Sports

LONDON: Arsenal and Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes suffered a massive blow as both the teams lost their respective matches and surrendered the initiative to Manchester City on Sunday. The Gunners should have been on a high after Liverpool suffered a shock 1-0 defeat against Crystal Palace just half an hour before kick-off in north London but Aston Villa struck …

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday, unveiled match officials for the five-match T20I series Pakistan and New Zealand, scheduled to commence on April 18 in Rawalpindi. Andy Pycroft, a member of the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees, will lead the playing control team that includes five umpires, namely Ahsan Raza (elite panellist), Aleem Dar, Asif Yaqoob, Faisal …

Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas kept alive his hopes of a third Monte Carlos Masters title as on Friday he breezed into the semi-finals dismissing Russian opponent Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-2. Tsitsipas, winner in Monte Carlo in 2021 and 2022, needed just 81 minutes to record his eighth win in nine meetings with an out of sorts Khachanov. The 25-year-old Greek will …

Novak Djokovic reached a record 77th Masters semi-final on Friday when he defeated Australia’s Alex de Minaur in straight sets in Monte Carlo as in-form Jannik Sinner racked up his 25th victory of the year. Djokovic, the 36-year-old world number one came through a rollercoaster quarter-final to win 7-5, 6-4 and make the last-four in the principality for the first …

AL AMARAT: Nepal’s middle-order batter Dipendra Singh Airee bagged another dominant record in T20 cricket as he became the third male batter to hit six sixes in an over in T20Is. Airee wreaked havoc in the final over of Nepal’s innings against Qatar in the seventh match of the ACC Men’s Premier Cup, being played at the AI Amerat Cricket …

Atletico Madrid completed a good four days as they followed their Champions League quarter-final first-leg victory over Borussia Dortmund with a 3-1 La Liga victory over third-placed Girona, courtesy of Antoine Griezmann’s brace. Antoine Griezmann scored twice as Diego Simeone’s men moved to within four points of their opponents and pulled five clear of fifth-placed Athletic Bilbao in the race …

LEVERKUSEN: Liverpool slu­m­ped to a shock 3-0 home defeat by Atalanta on Thursday as Gianluca Scamacca struck twice for the Italian side in their Europa League quarter-final first leg. On a chastening evening for former European champions in the continent’s second-tier club competition, AC Milan lost 1-0 at home to fellow Italian side AS Roma. Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leve­rkusen secured …

AUGUSTA: LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau used a sizzling burst of late birdies to muscle into a one-shot lead over Scottie Scheffler on Thursday as Spaniard Jon Rahm’s Masters title defence got off to a shaky start. After a storm delayed the start of the year’s first major by 2-1/2 hours, 2020 US Open champion DeChambeau thrived in the softened but …

JOHANNESBURG: Eight venues in South Africa have been confirmed for the 2027 World Cup, according to Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive Pholetsi Moseki. In addition to the South African grounds, matches will also be played in Zimbabwe and Namibia, who will co-host the tournament. Moseki told the South African News24 website that the eight South African venues had been …

Wicketkeeper Tom Blundell and uncapped all-rounder Zak Foulkes have been added as late call-ups for New Zealand’s Twenty20 tour of Pakistan, the side announced on Friday. Blundell and Foulkes will respectively replace promising batter Finn Allen and veteran paceman Adam Milne, who were both injured on the eve of departure. Pakistan host New Zealand for five Twenty20 internationals starting in …