Category Uncategorized

She smashed 62 off 44, bowled a maiden in her 2 for 28 and put on a show of her electric ground fielding

Annesha Ghosh29-May-2022It’s no secret that Deandra Dottin can turn a match on its head single-handedly. And that’s usually the outcome if she clicks in just one department.But there are days when Dottin metamorphoses into a three-dimensional force of nature. What hope might the opposition have in such contests, then? Ask Velocity, whose pursuit of a maiden Women’s T20 Challenge title was thwarted by the West Indies allrounder’s chief-destroyer act for Supernovas in the final at Pune’s MCA Stadium on Saturday.Related

Sune Luus bats for expansion of T20 franchise cricket: 'Important to know different players and different conditions'

Rodrigues, Bahadur, Navgire – Takeaways from the Women's T20 Challenge

Dottin and Ecclestone bring the crown home for Supernovas

An identity crisis, and the promise of a brighter tomorrow

Women's IPL would be 'amazing for the game' – Heather Knight

All that was missing from Dottin’s phenomenal day at the office was a blinder or two to add to her electric ground fielding and match-winning returns of 62 off 44 and 2 for 28. In her best performance yet across two successive seasons and as many appearances in the final, Dottin World-Bossed her way through the ebbs and flows of a box-office encounter that ended in Supernovas clinching a four-run win in a humdinger of a finish.The numbers alone don’t entirely tell just how wily Dottin, named Player of the Match and the Series, was on the night. In the face of tight bowling from seamers Kate Cross and Ayabonga Khaka and offspinner Deepti Sharma in the powerplay, Dottin traded run-scoring pace for circumspection at the start of her innings. The result: she scored just 16 off her first 15 balls, with a solitary four, a let-off by Sneh Rana on 13, and a close shave against a DRS umpire’s call to her name.Rana’s introduction in the sixth over flicked the switch for Dottin. Two imperious sixes came off the first two balls as she found in the arc between deep midwicket and cow corner her backyard. It helped that Velocity themselves put on a brand of fielding and bowling through that phase that was more the backyard-cricket level than anything else.With Dottin receiving another lifeline on 32 and feasting on free hits off overstepping errors, it was only a matter of time before she made them pay with her first fifty of this edition. She reached the milestone off 33 balls with a disdainful six over the cow-corner fence off left-arm spinner Radha Yadav.”The game plan was to spend as much time on the crease as possible and survive the first six overs,” Dottin said after her innings, having added 73 with fellow opener Priya Punia and 58 with first-drop Harmanpreet Kaur. “Having a slow start is not always bad. You can’t always have a fast start all the time. The plan was to continue to stay and target bowlers from the end where the wind was strong.””Yeah, it’s true (that luck gave Supernovas free hits), but I wanted to cash in on one,” she said.”To be honest, it’s fun batting with Punia. We enjoy batting together. We talk a lot and give each other encouragement after each ball and each over… It was always really nice to watch Harman hit from the non-striker’s end.”

“She’s an incredible cricketer, an incredible T20 player. She’s so powerful with the bat, and then she bowls as well, and bowls really well.”Laura Wolvaardt on Deandra Dottin

With the ball, too, Dottin was a quick thinker. Bowling at a good pace – an element of her all-round game that flagged following a career-threatening shoulder surgery that pushed her to the brink of contemplating retirement in 2019 – she executed what seemed well-drawn up and batter-specific ploys.Against two of the most destructive batters in the Velocity line-up, Shafali Verma and the uncapped Kiran Navgire, she unleashed a barrage of back-of-a-length deliveries and skiddy bouncers. Cramming Shafali for room was an inswinger to have her caught behind in the third over, thanks in part also to a superb diving take by wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia.Two legal deliveries later, she pinged Navgire, fresh off a resounding 34-ball 69 a night ago, on the helmet. Visibly rattled, though medically unaffected by the rammer, Navgire played out 12 dot balls, 11 of those against Dottin alone, before being bowled by Sophie Ecclestone for a duck.Sprinkling her end-overs spell with a few surprise short deliveries also proved the perfect stratagem. No. 9 Cross, swinging wildly for her seven-ball 13 in a bid to decisively swing the momentum Velocity’s way, edged Dottin behind, unable to negotiate the pace or the spite in the delivery.”She’s an incredible cricketer, an incredible T20 player,” South Africa batter Laura Wolvaardt, whose 40-ball unbeaten 65 nearly got Velocity over the line in their chase of 166, said. “She’s so powerful with the bat, and then she bowls as well, and bowls really well.”I think she bowled really well today, especially upfront. She had a lot of change-ups and variations and was bowling bouncers and yorkers, so it was hard to predict what she was doing.”And she had a couple of different fields as well, which we don’t really see too often. So, I think it’s great the way that she plays her game and goes about it and when she is in form, like she is now, she’s very destructive.”At the presentation ceremony, Dottin described herself as a shy person by nature, an antithesis to her style of play and the self-adopted moniker, “World Boss”. As the heady Saturday night drew to a close, and the cheers of a raucous 8621-strong Pune crowd quieted, Dottin trudged along the boundary barricade near the Supernovas dugout, autographed her cap and handed it to a teen female cricketer in flannels waiting on the other side.On a night when she shattered the opposition’s dreams, giving wings to a young fan’s might have been the most Dottin way to cap it.

