Former India women's captain Diana Edulji believes T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur and top-order batter Jemimah Rodrigues must "pull up their socks" heading into the T20 World Cup which begins on February 21 with hosts Australia taking on India.

Edulji's views came close on the heels of an India collapse of 7 for 29 in the tri-nation series final against Australia in Melbourne that cost them what looked like a likely victory, given the visitors needed only 41 runs off 35 balls with seven wickets in hand. The dismissal of half-centurion Smriti Mandhana in the 15th over exposed the infirmity of the middle order yet again.

"They are so lazy that they never try for a second. These are the things that make all the difference. It is a single or a boundary, there is nothing in between." Diana Edulji on India's running between the wickets

Edulji, whose 33-month tenure as a member of the Supreme-Court appointed Committee of Administrators involved a controversy around Mithali Raj's omission in the 2018 T20 World Cup semi-final, even floated the idea of a change of captaincy to enable Harmanpreet to play her "natural game".

"Both Harmanpreet and Jemimah need to pull up their socks," Edulji, who played 20 Tests and 36 ODIs for India, told PTI. "Maybe Harman should give up captaincy and play her natural game. Something seems to be troubling her. But who else takes over then. If Smriti is handed captaincy, it might affect her batting too."

Even though Mandhana topped the run-charts in the tri-series with a tally of 216, the rest of the line-up spluttered form, the want of fluency and consistency among the middle order in particular resulting in a league-stage defeat against England and Australia each, and then the chastening collapse in the final.

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"They are so lazy that they never try for a second," Edulji said. "These are the things that make all the difference. It is a single or a boundary, there is nothing in between."

With the infirmity of the batting order showing little signs of ceasing since India's defeat to England in the 2017 ODI World Cup final and the 2018 T20 World Cup semi-final, Edulji believes that a title triumph in the upcoming global tournament is unlikely.

"There is something wrong with this team," Edulji said. "This is a team which can win every game and it does win from an unlikely situation but the next game it is losing from a comfortable position like it did today. They are simply not consistent enough.

"They have all the facilities at their disposal now, at par with men, and yet they have not been able to play consistent cricket and win ICC trophies. If they play like the way they are playing, they will make the semi-finals again [at the T20 World Cup], but I don't see them winning the trophy."

Pooled alongside defending champions Australia, New Zealand, and Bangladesh, India have picked only three pacers in a largely spin-heavy bowling contingent for the T20 World Cup. The efficacy of that strategy, though, was on view in the tri-series, where the spin attack pulled India back in the game on multiple occasions, the left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad even going on to topping the wicket-charts. Edulji, however, had a different take on India's reliance on spinners.

"It just shows there are no quality pacers in domestic cricket," Edulji said. "You only have [swing bowler] Shikha Pandey of some calibre. What is being done to produce pacers? We are bound to play with a spin heavy attack if there are no pacers around. We are not concentrating on junior cricket enough. How come Australia have pacers who can bowl at 120 kmph and we don't?"

Harlequins have signed South Africa international prop Wilco Louw ahead of the 2020-21 Premiership season.

The 25-year-old has played for the Stormers in Super Rugby and will join at the end of the current campaign.

Louw had a short spell with French Top14 side Toulon earlier this season, providing cover during the World Cup.

"I'm really stoked to be heading to England to play for Quins. If you ask any South African player, they all know Harlequins," he said.

"It's a big opportunity for me; Harlequins play an exciting brand of rugby with awesome coaches."

Louw made his Super Rugby debut in 2015 and has since won 13 caps for South Africa.

Quins head of rugby Paul Gustard added: "At 25 he is at a great age to grow with the squad that we are building, and has many years of elite rugby in him.

"Wilco has already earned 13 caps for South Africa and is renowned for being a destructive scrummager, highlighted in an impressive 2018 campaign where he earned a league-leading 36 penalties at the scrum in Super Rugby."

Chelsea have a verbal agreement to sign Ajax forward Hakim Ziyech for €45 million, sources have told ESPN.

The Morocco international is the first signing coach Frank Lampard has made since joining the club in July. Chelsea were under a transfer embargo and then did not make any signings in the January transfer window.

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While a deal has been agreed, the transfer window has closed so it will be the summer before he joins the club. The club have been interested in the 26-year-old for a while and had to compete with interest from other London clubs Arsenal and Tottenham.

