TAMPA, Fla. - Two days after he was benched for what Bruce Arians deemed lack of hustle, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers released starting cornerback Vernon Hargreaves Tuesday morning.

"After thoughtful consideration over the past few weeks, Bruce and I came to the conclusion that we needed to make this change," Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said in a statement. "Decisions such as this are always difficult, but I felt it was in the best interest of our team to part ways with Vernon at this time and allow him to explore other opportunities. We are disappointed that it did not work out here for Vernon and we wish him continued success moving forward."

Hargreaves, the Bucs' 11th overall draft pick in 2016, was the most experienced cornerback on the Bucs' roster.

He was originally the Bucs' top cornerback this offseason, which is why the organization picked up his fifth-year option for 2020, valued at $9 million. That fifth-year option was guaranteed for injury only, however.

"He didn't look like he was hustling to go in for a tackle," Arians said when asked about Hargreaves, who surrendered a 55-yard catch to Andy Isabella at the beginning of the third quarter. "He was chasing somebody across the field and he wasn't running fast enough."

Hargreaves wasn't defiant when approached by ESPN after the game and said he believed things could be resolved.

"If that's what Coach saw, that's what he saw," said Hargreaves, who wound up finishing the game after nickelback M.J.Stewart's injury. "There's no arguing it. I need to hustle, point-blank, end of discussion. And I'll get better. I'm sure I'll talk with him this week and we'll get things straightened out, and we'll see where to go from here."

Now the Bucs' most experienced corner is Ryan Smith, who was removed after two plays on defense Sunday because he surrendered a 69-yard touchdown and has only played five defensive snaps this season.

Second-year players Carlton Davis and M.J. Stewart are the next-most experienced, but Davis has been fighting a hip injury and Stewart a knee injury. The other two cornerbacks are rookies Jamel Dean and Sean Murphy-Bunting.

While Hargreaves posted an interception in Week 1 and made a game-winning tackle of Christian McCaffrey in Week 2, he has appeared to lack focus at times this year when he was expected to be a leader. The Bucs' cornerbacks group features four players with two years or less experience, and three rookie defensive backs.

Hargreaves' departure means that just one of Licht's 2016 draft picks remain on the current roster: Smith, who has played just five defensive snaps this year. Noah Spence, Roberto Aguayo, Caleb Benenoch, Devante Bond and Danny Vitale were all cut. Licht was given a five-year extension this offseason through 2023.

NOBODY SAW MUCH of Daryl Morey in the days after the Houston Rockets landed in Tokyo for the NBA's Japan Games. The Rockets' general manager confined himself to his room at the Ritz Carlton in Roppongi Hills during the team's six-day visit, spotted leaving for occasional jaunts to the Shake Shack located a half-mile away.

Morey had reason to shut himself inside. When he tweeted an image on Friday, Oct. 4, that read "Fight for Freedom, Stand With Hong Kong," a sequence of events ensued that upended the NBA and one of its most recognizable franchises.

Yet apart from a follow-up tweet on Sunday that declared his intention wasn't to offend Rockets fans and friends in China, Morey sequestered himself from public view. He didn't attend the Rockets' practice on Sunday. He skipped the team's basketball clinic for Japanese youth on Monday. And though they were staying in the same hotel, Morey and NBA commissioner Adam Silver never met face-to-face. With Silver in Tokyo for less than 48 hours amid a packed schedule of public events and crisis management, they conducted their conversations over the phone.

During the week that the NBA set up shop in Tokyo, the Ritz Carlton felt less like a luxury hotel than a diplomatic retreat where a high-stakes international negotiation hung in the balance. With each passing day, those on the ground sensed the tension compounding.

On Wednesday, a day after Silver followed up the NBA's initial tepid statement by backing every NBA employee's right to political expression, Morey got off the elevator in his trademark mock turtleneck and walked to the hotel's Lobby Lounge on the 45th floor. He looked haggard, an appearance that wasn't helped by his tatty beard, when he received one of the only people he would engage in Tokyo: Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri.

That Ujiri, who projects a statesmanlike persona, was Morey's executive counterpart in Tokyo was both coincidence and blessing. Ujiri has written op-eds on the kidnappings by terrorist organization Boko Haram and the Atlanta Hawks' Danny Ferry episode. He spoke out publicly against Donald Trump's characterization of "s---hole countries" in the developing world.

Ujiri wanted to understand Morey's interest in Hong Kong, his level of passion and its origin. Morey explained to Ujiri that MIT Sloan, where he received his MBA in 2000, was a thick pipeline to Hong Kong in the world of business. As conflicts between protesters in Hong Kong and the Chinese government in Beijing have grown increasingly contentious in recent years, Morey's friends have continued to discuss the idea of political autonomy in Hong Kong. Morey revealed that the timing of his tweet coincided with the implementation of a new law in Hong Kong prohibiting protesters from wearing masks.

