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Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame 3 doesn't have the catchiest of titles, but it does describe what it is to a tee. What we've got here is the third official supercross game, once again sponsored by Monster Energy. In fact, we're pretty sure that you could put that collection of words in any order and it would still be as snappy. But from now on we're going to abbreviate it to MES just so we don't kill our word count every time we mention the title.

Milestone has in just three years churned out its third Supercross game. Only in December of last year did the first of this trilogy come to PS plus, and we can honestly say that some things have changed between the first and third game, but perhaps not enough to warrant a second in the middle.

However, we're not going to moan about a game a year, or the differences between the iterations, as it works for other sports and why not Supercross? For starters, the sport is hugely popular in the US, with fans enjoying watching groups of riders bunched up together hitting huge jumps and taking sharp turns on dirt tracks.

One thing MES does really well is to capture the speed and feeling of tension as you whip around these precarious tracks. Even when your speed isn't too high, you still feel like you're going like the clappers. From that angle, the gameplay is solid. On the other hand, however, we seemed to fly off our bike all too easily. The difficulty curve was really tricky to master, and we noticed how the physics have been changed quite a lot since the first incarnation.

While there are options to make it easier, such as reducing the realism of the handling, it still felt all too easy to fall off. One second we'd land a tricky jump, and the next fall off for brushing past a block that marks the track outline. Then, we'd be back on the track and hit a jump a little off and end up flying off again.

This punishing balancing act took a lot of the enjoyment out of the experience for us, and we found the difficulty curve a little frustrating at times, and while the core mechanics worked well to give you the feeling of speed, finicky failures tainted our experience a little. Of course, it did get easier over time as we mastered the racing lines, but we think that a gentler learning curve would have made it a far more enjoyable experience overall.

If you combine those moments of needless frustration with annoyances born of the fact that there are loads of other riders on the narrow tracks, bunched up with you, all of whom can knock you off like you're a feather in the wind - it can all get a bit too tense to the point of being stressful. What's more, one slip seems to set you back in the race so much. We were in third at one point, came off and respawned in 6th, then almost immediately got knocked off, only then to bump a block and fall off again. To cut a long story short, we went from third to last in a series of quickfire blunders - forcing us to restart. While some of this may have been our own incompetence, we did feel unfairly punished.

We started off in the career mode, which has three different sides. The 250 West takes you around tracks in the western states of the USA. There are no prizes for guessing where you head to in 250 East. Then finally, there's the 450, and that has races from all over the US. The 250 and 450 numbers relate to the engine-size, and when we tried out the 450cc bikes, everything felt a little harder, faster and it was easier to come tumbling off.

Graphically, MES stands up well and the whole package looks really good. The riders and bikes all look great, and the tracks themselves are well-designed, with a functional HUD/UI. The sound design was also top-notch, so from a sheer aesthetic point of view, we couldn't really fault it. Another thing that we liked is the fact that your rider can now be a woman. When you're customising your character you have a large range of options, and we were happy see Milestone embracing inclusivity by adding the option to choose your gender.

Other than the career mode, where we spent the vast majority of our time, there are quite a few multiplayer modes, which gives the game a lot of additional depth if you're looking to race against friends and other folks online. There's your standard single races, but also a few mini-games including a treasure hunt where you have to head to various locations. Then there's a mode with checkpoints and also a knockout game, which all add a lot of hours of gameplay.

Another thing that padded out the offering and added longevity was that Milestone has given us the tools to build our own tracks. We really enjoyed creating our own courses, and the editor is simple enough to use and well implemented.

The game also seems to boast all of this year's official riders, which will appeal to all you Supercross fans out there. Fans will also like how the bikes feel grounded and connected to the track, and you get the sense that the physics are plausible. You needed to land your bike perfectly, and this new entry seems to be more punishing if you don't take the right line on a corner. You also need to know when to go flat out and when to hold back, while earlier games didn't seem to punish you as much for taking a more aggressive line.

All in all, it's clear that Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame 3 is a good racing game. It looks and feels great, most of the time, and if you're a massive fan of the sport, you should definitely check it out, especially if you missed the second game as the series has come a fair way since the first. That said, the difficulty curve and the punishing ways that you can fly off your bike dampened our fun a little, even if the physics were quite impressive as we crashed for the umpteenth time.

The rest is here:
Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame 3 - Review - Gamereactor UK

BIG BASH LEAGUE 2019-20

Marcus Stoinis en route his classy knock of 83 Getty

Momentum wasn't quite the buzzword of the night. Melbourne Stars had lost four games on the bounce leading up to this Challenger match against the Sydney Thunder when this happened: Glenn Maxwell won the toss and chose to bat first, quite out of sync with how the Stars normally function, but the team responded appropriately, racking its highest ever score in a knockout game and storming into the BBL final. Stars will now meet Sydney Sixers on Saturday at the SCG.