Speaking after Ajax's 3-0 cup win over Vitesse Arnhem, boss Erik ten Hag said he was happy no player had left the club in January.

"A transfer was coming, we expected it to happen," the manager told Fox Sports, when asked about reports Ziyech would join Chelsea. "And I actually already expected this one or two years earlier.

"And each time it was: 'Wow, he stayed again.' We are just happy that we will still have him until the end of the season."

Sources have told ESPN that Ajax successfully negotiated a new contract with Ziyech in the summer, which removed a €30m release clause.

Ziyech was a key part of the Ajax team which eliminated Real Madrid and Juventus en route to the Champions League semifinals last season and also won the league and KNVB Cup in the Netherlands.

Chelsea have met Ajax twice this year in the Champions League group stages with Ziyech having started both games. The Blues won the first leg 1-0 while the second leg in Amsterdam ended in a 4-4 draw.

He has scored nine goals across 28 Eredivise and Champions League games. Ziyech was voted the club's Player of the Year in each of the past two seasons and had contributed the league's most assists in four of the past five campaigns.

On Thursday, two of the most prolific goal scorers of their generation will meet for the ninth time in their respective careers. AC Milan host Juventus in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinals -- stream live on ESPN+, 2:45 p.m. ET Thursday -- and that means 38-year-old recent Milan signing (well, re-signing) Zlatan Ibrahimovic and 35-year-old second-year Juve striker Cristiano Ronaldo will face off for the first time since November 2015.

Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic have played each other eight times at the club level: six times in the Champions League and twice in La Liga, when Zlatan was with Barcelona. These matches resulted in three draws, three wins for Ronaldo, two wins for Ibrahimovic and just three combined goals for the two strikers. This matchup itself is not without short-term consequence. Winning the Coppa Italia might represent Milan's best chance to qualify for European competition next year, and the whole point of Juve signing Ronaldo was to win countless trophies. Still, Thursday's battle is more interesting for the big-picture perspective than anything else.

Aside from their goal-scoring capabilities -- the two combined for upward of 800 goals in the 2010s (admittedly, about two-thirds of that total came from Ronaldo) -- these two strikers don't have a ton in common. Ronaldo has played for just three clubs in the past 17 years (Manchester United, Real Madrid and, for the past season and a half, Juventus), and Ibrahimovic has primarily been a hired gun, playing for more than three seasons with one club just once (Paris Saint-Germain, 2012-16). Ronaldo has won both the Champions League and the Ballon d'Or five times each; Ibrahimovic has zero of either.

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-- Stream LIVE: AC Milan vs. Juventus, 2:45 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN+

Juventus' acquisition of Ronaldo was the grandest of gestures, costing more than £100 million and bringing enormous expectations. Milan's goals in bringing in Ibrahimovic were far more modest. In the end, there's a chance we look at the latter move as more successful than the former.

It's all about where you set the bar.

It was clear that, in signing Ronaldo, Juventus were thinking beyond Italy

The Bianconeri won seven Serie A titles in a row without CR7, and they won another last spring. Yet they haven't won the Champions League since 1996. Since beating Ajax in penalties that year in the final, they've lost in the finals five times (1997, 1998, 2003, 2015, 2017). They lost in the quarterfinals or later in four of the six years prior to Ronaldo's signing. Juventus have been unable to get over the hump, and acquiring the face of the Real Madrid team that defeated them in this competition in 2014, 2017 and 2018 seemed like the most direct path to Champions League glory.

This seemed like the perfect way to take a step forward ... but then Juve were upset by Ajax in the Champions League quarterfinals last year. As they await their UCL round-of-16 matchup with Lyon in a couple of weeks, they find themselves in a sudden fight for Serie A, tied with Inter Milan on points and only one ahead of red-hot Lazio, the team with the best goal differential and expected goal differential in the league. FiveThirtyEight's club soccer ratings still give Juve a 58% chance to win the league, but those odds have shrunk the past two months. Meanwhile, their Champions League odds? Three percent, same as Atalanta's. Two years ago, before Ronaldo, they headed into the knockout stage with an 8% chance to win.