Ujiri told Morey he had spoken to a handful of general managers, who offered their support. Morey found that a bit unconvincing -- he has never been widely popular among rival executives -- but he thanked Ujiri for the well-wishes. Passersby in the airy room, be they team personnel or league staffers, couldn't resist stealing a glance at Morey as they breezed by the small table.

Morey hadn't seen Ujiri in person since the Raptors won the NBA Finals in June, and after debriefing on the China affair, the conversation drifted to basketball. Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry blossomed in Houston during Morey's tenure. The two execs swapped stories about the competitive, occasionally maddening but incomparably singular player. They chatted about Nick Nurse, the Raptors head coach who came of age in the Rockets organization.

As Ujiri listened to Morey's early impressions of the James Harden-Russell Westbrook pairing, it dawned on the Raptors exec that as happy as he was to extend support, the most consolatory thing he could offer Morey was a chance to be himself. For an hour or two, Morey dropped back into the comfortable role of exuberant NBA GM, the trigger-happy swashbuckler who enjoys texting preposterous trade proposals to other execs or baiting an opposing NBA player on Twitter -- the guy who loves being Daryl Morey, for better or worse.

THE TENSION THAT bubbled inside that Tokyo hotel persisted throughout the Rockets organization and the league for weeks. League sources say NBA leadership continues to monitor trade negotiations between the United States and China. They believe that a resolution both sides find agreeable could help soothe the league's relationships in its most profitable foreign market.

Nobody at the NBA or with the Rockets wished to speak on the record for this piece, nor did players, team owners or executives around the league. The collective silence is a reflection of not just the sensitive nature of the conflict, but also the belief that there are significant inflection points ahead.

Some around the NBA marvel at this perfect storm, and the number of variables at work is remarkable:

Morey just happens to be the top basketball exec for the one franchise with the strongest claim of being "China's team." That team's organizational ambassador over the past two decades: Yao Ming, who carried the flag for China during the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing and now leads its top basketball league.

Morey published the tweet when NBA teams were literally boarding jets bound for China, and that matchup featured LeBron James, the NBA's most influential star whose criticism of Morey would resonate the loudest.

On top of that, the United States and China had been engaged in one of the most contentious trade wars in recent history, while the Communist Party of China was celebrating its 70th anniversary in an environment of intense nationalism across the country.

If the general manager of an Eastern Conference cellar-dweller had posted the exact same tweet in March, would he have ignited this level of international controversy?

But all of that engendered little sympathy for Morey around the league, even as voices from across the American political spectrum rallied behind him. The crisis raged not only in Asia, where players, Silver and the Rockets contended with its immediate effects, but also throughout the NBA, which braced for the aftermath. Conversations with top business and basketball operations executives during the days that followed the initial events revealed a league beset by frustration.

Panic infected some front offices, which worried about a sizable reduction in salary-cap projections due to lost revenue from China. Teams that have spent years instructing players on the hazards of impulsive social media use were irritated to see an executive wreak havoc with a tweet. A few execs who respected Morey's stance over events in Hong Kong expressed bemusement that he took the tweet down. To them, his decision to do so signaled a lack of conviction: If he felt his political expression warranted the fallout, then at least stand by it.

China's state-run network CCTV, one of the largest international broadcasters in the world, has not aired an NBA game through the season's first three weeks. Games have returned to Tencent, an ESPN partner that streams the NBA in China, but viewers can't watch the Rockets. Asked when they expected the impasse to be resolved, nobody around the league could offer an approximate timetable, even as the NBA and CCTV officials maintain communication about the future of broadcasts in China.

Beyond just the fate of NBA games on Chinese platforms, the broader situation remains fluid and, to many in the league, inscrutable.

WHEN NBA TEAM presidents logged online for their quarterly video conference on Oct. 16, a palpable tension hung over the discussion. Less than 48 hours earlier, a despondent LeBron James told reporters in Los Angeles that Morey's tweet was misinformed and had the potential to cause physical, financial, emotional and even spiritual harm.

Chinese companies that had existing sponsorship deals with NBA teams notified franchises early the previous week that those partnerships were being terminated until further notice. One NBA team says it immediately slashed revenue projections derived from Chinese sponsorship for the 2019-20 season to zero.

Beyond their spreadsheets, multiple sources say front offices around the NBA were shaken by the turmoil. The league had been enjoying a lengthy winning streak -- a doubling of revenue over eight years, global expansion, positive coverage in the media. Some land mines lingered on the horizon, but NBA leaders had come to believe that there were few issues that couldn't be managed -- yet China was testing that faith.

After introductory remarks from commissioner Silver, Rockets CEO Tad Brown spoke to the group. Brown started with Houston 17 years ago as its director of corporate development. He inked the franchise's first sponsorship contract with a Chinese company, Yanjing Beer Group, soon after the team drafted Yao.

