Zimbabwean quick Kyle Jarvis won't be able to play cricket for up to six months as he recovers from a trio of infectious illnesses - Covid-19, malaria and tick bite fever - that struck him at the same time but considers himself one of the luckiest survivors around. Jarvis was diagnosed at the end of January and received top-quality medical care which he recognised is not accessible to everyone in his country, or on his continent and is willing to bide his time back to full fitness.

"At the Borrowdale Trauma Centre, there are only four private beds at the hospital and I had one of them. The other three were empty. I was very lucky that I have private medical care. If you are someone who is not as fortunate, it would have been a lot scarier," Jarvis told ESPNcricinfo from his home in Harare.

Jarvis first felt symptoms of coronavirus on the morning of Tuesday, January 26. "I had just got back from a fitness session and I felt very hot. Then, I started to get fever, body aches, nausea and headaches and so I thought it was Covid-19 and isolated, but it got progressively worse," he said.

Four days later, on Saturday, January 30, Jarvis felt his condition was "too bad for me to stay at home," and decided to seek medical care. His wife, Kelsey, who had been taking care of him and home and displayed none of the same symptoms, took him to the Borrowdale Trauma Centre, an upmarket medical facility considered to be the best in the country. There, they told him his "heart rate was above 220 beats per minute which is close to cardiac arrest and that's when the panic set in."

Jarvis was taken for blood tests and put on an oxygen supply until doctors had determined the cause of his symptoms, which they found to be multi-fold. "At first, they didn't tell me I had all three (conditions) maybe because they thought I would have panicked more. My wife only told me towards the end of the day," he said. "I didn't react too badly because I knew they could treat malaria and tick bite fever and I was actually relieved I was on the right track."

Jarvis was sent home and required to return to the hospital every day for the next five days "They put me on more oxygen each time and gave me drips. I had to spend three to four hours there a day receiving treatment," he said.

By the beginning of February he began to feel better. Although he says his "voice is not 100%," Jarvis sounds unusually upbeat for someone who will have at least medium-term effects. "I had a CT scan which showed some damage to the lungs from Covid-19 so the doctors think it will be between three and six months before I make a full recovery and will be on blood thinners for the next few months," he said. "It's frustrating and upsetting but when you're been through something like that, you're just happy to be returning to health".

Yesterday, Jarvis felt well enough to share his ordeal on social media.

Today, he took a four kilometre walk around his neighbourhood. Next week, when Zimbabwe leave for a two-Test and three T20 series in the UAE against Afghanistan, Jarvis will be trying to walk a little further, or a little faster. And in two months' time, when Pakistan visit, he may be starting to bowl again. But he has no timeline for when he thinks he will be ready for competitive cricket and no sense that the environment is too risky for professional sport to be played. "The world needs to try and carry on and sport brings people hope," he said. "Even if there's no crowd, it lets people feel that we may have some kind of normalcy."

Jarvis also cautioned other sportsmen that just because they are elite athletes does not mean they are immune to unpredictability of Covid-19. "I took it for granted that I'm young and fit so I thought that even if I get it, I wouldn't have much of an issue. But it can happen to anyone and there's always that chance that you could get something else and that's scary," he said. "Everyone is at risk of getting it."

Zimbabwe has fared better than its neighbouring country, South Africa, in coronavirus infection and death rate with under 35,000 cases and less than 1,500 deaths. However, it is severely under-resourced and continues to maintain strict restrictions to prevent overwhelming the country's limited medical services. The country is currently at Level 4 of a five-stage lockdown in which only mining, manufacturing and agricultural services are allowed to operate as normal and a 6pm to 6am curfew is in force.

Professional sports training and matches are allowed to take place although Jarvis has not seen his team-mates since late last year, with the Zimbabwe men's team only reporting for a camp this week, ahead of their tour to the UAE. And he understands it may be some months before he sees and trains with them again. "I'm not in a hurry. I am feeling okay now and I'll do my best to be back to normal when I can," he said.

South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl v Pakistan

Pakistan's new opening pair of captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan would get first opportunity to have a say in the three-match T20 series after South Africa opted to field first in Lahore. Stand-in captain Heinrich Klaasen has a six-man attack at his disposal, including two frontline spinners and two allrounders.

Tabraiz Shamsi has fully recovered from the back problem that kept him out of the Test series and will partner left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin, who was selected ahead of George Linde. Lutho Sipamla and Junior Dala are the two specialist quicks with Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius occupying the allrounder roles. South Africa have one debutant, No.3 batsman, Jacques Snyman, who plays his domestic cricket at the Knights franchise.