It's fair that Ronaldo needed some time to get used to a league that was more cautious and less open than La Liga. (His teammates likely required some time getting used to him.) After averaging 1.02 goals per 90 minutes in his previous La Liga campaign, he averaged just 0.70 last season with Juventus and was averaging 0.57 this season through November. Finishing third in the 2019 Ballon d'Or voting -- incredibly, his lowest finish since 2010 -- seemed to light a fire. Since then, he has averaged 1.56 goals per 90, taking fewer shots overall (5.1 vs. 6.2) but taking more in the opponents' box (4.2 vs. 4.0). He has scored in 10 consecutive matches. He's attempting and winning more take-ons and is playing more aggressively overall.

Except Ronaldo's improved form hasn't yet resulted in a more successful Juve. Heading into December, their first 13 league matches produced 2.7 points per match. Since Ronaldo got hot, just 1.9. It has been enough to bring manager Maurizio Sarri's job security into question.

That said, all their goals are still achievable in 2020. Juve went unbeaten in Champions League group play and drew an extremely manageable Round of 16 matchup, they're in the Coppa Italia semis (again), and no one has more points in league play. The next couple of months, however, could dramatically define how we think of Juve's £100 million transaction.

It's impossible to not notice that since Ronaldo left Madrid for Turin, both his previous and current clubs have seen their league form drop.

-- Juventus: 144 points, 114 goals in their first 61 league matches since signing Ronaldo; 150 points, 131 goals in the 61 matches pre-Ronaldo
-- Real Madrid: 120 points, 107 goals in their first 61 league matches without him; 132, 160 (respectively) in their past 61 with him

Although poor form for these clubs is dream form for most -- Madrid have since claimed first place in La Liga, after all -- regression is regression.

Zlatan wasn't asked to win in Europe, but based on recent history, his task in Italy might be just as tricky

At the end of December, Milan were closer to the Serie A relegation zone than the top six. Granted, disappointing performances were nothing new for the Rossoneri: the seven-time Champions League winners haven't finished better than fifth in league play since 2013, and their long search for a misplaced identity has led to both Financial Fair Play sanctions (they were banned from the Europa League this year) and comical coaching turnover (eight managers in the past six years). Still, after finishing fifth in 2018-19, sitting in 10th place midway through the season was particularly bad.

The main problem: They couldn't score, producing only 16 goals in 17 league matches. Milan were pretty unlucky -- per Opta's expected goals measure, they should have had closer to 25 -- but the combination of youth and bad fortune can cause rapid deterioration in form. That isn't something Milan could afford.

In the winter transfer window, the club attempted to address both the youth and the offense. They brought in not only Ibrahimovic but also veteran defender and Danish captain Simon Kjaer on loan from Sevilla and 32-year-old backup goalkeeper Asmir Begovic from Bournemouth. Milan's midfield consists primarily of Franck Kessie (23 years old), Ismaël Bennacer (22) and Lucas Paqueta (22), and forward Rafael Leao (20) has logged more than 1,000 minutes this season. This foursome has combined to score just three goals on 77 shot attempts.

It isn't difficult to see that Ibrahimovic is back in San Siro to both set an example and put the ball in the net.

So far, he has done more of the former than the latter. He has scored only twice in five matches, primarily attempting headers in the box -- 42% of his shots with Milan have been headers, and only 27% of his shots have been on target. With the LA Galaxy, those numbers were 20% and 43%, respectively. That said, he's coming off his best performance, notching a goal and an assist in Sunday's derby loss to Inter Milan. More importantly, he has helped give the offense a center of gravity.

Correlation does not equal causation, but since the addition of Ibrahimovic, Milan have scored nine goals in six matches -- eight in the five that featured Zlatan -- and they've gone from 11.7 chances and 1.5 XG per 90 minutes to 14.3 and 2.2, respectively. They are stretching opponents more, attempting and completing more forward passes, long passes and crosses, and they are generating more touches in the opponent's box and creating more of what Opta defines as "big chances" -- 2.0 per 90 vs. 1.2 before. (A big chance: "a situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score ... penalties are always considered big chances.")

Manager Stefano Pioli, on board since October, has begun to use forward Ante Rebic more in this new calendar year as well. After sitting on the bench for most of autumn, the 26-year-old Frankfurt loanee has scored four goals on 12 shots in his past four matches. An attacking trio of Leao, Ibrahimovic and Rebic is making far more happen up front.

