Sports

RAWALPINDI: While Fawad Alam, Yasir Shah and Nauman Ali shared the lead roles during Pakistan’s seven-wicket triumph in the first Test against South Africa at Karachi, Faheem Ashraf continued to enhance his growth as a cricketer on the international stage. Faheem, who considers himself a bowling all-rounder, was the major contributor with a feisty 64 off 84 balls in that …

LAHORE: Haroon Malik has a very measured approach when it comes to talking. He says every word carefully and meticulously. He probably needs to do that considering he’ll be measured by every word he says during his tenure as the Pakistan Football Federation Normalisation Committee chairman. In his first news conference, in a novel setting in the gardens overlooking the …

“Pakistan cricket as a microcosm of the entire country.” After Pakistan lost to India in a World Cup match yet again in 2019, I wrote the aforementioned line in a column and it hit home for a number of Dawn readers. A year and a half later, a situation arose recently that further reinforced the point. The point being that the Pakistan cricket team is plagued …

New dad Virat Kohli returns to captain a buoyant India against England as they aim to build on their crushing win over Australia by sealing a place in the World Test Championship final. Kohli, who welcomed a baby daughter last month, missed most of the Australia series on paternity leave as Ajinkya Rahane led an injury-ravaged side from 0-1 down to a …

MELBOURNE: Serena Williams found a silver lining in the delayed start to the Australian Open, the season-opening Grand Slam tournament that is starting three weeks later than usual because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Time. Time to recover from an Achilles injury that ended her run at last year’s French Open before her second-round match. Extra time with her daughter, albeit …

tea CHENNAI: England’s Jack Leach said on Monday it would be a “dream” to make his mark on India’s spin-friendly matches in his maiden tour of the South Asian giant. Joe Root’s England will begin their four-Test tour against India — which tops the world Test championship rankings — in Chennai on Friday. Leach claimed 10 wickets with his left-arm …

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq doesn’t want his team to get complacent ahead of this week’s second Test match against South Africa. The home side fought back from a precarious 27-4 in their first innings at the National Stadium, Karachi to beat the Proteas by seven wickets and take a 1-0 lead the two-match series. The second Test starts at …

Increasing the number of referrals would not decrease the authority of the umpire, but taking out the ridiculous “Umpire’s call’’ perhaps would. On the other hand, it would make the game infinitely more fair and that should be the desire of lawmakers in any sport. Quite simply, a ball hitting the stumps is out and should be given out, irrespective …

Australia’s cricket tour of South Africa has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Cricket Australia said in a statement on Tuesday. Australian players were scheduled to fly out this month for a three-Test series in March, but the touring side’s cricket board said it had no choice but to postpone the trip due to the South African epidemic. “It …

SYDNEY: Software giant Microsoft is confident its search product Bing can fill the gap in Australia if Google pulls its search over required payments to media outlets, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday. Australia has introduced laws that would force internet giant Google and social media heavyweight Facebook Inc to negotiate payments to domestic media outlets whose content links …