Michael Slater, the former Australia opening batsman and now commentator, will be heard on Channel Nine's World Cup broadcast after the ICC confirmed he remains a part of the world broadcast feed for the event, due to begin on May 30.

Following a highly publicised incident on Sunday when Slater was escorted from a Qantas domestic flight from Sydney to his hometown of Wagga Wagga, after becoming embroiled in a heated argument with two female fellow travellers, ESPNcricinfo understands he was spoken to by host broadcasters and reminded of the behavioural standards all commentators must uphold.

However, Slater is set to return to Australian television screens with Nine, his former network, as well as Fox Sports, the pay television broadcaster that will air all the tournament's matches. Nine has the free-to-air rights to screen Australia's nine round-robin matches, plus the semi-finals and tournament final at Lord's on July 14.

Last year Slater moved from Nine to Seven, following the latter's winning of broadcast rights for matches in Australia in a combined deal with Fox Sports worth A$1.18 billion to Cricket Australia. A central figure in Seven's broadcast, particularly for the Big Bash League, Slater did not continue his role throughout the summer, missing from the back-end of the season and the BBL finals series in early February.

It is believed this decision was made mutually between Slater and Seven for personal reasons, though he is still under contract with the network for another season and may yet return.

Since then, Slater has commentated on the Indian Premier League, and will soon be heard again on Nine and Fox Sports for the World Cup. In a statement to Macquaries Radio, a contrite Slater confirmed the incident on the plane: "I did have an argument with two friends whilst boarding a flight to Wagga and I apologise for the inconvenience this caused other passengers on the flight."

Nine, which lost its rights as the host broadcaster for Australian cricket for the first time since Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket breakaway more than 40 years ago, will ironically broadcast the returns of the previously banned Steven Smith and David Warner in the wake of the Newlands scandal, after Seven and Fox Sports suffered by their absence over the 2018-19 summer.

The network's World Cup coverage will be hosted by Rebecca Maddern, alongside former national team captains Mark Taylor, Ian Healy and Lisa Sthalekar.

Seven recently unveiled the former New Zealand captain and Brisbane Heat batsman Brendon McCullum as a new addition to its commentary team for next summer. McCullum will also be heard on the World Cup broadcast.

Catch all the action, analysis, numbers, tweets, banter and more from the Afghanistan v Pakistan warm-up match. If you don't see the blog immediately below, please refresh the page

Asghar Afghan's removal as Afghanistan's ODI captain less than two months before the World Cup had garnered criticism from some of the team's senior players, but his replacement Gulbadin Naib quelled any murmurs of disharmony within the team, saying he still considered Asghar as his captain.

"Asghar Afghan is still my captain," Naib told ICC. "We played our last few games against Ireland and Scotland, and he helped me a lot. He guided me. He's not just another player for me, he's still my captain right now.

"I want support from him. Not just him, but [Mohammad] Nabi, Rashid [Khan] and all the guys who have a lot of experience. All of us have one goal: we want to play for Afghanistan and play as a team, whoever the captain is."

Afghanistan have warm-up games scheduled against Pakistan and England before they open their campaign on June 1 against Australia.

Rohit Sharma's batting at the top of the order in ODIs is a study in contrast to the methods in vogue at the moment, with batsmen preferring to attack hard early. Rohit is not averse to taking his time at the start and settling in, before exploding with greater force as the innings progresses.

India's limited-overs vice-captain is the only man with multiple double-centuries in ODI cricket, having hit three including a world-record 264, and he explained that he had found a process that worked well for him.

"What works for me is what works for me. I'm going to stick to my plans. In those double hundreds that I have scored, you've got to see how many balls I had consumed by the time I reached my first 10 runs, the first 50 runs, the first 75-80 runs. It'll rarely be five balls 10 runs, or 25 balls 50 runs," Rohit told Times of India. "You know what I'm saying - but I've still got there. I've worked with certain trends and those trends have worked for me, in return. There will be days when I will get off to a flyer.