There are still breakdowns. Despite first-half brilliance from both Ibrahimovic and Rebic against Inter, they turned a 2-0 lead into a 4-2 loss, after which Ibrahimovic told the media, "We stopped playing, the team stopped believing ... everything collapsed. I think a lot of it is down to experience."

But even with setbacks, only four teams have produced more points in league play since the start of 2020, and Milan are back to within two points of sixth place, which would get them into Europa League qualification again. Plus, they're still alive in the Coppa Italia, which would also potentially qualify them for Europe.

Juventus are still the kings of Serie A until proven otherwise, and they are still alive in the Champions League. Milan, meanwhile, are just hoping to scrounge out a Europa spot. But it's interesting to think about the different expectations heaped on these two legendary strikers, and it's fair to wonder if we'll look back on Ibrahimovic's (likely) short stay in Milan as more of a success than the grand gesture of bringing Ronaldo to northern Italy.

Shanghai Shenhua striker Odion Ighalo almost failed to get his dream transfer to Manchester United on the Jan. 31 deadline day -- a few minutes later, and he could have been at a rival Premier League club instead -- but once things started to move, they did so at lightning pace. A frenetic night of talks spanning Norway, England and China saw it take just eight hours from the first phone call to the final contract signing for United to land the 30-year-old on loan.

The man at the centre of it all was not Ighalo himself but his agent, Atta Aneke, the Norwegian-Nigerian who has managed the former Super Eagles striker since his transfer to Lyn in 2007, then through permanent moves to Udinese in Italy, Watford in England and finally Changchun Yatai and Shanghai Shenhua in China.

With just over a week to go until the end of the January transfer window, and with Manchester United still in desperate need of a striker, Aneke said he contacted the club with his client's availability for a loan.

"I reached out to Manchester United about him maybe a week prior to the transfer deadline," Aneke told ESPN. "We spoke at first; they asked some questions and got some info about him. But I never heard back from them again after that. The day before deadline day, I felt there wasn't going to be any deal because I was picking up from a fellow agent that they were chasing some other player."

Aneke, of course, briefed his client on the situation, given he is a self-confessed United fan. This was in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak and there were reports of some players wanting to leave China, but Aneke says Ighalo was not among them.

"Actually, he wasn't really looking to leave, to be honest," he added. "He was quite OK. Preseason was on. There was never a discussion that we needed to make something happen this window. He's always been fine in China and enjoying his time there.

"So it needed something like this [United's interest] to make him want to leave because there's been many loan offers all the time and teams wanting him to come. Even when I contacted United, I gave him a hint earlier that I was speaking to them and they seemed interested. He was a bit excited but not overexcited. That is how it is in football. There are so many rumours in football. Knowing it came from me, he knew there was truth in it, but he wasn't overexcited because you know the game. If you get excited every time a club reaches out, you're going to get a lot of disappointment."

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The other player that United were keen to sign is now known to have been Bournemouth's Josh King, a former youth player at Old Trafford. It was only when the King deal fell through that Aneke was surprised by a call from United, late on deadline-day afternoon.

"When I got the final confirmation, it was past 4 p.m. Norwegian time. So I had less than eight hours to get this all done," he said. "Also, when they called me, it was 11 p.m. in Shanghai. I was like, 'How are we possibly going to make this happen now with all the paperwork that has to be done between the clubs and everything?' At that point I was a bit worried, to be honest. I did not think we would get it all done on time to beat the deadline."

Aneke called Ighalo, who had to wake up his translator in China and then go in search of the Shanghai Shenhua sporting director. That is when they ran into a stroke of good fortune: The sporting director was not in bed. He was working.

"Luckily the sporting director was up working because they were negotiating a loan move to another Premier League side [reported to be Tottenham Hotspur]," Aneke said. "Otherwise, it would have been difficult to get hold of him and that may have cost us valuable time."

At that point, Ighalo put a stop to everything else -- even when it appeared there was more money on the table from elsewhere. Aneke said: "He was the one that said: 'I really want to do this.' He said: 'I don't really care if the other teams are offering more, I just want to go to Man United.' He told me: 'Just make it happen.'"

Working feverishly late into the night to get the deal done, Aneke says the successful conclusion was simultaneously a relief and the crowning moment of his career as a player representative.