Brown acknowledged how much the events over the previous two weeks had affected every franchise in the league. He said he understood the economic impact, as well as the difficult position players, coaches, executives and teams now found themselves navigating. Fellow executives around the league appreciated Brown's remarks as sincere and straightforward.

Brown's comments then spawned a conversation about the prospect of large-scale demonstrations at NBA arenas and their possible long-term repercussions. While the discussion touched on Hong Kong and China, there was a collective acknowledgement that in the present-day NBA, protest was now a matter of course. The league had cultivated a brand identity around social and political consciousness, so it followed that when social and political issues come to light, NBA personnel will get a disproportionate amount of attention.

There's still great uncertainty about the effects on league business, from the impact on salary-cap projections to the probability that the NBA can fully restore its relationships with Chinese broadcasters and corporate partners. Does the NBA have a shot of returning in the foreseeable future to China, where it has played preseason games in every non-lockout season since 2007?

No team has felt the brunt of the fallout more than the Rockets. League sources say the franchise has lost more than $7 million in revenue this season from cancelled Chinese sponsorship agreements and nearly $20 million overall when terminated multiyear deals are calculated.

Previous Rockets owner Leslie Alexander was able to parlay the Rockets' presence in China into numerous investment opportunities, from wine distribution to the Chinese auto aftermarket. The friction between the NBA and China could temper any ambitions his successor, Tilman Fertitta, has to expand his portfolio into China after paying $2.2 billion for the team in 2017. For their superstar James Harden, the losses could be considerable if no resolution is reached. A source says Harden's endorsement agreement with Shanghai's SPD Bank Credit Card is imperiled.

During Yao's heyday in Houston, there was a common joke in the NBA: The two best ways to get a shoe deal were to be an All-Star or play next to Yao Ming. Shane Battier, Luis Scola, Bonzi Wells and Chuck Hayes each cashed in with Chinese footwear companies, as has a new generation of NBA players that includes Klay Thompson, CJ McCollum and Gordon Hayward. But as the current standoff wears on, the Rockets' magic potion might have turned into a poison pill.

AS AN EXECUTIVE who values digital platforms as a means to communicate with the world, Morey hired a Chinese firm a few years ago to help him manage his social media accounts in the country, including Weibo. That company dropped Morey as a client immediately following his tweet. Soon after, security consultants advised Morey to install advanced protective software on all of his devices and change his passwords to maximum strength.

When Morey reached out to a number of friends from Hong Kong soon after the story exploded, a few were too petrified to speak to him. Others, including some friends stateside who were concerned about surveillance and hacking, instructed him to install secure apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal. One of Morey's closer friends from Hong Kong had his attorney return Morey's call on his behalf. The lawyer, who declined to offer his name when contacted by ESPN, told Morey that all communication should be channeled through him until further notice.

When Morey was named the NBA's Executive of the Year by his peers in 2018, he was genuinely shocked, believing himself too unpopular to win the award. A computer science major/MBA-turned-strategy consultant before his career as a front-office exec, Morey has embraced his persona as the NBA's chief disrupter. He co-founded the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (of which ESPN is a sponsor), one of the professional sports world's annual power confabs, and he readily uses social media, whether to advance voting reform or to trash-talk an NBA player who is in a public tiff with a Rocket.

Few of Morey's colleagues around the NBA were surprised by his post. Most fellow execs saw Morey's decision to comment on Twitter about the conflict between Hong Kong and Beijing as consistent with his behavior during his 13 years as Rockets GM.

This is a general manager who, after all, took the unusual tack over the summer of submitting to the NBA a signed, executed player contract between the Rockets and Nene laden with questionable incentives, daring the league to reject it. The NBA office, miffed that the Rockets didn't check about the deal's legality ahead of time, chose to amend the contract on its own -- quickly diminishing the valuable trade chip Morey was hoping to manufacture. The episode was another instance of Morey testing limits as one of the league's most aggressive general managers.

In contrast, conversations with nearly a dozen NBA front-office executives show that most have an acute allergy to this specific conflict with China.

"I honestly just try to stay away from it," one NBA team exec said. "It's like watching my dog vomit."

Many executives said they would like the NBA to develop guidelines for dealing with China and other politically sensitive topics, rather than leaving teams, players and executives to formulate them on their own. For example, those making a preseason trip to India in the future would appreciate some direction on how to respond to any questions about regional tensions around the subcontinent. League sources acknowledge the need for guidance.

Though a couple of NBA executives speculated Morey might have greater difficulty attracting marquee free agents to Houston, few said that his ability to perform his job would be affected beyond having to placate Fertitta, a shotgun marriage that sources close to the Rockets have considered a tenuous fit since Fertitta bought the team in 2017.

