England have now played 30 matches since McCullum and Stokes took control. In those games, they have scored at 4.61 runs per over, an unprecedented rate in Test cricket.
To give some context to quite how extraordinary their approach has been, the previous fastest-scoring 30-Test sequence was achieved by the almost-all-conquering Australian team in the early 21st Century, who scored at 4.00 per over from August 2001 to December 2003.
England have scored fractionally more than one run per over quicker than the second-quickest-scoring Test team since 2022 – India, who have scored at 3.60 per over, but have been accelerating of late and will provide compelling opposition for Stokes’ side next summer.
For further context, in the 30 Tests immediately before Stokes became full-time captain, England scored at 3.09 per over.
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Prior to the Bazballian revolution, the fastest England had scored over 30 Tests was 3.58 per over – from May 2009 to August 2011, when Andrew Strauss’ team ascended to number one in the ICC rankings.
In the 1950s – one of England’s most successful Test decades – they scored at 2.23 per over, and 2.18 across the three Ashes triumphs in 1953, 1954-55 and 1956.
England have won 20 and lost nine of their past 30 Tests – the joint-most wins they have achieved in a 30-match sequence since the late 19th Century, although with more defeats and without the landmark series victories against elite teams that Michael Vaughan’s team secured while winning 20, and losing four, out of 30 games between 2003 and 2005.
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Holloway challenges Topuria for the UFC featherweight title in the main event of UFC 308 Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi. Holloway, the current BMF champ after his incredible knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, let Topuria know who the real “BMF” titleholder is in a recent Instagram post.
Holloway and Topuria recently had a heated combo interview with Brendan Fitzgerald, where Topuria put a BMF title on his shoulder. In the post, Holloway says his belt was “earned not bought.”
Topuria captured the UFC featherweight title with a brutal knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 in February. “El Matador” improved his overall record to 15-0, including a 7-0 start to his surging UFC career.
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Holloway lost the featherweight title to Volkanovski, and came up short in two other rematches. Since a lopsided decision loss to Volkanovski in their third meeting at UFC 276 in July 2022, “Blessed” is 3-0 with wins over Gaethje, Arnold Allen, and Chan Sung Jung.
Red Bull has revealed how Formula 1’s financial realities played their part in it losing key staff members like Jonathan Wheatley and Will Courtenay this year.
The Milton Keynes-based squad is undergoing a period of organisational restructuring, with a number of its senior figures having accepted jobs elsewhere and set to move on.
Its chief technical officer Adrian Newey is departing for Aston Martin, sporting director Wheatley is becoming team boss at Sauber/Audi while head of strategy Courtenay is also taking a step up to join McLaren as sporting director.
The three high-profile departures have grabbed headlines off the back of a season where the squad has faced challenges both on and off track.
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And while some have pointed to these key departures as being a sign of a team in trouble, moves like this are nothing out of the ordinary with it pretty common for rivals to come along and offer big money deals to poach experienced staff.
Formula 1’s cost cap rules take into account the wages of all relevant operational personnel at a team, excluding the top three earners.
While the identity of these three individuals at each squad is not made public, it is thought that neither Wheatley nor Courtenay formed part of the top three at Red Bull.
Red Bull says that what has changed though is that being able to make counter-offers has long gone because, in a cost-cap era, spending is so limited.
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Jonathan Wheatley, Team Manager, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Speaking about the challenges of keeping hold of top personnel in current F1, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: “You can’t have a Galactus because you can’t afford it. You’ve got to look at bang for buck and it forces you to make some really tough decisions.
“It’s tough. Jonathan was a very good sporting director, but he was an expensive asset. So you have to weigh things up.
“When he got the opportunity to move to Audi, it was: ‘Do you know what? I think you should go for that because of the way that regulations are. We’re limited in scope and what we can do for you here.
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“‘So, if you have an opportunity to further yourself and go and earn significantly more money, go for it.’”
Horner says that he fully understands the motivations for senior staff members wanting to move on – especially if circumstances allowed them to take a position that was not available at Red Bull, plus a boost to their wages.
Their departures are not all negative, though, because they allow others within the current organisation to move up to more senior roles – giving them career progression that stops them feeling trapped and feeling that they need to look elsewhere.
Red Bull pitwall
Photo by: Erik Junius
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“Jonathan has been here a long time, and he had an opportunity to become a team principal,” added Horner. “He didn’t have that here, and his role was becoming ever more one dimensional in that he was never here. He was always at a racetrack.
“He’s moved on and it’s allowed others to naturally step up. You’ve got to have that evolution.
“It is the same with Will Courtenay and strategy. He has been here for 20 years. We talked about other roles within the group. He was offered a bigger role on a very high salary from McLaren, and at that point you have got to say: ‘Good luck. Go for it.’
“But at the same time, it gives an opportunity for Hannah Schmitz to move up, which, if she hadn’t had that opportunity, she’d have been a prime target for somebody.
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“In any organisation, you’re going to have evolution. We had less than 5% turnover here, so we have tremendous loyalty within the team.”
While the spotlight that comes on senior staff movements is inevitably greater than it is for lesser-known personnel, Horner says that natural turnover in F1 means organisations are constantly evolving and changing.