"It was a big relief. Since day one, he [Ighalo] told me that this was his dream. To play for Manchester United one day," he said. "To take a player to such a club, not the financial side but more the joy of doing a transfer like this, is really fulfilling. So this is the biggest one for me."

Aneke, who also manages other stars including Heerenveen's Chidera Ejuke in the Dutch league, says there is a lesson for players who change agents with alarming regularity.

"It's also a good thing as it shows players you don't have to switch agents every year to make it to the top," Aneke added. "He's been loyal and we have had a great working relationship for 13 years now.

"It is so easy to get carried away in the football world, and so many people promise players so many things. Just to look at his career, the kind of places he's gone, and the kind of money he has made and he's still kept his personality, staying the same Odion. It's remarkable to see."

Childhood dream achieved, Ighalo will now be keen to show the United fans how much it means to him to wear the famous red shirt. And if his goals can help Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side to turn things around, then all the hard work to get the deal done will have been well worth it.

Ricky Ponting has revealed his belief that the road leading Australia to the Newlands scandal had started years before when he became fearful of a decline in the level of senior experience around the national team to adequately mentor younger players as to how to conduct themselves.

Speaking to a fundraising dinner of almost 500 guests for the Chappell Foundation at the SCG on Tuesday night, Ponting said that he could see a link between the anxiety about leadership in the Australian team, that saw him play on for several years after he might easily have retired, and the eventual crisis in South Africa that saw Steven Smith and David Warner banned for a year while stripped of their leadership roles. Cameron Bancroft, a more junior member of the side, was suspended for nine months.

Put simply, Ponting said, all well-rounded teams needed senior figures around them who have the ability to "say no" when questions of character, ethics or sharp practice are raised. This was conspicuously absent at the height of the Newlands scandal.

"I was a bit worried that with a lot of the experience going out of our team at the same time, that there would be a bit of a void left with experienced players to be able to say 'no' basically," Ponting said. "If I look at where things got at Cape Town I just don't think there were enough people around that team to say 'no' to some of those guys. Things got completely out of control. That's very much an outsider's view on it. I had nothing to do with the team really until the last couple of years around some Twenty20 cricket and the World Cup last year.

"I probably should have retired three or four years earlier than I did but I was really worried about where the direction of the Australian cricket team was going if I wasn't around. And I wanted to be around to help Warner and Smith and Nathan Lyon and Peter Siddle and Mitchell Johnson. I wanted to help them through that initial phase of their international careers because I knew it wasn't going to be easy for them."

Had Ponting retired at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season when he gave up the captaincy to Michael Clarke, he would have finished with 152 Tests, 12,363 runs and an average of 53.51, with 39 centuries. As it was, he stayed on until midway through the Test summer of 2012-13, adding two more hundreds and another nine Test match victories to take his career tally beyond 100. However, at the same time Ponting's average was steadily eroded to 51.85 by the time of his last match in Perth against South Africa.

"I was just a little bit worried with the void that was left on the experience side," Ponting said. "Every great team that I played in, whether it be a club team or an Australian cricket team or a state team, there was always a lot of old hard heads around just to make sure when the younger guys came in that they understood what it meant to be playing for each of those teams. And if I had have retired ... I was worried there wasn't going to be enough people to point them in the right direction."

Working primarily as a commentator, Ponting kept a professional distance from the Australian side until he began to become involved in some T20 coaching from 2017 onwards, but his closeness to the set-up was greatly increased once his close friend Justin Langer became the senior coach in the wake of the Newlands scandal in 2018.

"Having Justin around the national team now, I think we've already seen a bit of a change in behaviour and I think we've seen the public are really starting to enjoy and embrace the Australian cricket team again," Ponting told the gathering. "Even looking at [Monday night], the way that David Warner spoke at the Australian Cricket Awards ... wind the clock back 12 or 18 months, that wasn't possible for him to do. I think he did a terrific job. And I think he's slowly starting to gain a lot of the respect of the Australian public back again."

The Chappell Foundation, which collects funds for homeless youths, raised more than A$400,000 on the night, as Ponting and the foundation's founder Greg Chappell also took guests on a guided tour of the Australian dressing room.

J Arunkumar, the former Karnataka captain, has hit out at "baseless allegations" of ill-health being touted as the reason for him stepping down as Puducherry coach midway through the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy league phase.

