KARACHI: Afsar Ali had a morning to celebrate at the Karachi Golf Course on Friday. His tee shot on the par-3 third hole on the red course found the green and, with the wind in his favour, the ball rolled into the hole. It was the first hole-in-one at this edition of the CNS Open Golf Championship and Afsar’s reward …

LONDON: Novak Djokovic is into his seventh Wimbledon final. The top-ranked Serb outplayed 10th-seeded Denis Shapovalov on the key points to win their semi-final 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, 7-5 on Friday to move one victory away from a sixth Wimbledon title and record-equalling 20th major title. Shapovalov repeatedly put pressure on Djokovic but faltered at the crucial moments. He failed to …

RIO DE JANEIRO: Former Barcelona team-mates Lionel Messi and Neymar will line up opposite each other in Saturday’s Copa America final looking to end a hoodoo that has also affected some of their countries’ greatest players. Like Brazil’s Pele and Diego Maradona of Argentina before them, neither Messi nor Neymar has ever won the Copa. That statistic will change for …

LAHORE: Pakistan cricket team and management should forget the crushing nine-wicket defeat in the first One-day International at the hands of England on Thursday like a bad dream, work hard and play with their full potential to come back in the series, former Pakistan captain, manager and coach Intikhab Alam said on Friday. “I am not surprised at the defeat …

CARDIFF: Lewis Gregory is relishing the chance to use his ‘inside knowledge’ of Pakistan cricket after being handed a shock call-up by England for the ongoing One-day International series. A Covid outbreak within the England camp meant the originally selected squad for the three-match contest were all forced to self-isolate, with head coach Chris Silverwood having to assemble an entirely …

India’s limited-overs series in Sri Lanka has been delayed by four days after two Covid-19 infections were detected in the home team contingent, according to media reports on Saturday. Batting coach Grant Flower and data analyst GT Niroshan tested positive for the new coronavirus soon after their return from England on Tuesday, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said in a statement …

KARACHI: As expected the surprise rally on Thursday that saw the KSE-100 index storm past the 48,000 points to record gains of massive 805 points was merely a one-off event, triggered by a ‘state-owned pension fund’ that poured $12.8m in the market through the mutual funds. On Friday the market returned to the bearish trajectory with selling pressure seen throughout …

LAHORE: The Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on Friday announced that it will conduct a critical review with regard to its multiple agreements with Pakistan Railways (PR). Reacting to Railways plan to terminate fuel oil supply agreement with the country’s largest oil marketing company (OMC), a PSO spokesman said that all commercial organisations try to ensure that they are as cost …

KARACHI: The circular debt in the gas sector has grown to more than Rs532 billion as the twin Sui companies fail to make payments to their suppliers on account of poor cash flows. Owing to the inordinate delay in the publication of financial accounts by the two gas companies, the exact figure for the sector’s circular debt is unavailable. But …

KARACHI: Pakistan’s oil production swelled by 24 per cent in FY21 while the gas output shrank by 2pc during the year. Despite drop in production from Makhori Deep by 37pc and 14pc in Mardankhel, the total oil production during FY21 soared to 75,575 barrels per day (bpd) from 60,993bpd in FY20 while gas production slightly fell to 3,511mmcfd from 3,589mmcfd …