Rob Bagchi

At the final whistle, the first song the stadium DJ played was Spirit of the Blues and how those relieved Evertonians lapped it up after a week of angst.

The noise started in a corner of the South Stand.

England (254/4) beat Sri Lanka (135) by 119 runs As Brendon McCullum watched from the England balcony with the newest member of his thinktank

As Brendon McCullum watched from the England balcony with the newest member of his think tank Kevin Pietersen, their captain Harry Brook put on a brutal display that married the best of those two great T20 batsmen. To McCullum’s pure aggression and power, Brook added Pietersen’s flair and sheer range of strokes.

As Brendon McCullum watched from the England balcony with the newest member of his think tank, Kevin Pietersen, their captain Harry Brook put on a

England learnt more in a scrappy game against Sri Lanka than in all their easy white-ball walkovers this summer.

Thomas Tuchel has never been inclined to place much faith in the most famous right-back at his disposal, Trent Alexander-Arnold, once of Liverpool, now

Behind after less than a minute, this had the makings of a very ugly night in Madrid. By the end, though, Michael Carrick could at least argue that his Manchester United players went down fighting.

When Manchester City play like this what a loss their football will be to the Premier League – and the Champions League – if they are heavily sanctioned later this season.

Familiar failings cost England in Rawalpindi as their run chase succumbed to spin to lose by 87 runs in their opening tri-series ODI against Pakistan.