"Obviously when you're chasing scores of 350 and 370, you'll have to change gears as required. There's not much time that one can take before he can get going. I get that. But you asked me about how I like to go about - to that, I'll say, follow what suits you, go by the conditions, the opponents, the kind of attack that's coming at you. So, let's say much of that is an instinctive factor."

The numbers bear out Rohit's success with his method.

*All numbers from April 1, 2015 till May 24, 2019

Rohit's acceleration during the course of an innings is evident. Among openers in the first ten overs, he is the second slowest, ahead of only Tamim Iqbal. From overs 10.1 to 35, and expanding the list to include batsmen in the top four, he is eighth among 61 batsmen. And in the last 15 overs, only AB de Villiers scores quicker than Rohit among 91 batsmen.

Rohit's six-hitting ability also plays a part in his acceleration. Since the 2015 World Cup, he has hit 130 sixes for India, considerably more than the second-placed Virat Kohli's 55.

"Listening to people, day in, day out, it's something that I have learnt to live with," Rohit said. "You step out of the house and the first guy you say hello to, hellos back: 'Cover drive thoda aisa khel na. Straight drive sudhaar apna (Play the cover drive like this. Improve your straight drive).' Kya karoon? (What do I do?). Listen and move on. One guy, I don't even know him, gave me a 15-minute lecture on the pull shot. Don't hit the ball in the air (laughs).

"What those people don't understand is they know and recognise me as a cricketer because of those very shots. I wouldn't have been scoring the kind of runs I did if I didn't take those risks. For instance, just this week, someone shared an interesting stat with me. Post the 2015 World Cup, I've hit 130 sixes. The next best from India is 55. The margin of 75, you see, is the margin of risk I've taken. Simple."

Sri Lanka chose to bowl v South Africa

Sri Lanka opted to bowl in the World Cup warm-up against South Africa in Cardiff. Captain Dimuth Karunaratne felt that there would be some assistance for his seamers early on, while Faf du Plessis was happy to have a bat. Although both teams are allowed to field all 15 members of the squad, Sri Lanka were a player short, with Lasith Malinga yet to join the squad. South Africa, too, were resting Quinton de Kock and Dale Steyn.

Sri Lanka were coming off a convincing win over Scotland by 35 runs (D/L method) at Edinburgh. Karunaratne, who was playing his first ODI in over four years, quelled some of the doubts about his left-field selection as captain for the World Cup with an 88-ball 77, and Nuwan Pradeep, who had missed the tours of Australia and South Africa due to injury also returned to the side with a four-for.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Klay Thompson found out he hadn't been selected to an All-NBA team while he was being interviewed by reporters Thursday, and the shock on the face of the Golden State Warriors' normally unflappable swingman told the story.

In addition to the sting of the snub, Thompson will not be eligible this summer to sign a five-year supermax contract worth $221 million. He'll instead be eligible for a five-year max deal worth $191 million with the Warriors once he becomes a free agent on July 1.

"I didn't? It already came out?" Thompson said after Thursday's practice, before being told that he just missed being selected for the third team. "I mean that's cool and all but like when you go to five straight Finals, I respect those guys but when you go to five straight it takes more than just a couple All-NBA guys. It's like an all-time team, but whatever, I'd rather win a championship than be third-team All-NBA, so it's all good."

Both Thompson and the Warriors have said throughout the season that they were hopeful about getting a new deal done after the season ends. Warriors owner Joe Lacob recently told ESPN that he hoped Thompson and Warriors guard Stephen Curry would be with the organization "forever."

The All-NBA teams are selected by a panel of media members, who select two guards, two forwards and one center for each of the first, second and third teams.

"It is what it is," Thompson said, when asked if he disliked the fact that All-NBA voting weighs so heavily on potential extra money in contracts. "I can't control it. Do I think there's that many guards better than me in the league? No. But that's the reason we're still playing so I don't even want to get into it honestly."

