Playing conditions in the age of the World Test Championship are less likely to be stacked in favour of the home team, according to South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.

Currently preparing to play the second Test in a three-match series in India, du Plessis and his team have been pleasantly surprised with the pitches, which are less hostile than they were on South Africa's last tour in 2015.

Back then, South Africa faced a trial by spin and lost two of the three non-rain-affected matches inside three days. The Nagpur surface was rated poor on the evidence of variable bounce, turn and pace, and South Africa's batsmen were completely undone, which led to them losing a first series on the road in nine years and their No. 1 ranking.

"We didn't get 20 wickets the first Test and that's something I don't want to do again" Faf du Plessis

In response, South Africa prepared revenge strips - green tops - for India's visit in 2017 and earned their own premier pitch at Wanderers a fine for excessively steep and unpredictable bounce. The venue remains under warning until 2023 but du Plessis thinks such tactics are unlikely to continue thanks to the new championship.

"That's the big thing the Test championship has changed. In the past, if you had a below-average pitch, you got a warning, whereas now you get deducted points," du Plessis said in the lead up to the Pune Test.

He is only partially correct, because the home side will only lose points if the match is abandoned because of an unfair pitch, but the broader point stands. Home sides are less likely to ask for anything that could result in their line-up being disadvantaged by conditions because they would not want to risk losing any points.

"Home games are going to be very important. We knew coming here, India will always be a tough place to play, but you've got to make sure you get your points at home," du Plessis said. "It's not as obvious as making wickets like that [to suit the home side] anywhere, like what it was in 2015."

That much was evident in Visakhapatnam, where the pitch started off slow, flattened out and then took turn later on. It remained possible to score runs and take wickets throughout and produced a compelling encounter, which India won convincingly. Du Plessis expected Pune to have slightly more in it for the hosts. "The turf is a little bit more red, more spinning conditions, so expecting the ball to spin a little bit more from the straight. I am not a pitch expert but I think it will take a bit more turn than the first Test."

ALSO READ: The mystery of the Pune pitch

That will affect how South Africa select their XI, which came under some scrutiny for including three frontline spinners in Visakhapatnam, two of whom were largely ineffective. Dane Piedt looks most likely to lose his place if South Africa are after an injection of pace with either Lungi Ngidi or Anrich Nortje, which may help with their big-picture goal of bowling India out twice. "We are thinking what's going to be our most aggressive options to get 20 wickets," du Plessis said. "We didn't get 20 wickets the first Test and that's something I don't want to do again. We are planning for a pitch that will be a bit drier and that will spin."

While that means Keshav Maharaj and Senuran Muthusamy, if he plays, will be expected to do most of the wicket-taking, South Africa will also look at the way Mohammed Shami bowled in the first Test to inspire their quicks.

"KG [Kagiso Rabada] and Vern [Philander] are masters in their conditions, they have proved that but any cricketer, not just bowlers, tries to learn from players in their own conditions," du Plessis said. "Shami ran in with a lot of intensity, a bit quicker than in the first innings, and things happened a little quicker off the pitch. Also, learning from the lengths that he bowled. He is a guy that hits the stumps a lot. That's something we want to make sure we are better at. In the first innings, we were too wide and they scored quite frequently square of the wicket."

South Africa had few answers to Shami's burst on the fifth morning, which they could not blame on conditions. But as a line-up, they still lasted beyond lunch on the final day and proved to themselves that conditions are not unplayable in the new, Test-championship era.

"The difference with us from 2015, where you try and survive in Indian spinning conditions and with that sometimes you can become too defensive and you allow the opposition to be on top of you the whole time, now it needs to be a good combination of positive play, an element of taking risks at some stages of the game to try and counter that pressure from the bowling. The balance between attack and defense is key when you are playing in the subcontinent."

Brisbane Heat have continued their recruiting bonanza for this summer's BBL signing England young gun Tom Banton.

The explosive right-hander, who has been recently called up to England's T20I squad for the tour of New Zealand, becomes the fourth overseas signing for the Heat behind AB de Villiers and Afghanistan spin duo Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Zahir Khan.

Under BBL rules only two overseas players can play in any team at one time but additional replacements are allowed to be named.