An official from Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP) told Times of India on Wednesday that Arunkumar "hadn't been keeping well and make frequent visits to hospital during the course of the season". At the time of writing, ESPNcricinfo was still waiting for a comment from officials at Puducherry.

Arunkumar said the allegations of ill-health were simply rumours, and that it was the "constant interference" from an official which created a "toxic team environment" which led to him resigning.

Thank u people for the concern & wishes. I'm hale & hearty & contrary to reports, I HAVEN'T resigned as head coach of the Pondicherry team due to my health. I quit due to constant interference from an official, which made the dressing room environment toxic to say the least.

— J Arun Kumar (@arunonline1975) February 13, 2020

It was suffocating to work in a system with constant interference in all matters related to the team. That said, I wish the boys the very best. They are a wonderful bunch.

— J Arun Kumar (@arunonline1975) February 13, 2020

Puducherry won five out of their seven matches under Arunkumar this Ranji Trophy, in addition to having previously topped the Plate Group in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and qualifying for the quarter-finals. This had also earned them a promotion to Group C next year.

"There has to be a solid reason for someone to resign in these circumstances even though the team is on a winning spree," Arunkumar told ESPNcricinfo. "Ill-health is just an excuse. I'm perfectly fine. I couldn't work in an environment where I wasn't given the space, team or an environment that allowed me to bring the best out of their players."

ESPNcricinfo understands the decision to make five changes to the Puducherry squad soon after their drawn fixture against Chandigarh on January 30 didn't go down to well with Arunkumar, who quit after that game. He said, "I was neither given the team I wanted or allowed to instill confidence in a young group that was always afraid of failure."

Arunkumar, a former Karnataka batsman who scored 7208 first-class runs, had previously coached the state to a back-to-back double-treble, winning the Ranji Trophy, the Irani Cup and the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Apart from Karnataka, the side with which he won the Ranji Trophy as a player in 1995-96, Arunkumar has also had coaching stints with Hyderabad, the 2018 TNPL champions Siechem Madurai Panthers and IPL side Kings XI Punjab.

CS Suresh Kumar, the former Tamil Nadu batsman, stepped in to coach Puducherry in an interim capacity in the wake of Arunkumar's resignation, and was in charge during their previous league stage match, against Manipur. Suresh Kumar had been in charge of Puducherry's Under-23 side until this development.

Shubman Gill believes that India's success in New Zealand will depend on how well they negotiate the short ball, especially considering it is the weapon of choice for one of their best bowlers - Neil Wagner.

New Zealand endured a tough time on their tour of Australia late last year but Wagner emerged as one of the significant positives from the 3-0 thrashing. The short ball remained his ultimate weapon and it even accounted for Steven Smith four times. In the home Test series against England that preceded that tour, Wagner laboured on surfaces that had nothing to offer him, bowing long spells full of short balls to help New Zealand get back in the game.

"I think their bowling attack has been taking a lot of wickets with the short ball, especially Wagner," Gill said on the eve of the Indians' practice match in Hamilton. "If you see the last series they played against Australia, when nothing was happening in the wicket, they were really relying on the short ball. I think as a team, as a batsman, if we could take that out of the picture and not give wickets to the short ball, it will be really helpful for us."

Gill warmed up with scores of 83, 204* and 136 with India A in New Zealand earlier this month, and from his recent experience, he picked out the one challenge that awaits batsmen in those conditions.

"I think the wickets here are really good to bat on, especially when we played the days game in Christchurch, the wickets were really good to bat on," Gill said. "The only challenge that we were facing was the bounce. The bounce was really good and it was really consistent. Keeping the wind factor in mind, it was not that easy to consistently pull and hook the ball."

With those scores, Gill has made a strong case for selection as an opener with Mayank Agarwal in the Test series. It's currently a toss-up between him and Prithvi Shaw, who has also had a recent run of good form.

"Obviously, our [his and Shaw's] careers started at the same time but there is no fight [for the spot] as such. Both of us have done well in our positions. It's up to the team management, who they will play. Whoever gets the chance will try to make the most of the opportunity and not let it go waste."

It was in New Zealand last year that Gill made his India debut. As he gears up in hope to showcase his skills in whites for India, he also explained how fitness has been central to his development, especially while playing in the longer format.

