‘I’m the right man’: Zak Crawley ignores pressure with century against Zimbabwe
If Zak Crawley showed little sign of the pressure he was under as he became one of three English centurions on the opening day against Zimbabwe, it is possibly because he did not know he was under any.The opener’s place in the team was presumed to be at risk after a poor run of form was followed by heavy hints that Jacob Bethell would be parachuted straight into the team on his return from the IPL, but after scoring 124 – England’s third-highest innings of the day after Ben Duckett’s 140 and Ollie Pope’s unbeaten 169 – the 27-year-old insisted he had heard no such rumours and had felt nothing from his coaches and colleagues except support.“They obviously think I’m the right man for the job, and I have that belief in myself as well,” Crawley said.“I love being around this group, and when you play for your country you’re going to be surrounded by good players, and that pressure is going to be coming all the time.Throughout my career, from when I was very young until now, I’ve always been made a better player by people around me doing well and forcing me to be better.
”There were times when it was not clear that Crawley was surrounded by particularly good players, as Zimbabwe toiled in the field with little by way of reward or inspiration.After frolicking through the day at 5.65 runs an over England were 498 for three at stumps, just eight away from the all-time record for the most runs in the opening day of a Test they set in Rawalpindi in 2022, after Crawley and Ben Duckett put on 231 for the opening wicket, just two short of the personal best they set on that same day in Pakistan.Only once in the last 50 years has any other pair of English openers scored more.Crawley’s recent past had been filled with much less encouraging statistics.
In his previous 10 Test innings he had averaged 11.3 with a high score of 29 and a low in New Zealand at the end of last year that lasted four weeks and involved being repeatedly hunted and humbled by Matt Henry, who dismissed him six times in six attempts and took a total of 33 balls to do it.And while he had enjoyed some success in his early-season appearances for Kent – scoring three half-centuries, one of them unbeaten – in the first innings of those games he had scored one, none, one and six.“I actually felt in good touch before the New Zealand series,” he said.“I got a couple of weird dismissals and a couple of decent balls and before you know it I’d had a terrible, terrible time.
That’s the nature of the beast in Test cricket,But I feel like I found some rhythm in the last few weeks and things like that don’t really bother me,Like, good days and bad days,I try to forget them as quickly as possible and be as present as possible,”Zimbabwe go into day two hoping it will be possible for all their players to be present.
Shortly after lunch their opening bowler Richard Ngarava pulled up while gently jogging around the outfield, doubling over in pain and variously feeling his back and his right hamstring before climbing gingerly into an electric buggy, dragging his left leg aboard with his right arm.He eventually returned, albeit looking far from comfortable, having apparently suffered nothing more serious than a back spasm and the hope is that he will be able to bowl on Friday.“We’ll reassess tonight and then in the morning we’ll have a look,” said Charl Langeveldt, Zimbabwe’s bowling coach.Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotionLike the broad-shouldered Ngarava, the high-shouldered Blessing Muzarabani – the pair of them collectively known as the Twin Towers – bowled some excellent deliveries but was inconsistent.“Stepping up to the next level of playing a team like England, you need to be able to challenge them for longer periods,” Langeveldt said.
“In our first period we were good, but then we struggled to contain them.With England they’ll hit your good balls as well.You really feel for the guys, they tried really hard.”
‘Every person that clashed with him has left’: the rise, fall and spectacular comeback of Sam Altman
From Elon Musk to his own board, anyone who has come up against the OpenAI CEO has lost. In a gripping new account of the battle for AI supremacy, writer Karen Hao says we should all be wary of the power he now wieldsThe short-lived firing of Sam Altman, the CEO of possibly the world’s most important AI company, was sensational. When he was sacked by OpenAI’s board members, some of them believed the stakes could not have been higher – the future of humanity – if the organisation continued under Altman. Imagine Succession, with added apocalypse vibes. In early November 2023, after three weeks of secret calls and varying degrees of paranoia, the OpenAI board agreed: Altman had to go
Elon Musk claims he will step back from political donations in near future
Elon Musk claimed on Tuesday that he would decrease the amount of money he spends on politics for the foreseeable future. If true, the reduction would represent a significant turnaround after the world’s richest person positioned himself as the Republican party’s most enthusiastic donor over the last year.“I think, in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said during a video interview with Bloomberg News at the Qatar Economic Forum.Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain asked the Tesla CEO if he had decided how much to spend on midterm elections, which elicited Musk’s response. When asked why he was pulling back, Musk said flatly: “I think I’ve done enough” – drawing laughs from the audience, although it was unclear if he was joking
Almost half of young people would prefer a world without internet, UK study finds
Almost half of young people would rather live in a world where the internet does not exist, according to a new survey.The research reveals that nearly 70% of 16- to 21-year-olds feel worse about themselves after spending time on social media. Half (50%) would support a “digital curfew” that would restrict their access to certain apps and sites past 10pm, while 46% said they would rather be young in a world without the internet altogether.A quarter of respondents spent four or more hours a day on social media, while 42% of those surveyed admitted to lying to their parents and guardians about what they do online.While online, 42% said they had lied about their age, 40% admitted to having a decoy or “burner” account, and 27% said they pretended to be a different person completely
Microsoft employee interrupts CEO’s keynote with pro-Palestinian protest
A Microsoft employee disrupted a keynote speech by the company’s chief executive with a pro-Palestinian protest at the company’s annual developer conference on Monday.Joe Lopez, a Microsoft firmware engineer who worked on parts of the company’s cloud-computing platform, Azure, was escorted out the Build conference by security nearly immediately after he confronted Satya Nadella.“Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians,” Lopez yelled. “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”After the disruption, Lopez sent an all-staff email explaining his decision to stage a protest.“As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has immeasurable power to do the right thing: demand an end to this senseless tragedy, or we will cease our technological support for Israel,” read the email, which has also been published on Medium
How to protect your data after a cyber-attack
Another cyber-attack has hit the headlines – this one involving the personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales.It comes hard on the heels of recent cyber-attacks that caused huge disruption at Marks & Spencer and the Co-op, and has prompted fresh reminders for people to be extra-vigilant for any suspicious activity.If you’re worried your data may have fallen into the wrong hands somehow, here are some tips for protecting yourself.Always make sure you have strong passwords, and don’t use the same one on more than one account.If you have had any dealings with a company or organisation that has suffered a cyber-attack, change the password that you use for that website or app immediately
Bankrupt DNA testing firm 23andMe to be purchased for $256m
The drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy the genetic testing firm 23andMe Holding for $256m through a bankruptcy auction, the companies announced on Monday.Regeneron said it will comply with 23andMe’s privacy policies and applicable laws with respect to the use of customer data and that it is ready to detail its intended use of the data to a court-appointed overseer. The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter.“Regeneron Genetics Center is committed to and has a proven track record of safeguarding the genetic data of people across the globe, and, with their consent, using this data to pursue discoveries that benefit science and society,” said Aris Baras, the senior vice-president and head of the Regeneron Genetics Center. “We assure 23andMe customers that we are committed to protecting the 23andMe dataset with our high standards of data privacy, security and ethical oversight and will advance its full potential to improve human health
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