Pakistan also opted for an extra allrounder in addition to Faheem Ashraf and included Mohammad Nawaz at the expense of Asif Ali. The hosts are fielding four players from the recently completed Test series against South Africa, while South Africa have a completely new-look XI. Pretorius, Sipamla and Shamsi were all part of the Test squad but did not play, while the rest of that group have returned home.

Pakistan: 1 Babar Azam (capt), 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 3 Haider Ali, 4 Hussain Talat, 5 Iftikhar Ahmed, 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Usman Qadir, 10 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11 Haris Rauf

South Africa:: 1 Janneman Malan, 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Jacques Snyman, 4 Heinrich Klaasen (capt &wk), 5 David Miller, 6 Dwaine Pretorius, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Bjorn Fortuin, 9 Junior Dala, 10 Lutho Sipamla 11 Tabraiz Shamsi

After scoring his second successive Test half-century, Nkrumah Bonner said he had a similar game plan in the second Test in Dhaka as he did in the first, in Chattogram. Bonner was West Indies' backbone on the first day, seeing them through to stumps with an unbeaten 74 next to his name.

After seeing two wickets fall in quick succession at the other end, No. 4 Bonner added 62 for the fifth wicket with Jermaine Blackwood and is currently involved in a 45-run unbroken sixth-wicket stand with Joshua Da Silva.

Bonner said that he was focused on playing the ball as straight as possible by putting his balance on his front foot.

"Every innings I play, I put pressure on myself," Bonner said. "We get paid to make runs and to be consistent. That's exactly what I am trying to do. I think this wicket has a little more bounce, but it is similar [to the one in Chattogram]. So basically it is the same game plan. I tried to play as many balls as possible on the front foot, and keep the ball in the 'V' for as long as possible."

Bonner said West Indies are targeting 350-plus in the first innings. With the visitors currently on 223 for 5, a lot depends on Bonner and Da Silva.

"There were a few soft dismissals but that's the nature of the game. Me and Josh [Da Silva] are there now and with others to come. It is important for us to bat as long as possible. We will take anything over 350. I think that's a really good total."

Bangladesh, meanwhile, wants to keep them well below 300, which pace bowler Abu Jayed believes is possible if they continue to bowl well. "I think we should be satisfied [with the first day's play]. Looking at the scorecard, they made 223 in 90 overs, which puts the game right in the balance. If we bowl well tomorrow, we should get them all out for 270 to 300."

The expectation that the ball will turn from early in the game hasn't transpired. According to Jayed, the only way to take wickets would be to restrict West Indies' scoring, just like they did in the post-lunch session.

"The pitch wasn't as expected. It is quite flat. I think it will take time to have more turn. When they lost three wickets during the second session, we were containing their scoring."

When the Brooklyn Nets added James Harden to a roster that already included Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the bookmakers in Las Vegas were quick to declare the NBA's newest Big Three as the favorites to win the Eastern Conference, despite the fact that the Nets had started the season 7-6 and were in fifth place in the conference when Harden made his Nets debut.

League insiders, however, weren't as sold on the Nets, who matched that 7-6 mark by posting the same record in their first 13 games after Harden's arrival.

Along with the new-look Nets, the Milwaukee Bucks -- who've had the best regular-season record in the NBA each of the past two seasons -- received significant support as a potential Finals team. In ESPN's conversations with 10 coaches, scouts and executives from across the league, there were as many as five teams other than the Nets who received some level of support for reaching the Finals, making this far from a one-team race.

Those six teams, Brooklyn included, break down into three tiers of East contenders, who could determine whether this Nets' grand experiment ends in failure or results in the franchise's first trip to the Finals since 2002.

The (flawed) teams to beat

Milwaukee still has the NBA's two-time reigning MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo, along with All-NBA forward Khris Middleton. And, after disappointing exits from the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, they added Jrue Holiday to help them take the next step.

"I think they're really good," an Eastern Conference exec said. "With Giannis, Middleton and Holiday, I think they have enough."

In making the Holiday trade, however, the Bucks sacrificed the quality depth that had made them such a devastating force across the past two regular seasons -- and the primary moves they did make with their second unit (signing D.J. Augustin and Bobby Portis) were to add offense-first players.

The team's underlying stats reflect those changes. Milwaukee is first in the league in offensive rating; however, after leading the NBA in defensive rating in each of the past two seasons, the Bucks currently find themselves outside of the top 10.

And, as people analyzed Milwaukee's situation, several pointed to the team's second unit as a concern, one that might be hard to address via trade, given that Milwaukee has less than $500,000 to spend below the NBA's hard cap, according to ESPN's Bobby Marks.

"Their bench needs to really step up and play better, but I'm not sure they can do it," one Western Conference executive said.

