Just when you thought you had a grasp on Origin after the initial team selections were announced, the Blues went and threw a spanner in the works.
Nathan Cleary withdrew from the side after his ankle injury, picked up in Game 2, wasn’t healing as well as hoped.
In his place comes Mitchell Pearce who has had a… shall we say chequered history in Origin to this point…
Mitchell Pearce has lost all seven of his Game 3 #StateofOrigin matches with six of these being deciders (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017).#OriginRedemption
— Fox Sports Lab (@FoxSportsLab) July 3, 2019
There was plenty of overnight drama at Wimbledon, none of which related to the matches Channel 7 decided to show thankfully.
World number 62, Margarita Gasparyan was well positioned to upset eighth seed Elina Svitolina having won the first set 7-5 before encountering leg problems took hold at 5-5 in the second set.
She then had her serve broken, barely able to move before being forced to retire, it wasn’t the most satisfying victory of Svitolina’s career who was trying to help her opponent back on her feet when the injuries took hold.
Margarita Gasparyan in tears as she walks to the net to retire.
Elina Svitolina is through to the third round 57 65 (ret). Tough luck for Gasparyan, but Svitolina ground her down physically in those final games. #Wimbledon
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) July 3, 2019
On a lighter note, 15 year old Coco Gauff picked up another win, beating Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3 6-3 to move on to the third round.
Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic got off to a perfect start, taking the first two games off Victoria Azarenka before… well it kind of went down hill from there.
From 0-2 down in the 1st set, Victoria Azarenka plays an incredible match, wins 12 consecutive games and beats Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2, 6-0 to reach the 3rd round.
First player into the last 32 at #Wimbledon
[getty] pic.twitter.com/Y855J0P3fO
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) July 3, 2019
Well then, time to shelve all of those jokes about England choking in their home World Cup for the time being.
The host nation qualified for the semi finals for the first time in what feels like an eternity, but it has only been 27 years, thanks to their 119 run victory over New Zealand.
Having posted 8/305 in their innings, they then skittled the Black Caps lineup for a meagre 186 to jump over them into third place.
That does now leave New Zealand with a reason to watch Pakistan’s clash with Bangladesh on Friday night since Pakistan can still jump ahead of them in the standings… if they win by about 300 runs and have a massive turnaround in net run rate.
The last time England qualified for a Mens’ World Cup semi-final, Jofra Archer wasn’t even born!#CWC19 pic.twitter.com/WhIMIMd30N
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) July 3, 2019
Good news for Alex Morgan, her infamous tea drinking celebration may be able to be repurposed if she scores in Monday morning’s Women’s World Cup Final.
USA will play Netherlands in World Cup final. Sneak Preview of Alex Morgan’s new “Smoking joint at Amsterdam Cafe” Goal Celebration 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/OJ9Z5ajcy6
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) July 3, 2019
Yes the Americans will take on the Netherlands after the Dutch defeated Sweden 1-0 in a game that wasn’t anything resembling exciting throughout a scoreless 90 minutes.
Nine minutes into extra time Jackie Groenen decided that enough was enough and lashed a strike across the goal, sealing the victory for the Dutch as Sweden was barely able to muster a counter-punch.