Cricket
India M tour of South Africa, 2nd Test
SA 55, Ind 153, SA 176, Ind 80/3, Ind win by 7W
Not entirely sure what happened here. My first reaction was that both teams made a mockery of the sport, but maybe it's just the bowlers making a mockery of the batsmen,
*Zimbabwe M tour of Sri Lanka, 2nd T20I
SL 173/6, Zim 178/6 (19.5), Zim win by 4W, 1b in hand
Maybe a few years ago I'd have been shocked at this, but Sri Lanka has really fallen off a cliff lately. As has West Indies, which makes the last entry here rather shocking...
Afghanistan M tour of India, 3rd T20I
Ind 212/4, Afg 212/6, Afg 16/1, Ind 16/0, Ind 11/2, Afg 1, Ind win 2nd SO
What a rollercoaster of a match. 2 Super Overs, Afghanistan played rather well.
One piece of controversy though - Rohit Sharma retired at the last ball of the first Super Over for reasons other than injury, and therefore should not have been allowed to bat in the second Super Over.
It probably did not have an effect on the outcome, but still.
West Indies M tour of Australia, 2nd Test
WI 311, Aus 289/9d, WI 193, Aus 207, WI win by 8 runs
Interesting choice by Australia to declare while trailing. I can only infer that they wanted their bowlers to attack tired West Indian openers under the lights. Bowling with Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood (both had been resting and were energetic), Australia got Tagenarine Chanderpaul's wicket to show for this gambit. However, with Pat Cummins looking set at 64* at declaration, was scalping Chanderpaul early really worth giving up a set Cummins's extra runs at the tail end? I think it was, but we'll never know.
England M tour of India, 1st Test
Eng 246, Ind 436, Eng 420, Ind 202, Eng win by 28 runs
No words.
Formula 1
"When you are strong, appear weak, and when you are weak, appear strong" - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Red Bull say they may not make as big a step forward as other teams this year.
McLaren are confident of taking the fight to Red Bull, who have been utterly dominant for 2 seasons.
Aston Martin are confident they've made progress, learning from their mid-season slump last year.
Mercedes say this year's racecar feels like a car for the first time in two years.
McLaren's surprise livery reveal
They archived all their posts, put up an almost-black profile picture (a cryptic pattern made of the digits 1601 - denoting 16 Jan, the day of the suprise - in dark gray on a field of black) a video saying "whatever it takes".
Maybe whatever it takes to be the first one to show off their livery.
Which is not that great, I might add.
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber
Someone needs to kick Sauber for agreeing to rename their team to this.
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls
I would like to make a formal apology for my earlier disrespectful comments towards Sauber, because what the hell is VCARB for a team name???
Formula E
Formula E gets a lot of criticism for their racecars sounding like vacuum cleaners - the distinctive EV sound.
And more criticism for not being as fast as Formula 1 or not racing on permanent racing circuits.
As for the first issue, I do wish the broadcasters turned down the high-pitched whine on the sound mixers, especially on onboard camera footage.
The second, though? It works, we have overtakes.
Mexico City E-Prix
The recent pattern at this racetrack has been that Porsche is quite strong here.
Especially 2022, where they screwed over half the field with their energy management.
So will someone explain why my fantasy team did not have Porsche for this race????????
Their driver took a dominant victory, and I had specifically taken them out of my team.
Preview
LEWIS HAMILTON TO FERRARI
This happened in Feb.
I'll recap this on the first Saturday of March.
Just know that my world has been shaken.