Meanwhile, a troubling trend has emerged in Antetokounmpo's struggles at the free throw line. He's shooting 63.3%, fifth-worst in the NBA among qualified players. He missed a potential tying free throw in the final second of Milwaukee's season-opening loss to the Boston Celtics, raising questions about whether he can truly be a closer.

"Are you going to win with him shooting [63%] from the line," asked an Eastern Conference scout. "That is a huge deal."

"I just don't know if Khris Middleton will be good enough to be the go-to guy down the stretch," the West scout said. "Giannis clearly isn't going to be it."

With the trio of Durant, Harden and Irving, the Nets won't have problems putting points on the board. The question remains, will they be able to stop their opponents from doing so?

For the season, the Nets rank third in offensive rating (116.5 points per 100 possessions) and 27th in defensive rating (113.7). Since the Harden trade, however, the Nets have the league's fourth-best offense (119.0 points per 100 possessions) but have seen their defensive rating also skyrocket up to 118.1 -- which ranks last in the NBA.

"I've seen James Harden defend," the Western Conference executive said. "There have been times in the playoffs he's really defended. Does he decide this is his chance? And can they get Kyrie to play defense, and [DeAndre] Jordan, and do they lock in and do it for two months? That's the question. They're not going to be able to sustain it."

The loss of Jarrett Allen in the Harden trade has left Brooklyn particularly vulnerable at center. Jordan, a former two-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection, has been a liability on that end this season, ranking 60th out of 80 centers in ESPN's defensive Real Plus-Minus. The two players backing him up, rookie Reggie Perry and the recently signed Norvel Pelle, have a combined 40 games of NBA experience.

The Nets gave up most of their tradable assets to acquire Harden, so their ability to address their needs at center via trade is limited. And, with so many more teams having the potential to be in the mix for a chance at the playoffs until the final days of the regular season because of the introduction of two extra teams qualifying for this year's play-in games, some executives believe the buyout market won't produce many options either.

Still, Brooklyn's offensive firepower is undeniable -- and might be unstoppable.

"I just think, at the end of the day, it's going to require so much to stop those guys," a Western Conference coach said. "I don't know how teams will last for 48 minutes ... you literally can't double all three of those guys for 48 minutes."

Lurking a level below

After missing nearly the first month of the season while strengthening his left knee, Kemba Walker made his season debut on Jan. 17. And while the Celtics dropped their first three games with Walker in the lineup, the point guard's return has Boston being talked about as a contender again. With arguably the best collection of players to guard Brooklyn's new big three in Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, the Celtics had their fair share of backers to be a threat to win the East.

"I think Boston matches up better [against Brooklyn]," another Western Conference executive said. "They have those three guys [Tatum, Brown and Smart], they've got some different looks they can throw out there with their bigs. And the Nets can't punish them [inside] anyway."

Several people pointed to Walker, specifically, as the key to Boston's season. Given the nagging issues with his left knee going back a full calendar year, there is skepticism he will be able to maintain his health over the course of the next six months.

"Jaylen and Tatum are one hell of a pair," another Eastern Conference scout said. "There's very few I'd take over them. But I just don't think they have the firepower to keep up with [the Nets]. I just have a lot of doubts. They need Kemba to be back to being peak Kemba. Otherwise, I don't see it."

As with Brooklyn and Milwaukee, multiple people cited the Celtics' depth as a potential issue preventing the team from reaching the Finals. The difference between Boston and those two teams, however, is that the Celtics have avenues to address those issues. Boston has full control of all of its first-round picks going forward, in addition to the massive $28.5 million trade exception created in the offseason when Gordon Hayward joined the Charlotte Hornets as a free agent.

So while Boston has the makings of a contender as currently constructed, the moves the team makes over the next six weeks will go a long way toward determining how far the Celtics ultimately go.

"They're kind of a wait-and-see team," another Western Conference scout said.

For all the talk around Brooklyn, Milwaukee and Boston, it's the Philadelphia 76ers who actually sit atop the East standings at the moment. Some league insiders see the 76ers as the team to beat in the East, largely because of how Philadelphia's offseason changes have paid off.

"The biggest improvement for Philly, other than [hiring head coach] Doc [Rivers] and the respect he commands, is getting everyone back at their normal positions," an Eastern Conference scout said. "Tobias [Harris] is at the four, and now they're not trying to play a four and two fives at the same time."

Rivers and new team president Daryl Morey ignored calls from outside the organization to break up the duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, instead choosing to remake the roster around them, shipping out Al Horford and Josh Richardson and bringing in Danny Green and Seth Curry.

Adding those two shooters to the starting lineup has opened the floor for Embiid, who is playing at an MVP level so far this season.