Brisbane Heat will split their four overseas players across two halves of the tournament. With de Villiers set to stay in South Africa for Christmas, Banton is likely to play the first eight games before he is likely to be needed for England's white-ball tour of South Africa in February. Zahir Khan will also play the first half of the tournament with Banton before de Villiers and Mujeeb Ur Rahman replace the pair for the second half.

If the Heat make it that far, de Villiers and Mujeeb will also play in the finals.

Banton, 20, was the second leading run-scorer in this season's T20 Blast in England, tallying 549 runs at a staggering strike-rate of 161.47. He made four half-centuries and a blistering 51-ball century against Kent.

He has experience playing club cricket in Australia in Perth and has played alongside Heat batsman Matt Renshaw for Somerset.

Banton's recruitment is another coup for Heat general manager Andrew McShea and new coach Darren Lehmann. The latter spent part of the winter in the UK and said Banton's form was irresistible.

"He was the talk of English cricket during their season,'' Lehmann said. "Outside the Ashes, Tom was the player that a lot of people were really excited to be watching, and with good reason.

"He's a lovely striker of the ball and has that wide and varied range of shots you need to make the most of the early overs in the Power Play or to accelerate the scoring through the middle and back half of an innings.

"The prospect of pairing him alongside some of our young batsmen like Max Bryant, his mate Matt Renshaw, and Sam Heazlett is pretty enticing, that's for sure. But we know Tom will also benefit from playing and being around the likes of Chris Lynn, Joe Burns, Ben Cutting, and Marnus Labuschagne as he takes steps to expand his skills and experience in Australian conditions.

"He's joining us for the first half of the tournament but we're hopeful he will have some time to catch-up with AB de Villiers at some point as that would be a great opportunity as part of his experience with the Heat."

Banton was thrilled with the opportunity to play in the BBL.

"If you had asked me at the start of the summer would I imagine it going like this, I would have probably had a laugh and suggested you weren't serious,'' Banton said. "I was blown away when it was announced last week that AB was coming to join the Heat so what was already going to be a huge experience just got bigger.

"I'm really looking forward to coming to Brisbane and seeing what Queensland has to offer after previously playing club cricket in Perth when I was younger. I've watched a fair bit of the BBL at home and it is a quality competition with so many outstanding players. I can't wait, to be honest."

The news comes just a day after the Melbourne Stars announced they had signed South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn for a six-game stint at the start of the tournament.

Australian cricket loves a coronation.

Two highly-coveted crowns are the Test captaincy and the Test wicketkeeper. Tim Paine currently holds both, and has just retained the Ashes, yet there is a clamour to anoint Alex Carey as the heir. But while all the conversations happen around him, Carey knows all too well, through losing his dream of playing professional football in the Australian Football League, to an initial false start in professional cricket as a batsman only with South Australia, that there are no guarantees in sport or life.

"I appreciate the support of people who have put my name forward," Carey told ESPNcricinfo. "But I'm lucky enough to learn in my sporting journey so far that until your name is picked in a team then anything can change. I see it as something that I've dreamed about doing, playing Test cricket, and something I'm playing cricket for is to get better and be that No.1 wicketkeeper in Australia and the world. But until that happens things can change really quickly.

"I'm pretty lucky to be in the white-ball squads so that's keeping me pretty busy. I'm loving that at the moment. Learning that role through the middle order, which is something I haven't done a lot of, so I want to get better at that role in finishing games off for Australia, like an MS Dhoni or a Jos Buttler does. I've got lots of things I'm working on."

ALSO READ: Trevor Hohns wants to see more of captain Alex Carey

Carey's greatest challenge is how to gain more experience in first-class cricket. Due to his role as the T20I and ODI wicketkeeper and vice-captain he played just two Shield matches for South Australia last summer. His last was in early December 2018, where he made just his second first-class century against New South Wales.

He managed to play two first-class games in England a couple of months ago, just the 30th and 31st of his career. The first with Sussex was in the midst of his stint in the T20 Blast and the second as a late call-up to Australia's tour game against Derbyshire. Carey made consecutive half-centuries for Sussex and relished the chance to play some long-form cricket.

"It was something I always wanted to do was to play some County Championship cricket so I was lucky enough to do that, but we didn't have too much time to prepare," he said. "It's probably similar to this first Shield game. It's all been a lot of one-day and T20 cricket leading up and then get out the red balls a couple days before and make sure you're leaving the right ones and playing the right ones."