That Stars could put up a match-winning 194 on board was mostly thanks to Marcus Stoinis and Nick Larkin, both of whom scored 83 runs apiece in a stunning 117-run partnership for the second wicket. Losing Nic Maddinson to Chris Morris in the fourth over was a big blow, but it was a one-way traffic from thereon. Both Stoinis and Larkin scored at a strike-rate of over 150. Stoinis, the highest run-getter of the tournament, continued his run-making ways, starting his innings with a six and finishing in a whirlwind with a 54-ball 83. That he was dropped on 19 by the keeper remains one of the missed opportunities of the night by the Thunder.

At the other end was Larkin, not out on 83 off 49 by the end of the innings and showing just why he'd been persisted with all these seasons. Batting at No. 3, Larkin was fearless and clear about his shot selection. He was the perfect foil to Stoinis's aggression at the start, before making up his numbers later in his innings, notably against Arjun Nair's bowling in the 15th over. And when Stonis fell to Morris in the 17th over, Larkin stayed put for the rest of the overs to help pinch 14 runs from the 18th over and 17 runs from the 20th over.

For Thunder, the run-chase went from steep to steeper as early as the third over, when a direct throw from Nathan Coulter-Nile -- stationed at mid-on -- saw the end of their in-form batsman, Alex Hales. Coulter-Nile would then come and account for Usman Khawaja with his first ball, which compounded by Haris Rauf's strike of Callum Ferguson, capped the powerplay score at 46/3.

Rauf would come back and get Morris on 21 off 16 balls in the tenth over, making things further difficult for the Thunder. Alex Ross swept his way to 58 off 38 while Arjun Nair played a cameo of 30 off 17, but their individual efforts, although standouts in the Thunder innings, weren't quite enough on a night also dominated by Rauf's frugal figures of 3 for 17. Thunder scraped to 166/8 in their 20 overs, needing 31 off the last six balls - an apt representation of just how much they had left for the end.

Brief Scores: Melbourne Stars 194/2 in 20 overs (Marcus Stoinis 83, Nick Larkin 83*; Chris Morris 2-30) beat Sydney Thunder 166/8 in 20 overs (Alex Ross 58; Haris Rauf 3-17) by 28 runs

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Stoinis, Larkin shine as Stars make it to BBL final - Cricbuzz - Cricbuzz

10,000 First Class runs, 100 games for Tamil Nadu: so what are the lessons for Abhinav Mukund? Getty

It has been a fantastic start to the decade for me, completing 100 games for Tamil Nadu. That I could cap it off with a hundred made the occasion a lot more memorable. A hundred in the 100th game is something I didn't imagine, and it became only sweeter with the milestone of 10,000 First Class runs coming in the next game. I guess all the stars were aligned in my favour. As I sit back and reflect, it dawns upon me that I've spent more than a whole year cumulatively (400 days) on the field for my state and this includes only the Ranji Trophy. Let's not even get started on the other formats and the training sessions that go with it. Just like many other cricketers, I have devoted my entire life to sport. What has it taught me though?

Thirty-year-old me now looks back at my 10-year-old self. Hah! If only I knew. I was just one among many, carrying multiple bags to school everyday not because I wanted to but because I had to. The most exciting part was the final bell where I could just run out to the ground and do what I loved the most. Don't get me wrong, I was a good student but I would always study to get marks and not to gain knowledge. This is where, I feel, my application of education to sport let me down. What my textbooks read just wasn't relatable.

We were once playing the league stages of a domestic tournament and in one of the training sessions our captain was yelling out instructions to a couple of our finishers. The target was simple - 6 overs and 65-odd runs to get, simulating a close finish. The batsman would just keep slogging every ball and eventually succumb to the pressure resulting in his wicket. Our captain went up to him and said, "You don't have to slog every ball, just break it down as balls/runs." Somehow it just got a lot easier for him after that. But there was a small problem; it was taking him longer to calculate the maths on the go. It was easier for him to hit huge sixes than to solve maths in the middle. I thought to myself, maybe that's why M.S. Dhoni is such a calculative, complete finisher.

However, this practice came in handy for us as a team when the batsman in question finished off a game single-handedly in a crucial knockout game. The twist in the tale was that we were running drinks once in two overs not because he needed it, but so that we could break down the balls to runs ratio for him. The hitting that followed was something special.

This was such an eye-opener for me. Was it a question of him just being bad at maths or was it a case of our schooling system letting him down? Shouldn't he have been armed with the ability to apply basic maths to such a basic scenario? A viral video of a teacher making 9X tables easier caught my attention recently. I couldn't help thinking about how much this could have helped us. The importance of PT periods at school and incorporating a basic maths lesson while playing could help make learning complete and fun.