Gone are the days when Embiid was grumpy with the team's offensive flow -- which happened regularly last season -- and in their place is a version of Embiid who is averaging career highs in points (29.1), field goal percentage (54.7) and 3-point percentage (37.7) and presents Philadelphia's best option to attack Brooklyn's biggest weakness.

"That's where losing Allen hurts," said the East scout, who pointed to Embiid's interior game. "[Jordan] looks pretty cooked to me. I think [the 76ers] do have some bodies who will defend, Thybulle -- guys they can throw at Harden defensively."

However, questions remain about whether Embiid can maintain his level of play during the postseason, when the game slows down even further and being able to create one's own shot becomes an even more critical skill.

"Joel is somebody that Brooklyn shouldn't have an answer for," an Eastern Conference executive said. "[But] Joel has played in series where the other team shouldn't have an answer for him and it hasn't worked out, so we'll see."

And, if not Embiid, who will step up? Philadelphia traded for Jimmy Butler two seasons ago to fill that exact role, only to have Butler to leave in free agency a few months later. It's a question teams are still waiting for the 76ers to answer.

"I'm just not confident in how that team is going to fit when the games get to that level," the Western Conference executive said.

Also receiving votes

What about the reigning Eastern Conference champions, the Miami Heat? If the playoffs started today, Miami wouldn't be invited -- even with the NBA's new play-in round extending to the 10th-place team in each conference.

And while multiple people were willing to give Miami a pass on its slow start due to several players -- most notably Butler -- missing significant time due to the NBA's health and safety protocols, the question remains as to whether the Heat's conference championship run was simply a matter of ideal circumstances.

"Last year was a fluke," a West scout said. "I know everyone hates that word, but it's true. The whole bubble was a perfect situation."

Additionally, Miami losing Jae Crowder in free agency hurt in the eyes of several people. The Heat have struggled to replace him, with new addition Maurice Harkless shooting just 40% from the field and falling out of the starting lineup.

The Indiana Pacers, on the other hand, received near-universal praise for getting Caris LeVert and draft picks as part of the Harden trade, cashing in Victor Oladipo, who will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. The Pacers, who were knocked out of the playoffs by the Heat in the first round last year, also were lauded for how they've started the season under new coach Nate Bjorkgren, with Myles Turner leading the NBA in blocked shots per game and Malcolm Brogdon and Domantas Sabonis both averaging more than 20 points. Ultimately, though, the Pacers were seen by the majority of those polled as having a ceiling as a very good, but not great, team.

"I love Brogdon and Sabonis, but I don't think they can compete for a title yet," the West coach said. "If T.J. Warren comes back, maybe. I just don't think they have enough guys."

This year's top 100 MLB prospects list is unlike any other, and it's for the reason you're probably thinking of -- there wasn't a minor league season.

Players certainly improved from last year, and there were trades, a draft and an international signing period, but there isn't as much movement because there isn't anywhere near as much new information as I'm used to having.

Much of what did happen was seen only by a player's own team (so I'm hesitant to take the club's word for it), with some sharing of alternate site video/data and some rival scouts at fall instructional league, along with prospect-eligible players playing in the big leagues. I'll note when there's a real piece of new information that moved a player, but assume until I point out otherwise that it was some version of "largely stayed healthy, appeared to get a little better (as expected), didn't play in many if any 'real' game situations, so we'll see next year if these observations were correct."

The Future Value (book on sale now!) explanation is the same as last year, but I've added Present Value as a concept for the top 25 prospects to measure how good a player would be in the big leagues right now. I'm making a concerted effort to illustrate the gap between prospects and actual big leaguers this season, so consider this an appetizer.

Here are the top 100 prospects in baseball heading into the 2021 MLB season.

Nick Wall stuns James Willstrop and Jaz Hutton halts Millie Tomlinson in Manchester shocks
By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor

Nick Wall roared into the semi-finals of the AJ Bell England Squash Championship after recording a stunning straight-games victory over top seed James Willstrop.

Wall, whose arrival on the senior professional tour followed an outstanding junior career, won 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 to book a last-four clash against George Parker. Wall also beat Josh Masters in straight games.

Parker, meanwhile, won a tough match against Merseyside’s Patrick Rooney. The match featured a bizarre scoreline with Rooney taking a tight opening game and then failing to register a single point in the second. Parker went on to win 12-14, 11-0, 11-9, 11-5 in 56 minutes.

The other men’s semi-final will be between Declan James and Richie Fallows. James beat Miles Jenkins 3-0 while Fallows achieved a similar result against Charlie Lee to add to his walkover against Tom Richards, who withdrew because of injury.