"If I sit down for an hour with him and have a coffee, more times than not we don't talk about the game too much" Alex Carey on his friendship with Adam Gilchrist

Carey has found the mental shift to long-form cricket more difficult than the technical.

"Batting-wise it's just mindset," he said. "You can bat all day and be really disciplined and patient and not get ahead of yourself. I found in white-ball cricket I learned that there's a lot more time than you think. And with the red ball, it's being disciplined for long enough."

Carey's batting record in first-class cricket doesn't jump off the page with just two centuries in 55 innings and an average of 31.38. What that doesn't account for is the adjustment he has had to make batting in the lower order. He started life in grade cricket in Adelaide as a top-order batsman for Glenelg. Batting at No.7 as a wicketkeeper has required a recalibration in terms of learning how to play to the situation.

"I think it's trusting my game. If we're five down for not many you always think 'if I get out, there's not a lot more to come,' so it's trusting my game and not worrying about if we lose a wicket, exposing the bowlers. But I've also got to keep playing my shots because I think that's the best way I play."

Carey has many outstanding mentors in his corner. South Australia coach Jamie Siddons has been one of his key backers over recent years and Carey said his coach often encourages him to play with positive intent. "He's a really good guy, I like to talk to about being fearless, playing with freedom, playing with confidence," Carey said. "He's been really supportive of my game."

Siddons believes Carey has the technique and the temperament for Test cricket even if he did wish he could buy him more time to play more first-class games for South Australia.

"If they throw him into all forms, and in Test cricket, it will be a challenge." Siddons told ESPNcricinfo. "But his technique and everything is up for it. He hasn't played many four-day games. It's been a really quick rise. He'll survive. He'll thrive in that environment, I've got no doubt."

Carey also credited Australia coach Justin Langer and batting coach Graeme Hick in terms of his technical development, which could be seen during his outstanding World Cup.

"I've loved working with Justin Langer in this short amount of time," Carey said. "I think he's improved my technique. We did a lot of technical work making sure I've got a sound game for all three formats now and I think that's really been helped along with Graeme Hick. Even with the white ball, I speak to Hicky a lot about staying calm. You can come in with two or three overs to go but you've still got to stay calm and watch the ball and normally I score as well as I do when going out and trying to hit every ball for six."

Former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has been vital to his glovework. Carey broke the Sheffield Shield dismissal record in the 2016-17 season with 59 but he said his keeping has come on again since working with Haddin and he will continue to do so even though Haddin has stepped back from his Australian assistant coaching role.

"The short time I've been in the Australian system he's been incredible. I said to him if he's not working with us I still need to catch up and have a catch."

Carey also counts Australia's greatest wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist as a mentor and a friend, but the pair rarely talk technique whenever they catch up over coffee.

"It's a bit of weird one. I don't ask too much for advice about my technique, how am I catching them, how am I hitting them, it's more about how are you enjoying it and how's everything off the field. It's normally just getting me in a good mental state of going out and playing with some fun and some freedom. Obviously, that's the way he did it and he did pretty well. If I sit down for an hour with him and have a coffee, more times than not we don't talk about the game too much."

Getting away from what can be an all-consuming game is a challenge for some players but Carey has no trouble. His world revolves around his young son Louis and his wife Eloise. "Louis has changed my world. Come home from a day of cricket, good or bad, he takes my mind off it straight away."

A crown Carey would love is a Sheffield Shield title, but whether he gets that chance in his increasingly demanding schedule is a different question. He played in back-to-back Shield finals in 2016 and 2017 but failed to win the title on both occasions. He could play four games prior to Christmas for South Australia around six T20Is for Australia.

"I'm really excited," he said. "If we can play our best cricket it's definitely good enough. It wasn't too long ago we played in back-to-back finals and just fell short. Last year was quite a tough year. It's time to start putting our hands up and winning games for South Australia."

Australia Women 1 for 196 (Healy 112*, Haynes 63) beat Sri Lanka 8 for 195 (Atapattu 103, Wareham 2-18, Schutt 2-44) by nine wickets

Alyssa Healy continued her prolific run-scoring form by plundering a 71-ball hundred on her way to an unbeaten 76-ball 112 as Australia surged to a record-breaking 18th ODI victory in a row with a nine-wicket hammering of Sri Lanka.