None of the executives doubted Morey's interest in the political issue in question, but almost all of them suggested that Morey would figure out how to leverage the ordeal into a net positive for himself. Several noted that, in recent years, Morey has immersed himself in so many disparate pursuits -- the Sloan conference, theater production, Silicon Valley, techno-activism -- that his impulses are best interpreted as groundwork for his next big thing.

As the NBA regular season enters its fourth week, the anxiety of front-office executives skittish about lost revenue and arena protests has largely receded. The quandary with China is a black box whose contents remain mysterious. It's something for Silver and his brain trust to figure out while these execs busy themselves with the management of their rosters, owners and fan bases. And little has changed about Morey's day-to-day dealings with rival front offices.

But Morey has maintained a low profile over the past few weeks. He has discussed only basketball publicly, while taking to social media to celebrate Houston's new backcourt pairing and to recognize center Clint Capela's charitable work. On Monday, he retweeted a clip from "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" about the liabilities of faulty voting machines.

But on matters relating to East Asia, Morey -- like the rest of the NBA -- has remained silent.

FAENZA, Italy – Scuderia Toro Rosso has confirmed that drivers Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat will both return to the team for the upcoming Formula One season.

“I’m delighted to retain Pierre and Daniil for next season,” said Team Principal Franz Tost. “Both drivers have shown really good performances this season and they have proven in their years in F-1 to be very competitive, able to exploit the car’s potential and give valuable feedback to make improvements. This young but experienced duo, combined with hopefully a competitive car, will be the best factors to achieve a very successful season in 2020 and I’m looking forward to this extended cooperation.”

Kvyat will returns to the team for another season of competition after a competitive year, which has seen the young Russian earn 34 championship points as well as Toro Rosso’s second podium with a third-place result at Germany’s Hockenheimring.

“It’s great to be confirmed with the team for 2020. I’m really happy because I feel very comfortable with everyone here, I know the team and they know me very well, so it’s easy to understand everyone’s needs,” said Kvyat. “We’ve achieved great things together, like our podium this year in Germany, so I hope to deliver a very strong season again for this team next year. I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue in Formula One and I will give it my all to show the best possible performances next year. I’m really looking forward to more exciting times together.”

Gasly returned to Toro Rosso midway through the 2019 season after starting the year with the Red Bull squad. Since then he has finished in the points four times. He currently has 77 championship points.

“I’m really happy to continue with the team for 2020 and I’m sure we have exciting challenges ahead of us,” said Gasly. “Toro Rosso has always given me the best chances to perform every season and I’m super motivated and dedicated to repaying them with the best results possible next year. Toro Rosso has been improving year after year and it’s great to be a part of the journey. I’m very excited to see what we can achieve together in 2020.”

MILTON KEYES, England – Aston Martin Red Bull Racing officials have confirmed that Alexander Albon will continue to race with the team next year in Formula One alongside Max Verstappen.

“I am really excited to be partnering Max again for next year and I know how fortunate I am to be given this opportunity,” said the 23-year-old competitor. “I’m hugely thankful that Red Bull have put their trust in me and believed in my results since I joined the team and for them to keep me in the car next year is a big deal. This year has been an incredible year for me and getting the call up to Red Bull mid-season was already a big step, so now I will use the learnings from this season and use the experience to improve and fight at the front in 2020.”

In his first Formula One season, Albon has had a strong season. He debuted with the Scuderia Toro Rosso team in the season opener in Australia and in 12 races with the team earned five top-10 finishes.

Albon was promoted to the Red Bull squad midway through the season from Toro Rosso, replacing Pierre Gasly. Albon immediately found success upon joining Red Bull, finishing no worse than sixth in the seven Grands Prix since joining the team.

“Alex has performed extremely well since his debut with the team in Belgium and his results – seven finishes in the top-six – speak for themselves,” said Team Principal Christian Horner.  It’s extremely hard to deny that level of consistency and in tandem with a growing reputation as a tenacious, fiercely committed racer, Alex has proved that he fully deserves to continue his progress with Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. There is plenty of potential still to unlock and we look forward to seeing Alex alongside Max in 2020.”

Arsenal's two top directors have expressed their disappointment with the team's miserable run of form recently but said they still have faith in coach Unai Emery to turn things around, sources told ESPN FC.

Gunners head of football Raul Sanllehi and managing director Vinai Venkatesham met more than 200 colleagues from across the club in a regularly scheduled staff meeting on Monday.

With Arsenal having won just once in their past 10 matches, sources told ESPN FC their eagerly awaited comments proved to be reassuring for Emery while also admitting the current reality at the club, telling staff they were not pleased with recent results but expressed confidence in Emery to right the ship.

The directors said that they are as disappointed as everyone else with both the results and performances at this stage of the season and share the frustration with fans, players and all staff. They added that things need to improve to meet the team's objectives for the season, and firmly believe Emery and his staff are the right people for the job, noting that they are all working intensively behind the scenes to turn things around.

The pair asked fans to stick together and get behind the team in this challenging period, and noted that the team never takes its support for granted.