“When I came here in 2005 we assembled a fantastic team,” he said. “If I look around the engineering office, particularly trackside compared to when we were winning with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Weber, during that 2010 to 2013 period, I think there’s only three people in the engineering office that were there at that point, out of probably the 25 that are trackside.
“There is Paul Monaghan, who’s still with us. Michael Manning, who is still with us and does all the starts, and it’s probably only Jonathan and Will that were also there.
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“Hannah was a graduate from Cambridge University at the time, but the rest of the team: the race engineers, control engineers, everything evolves, and you have to have that within any organization.”
Newey didn’t want to leave F1
The highest profile departure Red Bull has experienced though is Newey, who has signed a big money deal for Aston Martin. He will start work for the Silverstone-based squad next March.
Adrian Newey, Aston Martin Formula One Team
Photo by: Aston Martin Racing
And while the design genius has made a huge contribution to Red Bull’s success over the years, Horner thinks their partnership was coming to a natural conclusion anyway.
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Asked if the early season turmoil at Red Bull triggered the change, Horner said: “I think you’ve got a perfect storm that’s very easy to say, well, this caused that, and that caused this. But the reality is that all the things are totally unrelated.
“Adrian leaving the team was something that already, at the back end of 2023, he was growing somewhat, I think, conflicted in his own mind.
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“The agreement that we had was at the end of ’25 he was going to step back from F1 and really just be a mentor. Otherwise, I was going to lose the other [technical] guys to some rival teams.
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“But I think he felt that his time in F1 wasn’t done, and so he made decisions for his own reasons which are understandable.
“The deal he’s got from Aston with equity and so on, is something that quite simply wasn’t on the table here.
“I can understand, Adrian wants another run around the block in F1, and as a shareholder and partner in a team, I certainly don’t blame him for that.
“But we live in a cost cap world now, where F1 is very different to what it was even five years ago, where 90% of our time is spent focused on: what can you afford to do within the cap?
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“With the $140 million that you’ve got to spend, every penny has got to be spent very wisely. And of course, over the years, the bigger teams, sometimes they carry a bit of fat in them. What the cost cap has driven is efficiency.”
Aryna Sabalenka became the first player to win the Wuhan Open three times with a hard-fought win over Zheng Qinwen in Sunday’s final.
The 26-year-old Belarusian was taken to three sets by China’s Zheng in a thrilling rematch of this year’s Australian Open final, in which she also claimed victory.
Sabalenka clinched her fourth women’s singles title of the year 6-3 5-7 6-3 and remains undefeated in Wuhan.
“That sounds crazy,” she said. “This place definitely feels like home.
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“I am pretty sure we are going to play many more finals against one another.”
Top seed Sabalenka took the opening set in just 38 minutes, but Zheng mounted her comeback in a gripping second to force a decider.
There, Zheng found herself 3-0 down, and while she pulled two games back, lost her serve again as Sabalenka broke for a 5-2 lead.
The world number two failed to serve out the match as Zheng broke back to love, but finally wrapped up her 17th career title on her third championship point.
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Reigning Olympic gold medallist Zheng, who became the first Chinese player to reach a WTA 1000 final, has now lost all four of her meetings against the three-time Grand Slam champion.
“Next time I will be better,” she said.
Sabalenka is now unbeaten in 17 consecutive matches in Wuhan, breaking Petra Kvitova’s record for the most at the tournament.
The win adds to a successful year in which she won both the Australian Open and US Open and appeared in seven singles finals.
Pete Murray is excited to kick off a new format for PFL’s championships.
Two new superfight belts will be introduced at PFL: Battle of the Giants Oct. 19 at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (ESPN+ pay-per-view, DAZN).
In the main event, former UFC champion Francis Ngannou (17-3) takes on 2023 PFL champion Renan Ferreira (13-3). In the co-main event, Cris Cyborg (27-2-1) will look to collect her fifth belt in a major organization when she faces two-time PFL champion Larissa Pacheco (23-4).
“The PFL superfights belt, first time we as a company and organization have a belt where it must be won, but it also must be defended on an ongoing basis,” Murray told MMA Junkie Radio. “Typically, our global season belts, they recognize those champions for the year, and they’re forever that year’s champion. But this is a different belt, a different format for us. So both Francis and Cris want to be the first ones to raise those belts, but Renan and Larissa, two Brazilians, they’re going to bring it.”
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The PFL CEO sees Ferreira and Pacheco as the future of MMA.
“Larissa, two-time PFL champion, women’s 155 then she took on 145,” Murray said. “She’s women’s 145 champion, two belts. She’s fierce, she’s really grown into being a bonafide world champion. She’s wanted this fight for a really long time. So when you think about the GOATs in Francis and in Cris, up against Renan and Larissa, that’s really the future.
“These younger fighters in their prime – again, Francis still in his prime, Cris in her prime, not many can dance with either of them, but they’ve had a storied career, both of them. Renan and Larissa, they’re the future. They’re looking to make their mark now, and they deserve this fight. These are both legitimate opponents for both Francis and Cris.”
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