The easygoing Thompson relayed a confident answer when asked how he's able to let the contract implications roll off his back so easily.

"Rings," he said.

Thompson's teammate Draymond Green offered more pointed commentary regarding how the votes played out. When asked about Thompson making the NBA's All-Defensive second team, Green was quick with a response.

"He should have been first [team]," Green said.

Green, who also made the All-Defensive second team, was asked for his own reaction about making that team.

"It's a pretty cool second team to be on," Green said. "There's some damn good defenders on that second team."

Is the second team better than the first team?

"I ain't going to say that," Green said. "But that lineup looked good on that second team, so it's all good."

Green Bay Packers lineman David Bakhtiari was back to his beer-chugging ways courtside at the Milwaukee Bucks' NBA playoff game on Thursday night -- and this time he got a pair of local MVPs to join in.

Neither Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers nor Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich could down a beer quite as quickly as Bakhtiari, though they tried their best.

While being shown on the video screens at the Fiserv Forum, Bakhtiari put back two beers in a matter of seconds, then pointed toward Rodgers.

The two-time NFL MVP couldn't get through his entire beer in one go, and Bakhtiari, who has slammed beers during other games in the Bucks' playoff run this season, proceeded to show him how it's done with a third cold one.

? @DavidBakhtiari and @AaronRodgers12 go head-to-head in a beer chugging competition!! #GoPackGo | #FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/etedPaiJ9G

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 24, 2019

Rodgers did offer somewhat of an explanation, implying in a tweet he'd prefer a different libation.

Make it scotch next time @DavidBakhtiari #bucks

— Aaron Rodgers (@AaronRodgers12) May 24, 2019

Later in the game, a fan wearing a Bakhtiari jersey was shown downing a beer on the big screen, prompting the lineman to empty a can into his own mouth.

HE'S NOT DONE!! ?

This time @DavidBakhtiari has a chugging competition with a fan!! ? pic.twitter.com/GfxFMnfpHX

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 24, 2019

And soon after, Yelich -- the reigning National League MVP who was seated next to Bakhtiari -- got in on the fun by finishing his own beer, much to the delight of the crowd.

Yelich was a bit faster than Rodgers, but the QB wasn't impressed and indicated that Yelich's cup had been slightly less than full.

In Wisconsin MVP's crush beers. @ChristianYelich | #FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/qTnMl4K3eN

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 24, 2019

Their antics couldn't inspire the Bucks to a win, however, as the Toronto Raptors prevailed 105-99 to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

MILWAUKEE -- In a quiet moment after the Toronto Raptors pulled off a 105-99 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals to take a 3-2 lead in this best-of-seven series and move within one win of the franchise's first trip to the NBA Finals, Raptors coach Nick Nurse was asked what allowed his team to turn this series around from an initial 2-0 deficit.

"This isn't the sexy answer, but from the first day of training camp we've been saying we're going to stay level," Nurse told ESPN. "A s---ty preseason game is just gonna get written off. A great win at Golden State, same thing. A terrible game in San Antonio, 'Let's bounce back.'

"And we've done it all year. We've kept it even-keeled. Kawhi [Leonard] has helped that. Kyle [Lowry] has been so much less emotional and a great leader. Marc [Gasol], even Serge [Ibaka], those older guys, when things have gone s---ty, it's not questioning guys, it's 'Let's figure it out.' I think it was the same today."

It's hard to argue with Nurse's assessment -- especially given that, five minutes into the first quarter, the Raptors found themselves down 18-4 at Fiserv Forum, with Giannis Antetokounmpo dunking everywhere, and the roof of the building feeling as if it might come off.

At that moment, it felt as if the game could quickly turn into another outcome like Game 2, when Milwaukee ran Toronto out of the building. Instead, the Raptors slowly began chipping away, and eventually got themselves back into it.

Once the Raptors did, that gave Leonard the chance to carry them home. And, for the latest time in these playoffs, Leonard did exactly that, scoring 15 of his game-high 35 points in the final quarter to push the Raptors over the top, and allow the road team to win a game for the first time in this series.