As reported by ESPN FC on Sunday and the previous week, the Spanish manager is safe and won't be sacked. The club is not looking for a replacement, but things have to improve. The club, as mentioned on Monday by the two bosses, still believe that Emery will find the way to improve the team's performances and results.

An investment group including Spain World Cup winner David Villa has been granted a USL franchise in New York City.

Queensboro FC will begin play in 2021 in the USL Championship, the second division of professional soccer in the United States. It will host its home matches in a new, modular stadium at York College in Queens that will have a capacity of around 7,500. The new team will also play select home matches at Citi Field, home of MLB's New York Mets.

"Bringing professional football to Queens' diverse community is an exciting and unique opportunity," Villa said in a statement to ESPN. "The beautiful game already lives here, thanks to the melting pot of cultures who are so passionate about the sport. I can't think of a better place for QBFC to grow. I'm proud to be part of this project."

Rumors that the USL was planning to place a team in New York City, as well as Villa's involvement, emerged last summer. Now those plans have come to fruition for the former New York City FC forward and 2016 MLS MVP.

The 37-year-old Villa, who counts Sporting Gijon, Real Zaragoza, Valencia, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid among the clubs he played for, spent the 2019 campaign in Japan with J1 League side Vissel Kobe.

"I'm proud to say I've had a long-running connection to Queens," said Villa. "I lived here for four years while I was developing my football academies, teaching kids not just how to play the sport but to appreciate the game's values, too. Queens is -- and always has been -- special. You feel the passion for football walking the streets.

"It's why we're proud to bring a professional team to this borough. It's the obvious next step following the clinics, summer camps, academies and various other programs for boys and girls we've held in Astoria, Flushing and at Queens College."

The investment group is led by Jonathan Krane, CEO of New York City-based asset management company KraneShares. Krane has previously been involved with the USL. This past season KraneShares was the jersey sponsor of USL Championship side New Mexico United.

"The opportunity to bring professional soccer to Queens has long been a dream of mine and I can't wait to deliver a USL Championship club that Queens can be proud of," he said. "I'm thrilled to work with David and represent the borough to the fullest as we look forward to kickoff in 2021."

In order to focus on his ownership responsibilities, as well as leading the day-to-day soccer operations, Villa will have retired from professional soccer by the time the team begins playing in 2021. Among his goals is to build an academy for local and international talent to develop.

"We will recruit the best players in Queens as we become the home team," said Villa. "We have a built-in advantage in the number of talented players in the borough. The sporting level in USL is high, which means we have to be demanding in the quality of our athletes. But our goal is to have as many Queens-bred players as possible."

The USL Championship currently has 34 teams, with San Diego set to come on board next season. Oakland East Bay will join alongside QBFC in 2021.

"Announcing a USL Championship club in Queens is a big moment for our league," said USL CEO Alec Papadakis. "When we consider expansion, we're primarily looking for three things: A community who is passionate about soccer, a strong local ownership group, and a pathway towards a soccer-specific stadium. With QBFC, we have all three, and with Jon and David at the helm, we believe this has the potential to be something very special."

Fresh off his world-record returns of 6 for 7 for India in the third T20I against Bangladesh, Deepak Chahar added another rich haul of wickets in the Syed Mushtaq Ali 2019-20, taking four wickets in an over for Rajasthan against Vidarbha in a Group B match at Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. That performance, however, couldn't prevent Vidarbha from winning a thrilling match by 1 run.

Chahar's haul included three wickets off the last three legitimate balls of his last over, and of the Vidarbha innings too, but he had bowled a wide after the fourth ball, which meant he narrowly missed out on taking a hat-trick in two successive matches, just two days apart. He still ended with 4 for 18 in three overs, and has now taken ten wickets in his last 6.2 overs for just 25 runs.

Vidarbha's innings was interrupted by rain at the seven-over mark, and the game was shortened to 13 overs a side. Chahar, who had given up 12 runs in his first two overs without any wickets, came back to take four in the final over of Vidarbha's innings as they finished on what seemed a sub-par 99 for 9.

Rajasthan looked like they would overhaul the VJD-adjusted target of 107 easily, having raced to 60 without loss in 4.2 overs, before a spectacular collapse. They lost eight wickets in the next 7.3 overs and were tottering at 96 for 8, with 11 needed off the last seven balls. Rahul Chahar and Aniket Choudhary, the Nos. 9 and 10, could get only nine runs, as Rajasthan finished on 105 for 8.

Akshay Wakhare was Vidarbha's best bowler with 3 for 15 in his three overs.

Manish Pandey puts on a big show

Most of those who were part of India's T20I squad for the games against Bangladesh turned up for their state sides. Rajasthan also had the services of Khaleel Ahmed, alongside the Chahar cousins.

