat-trick in a game between Sydney Sixers and Adelaide Strikers in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL) here on Wednesday.
Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon’s return to the Big Bash League has been delayed due to an injury on his right thumb. During the third Test in Sydney, while attempting a catch of Glenn Phillips, Lyon had sustained an injury.
Former England cricketer Ian Botham has come out as the latest among illustrious former cricketers who believe the International Cricket Council (ICC) must not tinker with the traditional five-day Test format and leave "the flagship of cricket alone."
Left-arm Sri Lanka pacer Isuru Udana is unlikely to feature in the third and final T20I against India set to be played in Pune on Friday after he sustained a back injury during the second game.
South African captain Faf du Plessis said on Tuesday he did not support a move towards four-day Test matches - despite a statement by Cricket South Africa that it was official policy to support a reduced format.
Sean Williams has been named Zimbabwe's new Test captain while Chamu Chibhabha will be leading the national team in ODIs and T20Is on an "interim" basis.
Tainted former Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt has expressed surprise at his one time teammate Danish Kaneria's claim that he was humiliated for being a Hindu player after former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar raked up the controversy.
Joe Root called Ben Stokes England's "golden nugget." The message was: The team should treasure him.
Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur feels that international cricket teams can learn from India on how to nurture young players and empower them with responsibilities at critical junctures.
New Zealand batsman Tom Latham will miss the five-match T20I series against India set to begin on January 24 after he suffered from a broken finger.
Opening batsman Evin Lewis fell agonisingly short of a century as his undefeated 99 helped West Indies to cruise to a five-wicket win over Ireland in the first one-day international at Kensington Oval on Tuesday.The long-awaited – seriously, it’s been about 15 months since the first one! – second trailer for The New Mutants finally arrived online yesterday. It’s been a very rocky road for the teen-oriented X-Men spinoff, but all the bad vibes were blown away by this trailer, with fans finding themselves really impressed by what’s on offer in Josh Boone’s movie. It even featured a sneak peek at a fan favorite character – well, dragon – that we totally missed.
One scene that’s got a lot of attention is the climactic clip of Anya Taylor-Joy’s Magik attacking Demon Bear with the Soul Sword. What you might have not caught in this scene though was the brief, easily-missed glimpse of her pet dragon, Lockheed. We’ve already seen the creature represented by a handheld puppet in Illyana’s possession, but it seems that the supernatural events of the film will mean Lockheed comes to life to help out in the battle against Demon Bear by its end.
Lockheed is typically Kitty Pryde’s pet in the comics, but he and Illyana do have a connection. In The New Mutants series, Kitty and Magik were roomies and so the latter got pretty close to the dragon, as well. With no other X-Men properties making use of Lockheed in the past 20 years, let’s be thankful that Boone decided to drop the popular – but weird – creation into this flick. His appearance in the third act could be an extra treat for fans in this surprise final installment of the Fox franchise that we never thought we were going to see.
Not that this is necessarily the last time the New Mutants will show up, mind you. Marvel Studios must be releasing the movie theatrically because they have a certain amount of faith in it and sure enough, our sources say that Kevin Feige likes what Boone has done and is willing to fold the gang into the MCU if it does well. It’s hard to say whether general audiences will be hooked, but Marvel lovers will no doubt check The New Mutants out when it arrives and this trailer gives us hope that it may get some decent reviews.
One of the most satisfying scenes of Avengers: Endgame came as the heroes from across the Marvel universe gathered to take on Thanos and his forces for the sake of all reality. With a whole army behind him, Chris Evans’ Captain America finally got to say the character’s iconic line from the comics: “AVENGERS… Assemble.” It was a real punch-the-air moment, as fans had been waiting to hear the catchphrase for the past 11 years of the MCU. But you have to wonder, why did Marvel hold off on the line for so long? This was the fourth Avengers movie, after all.
Well, let’s run through the previous three films and examine why they weren’t the right place to drop the moment. First of all, 2012’s The Avengers united Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to foil Loki’s invasion of Earth. The movie was even called Avengers Assemble in the UK. So a quick shout of the phrase could have easily been worked in somewhere during the Battle of New York. However, it was likely felt that at this relatively early stage in the franchise, the power of the line hadn’t really been earned.
Three years later, the gang got back together for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Infamously, this sequel actually ends on a major tease of the line, with Steve Rogers saying “Avengers A-” before the credits kick in. So, why didn’t they just use the full line? Well, if you think about it, Ultron was really a film about the original six heroes disassembling and, though a new team has come together by the point of the final scene, it wouldn’t have had the same impact as if Cap had been saying it to a fully-united line-up.
Then we come to 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. At this point, the filmmakers likely knew they were going to hold off on dropping the phrase until Avengers: Endgame so decided not to use it on this occasion. In any case, it was a good call not to deploy it in Infinity War as this is another movie where its effectiveness would have been muted. Even if Cap had said it during the epic Battle of Wakanda, its impact would’ve been lessened by the team’s terrible loss at the film’s close.
