Sports

ADELAIDE: England were staring down the barrel of another sorry defeat on Saturday, dismissed for 236 then forced to watch as Australia batted again and stretched their lead in the day-night second Ashes Test in Adelaide. Joe Root and Dawid Malan had survived the opening session of day three unscathed, building a 128-run stand as they chased Australia’s imposing first-innings …

India opener KL Rahul has been named vice-captain for the three-match Test series against South Africa after Rohit Sharma was ruled out of the tour due to injury, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on Saturday. The 29-year-old is returning to the Test side after missing the series win against New Zealand at home due to a muscle strain. “The …

PESHAWAR: A second successive round of one-under 71 sent Nouman Ilyas to the top of the National Amateur Ranking Golf Championship leaderboard at the end of round two the PAF Golf Course here on Friday. Nouman’s consistency saw him end the day with a five-stroke lead over overnight leader Mohammad Shoaib, who is at three-over 147 after he could only …

BEIJING: An outcry over the whereabouts of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai escalated on Friday as the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) said it was prepared to pull its tournaments out of China over the issue, prompting an influential Chinese state media editor to criticise the organisation for using a “coercive tone”. Former doubles world number one Peng has not been …

ISLAMABAD: At a time when unemployment is rife among the youth, the Pakistan Cricket Board has 23 over-age employees who are all contractual. The matter came to light after Senator Irfan Siddiqui posed a question to Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza, asking her about the number of employees over the age of 60 as well their salaries …

Pakistan recovered from a top-order collapse to beat Bangladesh by four wickets in the first Twenty20 international of their three-match series in Dhaka on Friday. The visitors restricted Bangladesh to a measly 127-7 as the hosts won the toss and elected to bat first at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. Fast bowler Hasan Ali picked up 3-22 and right-arm medium pacer …

Pat Cummins shaped up as the frontrunner Saturday to take over from disgraced former Australia Test skipper Tim Paine, with the likes of Mark Taylor, Dennis Lillie, and Steve Waugh all singing his praises. The 28-year-old, who has served as vice-captain in both Test and white-ball formats since 2019, is widely seen as being in a two-way race with Steve …

RANCHI: India cruised to a second straight victory over World Cup runners-up New Zealand on Friday, giving new coach Rahul Dravid and new T20 captain Rohit Sharma their first series win. Set 154 in front of a packed crowd in Ranchi, India crossed the line in the 18th over having lost only three wickets, avenging their eight-wicket hammering by the …

Distraught and in tears, Tim Paine stepped down as Australia’s Test cricket captain on Friday after revelations he had been investigated and cleared over sexually explicit text messages sent to a female former colleague four years ago. The development has plunged Australia’s Ashes preparations into disarray three weeks before the first Test in Brisbane starts on Dec 8. Breaking down …

LONDON: The “drinking culture” in county teams was partly responsible for Asian and Black players not getting enough opportunities in English cricket, former West Indies international Tino Best has said. Former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq’s testimony to a British parliamentary committee on Tuesday has thrown a spotlight on racism in the sport in England, as well as its drinking culture. Rafiq, a …