Wales never take the easy route at Rugby World Cups and this breathless triumph was no exception. Having built an 18-point advantage early in the second-half they had to withstand a spectacular Australian comeback before sealing one of their most significant victories of the modern era.
Related: Australia 25-29 Wales: Rugby World Cup 2019 – as it happened
Continue reading...England have beaten Australia by eight wickets to go into the Cricket World Cup final where they will play New Zealand on Sunday at Lord’s.
The defending champions had teetered to 14 for three after deciding to bat first, with England exploiting the early seam movement on offer at Edgbaston, before Jofra Archer bloodied Alex Carey’s jaw with a vicious bumper.
Continue reading...ACL steps in after GoFundMe pulls plug on former Wallabies star’s online appeal
The Australian Christian Lobby is hosting a fundraising effort on its website for the former Wallabies star Israel Folau after his GoFundMe page was shut down.
As at 7am Tuesday, almost $50,000 had been donated via the link on the ACL site, with the group also committing to tip in $100,000 to Folau’s legal challenge. By 8.30am, $250,000 had been raised.
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5th over: India 19-0 (Rohit 7, Dhawan 10) Dhawan survives the first jaffa of the day and it’s again from that length on the very outer margin of good from Pat Cummins. Pitching on middle it seams and bounces towards the cordon just skimming beyond the outside edge. If anything Clive, it was too good. Is Dhawan phased? No chance. He responds by stroking the first boundary of the day with the minimum of fuss through the covers. No need to move his feet, just swing the bat and get the hands through the ball. There are plenty of runs on offer for any batsman who gets his eye in today.
4th over: India 11-0 (Rohit 7, Dhawan 3) Starc looks to be nearing his rhythm, sending down a classic one-two combination to Dhawan, first the bumper then the yorker, but the Indian left-hander navigates both well. The sucker punch is a length delivery outside off that Dhawan attacks on the up and drives unconvincingly but safely into the ring. No fireworks from either side to report yet.
John Starbuck has joined the conversation about the physical danger we put ourselves in when we take the field - or a net session. “Another nets danger is when you’re on a large practice ground and, while your nets are taking place at one end, an actual match can be happening elsewhere. This means that over-enthusiastic net batters can disturb the match by hitting high and long, with a possibly dangerous result for fielders. I’ve been ticked off for this sometimes, but curiously did not feel especially apologetic.”
Continue reading...• Australian dominates in straight-sets cruise, 6-1, 6-3
• Impressive display secures first grand slam title
Ashleigh Barty celebrated her breakthrough French Open victory with an expletive used often enough by most people not named Margaret Court, the last Australian to win the title, 46 years ago, and a Christian fundamentalist whom the new champion respects but disagrees strongly with for her strident views on gay marriage.
Related: Dominic Thiem ends Novak Djokovic’s slam streak to reach French Open final
Continue reading...Instructions not to sell tickets were reportedly received before last year’s Naidoc Week AFL game
Box office staff at the Adelaide Oval were reportedly directed to stop selling tickets to Aboriginal people while fans gathered before last year’s Naidoc Week AFL match celebrating Indigenous culture.
The box office and Oval management said a supervisor “misinterpreted” an instruction from the police and security not to sell tickets to a specific group of people who were intoxicated and had been refused entry.
Continue reading...Hailed for mobilising the global football family, the SBS commentator now says ‘we are just warming up’
On 7 December, 10 days after the Australian refugee footballer Hakeem al-Araibi was arrested at Bangkok airport, the former Socceroos captain Craig Foster sent a letter to the president and secretary general of Fifa reminding them that they had a human rights policy.
“I am sure that all in our global football family are delighted that Fifa have committed to the protection of basic human rights across its global football activities,” he wrote.
Continue reading...• Al-Araibi has been detained in Thailand since November
• ‘We are clearly facing a human rights emergency’
Activists campaigning for the release of the Bahraini refugee footballer Hakeem al-Araibi, who has been detained in Thailand since November after an Interpol red notice was wrongly issued against him, say his plight has become an emergency.
The warnings came from Brendan Schwab of the World Players Association and the former Australia captain Craig Foster after news that Bahrain has formally submitted an extradition request for Al-Araibi’s return.
Continue reading...This time the tears were of joy. Tennis already had a star in Naomi Osaka; now it has a superstar. After squandering three match points at 5-3 in the second set, the 21-year-old Japanese regrouped brilliantly to beat the Czech Petra Kvitova 7-6 (2) 5-7 6-4 to win a dramatic Australian Open final. Her second consecutive grand slam title ensures she will be the new world No 1 and on this evidence, she might stay there for some time.
Related: Naomi Osaka v Petra Kvitova: Australian Open women's final – live!
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First set: Kvitova 6-6 Collins* (*denotes server): The game opens with a 17-hit rally, and it’s Kvitova who seems to expend the most energy during it. Collins races to 40-0 as Kvitova punches a wild forehand well wide. Another love hold, and we have a tie-break.
First set: Kvitova* 6-5 Collins (*denotes server): Why all this temperature chat matters is of course that with the roof closed, serving conditions are now a little more comfortable. In theory that aids Kvitova, but there are plenty of permutations such as racquet tension, ball speed etc that are affected, and require adjustment.
Kvitova doesn’t make light work of her second service game in the new conditions, being dragged to deuce with an unforced error. She holds on the first advantage point though, and pumps the fist.
Continue reading...Exclusive: In an interview with the Guardian he pleads for his release and says he fears torture and jail if extradited to Bahrain
Hakeem al-Araibi, the refugee footballer from Bahrain who was detained in Thailand while on his honeymoon, has said he is “losing hope” and believes he will be tortured again or even killed if he is deported to Bahrain.
Speaking to the Guardian from Bangkok Remand Prison, a visibly distressed Al-Araibi said he was “terrified ” and that his fear was “getting worse every day”. Al-Araibi was given asylum in Australia in 2017 after fleeing his home country where he was persecuted for his beliefs, tortured in prison and convicted on a trumped-up vandalism charge.
Continue reading...• Murray unsure he will make it to Wimbledon
• ‘The pain is too much. I don’t want to continue’
• Latest updates: tributes paid as Murray admits time is up
Andy Murray’s career is all but over. He expects his match against Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday to be his last but, even if another hip operation were to help him reach a more emotional and perhaps more fitting farewell at Wimbledon, it will never be the same for the player who stood alongside Fred Perry as the greatest Britain has ever had. Many would say Murray was the greater, but it is a fine call.
The former world No1 and three-time slam champion conceded that the pain that has been running through his right hip with increasing strength the past few months has brought his serious playing days to a reluctant conclusion.
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So an early end to another day of Indian dominance at the SCG. The lost overs will make it more difficult for them to force a victory but the delay will allow their attack to rest up in preparation for enforcing the follow on should Australia’s batting woes continue.
Day three actually began promisingly for the home side. Marcus Harris showed plenty of intent during the opening session and he was ably supported by Marnus Labuschagne on a pitch perfect for batting. But both fell in a sloppy afternoon session that yielded four wickets for India and reinforced the issues at the heart of this brittle Australian XI.
“As this game hurtles towards a swift conclusion (barring a Cummins century and inclement weather)” begins Abhijato Sensarma, “I am left to wonder about minuscule things which I frankly have no time for - yet, one can’t help overthinking ideas during such sessions of Test cricket.
Ever since the dawn of professional cricket, the scorecard has been said to say ‘only half the story’. The minutes batted column, the last saving grace of first-class matches, are slowly disappearing too. Can it not be that annotations are used for cricketing scorecards?
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