Among the other India internationals, Manish Pandey's was the most striking show. Pandey continued the rich vein of form that he started the season with, smashing his third T20 century and driving Karnataka to a record 250 for 3 at ACA Sports Complex in Vizianagaram in a Group A game.

Pandey raised his century off just 44 balls, ending with 129* off 54 balls. It was the second-highest T20 score by an Indian, behind Shreyas Iyer's 147 against Sikkim earlier this year. Wriddhiman Saha had also made 129, against Arunachal Pradesh, but Pandey's was an unbeaten innings.

Services started their chase with spirit, but couldn't sustain the pace and finished a sizeable 80 runs short on 170 for 7.

Shreyas Gopal completed a fine day for Karnataka with 5 for 19, his second five-wicket haul in T20s, shrugging off a minor slump that had led to him being dropped from the XI in the climactic stages of Karnataka's winning run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy last month.

Karnataka's total was the sixth-highest T20 innings in India, and the third highest in the Mushtaq Ali trophy. This was the highest total in the tournament against a non-Plate League opponent, though, with Mumbai having hit 258 for 4 against Sikkim and Andhra making 252 for 4 against Manipur - both in the 2018-19 edition of the tournament earlier this year.

Afghanistan's 278 for 3 against Ireland in Dehradun in February this year remains not only the highest T20 total in India, but the highest in the world. The other 250-plus totals in India have been Royal Challengers Bangalore's 263 for 5 against Pune Warriors India in IPL 2013, and India's 260 for 5 against Sri Lanka in December 2017.

Pandey had walked out in the very first over, with Rohan Kadam falling early, but alongside Devdutt Padikkal - who has also been in superb touch - he blasted the Services attack out of contention. The two put on 167 runs in just 83 balls - a rate of better than two runs per ball - and Karnataka maintained that pace through the innings. Padikkal raced to a 32-ball fifty and made 75 off 43, following up from his 122* off 60 in Karnataka's last game, against Andhra.

But even Padikkal's charge was put to the shade by Pandey, who smashed 12 fours and ten sixes to make a total of 108 runs via boundaries in his knock. He smashed the last two balls for sixes, ensuring Karnataka hit the 250-mark.

Other T20I stars return to their state sides too

Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube and Shardul Thakur all turned out for Mumbai against Puducherry, helping their team to a 27-run win.

Yuzvendra Chahal was part of Haryana's five-wicket win against Bengal, while Sanju Samson was in the Kerala side that defeated Manipur by 75 runs.

The only players missing in action from India's T20I squad were KL Rahul, Krunal Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan. The duo of Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant were the only T20I squad members who were also part of the Test side, and were thus not available to play for their state teams with the first Test against Bangladesh starting on Thursday.

Wales centre Jonathan Davies will miss the Six Nations after having knee surgery following the World Cup.

Davies is out of action for at least six months after picking up the injury during the World Cup against Fiji.

The 31-year-old British and Irish Lion missed the quarter-final against France but returned for the semi-final defeat against South Africa and bronze medal match against New Zealand.

Rhys Patchell is also out for at least three months after a shoulder injury.

The Scarlets fly-half, who was a replacement against the Springboks and started against the All Blacks, is expected to be out for three to four months.

Wales open their Six Nations campaign against Italy on Saturday, 1 February in Cardiff and finish against Scotland at the Principality Stadium on 14 March.

Saracens back Liam Williams is set to miss the start of the tournament with an ankle problem, while George North (hamstring), Tomas Francis (arm), Cory Hill (leg), Josh Navidi (hamstring) and Leigh Halfpenny (concussion) all finished the World Cup with injuries.

Double blow

Davies suffered the knee injury while creating the hat-trick try for wing Josh Adams in the 29-17 win over Fiji in Japan.

He trained and played in Japan for the final few weeks with heavy strapping on his left leg.

Fellow Scarlets centre Hadleigh Parkes started six matches in Japan despite suffering a broken bone in his hand in the opening match against Georgia and also picked a shoulder problem against Uruguay.

Potential Six Nations replacements for Davies include Ospreys duo Owen Watkin and Scott Williams and Bath centre Jamie Roberts, although he would be ineligible to face the Barbarians on 30 November.

New Zealand-born Cardiff Blues centre Willis Halaholo is eligible for Wales through residency, while wings North and Owen Lane could be asked to move to fill the midfield position.

Patchell picked up his injury in the second-half of the 40-17 defeat by New Zealand and faces a race to be involved in any of Wales' Six Nations matches next year.

Wales are already without fellow fly-half Gareth Anscombe for the tournament after the Ospreys back picked up a knee injury in August.

Wayne Pivac will take charge of his first Wales game against a Barbarians team coached by Warren Gatland.

With Northampton fly-half Dan Biggar unavailable for this fixture because he plays his club rugby outside Wales, Cardiff Blues' Jarrod Evans would be the favourite to wear the Wales 10 jersey.

