Australia are through to the Women’s World Cup semi-finals after a thrilling record run chase saw them squeak past India’s 7-277 in Auckland.
Beth Mooney produced last-over heroics and Meg Lanning led from the front, scoring a superb 97 to give Australia a rare win at the All Blacks’ “house of pain”, Eden Park.
Continue reading...Tournament favourites chase down a World Cup-record 278 for victory, their fifth out of five in this year’s event
4th over: India 15-1 (Yastika Bhatia 2, Shafali Verma 1)
Brown looks to make up for her ordinary first over and she does immediately, with the big wicket of Mandhana, bringing Yastika Bhatia to the crease. Bhatia uses the first ball to get her eye in, before a well run two off the next ball to get off the mark quickly. Brown gives away the first extra of the match with a wide, followed by a dot ball and then another wide. This has shades of Australia’s series against India late last year when they just couldn’t stop bowling wides. Hopefully Brown has got that out of her system now.
Continue reading...Lance Franklin’s quest to become just the sixth VFL/AFL player to kick 1000 career goals must wait another week
Lance Franklin’s bid to become just the sixth VFL/AFL player to kick 1000 career goals will have to wait at least another six days after the Sydney superstar was held to just one major against GWS.
Franklin entered Saturday’s match sitting on 995 goals, and he got off the mark with a goal at the 10-minute mark of the second term. But he couldn’t add to the tally from there, finishing the match with one goal to show from his eight disposals.
Bruno Fornaroli is in the running to make an unlikely Socceroos debut at the age of 34, after the Uruguay-born striker was included in an extended squad for Australia’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Japan and Saudi Arabia.
Fornaroli, who was recently granted Australian citizenship after arriving in the country in 2015, has opted to switch his national allegiance in the twilight of his career, having already represented Uruguay’s under-17 youth team in 2003.
Continue reading...Melbourne toppled the Western Bulldogs again, winning a topsy-turvy grand-final rematch by 26 points in the AFL season-opener at the MCG. The Demons stormed out of the blocks on a night when they unfurled their first premiership flag in 57 years, with the first-half playing out in eerily similar circumstances to last year’s decider.
After booting the first four goals of the match, Melbourne then had to withstand a blistering surge as the Bulldogs piled on the next eight majors. But just as they did several times in 2021, the Demons’ stars turned the game around in quick fashion to kick off their premiership defence in style, prevailing 14.13 (97) to 11.5 (71) in front of 58,002 fans.
Continue reading...Perth Glory coach Richard Garcia predicts Bruno Fornaroli will become an asset for the Socceroos, with the Uruguayan set for a call-up for Australia’s crucial World Cup qualifiers. Fornaroli played for Uruguay’s under-17 youth team in 2003, but a change in the Fifa eligibility rules in 2020 means the 34-year-old is now eligible to represent the Socceroos.
Football Australia on Tuesday refused to confirm the star striker’s inclusion, but he is expected to be named on Wednesday morning in Graham Arnold’s extended squad for the crunch matches against Japan and Saudi Arabia this month.
Continue reading...Hello and welcome to the Basin Reserve in Wellington (by way of a sofa in South London) for this OBO of Australia v West Indies. This is the 14th match of what is proving to be a thrilling 2022 Women’s World Cup. The big question is, can anyone stop the Aussie juggernaut?
Meg Lanning’s side have swept away all comers in this format for the past few years and are three from three so far in the tournament, sitting satisfyingly atop the table whilst those below grapple it out.
Continue reading...5th over: Australia 14-0 (Alyssa Healy 6, Rachael Haynes 8)
Jess Kerr is finding some beautiful length this over and Haynes is doing her best to dig the ball out, but hasn’t been able to get it past the field early in the over. Kerr maintains her line and length and finishes with a valuable maiden.
Continue reading...The Newcastle Knights have spoiled the return to the SCG party for the Sydney Roosters, handing them a convincing 20-6 defeat and restricting the glamour club to just one try in their NRL season opener on Saturday afternoon.
The Knights scored four tries themselves and if it hadn’t been for a late four-pointer to the Tricolours’ Penrith recruit Paul Momirovski it would have been a complete humiliation for Trent Robinson’s men.
Remains of former cricketer return to Melbourne ahead of funeral and state memorial service at end of March
The body of cricket great Shane Warne has arrived back in Australia almost a week after he died of a suspected heart attack in Thailand.
The 52-year-old died at a resort on the Thai island of Koh Samui last Friday sparking widespread grief as fans mourned the loss of one of the world’s best-ever spin bowlers.