The results of their efforts to improve continually their skills were on display in Hamilton

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Hamilton15-Feb-20201:58

Test matches are all about being patient – Shami

Do you remember Sabina Park, September 1, 2019? Do you remember the stump mic catching Virat Kohli screaming “what a bowler, man!” as he raced towards Jasprit Bumrah from second slip, after he’d squared John Campbell up and made him nick behind?Do you remember Bumrah for the lbw that made him just the third Indian bowler to take a Test-match hat-trick?That was Bumrah at the very peak of his powers, a man able to bend a cricket ball any which way he pleased, from all sorts of angles, at serious pace. At the end of that Test match, his 12th, Bumrah had 62 wickets at 19.24, numbers that only a handful of fast bowlers in history, and no one else from India, had ever matched at that stage of their careers. Anything was possible.That anything, though, included a stress fracture of the back.On Saturday, February 15, 2020, Bumrah bowled with a red ball in a competitive (sort of) match for the first time since that Test match in Jamaica. He’d played a bunch of white-ball games in between, eight T20Is and six ODIs, but this was different. He’d gone wicketless in his last three games, all ODIs, but this was different.With a Test match to play in a week’s time, away from home, with Ishant Sharma, another key member of India’s pace attack, a doubtful starter, everyone present at Seddon Park – no more than a handful, admittedly – watched Bumrah with anxiety tugging at the pits of their stomachs. Please, let this Bumrah be something like Bumrah, the Bumrah of Sabina Park.In the space of eight balls, Bumrah caused much of that anxiety to subside. Was he bowling with the pace and intensity of his September pomp? Hard to say, perhaps not quite, and this was a warm-up match anyway, but none of that would have given Will Young, a 27-year-old batsman with a not-too-shabby record over 71 first-class matches, any sort of comfort.Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah share a laugh•Getty ImagesYoung defended his first ball, slanting in towards the top of his off stump, solidly enough, but pretty soon Bumrah got one to straighten against his considerable inward angle and beat the outside edge. The second ball of Bumrah’s second over was similar, and Young, playing as good a defensive shot as anyone could have in those circumstances, close to his body and with soft hands, nicked it to the keeper.The next ball was slightly shorter, and it straightened once again, zipping past Tim Seifert’s back-foot block. Pretty much throughout the history of cricket, there has been no ball as dangerous as the one that angles in and straightens away, and Bumrah was landing his particularly-hard-to-play version of it in all the right spots.Other balls kept going with the angle into the right-hander, occasionally kicking up off the bouncy Seddon Park pitch. Nearly every ball forced the batsman into indecision, and Seifert, who somehow remained on strike throughout the remainder of Bumrah’s first spell, endured a torrid 20 minutes or so before he went out of the attack. Mohammed Shami came on and almost immediately got Seifert to nick a loose drive to the diving Rishabh Pant behind the stumps, but that wicket was at least partly Bumrah’s.Shami, zipping the ball through in the fourth-stump channel, seaming it this way and that, was a constant menace to the New Zealand XI batsmen too, and he eventually finished with three wickets. At the end of the day’s play, one of the assembled mediapersons asked him how he had managed to develop one of the best seam positions in the game.”When you get deeply involved in something, a kind of [obsession] sets in,” Shami said. “Once I realised it was an important part [of bowling], I went after it [achieving the perfect seam position] and today I have the control, thanks to Allah, that allows me to do whatever I want with the seam. Anything you want to achieve, you need to have that .”Bumrah, by all accounts, is filled with exactly that kind of when it comes to improving himself, and he’s just as capable of doing whatever he wants with the seam of a cricket ball. Having taken his first wicket off his eighth ball of the first session, with one that seamed away, he returned after lunch to take his second wicket off his eighth ball of the second session, with one that nipped in from around a foot outside off stump.Finn Allen shouldered arms, and heard the clink of his off bail falling to the ground.We’ll only really know if Bumrah is back to his pre-stress-fracture best when he bowls in Wellington next week, but India will be happy enough if he bowls as well there as he did on Saturday in Hamilton.

