The draw extended Miami's poor run of form to five winless in their last six outings – a stretch that began in late April

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• Inter Miami drew 3-3 with Earthquakes
• Tadeo Allende scored a brace for The Herons
• They sit fifth in the Eastern Conference

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  Inter Miami and head coach Javier Mascherano continue to struggle, with the team still unable to find a win as of mid-May. Wednesday’s 3-3 draw on the road against the San Jose Earthquakes extended their poor run of form to five winless games in their last six outings – a stretch that began in late April.

  The Argentine manager was candid about the issues plaguing his team.

  “We’re making a lot of mistakes that end up in goals,” Mascherano said post-game. “We need to take away the positives. We fought until the end trying to win the match, and that’s the right spirit. But we have to improve a lot.”

  Recent matches have exposed defensive vulnerabilities, with the Herons conceding 17 goals in this stretch. More concerning for Mascherano was the team’s inability to manage key moments.

  “I’m very concerned because after scoring the 2-1, they scored on us again so quickly. We need to be smarter, more experienced,” he added.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The draw leaves Inter Miami in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with 22 points. However, the team’s current form has raised questions about Mascherano’s future at the helm, particularly with repeated expressions of frustration from Lionel Messi.

  Despite the pressure, Mascherano remains focused.

  “We started the match in the best way, but unfortunately, once again, the mistakes cost us too much," he said. "Today the team, despite the mistakes, fought until the end.

  Calling for composure, he added, “These are individual mistakes, but also about knowing how to manage each moment of the game.”

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  DID YOU KNOW?

  For a second consecutive match, Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez was absent due to personal reasons. However, Mascherano hopes the forward can rejoin the squad ahead of the weekend, potentially giving his side a much-needed boost as they aim to snap their winless streak.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR INTER MIAMI?

  Inter Miami will look to bounce back this Sunday when they host Orlando City at Chase Stadium in Matchday 14 of the MLS season. The Florida rivals face off in contrasting form – Orlando is coming off a 3-1 win over Charlotte FC, though had struggled before that, managing just one win and three draws in their last four games.

Serhou Guirassy was forced to explain himself to Borussia Dortmund bosses following a social media post that included a song glorifying Adolf Hitler.

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Guirassy questioned on social media postShared controversial song by YeStriker will not be punished by DortmundFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

The Guinean striker made a post on Snapchat which involved a song from Ye's new album playing over it. The track has been heavily criticised for praising Hitler and the Nazis, with the album being banned from some platforms before its release.

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The post caused a stir in Germany and resulted in a call with club chiefs demanding he explain his actions, reports. Guirassy will not be fined by the club, however, escaping punishment after he explaining that Snapchat suggested the song to him and he chose it without knowing the lyrics.

DID YOU KNOW?

Guirassy, 29, joined Dortmund from Stuttgart last summer and had a prolific debut season with the club, scoring 21 goals in 30 Bundesliga games and a further 13 in 14 Champions League appearances.

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Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT?

Guirassy's season is over and he will hope to rest up well before he returns to Germany to begin preparing for the 2025-26 campaign.

Young batters Ashley Chandrasinghe and Campbell Kellaway face a winter of developing their skills

Tristan Lavalette26-Mar-2023On the resumption of the Sheffield Shield season last month, an inexperienced Victoria didn’t set outlandish goals or plot a barnstorming title run.Boasting just one win from their first six matches, Victoria were content with backing youth in a bid to mould together a talented core who could help build a foundation for sustained success.”When we came back after the BBL we spoke about how we’re on a journey. We didn’t talk about playing in the Shield final,” Victoria coach Chris Rogers said.Surprising their own modest expectations, with skipper Peter Handscomb and frontline spinner Todd Murphy on Australia’s Test tour of India, Victoria led by 23-year-old stand-in captain Will Sutherland got on a roll.Related

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Chandrasinghe bats the day for an unbeaten 46 against disciplined WA