Continue reading...Shane Warne’s last meal was a plate of Vegemite and toast shared with a friend at the Thailand resort where he died hours later. The poignant detail was revealed by The Sporting News CEO Tom Hall, who was already on the island of Koh Samui when Warne and three mates arrived.
“I have dined with Shane in many fine establishments, but rather than sample some of the local Thai fare, we tuck into a plate of Vegemite on toast,” Hall wrote in an article on the outlet’s website.
Continue reading...Thai police say Warne was taken to hospital after being found unconscious at the Samujana Villas resort
The desperate attempts to save the life of cricket legend Shane Warne have been detailed by police officers and rescue teams on the Thai island of Koh Samui, as the sports world mourns and the 52-year-old leg-spinner’s final moments are pieced together by authorities.
Warne was on a week-long holiday with three friends at the Samujana Villas resort, the start of a three-month lay-off after covering the 2021-22 Ashes series for Fox Sports.
Continue reading...His career statistics are extraordinary but he will be best remembered for playing the game with joy and panache
The first thing I did was watch that clip. Shut your eyes and you can probably picture it. Shane Warne’s first ball in the Ashes, his choppy peroxide blond hair ruffling in the wind, the zinc cream smeared across his lips and the tip of his nose, his top button undone, his collar turned up, a flash of the gold chain bouncing around his neck. Seven steps, then he sweeps his arm over, sends the ball flying. It dips, hits the pitch, zips, spins the width of Mike Gatting, clips the off-stump. Bowled him! Warne roars, Gatting baffled, stares back down the pitch trying to figure out what’s just happened, umpire Dickie Bird tries to hide the ghost of a smile that’s crept across his face.
It was some introduction. And it turned into some story, too.
Continue reading...Shane Warne, the greatest leg-spinner in the history of cricket and an Australian icon who transcended the sport, has died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52.
The news was confirmed by Warne’s management company on Friday and released initially to Fox Sports, the network for whom he commentated after a playing career that returned 708 Test wickets from 145 caps between 1992 and 2007.
Continue reading...Novak Djokovic’s efforts to compete at the next grand slam on the tennis calendar will be far less complicated than his failed Australian Open bid after the French government announced it would suspend its vaccination pass this month.
The decision to end current restrictions on 14 March means the Serb will likely be able to defend his French Open title at Roland Garros, beginning on 22 May.
Continue reading...Groundbreaking findings by Australian Sports Brain Bank reveal prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, including in younger players
Groundbreaking research into the long-term ramifications of concussion in sport has found chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of more than half of a cohort of donors, including three under the age of 35.
The Australian Sports Brain Bank on Monday reported its preliminary findings after examining the 21 brains posthumously donated by sportspeople since the centre’s inception in 2018.
Continue reading...The Serb is willing to pay price of being unvaccinated but is it worth missing the chance to be seen as the greatest ever?
Over the past 11 years of men’s tennis, during which Novak Djokovic rose to dominance and improbably positioned himself as one of the greatest to play the game, the only time his success has been in doubt came after the summer of 2017 when he suffered through many months with an elbow injury.
The injury became a point of contention between himself and his then-coach, Andre Agassi, who later said he had swiftly advocated for surgery. But Djokovic addressed the injury by resting for nearly six months, believing his body was built to heal itself naturally. It was not. After returning the next year to pain and early losses, Djokovic finally underwent surgery in February 2018. As he digested his guilt about agreeing to the surgery, he cried for days.
Continue reading...Here’s a line from the US figure skating team. For context, Zhou is the only skater to have beaten the juggernaut that is Nathan Chen in the last four years.
“As part of yesterday’s regular COVID-19 screening, Vincent Zhou tested positive. Under the guidance of the USOPC medical staff, Zhou is undergoing additional testing to confirm his status. If the results are negative, Zhou will be able to compete in the men’s short program, which begins Tuesday. At this time, we ask you respect his privacy as we await the results.”
Aussie Jakara Anthony Goes Top
The Victorian unleashes a scintillating run to go top in qualifying for the Women’s Moguls. She even pipped the peerless Frenchwoman Perrine Laffont, a former gold medallist. Commentary, rather curiously, is being provided by former cricketer Dirk Nannes.
Continue reading...Rafael Nadal described his Australian Open triumph as his greatest comeback after he recovered from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev to win a record-breaking 21st grand slam title.
Nadal defeated Medvedev, the second seed, 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in five hours and 24 minutes, the second longest grand slam final. It is the first time in Nadal’s career he has come back from two sets down in a slam final and the Spaniard has now won at least two singles titles at all four grand slam tournaments.
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