Chamari Atapattu's 103, her fifth ODI hundred and her second century of the tour following her T20I ton in Sydney, anchored Sri Lanka's effort but the next-best score was 24 and they could still only post 8 for 195, which proved way short of giving Australia a challenge. A 3-0 series result was nothing less than expected, but Australia's ruthlessness was impressive.

Healy and Rachael Haynes, who backed up her maiden ODI century with 63 to take her tally to 237 runs in the series, cruised towards the target - although both were dropped in the same over off Achini Kulasuriya - before Haynes was out sweeping with 37 runs needed.

Healy raced off the blocks in the chase and Australia's fifty came up in the sixth over. She should have been dismissed on 68 but the chance was spilled at deep midwicket and Haynes was then given a life on 39, but even if held it's unlikely the result would have differed.

Healy's third ODI hundred, which have all come in the last two years during which time she has averaged 57.15, came with captain Meg Lanning alongside her and a match-winning six was a fitting way for Australia to set their new record, surpassing the 17 wins in a row they managed between 1997 and 1999 under the captaincy of Belinda Clark.

For the first time in the series, Sri Lanka were able to set a target and there was a promising foundation at 1 for 68 before Harshitha Madavi was smartly run out by Healy's direct hit as she ran around from behind the stumps after a badly misjudged single. They slumped to 5 for 87 as Georgia Wareham struck twice, but Atapattu held firm.

She added 49 with Ama Kanchana and 47 with Oshadi Ranasinghe, bringing up an impressive hundred off 120 deliveries, to put a seal on a tour where she has been head and shoulders above the rest of Sri Lanka's batting.

Snoop Dogg said Kansas officials should not have been surprised by his controversial performance at last week's Late Night at the Phog. His 35-minute show included unfiltered lyrics and pole dancers.

He also shot fake $100 bills into the crowd with money guns.

"When you pay for Snoop Dogg, you gonna get Snoop Dogg," the popular rapper said on "The Howard Stern Show" on Tuesday.

Kansas athletic director Jeff Long issued a rebuke shortly after the performance.

"We apologize for the Snoop Dogg performance at Late Night," Long said in a statement. "We made it clear to the entertainers' managers that we expected a clean version of the show and took additional steps to communicate to our fans, including moving the artist to the final act of the evening, to ensure that no basketball activities would be missed if anyone did not want to stay for his show. I take full responsibility for not thoroughly vetting all the details of the performance and offer my personal apology to those who were offended. We strive to create a family atmosphere at Kansas and fell short of that this evening."

But Snoop Dogg told Howard Stern that the school responded only because of the backlash that ensued "because I brought stripper poles and [women] and money guns."

He also said any suggestion that he was asked to leave the building following his performance was a "lie."

"I had the time of my life," said Snoop Dogg, who spent time with the men's and women's basketball teams prior to his show. "I enjoyed myself. Hung out with the basketball teams. I just think it was more the publicity of what I did. They had to cover it up. And I respect them. And I wasn't gonna put no smut on their name and say that they did anything wrong, because they invited me to come do what I do."

To promote Snoop Dogg's appearance, the school produced a video that featured Kansas coach Bill Self wearing an Adidas basketball shirt and a chain with a money sign and strolling through a record store to the West Coast hip-hop icon's '90s anthem "Gin & Juice," just days after the NCAA hit the program with five Level I charges, including lack of institutional control and failure to comply with coaching responsibility standards. At the center of the NCAA's case is the school's relationship with Adidas. The apparel giant recently signed a 14-year, $196 million extension with its flagship school.

Long's statement said some fans might have been offended by Snoop Dogg's performance. Self added that the performance was "not the right way" to entertain. But Snoop Dogg had a different perspective about his concert in Lawrence, Kansas.

"The audience enjoyed that s---," Snoop Dogg told Howard Stern on Tuesday. "I don't know what the f--- they talkin' about."

Kansas hosted multiple top-tier recruits that night. At least one of them, Javonte Brown-Ferguson (a 6-foot-11 center prospect in the 2021 class), said he had fun during the show.

"I loved my visit," he told the Kansas City Star. "The Snoop [Dogg] performance had the crowd going crazy. It was amazing."