"I don't know about control over the mind but if you are fitter, you are confident that I can play a longer innings, I won't be that tired," Gill said. "If I am playing in a test match, I can back myself to play 300 balls, 350 balls and after that, when you go out to field, I won't be that tired. My legs won't be that tired. Those are the challenges.

"I think I have grown as a player, I have grown in confidence and in other aspects of my game. I think I have learnt a lot of things over the last few years. On my fitness, fielding, not just on my batting."

DENVER -- The Los Angeles Lakers increased their stranglehold on the Western Conference's No. 1 spot with an impressive road win against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, but LeBron James claims seeding isn't a topic of conversation for L.A.

"We don't talk about it," James said after the Lakers' 120-116 overtime win gave L.A. a four-game lead over the Nuggets heading into the All-Star break. "For us, we would love to play in front of our home fans as much as we can. We love being there with our Laker faithful.

"But at the end of the day, you go out and play each and every game like it's its own game. You can't worry about what could happen the following day. You can only look at the present, like we did tonight."

Maybe James didn't need to say anything to let his team know the significance of the Denver game. Several of his teammates noted his serious tone in the pregame locker room as he suited up in his uniform 80 minutes before tipoff -- far earlier than usual -- to show his level of preparedness.

James went on to lead L.A. with 32 points, 14 assists and 12 rebounds to notch his 12th triple-double of the season and keep pace with Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks for the league lead. It was James' 20th triple-double since he joined the Lakers, making him just the fourth player in team history to record that many with the team, along with Magic Johnson, Elgin Baylor and Kobe Bryant, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

James, Anthony Davis and the entire coaching staff will head to Chicago for All-Star weekend and take the court in Sunday's main event. Dwight Howard will make the trip to compete in the dunk contest Saturday night. Several other players, including Kyle Kuzma and Troy Daniels, will also join to complete promotional obligations.

When the team returns, it will be a six-week sprint to the postseason, as the Lakers franchise is all but assured to make the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

James likes where L.A. stands.

"We are where we need to be," he said. "We'll come back off the break and get ready for the final stretch of the regular season. You don't put too much into it. You understand you played some good basketball along the way, played some not good basketball. But you want to continue to get better and continue to trust the process. We look forward to when we get back, getting back on the floor and see how far we'll continue to grow."

Davis had one of his best games as a Laker on Wednesday, single-handedly outscoring the Nuggets 7-5 in overtime en route to a final line of 33 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals.

He said the Lakers reclaimed their edge before the layoff, and they did so in what several players described in the postgame locker room as a "playoff atmosphere."

"I think we kind of got our defensive intensity back a little bit," Davis said. "We let that slip in that second half of the first half of the year, and a game like this, to come on the road pre-All-Star, we kind of got our defensive intensity back, and I think that's something that we're going to continue to have in the quote-unquote second half of the season."

The Lakers are 10-5 against teams with better than .500 records, including 2-1 against the Nuggets, with both wins coming at the Pepsi Center and the loss occurring in a game James sat out.

"I think in a way, they're already defeated, seeing that we already beat them twice on their own court," Avery Bradley said. "I'm just happy we were able to get the job done."

There are still questions for the Lakers to figure out, such as whom L.A. could target on the buyout/free agency market to boost the roster or how certain players' roles could expand or diminish -- Frank Vogel called Alex Caruso his "secret weapon" Wednesday and said he's pondering more minutes for the physical guard -- or even how Kobe Bryant's death will continue to affect the team.

But all things considered, it's hard to imagine a better on-court performance from the Lakers through the first four months of the season, in terms of both the standings and team chemistry.

"There's never been egos on this team," Caruso said. "I mean, you can see it in the videos and pictures. That's not fake chemistry. It's not phony. We're not just doing it because there's a camera in front of us. We genuinely enjoy hanging out with each other, cracking jokes and then playing basketball."

Vogel said it's on his team to carry the same focus after the break.

"I like the commitment we've shown to stay in the moment, to be great every time we touch the floor because that builds habits that will win for us in the playoffs," he said. "There's still areas we can still definitely improve, and we'll continue to work on those."

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – In an ending so tight that track announcers called it “the closest finish in racing,” Anthony Nocella edged Matt Hirschman to win the John Blewett III Memorial 76 for tour-type modifieds on Wednesday night at New Smyrna Speedway.