Calling home runs on Independence Day is a little bit played out, but the Chicago Cubs truly earned such a comparison this year.

By the end of the seventh inning, Chicago was leading the St. Louis Cardinals at home 11-1 on the Fourth of July off a slew of home runs from the bats in the lineup.

Two players hit multiple home runs, Michael Busch with three and Pete Crow-Armstrong with two. But the real highlight was the franchise record being set: The eighth home run from the Cubs off the bat of Busch broke the previous team record of seven home runs in a game.

Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson and Carson Kelly all added dingers as well.

Just stunning stuff from the Northsiders.

Chicago leads the NL Central by several games and is in a flirtatious spot with the top seed in the National League. Coming into the day third in home runs with 131, the Cubs will launch all the way to first in MLB, pending the results of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers games this afternoon and tonight, the two teams ahead of Chicago.

The Cubs also join the Yankees as the only other team to hit eight or more home runs this year. New York hit nine home runs in March, breaking its own franchise record in that game.

The Cardinals attempted to rally back, scoring two runs in the top of the ninth inning, but the deficit was too much. Chicago won 11-3.

The record for most home runs in an MLB game is 10, set by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987. The only other team to hit eight or more home runs on the Fourth of July is the Boston Red Sox in 1977.

Manchester United legend David Beckham admitted he has achieved a long-term goal as his Inter Miami side won the MLS Cup for the first time. A Lionel Messi-inspired Miami earned a hard-fought 3-1 win over Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday at Chase Stadium to secure their biggest ever trophy. As the dust began to settle on their achievement, co-owner Beckham revelled in the club's triumph.

• Messi inspires MLS Cup win

  Miami had an ideal start to their final game of the season when Edier Ocampo scored an own goal in the eighth minute but the Canadian outfit grew into the game and got their reward on the hour mark through Ali Ahmed's scuffed shot. Rodrigo de Paul tucked in Messi's cross 11 minutes later before the Argentine great set up Tadeo Allende deep into stoppage time to seal the victory. The match was also the last that Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets will play for the club, prompting Beckham – who could not contain his excitement – to pay tribute to the two retiring veterans.

Advertisement

• Beckham realises dream

  After the win, former Real Madrid player Beckham wrote that he was "so proud" of everyone who helped the club achieve this goal and also thanked the former Barcelona stars for securing them a perfect send-off.

  He wrote on Instagram: "WOW… MLS Cup Champions 2025. Ever since I won this trophy as a player, I’ve always wanted to win it as an owner. I am so proud of everybody at this incredible club… the players, the staff, the fans… thank you for your unwavering commitment and support as we realise this dream together. The perfect way to say goodbye to this stadium, and to send off Sergio and Jordi the way they deserve… VAMOS @intermiamicf #FreedomToDream."

• 'One of my greatest moments'

  Beckham won the Champions League with United and a host of domestic trophies under Sir Alex Ferguson. He played for Madrid, AC Milan, PSG and more, but Miami's victory this weekend was a crowning achievement for the 50-year-old.

  "It has to be one of the greatest moments in my career to have won it as a player and now to have won it as an owner," former LA Galaxy player Beckham told The Athletic. "I don’t think that’s been done before, so that’s a nice thing to do first.

  "One of the things was obviously me going to L.A., but then the next one was me owning the team and my promise to America and to the MLS was to bring the best player, and we brought the best player and now we’ve had success tonight. Tonight is just one of those nights that I’ll never forget."