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Women’s top seed Sarah-Jane Perry continued her march through the competition but all eyes will be on today’s clash between Jasmine Hutton of Sussex and Kent’s Gina Kennedy. Both players won twice yesterday.

Kennedy also faces a tough battle against No.2 seed Millie Tomlinson, who will be looking to bounce back after losing in straight games to the in-form Hutton.

AJ Bell England Squash Championship 2021, National Squash Centre, Manchester, England.

Men’s Semi Finals:
Nick Wall (Yorks) v [4] George Parker (Leics)
[2] Declan James (Notts) v Richie Fallows (Essex)

Second Pool Round:
Pool A
Nick Wall (Yorks) bt Joshua Masters (Kent) 12-10, 11-9, 11-6 (31m)
Nick Wall (Yorks) bt [1] James Willstrop (Yorks) 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 (35m)
Pool B
Patrick Rooney (Merseyside) bt Tom Walsh (Sussex) 11-5, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8 (47m)
[4] George Parker (Leics) bt Patrick Rooney (Merseyside) 12-14, 11-0, 11-9, 11-5 (56m)
Pool C
Richie Fallows (Essex) bt Charlie Lee (Surrey) 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 (37m)
Richie Fallows (Essex) bt [3] Tom Richards (Surrey) w/o
Pool D
Miles Jenkins (Sussex) bt Joe Lee (Surrey) 5-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-3 (43m)
[2] Declan James (Notts) bt Miles Jenkins (Sussex) 11-8, 11-4, 11-4 (41m)

Women’s Second Pool Round:
Pool A
[1] Sarah-Jane Perry (Warwicks) bt Anna Kimberley (Essex) 11-3, 11-3, 11-2 (18m)
Grace Gear (Herts) bt Lucy Beecroft (Northumbria) 11-8, 11-1, 11-7 (20m)
[1] Sarah-Jane Perry (Warwicks) bt [3] Julianne Courtice (Glos) 17-15, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9 (58m)
Lucy Beecroft (Northumbria) bt Anna Kimberley (Essex) 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 (34m)
[3] Julianne Courtice (Glos) bt Grace Gear (Herts) 11-6, 10-12, 11-6, 11-4 (36m)
Pool B
Georgina Kennedy (Kent) bt Alicia Mead (Warwicks) 11-5, 11-5, 11-1 (19m)
[2] Millie Tomlinson (Derbyshire) bt Kace Bartley (Surrey) 11-3, 11-5, 11-6 (20m)
[4] Jasmine Hutton (Sussex) bt [2] Millie Tomlinson (Derbyshire) 11-7, 11-3, 11-7 (26m)
Georgina Kennedy (Kent) bt Kace Bartley (Surrey) 11-4, 11-3, 11-0 (17m)
[4] Jasmine Hutton (Sussex) bt Alicia Mead (Warwicks) 11-5, 11-4, 11-2 (22m)
Women’s Third Pool Round:
Pool A
[1] Sarah-Jane Perry (Warwicks) v Grace Gear (Herts)
[3] Julianne Courtice (Glos) v Lucy Beecroft (Northumbria)
Anna Kimberley (Essex) v Grace Gear (Herts)
Pool B
Kace Bartley (Surrey) v Alicia Mead (Warwicks)
[4] Jasmine Hutton (Sussex) v Georgina Kennedy (Kent)
[2] Millie Tomlinson (Derbyshire) v Georgina Kennedy (Kent)

Pictures courtesy of England Squash

BARBERVILLE, Fla. — After falling back at the start of Wednesday night’s World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series feature during the 50^th DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park, Kyle Strickler roared back for his second victory of the season.

Strickler fell from fourth to eight at the start, but steadily worked his way back to the front.

By lap 34 he found himself back inside the top-four and challenging for a podium finish. Then, with three laps to go, as the leader slowed to the wall, he reached the peak.

Minutes later, the win was his — his second World of Outlaws victory (in 12 starts), his second in a row, and second in a row at Volusia.

“We took that green, I went straight backward,” Strickler said. “I was like, ‘Man, we messed up and picked the wrong tire or made the wrong adjustment or something. Got to lap traffic there and all the leaders went to the top and the car really came to us. I said, ‘I’m not going to let a Modified guy beat me, I’m going to the front.’”

What ensued during his climb back to the top created one of the best shows during the 50th DIRTcar Nationals, so far.

Bobby Pierce and Tim McCreadie — who each won a DIRTcar Late Model event to kick off Late Model week during the DIRTcar Nationals — started on the front row of the 40-lap feature. While Strickler fell on the opening lap, Pierce catapulted ahead of the 33-car field. McCreadie kept a tight hold on the runner-up position until a suspension failure took him out of the race four laps in.