"The game he played tonight," Lowry said of Leonard, who also had seven rebounds and nine assists, "was a pretty good game.

"It's a pretty good game on the big stage, and on the road.

"Superstar. Superstar."

It was Leonard's back-to-back 3-pointers with 8:30 and 7:57 left in the fourth quarter that gave Toronto an 85-81 lead. Those were two of the 18 3's the Raptors made while attempting 43 of them -- typically the kind of number the Bucks like to shoot, and what wound up being two more shots than the Raptors attempted inside the arc all night.

And, even more than his shotmaking, it was Leonard's ability to guard Antetokounmpo -- not to mention his even-keeled demeanor -- that has shifted the series in Toronto's favor.

"We have one of the least emotional guys in Kawhi Leonard, but he's emotional when he needs to be," Lowry told ESPN. "We've all kind of just ... when our superstar is a guy who stays [level] ... he's our guy, he's our superstar.

"He never gets too up, he never gets too down, he misses games, he didn't play games. And when he didn't play, we went about our business. When he did play, we went about our business. And we just have to go out there and play."

Part of the reason why Leonard was able to carry the Raptors home was because Fred VanVleet, for a second straight game, stepped up. VanVleet, who had his second child the day before Game 4, put up 21 points off the bench, going 7-for-13 from the field -- including 7-for-9 from 3-point range.

He now has gone from shooting 7-for-44 overall and 3-for-25 from 3-point range over a 10-game span from the start of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers through Game 3 of this series to going 12-for-19 overall and 10-for-12 from 3-point range over the past two games.

"I guess," VanVleet said with a smile, when asked if having his child had changed things. "Zero sleep, have a lot of babies and go out there and let loose.

"[You] keep just trusting the work, and trusting your craft, and knowing that, at some point, they're going to drop."

That they started dropping now has been exactly what the Raptors needed -- though it also came as no surprise to Lowry, VanVleet's close friend.

"We always say 'next man up,' and it's been like that all year," Lowry told ESPN. "Guys have done an unbelievable job preaching next man up and tonight was Freddy's night.

"I never felt bad for him. I expect nothing but the best from him, and I expect him to keep doing that."

So much about this Toronto team is new. Nurse is a first-year head coach; Leonard, Danny Green and Gasol all arrived with the Raptors via trade within the past nine months. But the Raptors have a battle-tested group full of players who have been in these types of moments before.

It's that experience that has helped Toronto stay even-keeled through a season spent with Lowry and Leonard shuttling in and out of the lineup, with trades and injuries keeping Toronto from having its full roster more than a handful of times.

"It certainly helps, I think," Nurse told ESPN. "I think these guys have played in these games and it certainly helps, but what I'm noticing is in between games. I think the guys are really smart about preparing.

"Everybody is trying to tell them they are tired, and they're just not buying it. And they're just like, 'OK, we're winning. We have to go to work.'

"This is a hell of a team. We have to play our asses off to beat them."

The Raptors have done so three straight times -- something that hadn't happened to the Bucks all season. If Toronto can do it a fourth straight time back home Saturday night, it will be in the NBA Finals.

MILWAUKEE -- Giannis Antetokounmpo's faith in his team remained unshaken after Thursday night's 105-99 loss by the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. Sure, the loss gave the Toronto Raptors a 3-2 series lead. Sure, the Bucks had never trailed in this series.

But when Antetokounmpo was asked about whether the Bucks were going to crumple the way the Boston Celtics did in the conference semifinals, he shot back with a stern answer.

"We're not gonna fold," Antetokounmpo vowed, cutting off the question. "We're the best team in the league. We're gonna go in, give it everything we got. We can't fold. We're gonna come back to Milwaukee being pissed."

Like the Celtics, who won the first game of their series with Milwaukee before losing the next four, the Bucks have fallen into a hole in the conference finals after winning the first two games, dropping three straight to Toronto.