TULSA -- Chris Paul, the president of the NBA's players' association, said he isn't very well informed about the league's growing friction with its business partners in China in part because of his focus on the Oklahoma City Thunder's training camp.

"I don't know but so much about it right now," Paul said of the situation, which began with a tweet from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of the anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. "I'll try to find out what's going on."

Paul is encouraged by the early work of the revamped Thunder, who opened their preseason Tuesday with a 119-104 win over the Dallas Mavericks, who opted to sit young stars Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis on the first night of a back-to-back.

Paul, acquired from the Rockets along with first-round picks for longtime Thunder star Russell Westbrook, was joined by a pair of other point guards in Oklahoma City's starting lineup. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the centerpiece of the package the LA Clippers sent to the Thunder in the Paul George deal, and Dennis Schroder played alongside Paul as Oklahoma City emphasized ball movement.

The Thunder scored 66 points on 63.4% shooting in the first half, assisting on 15 of 26 baskets, beginning with Paul's feed to center Steven Adams for a surprising corner 3-pointer on the opening possession.

"The spirit was right and the ball was moving," said Paul, who had six points, three rebounds, four assists and five turnovers in 17 minutes before sitting out the second half. "When you practice like that, you always wonder if it's going to translate to the game. For us tonight, it did."

Gilgeous-Alexander, a 21-year-old with star potential, dazzled in his Thunder debut with 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Schroder, Oklahoma City's sixth man last season, had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and dished out five assists.

"We all have talent in that we can create for each other," Paul said. "It just makes the game easier for you when you have multiple guys that can handle the ball."

Thunder coach Billy Donovan didn't commit to starting the three point guards together on a regular basis, but he liked the look of the lineup.

"All three of those guys are really important and they're drivers of our offense because they're smart, they have a really good feel of how to play and they're unselfish," Donovan said. "They've got to be the catalyst to moving the basketball. Putting them out there, my feeling was to get them comfortable playing with one another, get them playing with a good pace and tempo and speed, and I thought we came out to start the game playing like that."

The NBA Cares event in Shanghai involving the Los Angeles Lakers was canceled Wednesday just hours before it was scheduled to begin, adding to the fallout from a recent tweet by Rockets GM Daryl Morey that showed support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong.

The NBA would only say that calling off the event, which was supposed to benefit the Special Olympics, was not its decision.

On Tuesday, an NBA Cares event with the Nets at an education center in Shanghai was canceled by the Chinese government. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league would still donate computers to the center.

The Lakers proceeded with a practice Wednesday that was closed to the media, a team source told ESPN. The Lakers and Brooklyn Nets are scheduled to play the first of two preseason games in the country Thursday. Silver is expected to address both teams later on Wednesday.

Silver, speaking in Japan on Tuesday, said he and the league are "apologetic" over the outcome and reaction that followed Morey's tweet, but he noted that "we are not apologizing for Daryl exercising his freedom of expression."

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said it will no longer air the two preseason games. CCTV is also reviewing all of its cooperation and exchanges involving the NBA, it said in a statement posted to CCTV Sports' official social media account.

The broadcaster indicated the decision was prompted by earlier remarks Silver made in Japan.

"We're strongly dissatisfied and oppose Adam Silver's claim to support Morey's right to freedom of expression," the statement read. "We believe that any remarks that challenge national sovereignty and social stability are not within the scope of freedom of speech."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Houston Astros manager AJ Hinch asked ace Justin Verlander to do something he had never done before. It might be a while before he asks him to do it again, not that he has any regrets.

Verlander was chased after 3 2/3 innings in Game 4 of the American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday. He allowed four runs -- three in the first inning -- and seven hits, including two home runs. The Astros trailed 4-0 when he was pulled from the game after walking Tampa Bay's Ji-Man Choi in the fourth, much to the delight of a raucous, jam-packed Tropicana Field. Verlander threw 84 pitches.

"Obviously not the way you would script it," Verlander said. "It sucks."

The Rays went on to win 4-1 to force a decisive fifth game at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Thursday.

With the Astros' lead in the series down to 2-1 entering Tuesday, Hinch tabbed Verlander, 36, for the Game 4 start after the Astros' 10-3 loss in Game 3 on Monday. That meant Verlander was starting on three days' rest, something he'd never done on the heels of a full-length start in his illustrious career. Verlander threw seven shutout innings against the Rays in Game 1 on Friday in Houston.