The next 29 laps went caution-free and were 29 laps of pure dirt track ecstasy. Pearce led, with Ricky Thornton and Devin Moran close enough to be annoying the entire time. Thornton tortured Pierce’s heart lap after lap, showing his nose multiple times through turns three and four. But Pierce put his No. 32 machine through a workout, sending it into each corner as hard as he can around the top, lifting the left side of his car off the ground at times to get the better momentum off the corner.

That lasted until lap 12 when Thornton’s patient work paid off as he got the advantage on Pierce off turn two. Pierce battled back but soon found himself having to fend off Moran for second.

Their war came to a halt when Kyle Bronson suffered a flat tire and brought out a caution with seven laps to go. When it resumed, Moran tried a Tom Brady-level Hail Mary pass into turn one, going from third to first by the middle of the corner. His slide job made him look like a hero until the exit of turn two when Thornton split the middle between Moran – up top – and Pierce – on the bottom – to reclaim the lead.

And at this point, Strickler had fought his way to fifth, slowly digging his fingers in the dirt and crawling back to the front.

Then, jaws dropped when Moran had a driveshaft issue going down the frontstretch and got rear-ended by Brandon Overton, ending both of their nights.

On the restart, the trap door that plagued Strickler found Thornton as he fell from first to fourth in a lap. Pierce reclaimed the lead while Strickler and Hudson O’Neal found themselves inside the podium, battling for second.

With three laps to go, Strickler passed O’Neal for second, just in time to watch Pierce slow with a flat tire.

Strickler’s rise was complete. It wasn’t an easy climb, reminding himself how to drive a late model versus a UMP Modified – which he drove last week. But his exuberant celebration showed it was worth the effort.

“Man, I never would’ve thought I’d fall back to eighth and then charge to the front,” said Strickler. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. This is awesome.

“This is one right now, of course, this is probably my favorite race of my career. That’s so much fun to go back and forth like that.”

Strickler, a rookie, maintains the Series points lead – 34 points ahead of Ricky Weiss – as he’s decided to join the World of Outlaws 2021 tour full-time with the PPC Motorsports team.

O’Neal finished second with his own rise to the front from eighth.

“We were just a little too free there from the git-go,” O’Neal said. “I didn’t think I had a second-place race car. Just took advantage of some of the bad situations for the other guys.”

Thronton, after leading 23 laps, had to swallow a third-place finish.

“We were good. I wish that yellow didn’t come out,” Thornton said. “I don’t really have enough experience here to know what to do on the restart and let Bobby get by that one time… We’ll take a third and move on tomorrow.”

The finish:
Feature (40 Laps) – 1. 8-Kyle Strickler [4][$10,000]; 2. 71-Hudson O’Neal [8][$6,000]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton [3][$3,500]; 4. 20-Jimmy Owens [15][$2,800]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley [12][$2,500]; 6. 16-Tyler Bruening [5][$2,300]; 7. 58-Ross Bailes [10][$2,200]; 8. 19R-Ryan Gustin [18][$2,100]; 9. 7-Ricky Weiss [20][$2,050]; 10. 14-Josh Richards [16][$2,000]; 11. O-Scott Bloomquist [19][$1,600]; 12. 56-Tony Jackson [23][$1,400]; 13. OE-Rick Eckert [22][$1,200]; 14. 99B-Boom Briggs [27][$110]; 15. 40B-Kyle Bronson [13][$1,050]; 16. 7R-Ross Robinson [17][$1,000]; 17. 2-Dan Stone [24][$1,000]; 18. 97-Cade Dillard [25][$1,000]; 19. 29V-Darrell Lanigan [21][$1,000]; 20. 1-Brandon Sheppard [11][$1,000]; 21. 28-Dennis Erb [14][$1,000]; 22. 14B-John Baker [26][$1,000]; 23. 72-Mike Norris [9][$1,000]; 24. 18-Chase Junghans [30][$110]; 25. 25-Shane Clanton [33][$110]; 26. 6-Blake Spencer [32][$110]; 27. 12-Ashton Winger [29][$110]; 28. 54-David Breazeale [28][$110]; 29. OS-Ryan Scott [34][$110]; 30. 32-Bobby Pierce [1][$1,000]; 31. 9-Devin Moran [6][$1,000]; 32. 76-Brandon Overton [7][$1,000]; 33. 39-Tim McCreadie [2][$1,000]; Hard Charger Award: 99B-Boom Briggs[+13]

The Premier League and the English Football Association (FA) have joined forces with other footballing bodies to write to social media companies after a rise in online abuse aimed at footballers on their platforms.