***

Coming back to me, most of my life lessons have come from our beautiful sport. But shouldn't at least a portion of it have come from the education system that we all so thrive on as kids?

As a 17-year-old, I was colleagues with a team of adults, many even a decade older than me. Was I prepared for it? I don't know. I quickly realized that silence or nonparticipation was the best way for me to deal with team conversations. I really wasn't being myself but I managed to get through.

However, silence isn't always the answer to everything, especially when you hit the spotlight. I was suddenly facing a swarm of cameras and journalists in my first press conference. I hadn't even addressed my class at school and here I was addressing a gathering of adults. I definitely wasn't prepared. I could comfortably recite a mugged-up Robert Frost poem or even quote a few lines of Shakespeare, but that's where the learning from my language class ended. To be articulate while addressing the media was definitely a struggle, to the extent that I am convinced that all cricketers should be allowed to be part of a mock press conference before participating in a real one so as to prepare for that intimidating setting.

It's not just about language and communication. There are so many lessons from school that could have been associated with what I loved doing. We just fail to look at it that way. The photosynthesis test, for example, ended with seeing how plants grow in light and darkness. And of course there was the study of crops and the conditions they grew in. It ended with a five-mark gain in one exam.

I wish it were more.

I have played in multiple venues across India, each with a different pitch and outfield. You travel west, there is nice red soil which gives you extra bounce initially and can assist spin later in the game. Go east and you will find black soil, if left devoid of grass you could have the ball end up shooting ankle-high. Go somewhere north, you will find a mix of both. In winters, a pitch laden with fresh grass could be a nightmare for us openers. How I wish I could read pitches better!

Why couldn't our education system have been vocational enough to give someone like me the opportunity to learn more about a subject that I was interested in, and one that would have been so handy as a future cricketer at the highest level. I would be far better equipped to read and play on alien pitches.

I was probably the only cricketer in my batch from Tamil Nadu to play for the country; Not all of us are lucky to make the cut. Getty

I hail from a Tamil speaking, education-driven South Indian family. I was naturally enrolled in Hindi classes. Don't even get me started on these Prathmiks and Madhyamas! I doubt anyone up north has attended these classes but it was such a common thing for many of us growing up in the south. Naturally, after completing three levels of exams, I thought I was well versed in Hindi, but I was in for a shocker. During one of my first stints at the NCA, my roommate was a bowler from Delhi. He obviously didn't understand the head or tail of Tamil, and his English was left a lot to be desired. Much like my Hindi. We spent 45 days together in the same room and it was such a struggle with my broken Hindi and his broken English. Eventually, we grew to teach each other these languages and it was a far greater learning than any of those exams I took. He remains one of my good friends to date.

A cricketer today needs to understand how to make invoices, pay taxes, deal with agents, read clauses in their contracts and obviously deal with social media. I don't think many of us are equipped to do all of that but we are criticized if we happen to slip up anywhere. It's not easy. So the next time you see one of us slip up and are quoted in the media, remember we deal with these non-cricketing matters off the cuff and with zero training.

Not all of us are lucky to make the cut; I was probably the only cricketer in my batch from Tamil Nadu to play for the country. With so much emphasis on making it, failing to do so has led so many into mundane 9 to 5 jobs out of force. But what about us whose careers will inevitably come to a close, with nearly half our lives still left? Shouldn't there be a system where we are let to develop other skills and talents, which might augur well for those of us who don't get into the more obvious post-retirement fields of commentary or coaching? As it stands though, our education system is quite stringent, and it does not allow us the opportunity to learn while we play and I so wish that would change.

What is it that we want to get out of education? Is it a race for marks or developing a love for learning and applying it to a field of your choice? Proficiency in math could make you a statistician or an analyst. Proficiency in science could make you a physical trainer, physiotherapist, nutritionist, a mental health expert or even a curator. Proficiency in language could make you a broadcaster, journalist or a media manager. There are multiple opportunities;

I just wish there were better ways to facilitate them.

Playing sport can be uncertain. You may have to deal with injuries and non-selections. You could face a lot of pressure from your family or peers to 'settle down' or even force yourself into a desk job. But it's not just about the 22 yards, there is a lot more waiting to be explored. Playing cricket is just one of them.

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Turning back the pages - Cricbuzz - Cricbuzz

Yashasvi Jaiswal slammed an unbeaten century while young pacer Kartik Tyagi reminded Pakistan of Waqar Younis' toe-crushing yorkers as India colts cruised to a massive win in the knockout game. The Pakistani cricketers were no match to their Indian counterparts as they were outclassed in every department of the game.

ICC U-19 World Cup: Wishes pour in as India colts thrash Pakistan to storm into final

The gulf in class between the two sides was evident as Indian bowlers collectively choked Pakistan to a paltry 172 in 43.1 overs.