"In the postseason, you ask somebody to do something that's not normal, it's always a little nerve-wracking," Hinch said. "But he felt great, and he made a lot of really good pitches and got a lot of swings and misses."

The Rays jumped on Verlander from the outset Tuesday. Tommy Pham, Tampa Bay's second batter in the game, homered to left field to open the scoring. The Rays tacked on two more runs that first inning, and Verlander needed 32 pitches to escape further damage. According to ESPN Stats & Information, that was the most pitches Verlander had thrown in a first inning since he joined the Astros in 2017.

"Bad slider. Inconsistent control," Verlander said. "I felt like the velocity was there, but the control wasn't and the slider wasn't. Mix that in with a good approach [from the Rays] in the first."

In his final inning, Verlander gave up a solo homer to Willy Adames on a slider that broke into the middle of the plate, waist-high. The walk to Choi was a fitting end to an outing in which Verlander struggled to locate his pitches. Verlander threw strikes on just half of his 50 four-seam fastballs, according to Statcast data.

With his fastball missing the strike zone, the Rays teed off on Verlander's off-speed pitches. The Rays were 6-for-12 against Verlander's off-speed offerings, with two homers, two doubles and seven hard-hit balls. But for all his struggles, Verlander steadfastly refused to point to his short rest as an excuse.

"I didn't know what to expect, and I wasn't taking anything into it," Verlander said. "Not expecting anything. I was expecting to be normal. The low-hanging fruit is to sit there and say this was short rest and that's the reason why. I don't think so. I felt good, body felt good physically. I just didn't execute the way I needed to.

"Really the slider was the worst it's been all year. I needed something to go our way, and when I made mistakes, they really capitalized on them with runners on base. It killed us."

Rays manager Kevin Cash thought the real factor in the quick turnaround from his club's last encounter with Verlander was a heightened familiarity, more so than Verlander's physical state.

"I think the familiarity helps," Cash said. "He's still the best. There's no denying that. But four days, five days later, some of those same pitches maybe replayed a little bit, and we were able to have some quality [at-bats] and hit the ball hard."

Whether the short rest plan played into Verlander's off night, the Astros still have a couple of warm security blankets to keep them warm on their flight back to Houston: a partisan crowd at their home park and the presence of Game 5 starter Gerrit Cole, who hasn't lost a start since May 22, a string of starts that reached 23 with his win in Game 2.

"It's good," Astros second baseman Jose Altuve said about having Cole slotted to start Thursday. "Like today, it meant a lot to have Justin out there. If I have to do it again, I'd put Justin out there, because he's our boy with Gerrit. That's the way we play. We're going go home and have Gerrit on the mound, and [we will] do everything we can to win."

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Whatever metaphor, analogy or parable you might look up, isn't it always the giant who falls? Does this have anything to do with what transpired the past two days at Tropicana Field? Or are we seeing the tech-infused Tampa Bay Rays crowd-sourcing their way around the considerable problem of dispatching the star-laden Houston Astros?

After the Rays' 4-1 win in Game 4 of their American League Division Series on Tuesday, a game that began with 2019 Cy Young favorite Justin Verlander on the mound for Houston and ended with 2018 Cy Young winner Blake Snell polishing off his first save, everything feels as if it is on the table.

"We made it this far," Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier said. "It's pretty safe to say, but we're not content with this. We want to win one more and keep this thing going. We plan on doing just that."

The ogre in this baseball parable, at least on Tuesday, would be Verlander, who might not be the biggest pitcher in baseball in terms of stature, though at 6-foot-5, 225 pounds, he's a load. More so, he's a giant by reputation and by accomplishment. In a few weeks when the pending retirement of New York Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia becomes official, Verlander will become baseball's active leader in wins and strikeouts. He is Gulliver to the Rays' Lilliputians. He is Goliath to the Rays' David. He is South Bend Central to the Rays' Hickory High.

You get the idea.

With Verlander on the hill, the Rays countered with ... no one. OK, that's not precisely true. They had Diego Castillo on the mound and he fired thunderbolts with even more ferocity than Verlander, but just not for as many innings. Castillo is an opener, that Rays innovation, one they believe in so deeply that they trotted it out in a game they had to win to extend their season. Castillo electrified a rocking, hanky-waving crowd at the Trop by striking out Michael Brantley, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman in order in the first inning.