Manchester United players Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Axel Tuanzebe (twice) and Lauren James as well as West Bromwich Albion's Romaine Sawyers, Chelsea's Reece James and Southampton's Alex Jankewitz have been victims of racist abuse online in recent weeks.

- Hislop: Football is ideal vehicle to drive social change
- Stream Show Racism The Red Card on ESPN+

Premier League referee Mike Dean also received death threats on social media and requested not to be involved in any matches this weekend.

As a result, the English Football League (EFL), women's professional game, Professional Football Association (PFA), Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL) and Kick It Out wrote a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday demanding action.

"As recent weeks have seen the levels of vicious, offensive abuse from users of your services aimed at footballers and match officials rise even further, we write to ask that for reasons of basic human decency you use the power of your global systems to bring this to an end," the letter said.

"The language used is debasing, often threatening and illegal. It causes distress to the recipients and the vast majority of people who abhor racism, sexism and discrimination of any kind.

"We have had many meetings with your executives over the years but the reality is your platforms remain havens for abuse. Your inaction has created the belief in the minds of the anonymous perpetrators that they are beyond reach.

"The relentless flow of racist and discriminatory messages feeds on itself: the more it is tolerated by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, platforms with billions of users, the more it becomes normal, accepted behaviour."

The letter also urged the platforms to block any messages or posts before being sent if they contain racist or discriminatory material, to take down abusive material if it does get into circulation, to include an improved verification process for all users and to actively and assist the investigating authorities in identifying the originators of illegal discriminatory material.

"Many footballers in English football receive illegal abuse from accounts all over the world and your companies have the power to bring this to an end," it continued.

"We welcome the comments made on Twitter by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, that the UK Government is going to change the law to make social media companies more accountable for what happens on their platforms and they should 'start showing their duty of care to players today by weeding out racist abuse now.'

"Players, match officials, managers and coaches of any origin and background and at any level of football should be able to participate in the game without having to endure illegal abuse. We, the leaders of the game in English football, will do everything we can to protect them, but we cannot succeed until you change the ability of offenders to remain anonymous."

Facebook head of content policy Fadzai Madzingira told BBC on Wednesday that she was "horrified" to see the rise of abuse aimed at footballers while United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton also joined forces to condemn the racist online comments.

On Tuesday, the Premier League announced it had set in motion a plan to eradicate racial prejudice and create more opportunities for minority ethnic groups in football. Among the areas of focus was making it easier to report online abuse.

Serie A's top scorer, with 16 goals, is Cristiano Ronaldo, who turned 36 last week. Just behind him, you'll find a trio of players on 14: Romelu Lukaku, 27 years old, is the baby of the three, Ciro Immobile is 30 and Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a venerable 39 years old.

Ordinarily, this is when you'd cue up jokes about Serie A as a retirement league, a place where aging poachers keep banging in goals, aided by the supposedly slower tempo and the equally geriatric defenders. It's a stereotype -- and a lazy one at that -- but it's based on the fact that in the past decade the league's scoring charts have been topped by a 33-year-old Antonio Di Natale, a 38-year-old Luca Toni, a 31-year-old Edin Dzeko and a 36-year-old Fabio Quagliarella. But look around the scoring charts in Europe's top leagues and you may notice something unusual.

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The top goal scorer in La Liga, Atletico Madrid's Luis Suarez, is 34 and the guy right behind him, Lionel Messi, is 33, just like the guys who are fifth and sixth in the scoring charts: Karim Benzema and Jose Luis "El Comandante" Morales. (Sitting in eighth is another 33-year-old, Iago Aspas.) In the Bundesliga, 32-year-old Robert Lewandowski leads the way, and in the top 10 you'll find 31-year-old Thomas Muller and 32-year-old Lars Stindl.

The Premier League, of course, is a bit more youth-oriented, though if last year's top scorer, 34-year-old Jamie Vardy, hadn't been limited to 16 starts this campaign, he might be challenging league leader Mohamed Salah, 28, who has five more goals than he does.

Compare this year's scoring charts in England, Spain, Germany and Italy to those 20 years ago, and you'll count 14 over-30s in the top 10 today compared to eight in the 2000-01 campaign. (And, actually, the number of 30-year-olds in the top 10 in Italy has declined, from five to three.) Older players are scoring more often, and there are a number of fairly evident reasons behind this trend.

The first is pretty obvious. Advances in medicine and sports science have prolonged players' careers. It's not just Ronaldo, with his 142 reps in 45 seconds, or chilling (literally) at -200 degrees centigrade (-328 degrees Fahrenheit) in the cryogenic chamber he keeps at home, plenty of rank-and-file footballers take better care of themselves. And just as important, advances in surgical procedures and medical techniques mean that injuries that were once debilitating, if not career-ending, can sometimes leave players even stronger than before.