Later, left-handed opener Jaiswal then showed his class with an unbeaten knock of 105 off 113 balls, with an equally graceful Divyansh Saxena (59 not out off 99 balls) supporting him in an easy chase completed in only 35.2 overs.

ICC U-19 World Cup: One more step towards what we set out to achieve: India captain Priyam Garg

The Nawab of Najafgarh, who is known for his witty oneliners, took to his Twitter handle and posted the picture of the victorious U-19 Indian side and captioned it, "Ab toh Aadat si hai! (We are accustomed to it now!)."

Team India enjoys a fairly decent record against Pakistan in the World Cups. However, in the U-19 World Cups, both the teams have secured five wins against each other.

ICC U-19 World Cup 2020: India vs Pakistan, Highlights: India storm into final after thrashing Pakistan by 10 wickets

Indian cricket board's senior selection committee chairman MSK Prasad also congratulated the U-19 side for their comprehensive win and making it to their seventh junior World Cup final.

"Many many congratulations to India U-19 team for having successfully reached the finals with a thumping victory in quarters & semifinals. I wish the young bunch all the success in finals and defend the Cup," Prasad said.

They will now meet the winners of the second semi-final between Bangladesh and New Zealand.

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Virender Sehwag has an epic reaction as Yashasvi Jaiswal guides India U-19 to a thumping win over Pakistan in - myKhel

Aston Villa vs. Leicester City hardly leapt off the page as a standout game to the casual observer scrolling the fixtures lists last night looking for some midweek sporting entertainment.

Of course, once they had remembered it was the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, with the score poised at 1-1, it became a little more interesting. But given were in the part of the season where Premier League games come bi-weekly, and were about to hit the first knockout round of the Champions League, it still wasnt top of most peoples must watch lists.

In the end it was a thrilling match however, and while this game is now essentially the Who Gets To Get Battered By Man City In The Final playoff, it meant a lot to both teams. For many players on the pitch this was the biggest stage theyve played on in their careers, with the chance to compete for a cup just 90 minutes away.

Brendan Rodgers Leicester, rightly praised for 12 months now, looked the better team and were heavy favourites. But despite their superior squad they ended up on the losing side. The greatest factor in swinging the game against them wasnt the home support, or any tactical magic from Aston Villa manager Dean Smith. It was a superb performance from Jack Grealish.

This was his chance to take his excellent Premier League form into a one-off, high pressure knockout game, and he delivered in every aspect.

A Chelsea fan doesnt say this lightly, but Grealish played a worth of Eden Hazards very finest hours. The Belgian blew hot and cold at some stages, but when he was on his game there was little the opposition could do to stop him. This was the state the 24 year old Villa midfielder achieved last night.

Playing off the left wing, just like the Belgian tended to, he was everywhere. He created danger every time the ball came to him in the final third, but just as often as he produced an outlandish flick he would also play a simple delayed pass that would cause just as much trouble for the Foxes.

His awareness not just of the players around him but also of the shape of the game was impressive. The tempo of the match was decided by what he did with the ball at his feet, sometimes pushing on quickly and sometimes drawing in Leicester defenders before laying a simple pass back to his midfield.

As the game wore on and Villa came under more pressure, he didnt fade from the game or hide higher up the pitch. He came deeper, got more involved and used his supreme confidence on the ball to help his team work their way out of trouble rather than allowing them to panic and play it long.

At this stage of the game he was at his most Hazard-like, using his body brilliantly to win foul after foul to take the pressure off his teammates. Of course he doesnt quite have the speedy low-slung scurry of the former Chelsea winger, but instead his height and strength gives him even more ability to play deeper and more centrally.

The combination of tactical intelligence, technical skill and pure desire that Grealish showed in one game was exceptional. In a season where hes already taken a step up, he excelled in its biggest game so far, and it was hard to not imagine Europes top clubs taking note.

The midfielder should be celebrated as a great player for Villa, and his achievements there should by no means be seen just as CV building in the hope of joining a Champions League club. Watching as a Chelsea fan, however, it was hard not to imagine what he would bring to Frank Lampards incomplete XI.

That creativity and touch between the lines, that brilliant football brain, the set-pieces, shots and crosses cracked in to the box from all angles, even the confident swagger that transmits his belief in his own ability to every other member of his team and lifts them all. All of it would add so much to the squad Lampard is trying to build; and this season already would likely have been worth half a dozen precious Premier League points to the Blues in the games where they toiled toothlessly against deep-set defences.

Prising Grealish away from the club he has showed so much loyalty to wont be easy, and it perhaps wont even be possible. But last nights game was the evidence that not at least giving him the chance to step up would be a failure on the part of a club desperately looking for a new star man to fill the void left by Eden Hazards departure.

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Hazard-like Grealish elevates his game on big stage to show what he could bring to Chelsea as creative hub of the future - Talk Chelsea