The Bucks had several opportunities to take control of Thursday's game. They jumped out to a 10-point lead after the first quarter, and at the half, the Bucks led by three.

The game came down to the last two minutes. Antetokounmpo slammed down an alley-oop from Malcolm Brogdon with 2 minutes, 6 seconds left to trim the Raptors' lead to one.

The Bucks' bench jumped up in celebration, and it seemed, for a moment, as though this game could go either way.

On the next possession, Kawhi Leonard missed a 3-pointer. As Antetokounmpo and Leonard jostled for the rebound, Antetokounmpo landed awkwardly on his right ankle and inadvertently fouled the Raptors' star.

Antetokounmpo headed to the bench, walking gingerly on his ankle. He had tweaked the same ankle during the regular season. With the Greek Freak on the bench, the Raptors built a three-point lead. A series of late mistakes, most notably a turnover by Brogdon and a missed jumper by Khris Middleton, proved costly.

Antetokounmpo finished with 24 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds. Eric Bledsoe had 20 points for the Bucks.

While questions swirled around the internet about why Antetokounmpo wasn't on the court for some of the game's late pivotal minutes, Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said he didn't think twice about Antetokounmpo's sitting. Lowry told ESPN it was clear he tweaked his ankle.

"One thing about Giannis, he's been playing his ass off," Lowry said. "I would never blame Giannis for anything. Sometimes shots are just missed, turnovers happen, it's the game. Why does there have to be blame? Giannis is going to be [one of] the best one, two or three players in the league for the next 10 years."

After the game, the Bucks' locker room was subdued. Antetokounmpo sat icing his feet and eating a postgame snack. Eventually, he put a protective compression sleeve on his right ankle. He sternly declined to make small talk. George Hill and Bledsoe left in a hurry without speaking to reporters.

Antetokounmpo brushed off questions about his ankle, saying it felt "fine" and he "doesn't remember" what exactly transpired that led to rolling it.

He insisted the Game 5 loss didn't feel different than any other loss this season.

"I just want to win," Antetokounmpo said. "I think we had a chance to win it, but we didn't. Obviously, I'm pissed. I am not gonna lie to you. We got two more games to go."

Now, the Bucks head into more uncharted territory: trailing heading into Game 6 on the road.

ESPN's Jackie MacMullan contributed to this report.

MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Bucks had been shading Kawhi Leonard for days, taking away the largest, strongest and most decisive right hand in basketball. But with his Toronto Raptors trailing by a bucket inside of nine minutes remaining in Thursday's Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals that were knotted at 2-2, Leonard got a long step on his defender, Khris Middleton, and burrowed into the paint with his right.

Leonard was low to the floor -- more a lunge than a drive -- and as his tired legs nearly lost their balance against a collapsing Milwaukee defense, he slung a pass to the left corner, where Raptors reserve guard Fred VanVleet stood waiting, unguarded.

That VanVleet was wide open was both apt and no guarantee of success. Though the Raptors were a slick-shooting squad through the latter half of the regular season (tops in the NBA after acquiring Marc Gasol), they had struggled to convert clean looks through much of the playoffs -- and no one more than VanVleet. Prior to Toronto's Game 4 home victory, VanVleet had missed 30 of his previous 35 attempts beyond the arc. But with his confidence restored after an efficient 13-point outing on Tuesday, VanVleet drained the open look -- one of his seven 3-pointers on the night -- to give the Raptors their first lead in the second half.

Over the next 60 seconds, Leonard would receive two more high screens, each drawing Bucks center Brook Lopez on the switch. Both actions would yield deliberate but nasty step-back 3-point jumpers by Leonard over Lopez.

In the biggest quarter in Raptors franchise history, the thaw of a long, cold spring had finally arrived -- and Leonard was the heat source turning thick ice into a steady flow. The Raptors would ride Leonard -- who scored or assisted on a career-high 62 points -- to a 35-point, 9-assist, 7-rebound performance to defeat Milwaukee 105-99 and take a 3-2 series lead.