Another factor skewing the numbers is the presence of Ronaldo, Messi and -- a rung or two below them -- players like Suarez, Lewandowski and Ibrahimovic. The first two are G.O.A.T. candidates, blessed with so much ability (and the work rate and professionalism to squeeze the most out of it) that it's not a surprise they are going strong well into their 30s. Lewandowski is the third leading goal scorer in Bundesliga history (and he'll likely be second come the end of the season), Suarez is the only player not named Cristiano or Lionel to have scored 40 goals in a single season in the past 20 years in a top-four league and, well, Zlatan is Zlatan. He broke the 500th goal in club football last weekend. He's comfortably in the top among those who played in the last half-century, alongside Messi, Ronaldo, Pele, Romario and Gerd Muller.

We often note how lucky we are that Messi and Ronaldo are contemporaries, but it's equally true that there haven't been many periods in history that have featured so many bonafide scorers of the same generation.

There are probably two other factors at work here and they're related.

One traces its roots to the Bosman rule, the court judgment in 1995 that made it illegal for teams in the European Union to place limits on the number of foreign players they could field or sign. Maradona, for example, had to play with at least eight Italian players during his heyday at Napoli. Inevitably, his supporting cast wasn't going to be as talented or as tailor-made as it might have been if the club could have signed whomever they liked to round out the team. Couple this with the effects of polarisation we've seen over the past two decades -- the gap between the handful of super-clubs that can outspend everybody and the rest has increased like never before -- and the current generation of scorers has benefited like no other.

Simply put, the teams they play for are stacked to a degree rarely seen in history: they win more and score more, which translates into better numbers for the forwards.

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There are other factors tied to this, which are more tactical in nature. If many teams played with two central strikers in the past, today most have a single offensive terminus, which naturally results in more opportunities. Furthermore, many of the players mentioned above are largely spared from defensive duties off the ball, whether it be pressing or tracking back.

(Not everyone, though. Benzema and Lewandowski in particular maintain a high work rate when not in possession -- and it'll be interesting to see to what degree this continues as they approach their mid-30s; a year or two worth of extra mileage can make a big difference.) Then again, most play for top sides who have the bulk of the possession anyway and, therefore, there's less to do in terms of running around and defending, not to mention the fact that you spend most of your time closer to the opposing goal.

Longevity manifests itself in other positions too -- though, apart from goalkeeper, it's not quite as prevalent. They're not goal scorers, so we can't necessarily measure their contribution as easily in terms of numbers, but there are plenty of notable players in their mid-30s contributing regularly at the highest level.

In Spain, Nino, at 40, has made 12 appearances for Elche up front this season, while Granada's Jorge Molina has nine goals in all competitions at age 38. Luka Modric (35) continues to run Real Madrid's midfield, while the irrepressible Joaquin, at 39, has made 18 appearances on the wing for Real Betis (and become the first Spanish player to score a Liga goal in four different decades).

Serie A has 39-year-old Bruno Alves leading the back four for Parma, while just up the road another 39-year-old, Rodrigo Palacio, is a regular at Bologna. Goran Pandev scored twice for Genoa last week at age 37, while Franck Ribery, also 37, is out wide for Fiorentina. Eintracht Frankfurt had risen to fourth in the Bundesliga with 37-year-old Makoto Hasebe anchoring the midfield and 34-year-old David Abraham (who has since moved on) at the back. Oscar Wendt (34) is a starter for Borussia Moenchengladbach and Petr Pekarik (34) a fixture for Hertha.

The Premier League also skews younger, but in addition to Vardy, Thiago Silva, at 36, is a regular for Chelsea, while Joao Moutinho (34) is a fixture in Wolves' midfield and James Milner (35) has made 23 appearances in all competitions for Liverpool. And, of course, just two weeks ago, 38-year-old Phil Jagielka played all 90 minutes for Sheffield United as they beat Manchester United at Old Trafford. But the granddaddy of them all, the man who shows us that age is indeed just a number, plays in France, for Montpellier.

Vitorino Hilton is a 43-year-old central defender and still going strong. He has made 17 appearances -- 13 of them from the start -- this campaign, and it probably would have been more if not for the fact that he was sent off twice and had to serve subsequent three-game bans. (It's not clear how many crunches he can do in 45 seconds or whether he dips into the old cryogenic chamber after training.)

The days when clubs like Arsenal gave only one-year extensions to players the wrong side of 30 are gone -- witness the three-year deals they gave Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (31) and Willian (32) last summer. With good genes, a lot of hard work and professionalism and a bit of luck, you can continue being productive into your mid-30s. You don't even need to be Zlatan or Cristiano to do it, though it helps.