Nocella stayed true to the bottom in the final vestiges of the 76-lap contest at the .48-mile Florida short track, while Hirschman pounded away at the top in an effort to rail around the outside of the No. 92.

It was a virtual mirror image of the duo’s battle from Monday night, in which Nocella also emerged victorious, however this time around the result was almost literally too close to call.

Coming to the checkered flag, a diamond line through turns three and four saw Hirschman get enough momentum to pull all the way alongside Nocella in the outside groove after fighting tooth-and-nail for most of the final 10 laps.

At the finish line, the two cars crossed in a dead heat by the eye test, having to go to video review due to a transponder issue that prevented Nocella’s scoring device from working properly most of the race.

After a nearly-five minute review of all available video evidence, track officials found no conclusive evidence to overturn their initial call declaring Nocella the victor.

Thus, Nocella’s second win of the World Series of Asphalt Racing stood and the No. 92 parked in victory lane.

“I just tried to get inside him there,” Nocella said of the finish. “We were able to clear him, get by him, used all that power off the corner at the end and had just enough to beat him to the line.”

Admittedly, Nocella himself wasn’t a hundred percent sure whether he beat Hirschman to the line at first.

“We got to the throttle at the same time there, he got some more momentum off the top,” he said. “It was close. I couldn’t really tell. We were pretty much dead even from what I could tell.”

Hirschman disagreed with the decision, pleading his case to the officials, but his appeal wasn’t enough.

However, the Pee Dee Motorsports driver wasn’t too down about the ending, mainly because of the clean, hard racing and mutual respect that he and Nocella have shared throughout the week.

“The toughest way to lose a race is when you get treated unfairly and that’s not the case because that’s a great race,” Hirschman noted. “I’m not going to take anything away from the finish. From my seat, I felt I beat him by about six to 12 inches. I looked at a photo that sure looks like that, but that (Nocella winning) was the official decision, I’m told. I will have to live with it. I disagree but I’m not going to take anything away from the No. 92 or myself.

“It was an incredible finish, regardless of who the winner was.”

Wednesday’s race is run annually during the New Smyrna World Series as a tribute to the late John Blewett III, a legend in the modified racing community.

While Nocella never knew John personally, he is friends with John’s brother, fellow competitor Jimmy Blewett, and admitted that winning the Blewett Memorial is “a little extra special” for that reason.

“Coming from open wheel cars that I’ve ran all my life, that’s the way I think it should be racing, you know? They’ve got nerf bars; you can beat and bang,” said Nocella. “We rubbed a little bit, but we ran there for the win, ran clean, and ran with respect for each other. It shows. We put on a good race for the fans.”

Of note, Champion Racing Ass’n official Glenn Luckett issued a statement regarding how the final result was determined after the racing program had concluded.

“The reason we don’t use the transponder is that NASCAR has a template to where you have to mount it and we don’t,” Luckett said. “We just put it on the left rear frame rail. We always go by: What’s seen at the line. They were side by side for three laps, so we knew we were going to have to watch. I was watching from the tower, so were the scorers, and we agreed it was Nocella.

“We went back at photography, and what we saw on the broadcast, and the final decision came back to what the flagger saw at the finish line.”

Jimmy Blewett, the brother of the late John Blewett III, completed the podium after leading several laps in the second half of the race. He was followed by Ryan Preece, who came from last after a qualifying issue to cross the line in fourth.

Dave Sapienza followed in fifth, with Eric Goodale, Patrick Emerling, Mike Willis Jr., Kyle Ebersole and Tommy Catalano filling out the top 10 at the checkered flag.

The finish:

Anthony Nocella, Matt Hirschman, Jimmy Blewett, Ryan Preece, Dave Sapienza, Eric Goodale, Patrick Emerling, Mike Willis Jr., Kyle Ebersole, Tommy Catalano, Brett Meservey, Jeremy Gerstner, Craig Lutz, Jim Gavek, Ricky Moxley, Joe DeGracia, Eddie McCarthy, Tyler Rypkema, Anthony Sesely, Rich Parker, Tyler Catalano, JR Bertuccio, Brian Roble, Paul Townsond, Brad Vanhouton, Jeffrey Gallup, Ray Fattaraso, Adam LaCicero, John Gerstner.