"They were sending two or three bodies at him, and kind of tilting the floor and making sure guys were loaded on him," Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said of Leonard. "He was making the right passes, and we made some shots for him tonight. And then third quarter, he just -- he's been doing it all playoffs. He went into iso and get-to-your-spot, and it was pretty impressive. The game he played tonight -- 35, 9 and 7 -- was a pretty good game. It's a pretty good game on the big stage and on the road. Superstar. Superstar."

Lowry's appraisal of "pretty good" was said for understated effect, and the same can be said for the Raptors' half-court defense. For the third consecutive game, the high-octane Milwaukee offense has produced minuscule results. On Thursday night, the Bucks generated only 83.1 points per 100 possessions in the half court.

In many respects, the Raptors are beating the Bucks with the brand of scrambling, quick-to-collapse/quick-to-recover defense that had become Milwaukee's calling card. With Leonard taking the lead, Toronto accounts for Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo with multiple bodies, help coming from all directions -- weak side, baseline, perimeter.

Asked for the principles guiding their fluid rotations, Lowry told ESPN, "Play f---ing hard, send bodies, then rotate. It's not science. It's understanding the rotations, who's going, where they're going and knowing who's going to help and get out. It's tough to do, but you have to do it in this situation."

In Game 4, we saw the collective intelligence of Toronto's core on the offensive side with smart ball movement, heady misdirection and timely passing. In Game 5, that high IQ was evident in a masterful execution of the defensive game plan.

For 48 minutes, every Raptor on the floor moved decisively to plug gaps. In the final 20 minutes of action, the Bucks generated only three uncontested shots in the half court -- an alley-oop catch by Antetokounmpo and a couple of pull-up jumpers off the dribble by Eric Bledsoe. The first is unstoppable, the other two tolerable.

"The rotation comes from wherever," Lowry said. "We talk and communicate -- 'Go, go, go.' Marc will say, 'K-Low, you go.' Kawhi, Danny, Freddie. Everyone is talking. You hear the communication, you hear the professionalism, you hear everyone with an understanding of what's the next move, who's going where, who's taking responsibility."

This is entirely by design. Through a series of trades over the past year, the Raptors have populated their roster with two former defensive players of the year in Leonard and Gasol; three more All-NBA Defensive Team honorees in Lowry, Danny Green and Serge Ibaka; a spidery young stopper in Pascal Siakam; a bulldog in VanVleet; with Norman Powell no slouch for a wing of his size. There's not a weak defensive link on the roster, no one who can't be trusted with a help decision.

Offensively, the Raptors exacted just enough punishment against Milwaukee's adjustments. For example, in a possession reminiscent of VanVleet's big corner 3, Leonard drove hard into the paint, then delivered a timely kickout with five minutes remaining in the game to Gasol for an open 3-pointer. Gasol spent much of the night guarded by Antetokounmpo, who took the opportunity to help freely but was made to pay on what was an enormous shot in a tight affair.

"Every game is different," Gasol said. "Every game has its own wrinkles. Every game goes its own way. You have to be ready for whatever is thrown at you. Tonight, obviously, they changed the way they played defensively in their scheme, and we got to continue to play downhill and continue to be aggressive and attack the paint."

Earlier in the postseason, Lowry said the Raptors could match basketball wits with any team in the NBA, and their cerebral play on Thursday now leaves them just one home win away from their first NBA Finals.

As they returned to Toronto for Saturday's Game 6, the magnitude of the last year's events came into focus. Leonard didn't ask to land in Toronto for the 2018-19 season, and he has made no promises he'll remain there long term. Yet the Raptors organization made a calculated gamble: They bet on themselves. They wagered that if they could help Leonard maintain his health and surround him with a cast of competent, competitive and smart teammates, they could outlast the rest of the Eastern Conference.

In the NBA, winning is the most powerful tool of persuasion.