A truly captivating final rounds of a brilliant Rugby World Cup, England’s woeful cricket team set all the wrong records whilst Afghanistan’s unlikely push for the final four picks up pace and Alex Honnold sees one of his many Yosemite speed records snatched away from him!
Rugby World Cup Final
Steady rain fell on the Stade de France as the crowd’s rendition of La Marseillaise heralded the New Zealand haka. With 3 World Cups apiece, The Springboks and The All Blacks were vying to step clear as the most successful Rugby nation. Both side had hit a rich vein of form at the crucial moment, South Africa having had a much closer contest in the semi final against a resurgent England side, snatching victory in the closing minutes thanks to the ever reliable boot of Handrè Pollard. Pollard had a 100% success rate off the tee going into the final and kept his cool throughout despite only narrowly making his first kick of the game off the inside of the left upright. A lack of kicking reliability proved to be the downfall for New Zealand, with Mo’unga missing a conversion in the 60th minute to the right and Jordie Barrett missing a penalty in the 74th to the left – both of which would have taken the All Blacks into the lead. South Africa would edge their third consecutive game by 1 point, with no team even stringing together two wins by 1 point in the history of the World Cup prior to this year. Lifting the Webb Ellis Cup for a record 4th time, South Africa also join New Zealand as the only nations to win back-to-back Rugby World Cups. The hotly contested final was also the only final to see a red card since the tournament began, with New Zealand captain Sam Cane failing to get low enough in the tackle, his shoulder making direct contact with the head of Jesse Kriel. This undoubtedly had an effect on the outcome of the game, could New Zealand have clinched it without this set back?
Although confirmed before the first kick of the ball, the victory for The Springboks means England remain the only northern hemisphere side to win the Rugby World Cup in 10 editions of the tournament. The sides above the equator will have to venture below it in 2027, with the next World Cup is being held in Australia. The tournament is also being expanded, with 24 teams making 6 groups of 4 instead of this years 4 groups of 5. An additional knockout round of 16 teams is also being introduced, increasing the opportunity for an upset.
Afghanistan on the Charge
Glenn Maxwell has found some form at just the right time, hitting the fastest century in World Cup history. His destructive 101 came from just 40 balls, an 18.4% improvement on the previous record of 49 set by Aidan Markram against Sri Lanka earlier in the tournament.
Last weeks article dissected England’s abysmal World Cup in enough detail, so I’ll keep it brief. England become the first team in ODI World Cup history to be bowled out in under 35 overs 3 times in the same World Cup, with the whole team dismissed in 22, 33.2 and 34.5 overs in successive matches.
Afghanistan keep their top 4 hopes alive with another convincing victory, this time over Sri Lanka. This is only the second time in their history that they have won back to back games by 7 wickets or more, the first time being against a rather lack lustre Kenyan side in the 2013 ICC World Cricket League Championship – a discontinued league format that used to enable World Cup qualification. It’s safe to say these two victories in the World Cup are more impressive! Afghanistan have only amassed a total of 280 on three occasions in their 21 ODI World Cup matches, two of which have come in their last 4 matches. One could easily argue they’d have cruised past 280 in their match against Sri Lanka, had they not limited their opponents to 241 runs with an excellent bowling display spear headed by fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi, who took career best figures of 4/34.
Afghanistan are playing some exciting cricket. Their spinners are controlling the game well and utilising the turn provided by some of the classic Indian wickets to excellent effect. Their batsmen have been controlled in the innings where they have chased, taking their time when needed and batting explosively when the match situation required it. With two crucial matches against Australia and South Africa to come, as well as a non-trivial fixture against a tricky Netherlands side, their fate is in their own hands. 3 wins and they’re in dreamland – anything less and the highly competitive squad would likely be disappointed they hadn’t achieved more, despite already exceeding everyone’s expectations.
The Nose Speed Record
Alex Honnold is widely known for his epic scaling of El Cap with no protection in the National Geographic documentary – Free Solo. Outside of this, Honnold has climbed this granite obelisk hundreds of times, setting joint speed records with his climbing partner and friend Tommy Caldwell as well as solo records – these climbs protected by gear placements and in some cases using aid.
On the 12th October, an unknown 28 year-old named Nick Ehman soloed the iconic route up El Cap known as The Nose (shown in red above), standing proud as the most prominent feature on the face of the giant wall. Nick managed this daring attempt in 4:39, comfortably breaking Honnold’s previous record of 5:50. The logistics associated with climbing a route that complicated and difficult are immense, and completing this route alone is a feat in itself, never mind taking such a huge chunk off the record.
Honnold has a nack for returning to Yosemite when dethroned to retake one of his many crowns, so maybe we’ll see him attempt The Nose in the near future.
More Data
I am currently in the process of collating data on tennis players, my aim being to answer some nagging questions I just can’t seem to shake. I will share my findings with you all and in the meantime if anyone knows of a good source of data for any sport, please do get in touch.
See you next week
Verabschiedung!