"Castillo, thank God he was an opener and not a regular starter," Astros manager AJ Hinch said. "Having him out there for four, five, six innings would be devastating for anybody."

Well, Castillo was only out there for seven batters because he's an opener and that's how this thing works. From there, Rays skipper Kevin Cash summoned lefty Ryan Yarbrough, who soft-tossed his way to two scoreless innings after Castillo. The last batter he faced was rookie Yordan Alvarez. Yarbrough threw him three straight curves that topped out at 72 mph, and followed that with a change-up -- at 78. Alvarez then cracked a double off the wall violently, perhaps angered by the audacity of it all.

Then it fell to Nick Anderson, the out-of-nowhere reliever who began the season on the other side of Florida with the Marlins but has emerged as a lock-down reliever who throws a vicious curve of his own, along with upper-90s heat. He, like Castillo and Yarbrough also got seven batters. Colin Poche got six hitters; Emilio Pagan got four, taking it into the ninth inning but leaving runners on the corners with the dangerous Alvarez at the plate.

So the Rays being the Rays, in came Snell for his 100th career appearance, including the postseason. The first 99 were as a starting pitcher. As good and different as the curveballs of Yarbrough and Anderson are, Snell's hook may be baseball's best. And he used one to strike out Alvarez before getting Yuli Gurriel on a well-struck grounder to end it. Snell, in his first-ever relief appearance, had his first-ever save.

"We didn't draw it up that way," Cash said. "As soon as Alvarez came up with a chance to tie the game, we felt that that was our best matchup. We were fairly confident that Blake was going to be pretty amped up. He was."

That, too, is the Rays. It doesn't just take a village, it takes a village in which everyone does more than one job and may be asked to do just about anything at any time. Everyone knows this, especially Hinch.

"It's October, I'm not surprised by anything," Hinch said. "There's no real hidden tricks when you're faced with elimination. They used a lot of resources. We knew they would."

Of course. The Rays always use a lot of resources. They used 57 batters during the regular season; Houston used 45. The Rays deployed 33 pitchers; Houston used 26. The Rays had only four players compile as many as three wins above replacement during the regular season. Houston had that many studs surpass six WAR. Somehow or another though, it all seems to be coming out even.

"People mentioned David and Goliath to me and some of the other guys before this series and I just had to cut 'em off before they even went on with that," an indignant Kiermaier said. "Because I don't want to hear that. I know Houston is probably better on paper and all that, but anything can happen when you step on the field at the same time."

Here's something Kiermaier might approve of: While Verlander and Gerrit Cole were dominant in their initial starts, the Rays have dominated the series beyond the Verlander/Cole innings in Houston. With those two on the mound, the Astros outscored the Rays 8-0, enough to take the first two games of the series. But beyond that, in all the other innings of series including Game 4, the Rays have outscored Houston 17-5.

The numbers all swing the Rays' way. Tampa Bay has a 10-4 edge in homers in the series. They have that 17-13 edge in scoring. They have more walks, a better on-base percentage, a better slugging percentage. The Astros have been outplayed.

"Hey, I hate to say it, [but] about time, you know," said Tommy Pham, who got the Rays started with a solo homer off Verlander in the first. "Because we have a really good team over here. And to win 96 games in this division with New York and Boston is an impressive feat. And all year, we've been getting talked down. And now, with the last two games, the way we played, the whole world has seen how good of a team we are and how well-rounded we are."

They've seen how good the Rays are, but they still might not know who they are. There are just so many of them. Avisail Garcia and Ji-Man Choi both reached base four times in Game 4. Willy Adames homered, swung a hot bat in both games the Rays won, and threw a laser bolt on a relay throw in the fourth to gun down Altuve at the plate.

Everybody contributed it seemed. Even the Rays' bullpen was a hive of activity, with relievers constantly warming up, sitting down or, often, entering the game. Every pitcher on the roster either pitched or warmed up at some point Tuesday except for Game 3 starter Charlie Morton -- who may well be called on for a couple of innings in Game 5 -- and the scheduled starter for Thursday's contest, Tyler Glasnow.