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They won four straight matches to leapfrog into second-place and book a spot in the final against defending champions Western Australia.In a rematch of last year’s decider at the WACA, Victoria had their moments in a see-saw but couldn’t quite get the job done in an eventual nine-wicket defeat.Rather than be battle-scarred, they are hoping to take heed of the adversity experienced amid the cauldron as Victoria aims to chip away at WA’s stranglehold of the domestic competition.”The challenge is to reach the top of the mountain and get past WA. That’s the challenge for everyone,” Rogers said. “With a bit more experience…[we] might have been able to hang in a bit longer. It’s a young group and I think they’ll learn a lot out of it.”As Victoria stared down the barrel heading into day four, Rogers had a frank conversation with 20-year-old batter Campbell Kellaway who had helped spark Victoria’s season turnaround with a half-century against New South Wales in a comeback 69-run victory.His breakout season has him on the radar of the national selectors with Kellaway selected in the Australia A tour of New Zealand next month. But promoted to No.3 in the final, Kellaway was particularly scratchy on a green-tinged surface against WA’s strong attack as he mustered 6 off 23 balls in the first innings before looking somewhat overwhelmed late on day three in a painstaking 7 off 63 balls.”I spent a good 45 minutes with him, talking about these experiences,” Rogers said. “He’s figuring out answers to questions. He tried too hard this game. He was fighting so hard that he wasn’t giving himself a chance to score. He’s going to be a really important player for us for a number of years.”Ashley Chandrasinghe carried his bat for 46 off 280 balls: ‘It’s an extraordinary effort and he’s got attributes to build on’•Getty ImagesIn similar fashion to Kellaway, 21-year-old opener Ashley Chandrasinghe carried his bat in the first innings in a remarkable 280-ball stonewall worth 46 runs.It was a rearguard that polarised the public but made more meritorious with Chandrasinghe, in his Shield debut season, only making the line-up after veteran opener Travis Dean suffered an injury on the day before the match.Chandrasinghe received little support from his more senior players and also copped mocking applause from the typically rowdy WACA faithful. But he remained unruffled to produce an indefatigable batting effort that he can build on in the off-season.”There’s room for improvement in his game,” Rogers said. “He doesn’t want to play that style of cricket, he wants to be scoring runs.”It’s a measure of the man that he can bat a whole day. It’s an extraordinary effort and he’s got attributes to build on. That determination and to never quit is something in-built. I’m so proud of him.”A gallant Victoria remained in the contest largely due to a lionhearted allround performance from Sutherland, who further enhanced his growing reputation with a five-wicket haul and an aggressive 83 in the second innings. But it ultimately wasn’t enough although there is the sense that something is percolating within this emerging team.”It still bloody hurts we lost another final. I don’t want that to be a habit but we’re heading in the right direction,” Rogers said. “To win five games on the bounce is quite exceptional. They’ve played with discipline beyond their years and they had a lot of fun doing it. We are going to get better.”

Titans captain takes “full ownership” for not closing the game out, and feels “sorry” for Shami

ESPNcricinfo staff02-May-20232:02

Did Hardik Pandya struggle to shift gears?

Captain Hardik Pandya has taken “full ownership” for Gujarat Titans’ last-over loss against Delhi Capitals in Ahmedabad as the hosts fell short by just five runs while he remained unbeaten on 59 off 53.Chasing 131, Titans needed 33 off the last 12 balls and then 12 off six, thanks to Rahul Tewatia, who hit three sixes off Anrich Nortje in the penultimate over. But when Hardik got strike in the last over against Ishant Sharma, he managed only a double and a single before Tewatia fell on the fourth ball, and Ishant brought it down to seven needed off the last ball before giving Capitals their third win.”I tried my best but could not capitalise. It boils down to me,” Hardik said. “Obviously, we would have taken 129 [131-run target] on any given day. [We] just lost a couple of wickets and at the end, Rahul got us back in the game.”Hardik struck seven fours in his knock but not a single six, and no boundaries in his last 13 balls when the asking rate kept shooting up.Titans had lost three wickets inside the powerplay and soon lost David Miller too in the seventh over to be 32 for 4. Despite not being explosive, Titans were steady thanks to a 62-run partnership between Hardik and Abhinav Manohar. However, the pair consumed 63 balls in the process with Manohar falling for 26 off 33.Hardik said that Manohar’s inexperience showed and once again asserted that it was his own inability to close the game that cost them.”We were hoping to get a couple of big overs in the middle but at that point of time we could not get rhythm,” he said. “It was new for Abhinav as well. It boils down to how I was not able to finish the game. Full marks to their bowlers as well and full ownership on my side where I could not finish the game I should’ve.”Hardik also said that the pressure on them was due to the early loss of wickets and that made it difficult for them to keep going with intent.”It was more about the pressure of [losing] wickets,” he said. “I don’t think the [track] played much role. It was a tad slower than what we are used to here. But they bowled really well. We lost a couple of early wickets and then we had to take some time. We could not get the rhythm in the middle. Rahul brought us back into the game. Otherwise, they were quite ahead.”Intent had to be there. It’s just that we lost a couple of wickets where if you keep losing wickets, it’s difficult to keep the intent as well. We lost because I could not get my rhythm and we kept losing wickets at the start and that put us under pressure. We like to take it deep and hope to get a couple of big overs which we could not get.”Three of Mohammed Shami’s four wickets in the powerplay were caught behind•Associated Press

Titans had restricted Capitals to a mere 130 for 8, led largely by a four-wicket haul from Mohammed Shami. The fast bowler picked up all four of those inside the powerplay to return with second-best figures in the phase in the IPL. Hardik felt sorry for Shami, who was adjudged Player of the Match, and said the batters couldn’t back the bowlers on the night.”I feel sorry for [Shami],” Hardik said. “If you bowl like that, then you restrict the team to 129 [130], I think [our] batters disappointed. I don’t think the ball did a lot. It’s just that Mohammed Shami’s skillset he has and he made the ball talk. Otherwise, I think for fast bowlers, the wicket did not have much assistance. But the way he bowled four on the trot and got us in the game, full credit [to him].”As I said, batters and particularly myself did not finish and we disappointed him.”

Will Jacks has been ruled out of the 2023 IPL due to injury, ESPNcricinfo understands.Jacks was signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 3.2 crore (£320,000) at December’s auction, and would have provided cover for Glenn Maxwell in their middle order.But he sustained a muscle injury while fielding in England’s recent victory in their second ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur, and after scans earlier this week and consultation with a specialist, he has been forced to pull out of the IPL.