Sports

New Zealand coach Gary Stead played down suggestions of any tension around their Twenty20 World Cup opener against Pakistan after the Black Caps recently abandoned their limited-overs tour of the South Asian country citing a security alert. New Zealand’s withdrawal dealt a massive blow to Pakistan’s hopes of staging regular international cricket, with England subsequently calling off their men’s and women’s tours. New Zealand …

LONDON: England will only travel to Australia for the Ashes series across December and January if their leading players are in the squad. That was the message from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Monday, with the governing body saying it will announce this week if the tour will go ahead amid concerns about restrictions in place in …

LAHORE: Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez after fully recovering from dengue fever resumed cricket practice here on Monday. The 40-year-old Hafeez who is part of national T20 World Cup squad, was infected with dengue virus last week. Due to the illness, the right-handed batter withdrew from the first leg of the ongoing National T20 Cup in Rawalpindi. After gaining full fitness, …

Lahore: The national men’s cricket team will leave for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on October 15 to take part in ICC T20 World Cup. According to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the squad will leave Lahore on a chartered flight to participate in the competition. Meanwhile, the players participating in the National T20 Cup will move from one bubble to …

KARACHI: Although Sou­thern Punjab, as widely anticipated given the rut they are in, crashed to a sixth straight National T20 Cup defeat, there was a flicker of hope for Pakistan’s Twenty20 Word Cup hopeful Azam Khan. Ridiculed for his lack of form in the previous games of the Rawalpindi leg — which concluded at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on Sunday …

KARACHI: Defending champion and top seed Mohammad Asif and third seed Shahid Aftab consolidated their positions for making it to the knockout round of the NBP 46th National Snooker Championship here at the bank’s sports complex on Monday. Drawn in group ‘A’, four-time national champion Asif won back-to-back matches to stay unbeaten in four outings so far. First, he trounced …

KARACHI: Mohammad Nawaz just couldn’t have hoped for an appropriate moment to showcase his all-round prowess with the Twenty20 World Cup almost on the horizon. The 27-year-old has been the inspiration behind Northern’s resurgence in the National T20 Cup’s first leg at the Pindi Cricket Stadium. And Sunday was no exception as Nawaz excelled with both bat and ball to …

BERLIN: RB Leipzig eased the pressure on coach Jesse Marsch as Christopher Nkunku scored twice in a 3-0 home win over Bundesliga strugglers Bochum on Saturday. Portugal striker Andre Silva scored just 42 seconds after coming on mid way through the second-half to break the deadlock before Nkunku took his tally this season to nine goals in 10 games in …

KARACHI: For the second straight night in Rawalpindi, rains arrived to spoil National T20 Cup action after a fabulous exhibition of power-hitting from discarded Pakistan star Shoaib Malik. And again it was the fielding side to benefit from the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method of calculations at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on Saturday night. Sindh — winners over Northern late on Friday …

KARACHI: Punjab’s Hammad Hassan Shaikh became the first player to register two century breaks in a match when he carved out a 4-1 victory over his fellow qualifier Aamir Sohail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the third day of the league matches of the NBP 46th National Snooker Championship at the bank’s sports complex on Sunday. Hammad scored breaks of 138 …