"Their pitching is exceptional," Hinch said. "What they did on the mound tonight was incredible. They're not just throwing different arms at you. You talk about the opener, they'll throw a lot of different arms and get platoon advantages. That's not neglected. Their stuff is really good. They're throwing elite guys."

The baseball world is seeing this but, come on, this is the Astros, who won 107 games during the season with a plus-280 run differential that ranks as the 10th best in history. Surely the star power that fuels Houston will manifest itself, right? It better, and fast.

To borrow a football saying, the Astros are now off schedule. They didn't really want to use Verlander on short rest, something he'd never done in back-to-back starts. But the fourth rotation slot has been problematic because of Wade Miley's late-season slide. Rookie Jose Urquidy was an option, but he's a rookie. (He pitched in relief in Game 4.)

"We would have gone with Urquidy and if he would have [struggled], it would have been, 'Should you have put a rookie in that situation?'" Hinch said. "I understand with the results, it's tough. It was my decision to put [Verlander] out there. I felt it was the best chance to win the series -- JV today and Gerrit in Game 5 if we needed it. We're going to test the latter part of that in Game 5."

On Thursday, the Rays once again will be battling a giant. Cole has not lost a start since May 22. He struck out 326 batters this season. But just as the Rays had some familiarity with seeing Verlander a few days ago, they will have that with Cole too.

"That [was] the second time we faced him this year, so now everyone has multiple at-bats against him to kind of see what he likes to do to us," Rays catcher Travis d'Arnaud said. "But the guy is a great pitcher. He's under 2.50 ERA, over 300 strikeouts, so it's gonna be a battle for sure."

As Hinch said, the Rays used a lot of resources in Game 4 but Wednesday is a travel day, so Cash should have everyone available on Thursday. Familiarity with his hurlers isn't much of an issue -- on Tuesday, no Astros hitter saw the same Rays pitcher twice. The Astros have witnessed that the Rays are not going to be overwhelmed by the status of their All-Star roster. And while that might be a revelation to many, Houston knew what they were encountering, confident as they were and as they remain.

"This team, these guys, even after going up two games against this ballclub, I don't think we took anything for granted," Verlander said. "I know I didn't. I can't speak for everybody, but that was the mentality. We know how talented these guys are and we knew it would be a battle. Obviously we were hoping to win yesterday, hoping to win today. We've had our backs against the wall before and come out victorious. Hopefully this is an opportunity to go prove ourselves."

And for a proof of the concept to which Verlander refers -- that has the Astros as a championship team -- having Cole going at home in front of fans just as raucous, waving orange hankies instead of yellow, is not a bad fail-safe option.

"He's been on one of the most incredible runs I've ever seen," Verlander said of Cole. "That the baseball world has ever seen. If you could name a starting pitcher in all of major league baseball, you'd want him on the mound."

For the Astros, it is about him. For the Rays, it'll be about them. After two sultry days under the white roof of the Trop, it's hard to say which pronoun will prevail. We only know with the Rays, expect the unexpected.

"I'm not going to be surprised if Charlie Morton is available in Game 5," Hinch said. "I'm not going to be surprised if Blake Snell is available in Game 5. I wouldn't expect anything less out of this type of game."

Neither does Snell.

"That's what we do," Snell said. "We make every game tough. We got two wins now, but now we've got to see what we really can do in going to Houston and taking it from them."

ESPN's Jenna Laine contributed to this report.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The merger between the International Speedway Corp. and NASCAR is expected to close on Oct. 18.

The International Speedway Corp. recently delivered a written communication to NASDAQ stating that it has called a special meeting of shareholders on Oct. 16 for the purpose of voting to approve the merger.

NASCAR and the International Speedway Corp. announced plans to merge in May of this year, which would take NASCAR private. International Speedway Corp. owns 12 tracks that host NASCAR events, including Daytona Int’l Speedway, among others.

The France family, descendants of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., are the majority owners of both NASCAR and the International Speedway Corp. Jim France is the current chairman and CEO of NASCAR.

Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns eight tracks that host NASCAR events, recently went private after Sonic Financial Corp. agreed to acquire all oustanding common stocks not already owned by Sonic. Bruton Smith, the founder of Speedway Motorsports Inc., owns and controls Sonic Financial Group with his family.