SAN JOSE -- Matching the energy of an ethereal talent isn't something every player can do. That is why playing on Connor McDavid's wing is a daunting task.

"It's the time and space you have to give him, to get him the puck in full flight. I think that's maybe what some guys struggle with," Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, a frequent McDavid linemate, told ESPN on Monday. "The window for getting him the puck, because he's so fast, is probably a lot smaller than every other guy in the league. On the other hand, that makes him very dangerous. If you do get him the puck in that spot, there's a very good chance he'll create something out of it."

Draisaitl, 24, leads the Oilers in goals, with 14 through 19 games. He leads the Oilers in points, with 34. Ask those around the Edmonton orbit, and they'll tell you he has been a smidge better -- and more valuable -- than McDavid so far this season.

But with the Oilers off to a torrid start, leading the Pacific Division with a 12-5-2 record, McDavid gets the lion's share of the credit.

This is understandable: At 22 years old, McDavid has three 100-point seasons and a career 1.31 points per game average. He does things with the puck the likes of which the NHL has never seen. It's his highlight-reel goals that get passed around like hors d'oeuvres on social media. He's the franchise. It's his team. It's McDavid and Draisaitl -- not the other way around.

This is just the way it works in the NHL. Mark Messier and Jaromir Jagr didn't write their legends until they were out of the shadows of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, respectively. To put it in modern NHL terms, McDavid is the Sidney Crosby, and Draisaitl is the Evgeni Malkin. Crosby has gotten MVP votes the past seven seasons. After winning his only Hart Trophy in 2012, Malkin hasn't received one in six of seven seasons. He won that Hart in a season when Crosby was limited to 22 games.

That Sid and Geno comparison draws a laugh from Draisaitl.

"You know ... I don't know," he said, smiling. "I'd be stupid to say that I don't want to win the [individual] trophies. Of course I do. Every player wants to win that. But me and him are not competitive in any way. We're competitive in a way where we want to make each other better, where we expect the most and the best out of each other. But if he scores three goals, I'm happy for him. If I score two goals, he's happy for me. It's a healthy competition, and we love playing with each other."

So far, Draisaitl is winning the competition with McDavid on the score sheet. Through 19 games, he's the top scorer in the NHL, with 1.79 points per game, ahead of Boston Bruins winger David Pastrnak's 1.76 in second place. Draisaitl is second in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy through Tuesday, one goal behind Pastrnak. His 50-goal, 105-point campaign last season moved him from the category of very good to among the elite goal-scoring wingers in the league.

What caused the 21-goal improvement on his previous career high?

"I worked on my shot. I worked on things in practice. I had some success with it," he said. "Different positions, different game situations where the puck might not be in your wheelhouse but you still have to get it off. Little things like that."

He said that as a young player, it's something you have to learn. "Just sticking with it and trying to find your own way of putting the puck in the net," he said. "I watch every player out there and take cues from every player in the league. They're world-class. Better than anyone else. So I just try [to] mix those into my game while staying my own player."

Does he check the scoring leaderboard?

"I read about it," he said. "It's cool, of course. But we've played 20 games. That's a long way from playing in the playoffs. That's the key. It's a team sport. I'm just trying to help the team win."

Draisaitl and McDavid have done more than help: 72.8% of the Oilers' goals this season have been scored with at least one of them on the ice. But Draisaitl balks at the idea that they're dragging the Oilers up the standings.

"I don't know if we're carrying the team. We've won games this year when me and him haven't been at our best. Other teams have stepped up, so we have other guys stepping up every night," he said. "Our job is to produce, put goals on the board for us. But we have other guys that contribute a lot."

Coach Dave Tippett said breaking up the duo and putting them on different lines -- which hasn't happened much in his first season as Edmonton's head coach -- is on his mind.

"There's always a temptation. You go into every game, and you look at how you're going to win. So in some games, they're going to play apart in certain spots. They'll play on the power play, 4-on-4, 3-on-3 ... they'll get plenty of time together," he said. "But they understand that if they do play apart, it's to try and help us win."

They've played more than 1,552 minutes together in all situations the past two seasons; Draisaitl has played more than 741 minutes without McDavid. Together, they earn 59.0% of the shot attempts, 60.9% of the scoring chances and 65.6% of the goals scored. They are as dominant a duo as the NHL currently offers.

"My job is to find him in that right spot. Get him the puck when he wants it, on the tape, hard and flat. Try to find him at full speed," Draisaitl said. "We've built some chemistry over the last couple of years. We read off each other really well."

Tippett thinks it's because Draisaitl has the perfect build to be McDavid's wingman.

"His ability to play a big man's game with that skill is pretty unique," he said.

