The Buzz: A bit of cricket, a lot of tennis - Ash Barty wins USD 4.4 million

All the bantz, the jousts, and little bit of eavesdropping from the social media playground and beyond

28-Oct-2019

All the world's cricketers walked into a bar. The LOLs, the chatter, and the occasional mini-brawls, they were endless. And the news cycle was never the same again! Welcome to ESPNcricinfo's Social Buzz, your go-to destination for all the bantz, the jousts, and little bit of eavesdropping from the social media playground and beyond.

November 3

How do you prepare for a match with the biggest pot of prize money your sport has ever offered? If you're the reigning world No. 1 in women's tennis, the answer is fairly obvious.

Ahead of the WTA Finals decider, where she could win $6.5m, Ash Barty preparing by playing some cricket pic.twitter.com/lYcObR9F9c
— Tristan Lavalette (@trislavalette) November 3, 2019

And it worked! Australia's Ash Barty beat Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-3 in the WTA Finals in Shenzhen...

You hug that trophy, @ashbarty !#WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/gOHagibDP1
— WTA (@WTA) November 3, 2019

... prompting some current international women cricketers into a bit of a rethink.

Knew I should have been a tennis player not a cricketer... cheers mum. https://t.co/EXWgb0KwFw
— Alexandra Hartley (@AlexHartley93) November 3, 2019

November 2

Rugby World Cup final brings out KP's true colours

South Africa claimed their third Rugby World Cup with victory in Yokohama on Saturday, which pleased at least one former England cricketer...

What a performance by The Bokke!

HEART, PASSION & PRIDE!

Sometimes that's all you need to be successful!

— Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) November 2, 2019

To be fair, KP has never pretended to be English (he just worked there). Less surprising were the congratulations from Pietersen's old sparring partner, former South Africa captain Graeme Smith. Let's hope the current Proteas were watching.

Wedding is gonna be festive tonight #GoBokke #Springboks #worldchamps pic.twitter.com/dyC9j70Dcl
— Graeme Smith (@GraemeSmith49) November 2, 2019

Unsurprisingly, there was a little bit of schadenfreude among the Kiwi observers...

pic.twitter.com/98u77BGIOu
— Scott Styris (@scottbstyris) November 2, 2019

And as always, Jimmy Neesham popped up with the last word:

Japan's thought of everything this World Cup, even guaranteeing you'll get a great wifi signal while receiving your medal pic.twitter.com/ljd82RKSvW
— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) November 2, 2019

November 1

The gloves are off for Billings

Last week:

We are delighted to say that England vice-captain @sambillings will be wearing the Off-Cut Pro Gloves during the IT20 series in New Zealand pic.twitter.com/RtUtjACTD5
— Gray-Nicolls (@graynics) October 25, 2019

This week:

Best laid plans

You might have been expecting @SamBillings to be in the Off-Cuts Gloves last night

Unfortunately, the gloves don't conform to ICC regs for colour

So Sam wore a pair of gloves from @CricketExpresNZ, picked up by our former colleague Josh prior to the game pic.twitter.com/RDfcmK6gkL
— Gray-Nicolls (@graynics) November 1, 2019

Looks like things turned out all white in the end for Sam Billings...

The Black Cap supporting England at the (Rugby) World Cup

View this post on Instagram

Good fun playing in front of a full house to start the series against. Not the result we wanted, but we look forward to a quick turnaround playing in Wellington on Sunday :@photosportnz

A post shared by Daryl Mitchell (@dazmitchell47) on Nov 1, 2019 at 12:57am PDT

New Zealand have suffered repeatedly at the hands of England over recent months - losing the 50-over World Cup final, a Rugby World Cup semi-final and now the opening T20I in Christchurch - but allrounder Daryl Mitchell will still be rooting for them on Saturday. That's because his dad, John Mitchell, is England rugby's defence coach, and hoping to help them to another world title when they take on South Africa in Yokohama.

ALSO READ: Daryl Mitchell prepares to step out of dad's shadow

"Yeah, I'l be supporting the old man," Daryl said, after scoring 30 from 17 balls in New Zealand's seven-wicket defeat. "It's obviously an exciting time for the family and hopefully he can win the World Cup. I keep in touch with him a fair bit, as you can imagine he's absolutely fizzing for this weekend and hopefully they can get up."

Despite working with England, Mitchell senior will be wearing his Black Cap when the cricket is on. "He said he was going to try and give a few of the England boys a bit of stick when they're sitting there watching it together. But he loves his cricket, so it's quite cool." If England can win the rugby, and New Zealand Sunday's second T20I in Wellington, the whole Mitchell family will be happy.

October 31

A great 24 hours for... the run-out law

Every other month, one of cricket's umpteen rule technicalities makes the headlines, which is remarkable given the game has been played for the best part of two centuries at the highest level.

The latest such section is the run-out law. Usually, it's as simple as: batsman is short of his ground, fielder or bowler throws down the stumps or knocks off the bails.

But what happens when the bails have already been knocked off by the batsman smashing the ball?

View this post on Instagram

The rarely seen stump-out-of-the-ground run-out should have happened twice last night ... but only Pat Cummins was able to execute properly! #AUSvSL

A post shared by cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) on Oct 30, 2019 at 5:44pm PDT

So what did Cummins get right that Sandakan didn't? Get the ball to make contact with the stumps after removing them from the ground.

Things are getting out of hand in Australia, though, with bowlers doing it for fun when there's no need whatsoever.

Taking the stump out has been all the rage in the last 24 hours! #MarshCup pic.twitter.com/uhrWJ01NHY
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) October 31, 2019

October 30

New Zealand challenge England again, this time with bat and boat

Jimmy Neesham can't stop, won't stop, trying to pull one over the English, this time with some help from Lockie Ferguson. After New Zealand lost to England in the Rugby World Cup, Neesh and Ferguson challenged a couple of English fans to a kayak-off… with cricket bats for oars.

A great morning down on the Avon River with Lockie Ferguson & Jimmy Neesham + some English and @BLACKCAPS fans as we build up to Friday's 1st T20 @Christchurch_NZ #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/uNdpgM8RiO
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) October 29, 2019

It went exactly as you might have expected. At one point NZ dropped the nice-guys act and proceeded to attack the England kayak with their boat, only to lose by their largest margin yet.

After the cricket and the rugby came the kayaking as Blackcaps stars Jimmy Neesham and Lockie Ferguson took on a couple of English cricketers playing in the local leagues. The result didn't change though. In fact it might have been the biggest margin of the lot. pic.twitter.com/cnpgfjciAG
— Dean Wilson (@CricketMirror) October 29, 2019

October 29

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) October 27, 2019

October 28

— Ian bishop (@irbishi) October 27, 2019

So PNG qualifies for the T 20 World Cup!! It's amazing to see the game expanding globally and will surely bring more young ones to play the great game. #PNG #thegameisricher
— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) October 27, 2019

Missed all the chatter last week? Catch up on it here.