✉️ PTB ICYMI
What you might have missed at Plot the Ball over the last three months
For personal reasons, I’ve been unable to put together an edition of My Week in Sport(s) this week. Instead, here’s a brief recap of all the work that has recently been published in the newsletter — in case there’s anything you’ve missed.
Plot the Ball will return to your inbox in January 2025!
🏏 Cricket
Batters have been able to push scoring rates higher without wasting additional resources, though: these teams were losing approximately 6.5 wickets per 20 overs at the start of 2018, and are only losing about 6.2 now.
The question looming over men’s cricket more broadly, though, is this: how much has the funnelling of the best young talent towards its shorter, more lucrative formats impacted the viability of the test game?
⚽️ Football
Yamal and Cubarsí are both on track to become the most heavily used teenagers of the club’s modern era. Partway through their age-17 seasons, they have already clocked up over 2,000 league minutes.
🏀 Basketball
We can immediately dispense with the idea that there are considerably more youngsters contributing at a high level than in the recent past: BPM tells us that elite seasons from 19- and 20-year-olds are still exceedingly rare.
🏉 Rugby
Simply put, the All Blacks just don’t have the same level of collective understanding in their side that they used to — and it’s likely to be significantly impacting their performance without the ball.
🏈 American football
So far in the 2024 NFL season, teams have been gaining around 15 fewer air yards per 60 offensive plays in 2024 than they were in 2018 — and 10 more yards before contact when they run the ball.
Also covered: ⚽ Kylian Mbappé’s start in La Liga; Cubarsí and Yamal’s combination play; 🏏 Ellyse Perry’s WBBL resurgence; 🏀 Marine Johannès’ passing; 🏒 Chloe Primerano’s power play threat; Connor Bedard’s creativity; 🏉 Wallace Sititi’s footwork; the Penrith Panthers’ Grand Final win; 🎾 men’s tennis players’ improving service; 🏈 Josh Allen’s sack avoidance; ⛳ Nelly Korda’s 2024 season; and ⚾ Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s slider.