"When I coached Connor at the World Cup [of Hockey in 2016], we were looking for a winger to play with him. Auston Matthews was our 13th forward. Big, strong guy. Moves the puck well. Shoots the puck well. We tried a few different guys, but Auston clicked right away. When I watched video of Leon, he reminded me a little bit of that Matthews mold. Connor can play give-and-go a little bit, but Leon's a great shooter when he gets opportunities to score. He plays a unique game."

Before McDavid ascended to the level of hockey deity, he used to be compared to Matthews. But Draisaitl vs. Matthews analysis has arrived in waves, in particular since the Leafs star signed his new contract earlier this year and his output was compared to that of the Oilers' other standout.

Contracts are an interesting topic for Draisaitl. In 2017, he signed an eight-year deal worth $68 million. Critics jumped on then-GM Peter Chiarelli for what was perceived as an overpayment for the 21-year-old; consider that the only second contracts that eclipsed it at the time were signed by McDavid, Alex Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin. It was seen as too much too soon. Some pundits wondered if it was a harbinger of Draisaitl's eventually being traded by Edmonton, for both the cap space and the bountiful return.

What a difference two seasons make. Draisaitl is now a 50-goal scorer with an $8.5 million cap hit, a number since eclipsed by second contracts for Matthews (five years, $11.634 million average annual value), Mitch Marner (six years, $10.893 million AAV), Jack Eichel (eight years, $10 million AAV) and Mikko Rantanen (six years, $9.25 million AAV). Yesterday's overpayment can rapidly become today's bargain in professional sports -- until they aren't anymore, as Draisaitl is quick to note.

"I mean, give me one bad month, and you guys will all say that I'm overpaid," he said. "It is what it is. You obviously try to live up to your contract and make the most of it. But I know how it is, and I don't try to read too much into it."

Reading too much into a good stretch from the Oilers has led to disappointment through Draisaitl's six seasons in the NHL. He understands that because he has made an effort to understand the fans and the city in which he plays.

For example: Draisaitl has pledged $1.2 million in charitable donations to Edmonton and Alberta causes over an eight-year span.

"It's about being committed to a community," he said. "It's my home for a good part of my life. I want to build a relationship with the city, build something special. Not just leave without having given anything back because they give us a lot.

"The people that support us spend a lot of money to watch us -- and to watch us be not very good for a lot of years. Obviously, it's nice to give them that back. They want our team's success more than anything in this world. We're working toward that."

Right now, Draisaitl and McDavid are doing the heavy lifting.

Dinner Australia A 9 for 73 (Khan 5-21) trail Pakistan 428 (Azam 157, Shafiq 119, Shah 53) by 355 runs

A penny (or cent) for the thoughts of Trevor Hohns and Justin Langer. The Australia A side, picked with such focus on filling the couple of batting vacancies in the Test side, slumped to 9 for 73 on the second day at Perth Stadium as Imran Khan, an unexpected selection for the tour, bagged 5 for 21.

The top score at dinner was from Cameron Bancroft, batting at No. 6, who wasn't part of this side until Nic Maddinson withdrew a few days ago. There were three ducks, including a first-baller for Joe Burns, while Usman Khawaja and Travis Head, who are both hoping for Test recalls, fell to the part-time offspin of Iftikhar Ahmed.

Pakistan were a bowler down in tragic circumstances following the death of 16-year-old Naseem Shah's mother with him given leave for the day. Pakistan were offered the opportunity to bring Mohammad Abbas into the team, but the game would have lost first-class status so they declined and continued with ten players. Players from both sides wore black armbands.

Pakistan's overnight century-makers, Asad Shafiq and Babar Azam, retired to allow others a hit and the total was lifted to 428 by the first interval with Yasir Shah making a half-century. Jhye Richardson finished with 3 for 79 but in 118 overs Australia A managed just seven wickets.

It was a bit different when Pakistan got the ball. Khan struck with his first delivery when he beat Burns' flat-footed drive and five overs later the incumbent, Marcus Harris, was cleaned up by a beauty from Shaheen Afridi.

Being dismissed by high-quality pace bowling with the pink ball is one thing, but falling to Ahmed won't have been in the script. Head gave him a sizeable helping hand when he cut a short ball to point before Khawaja edged to the keeper from round the wicket in a style of dismissal that has been a feature of his career. At least for Head he scored a century in the previous round of Sheffield Shield matches; for Khawaja it has been a difficult time in first-class cricket.

The last batsman in the line-up, seemingly, with an eye on the Gabba - the uncapped Will Pucovski - survived one huge appeal for caught behind off Khan before edging a delivery into the slips that climbed from short of a length.

Captain Alex Carey dragged on as he attempted to leave the ball, Michael Neser edged to slip while Richardson and Sean Abbott were pinned lbw to complete Khan's five-wicket haul in the blink of an eye.

At that point it appeared Australia A would be skittled inside a session but, even though the extra half hour was taken with them being nine down, they limped to the interval with Bancroft showing the technique to combat the challenge while No. 11 Riley Meredith had faced the third-most deliveries of the innings.