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

• Getty Images Sport
  

  Messi revels in victory

  Messi left Paris Saint-Germain for Miami in the summer of 2023, and after delivering them their first-ever trophy with their Leagues Cup success that year, the 38-year-old has secured them the MLS Cup, too. The Argentina international was thrilled at their cup success, saying this was an effort long in the making.

  "Three years ago, I decided to come to MLS, and today we are MLS champions," he said. "We reached the semifinals of the [CONCACAF] Champions Cup. Last year, we went out early in the league and were eliminated in the first round. This year, winning the MLS was one of our main objectives. The team made a huge effort – it was a very long year, with many matches – and we were up to the task all season. This is the moment I had been waiting for, and that we, as a team, were waiting for. It’s very beautiful for all of us. They deserved it."

حدد النادي الأهلي، موعد عودته إلى القاهرة، عقب الانتهاء من مواجهة الجيش الملكي المغربي، التي تقام مساء اليوم الجمعة، ضمن منافسات دوري أبطال إفريقيا.

ويحل الأهلي ضيفًا على الجيش الملكي، في ملعبه بالمغرب، ضمن مواجهات الجولة الثانية من عمر مباريات دور المجموعات للبطولة القارية.

ومن المقرر أن تتوجه بعثة فريق الأهلي، برئاسة طارق قنديل، عضو مجلس الإدارة، مباشرة إلى مطار الرباط عقب انتهاء مباراة الفريق أمام الجيش الملكي، المقرر لها التاسعة مساء اليوم الجمعة بتوقيت القاهرة “الثامنة مساءً بتوقيت المغرب”.

طالع | القناة الناقلة لمباراة الأهلي والجيش الملكي اليوم في دوري أبطال إفريقيا

وتغادر البعثة ملعب مولاي الحسن الذي يستضيف مواجهة اليوم مباشرة بعد نهاية اللقاء، حيث من المقرر استقلال الطائرة العائدة إلى القاهرة.

ويتواجد النادي الأهلي في المجموعة الثانية من دوري أبطال إفريقيا، مع الجيش الملكي وشبيبة القبائل الجزائري ويانج أفريكانز التنزاني.

وكان النادي الأهلي، حقق الفوز في لقاء الجولة الأولى على شبيبة القبائل الجزائري بنتيجة 4-1، في اللقاء الذي أقيم بالقاهرة يوم السبت الماضي.  

أعلن الكرواتي كرونسلاف يورتشيتش، المدير الفني لنادي بيراميدز، التشكيل الرسمي لفريقه استعدادًا لمواجهة المقاولون العرب، اليوم الثلاثاء، ضمن منافسات بطولة الدوري المصري الممتاز.

ومن المقرر أن تُلعب المباراة على استاد الدفاع الجوي ضمن منافسات الجولة الرابعة عشر من الدوري المصري الممتاز لموسم 2025-2026.

ويدخل بيراميدز اللقاء محتلاً المركز الرابع في جدول الترتيب برصيد 20 نقطة، بعدما خاض 9 مباريات حقق خلالها 6 انتصارات وتعادلين وتعرض لهزيمة وحيدة.

في المقابل، يدخل المقاولون العرب المواجهة وهو في المركز الثامن عشر برصيد 10 نقاط، بعد خوض 13 مباراة حقق فيها فوزًا واحدًا وتعادل في 7 لقاءات وخسر 5 مباريات.

طالع أيضًا | يورتشيتش: بيراميدز واجه مشكلة قبل مواجهة ريفرز.. وهذا ما يحتاجه إيفرتون تشكيل بيراميدز أمام المقاولون العرب في الدوري

حراسة المرمى: أحمد الشناوي.

خط الدفاع: أحمد سامي – محمود مرعي – محمد حمدي – محمد الشيبي.

خط الوسط: بلاتي توريه – وليد الكرتي – أحمد عاطف “قطة” – مصطفى زيكو – محمود زلاكة.

خط الهجوم: فيستون مايلي. بدلاء بيراميدز أمام المقاولون العرب في الدوري

محمود جاد – علي جبر – كريم حافظ – أحمد توفيق – محمود دونجا – مروان حمدي – إيفرتون داسيلفا – محمد رضا “بوبو” – عبد الرحمن مجدي

West Ham boss Nuno Espírito Santo has already received a promise from the board ahead of January, with David Sullivan and co now making an ambitious plan.

West Ham in crisis with January window crucial

Nuno perhaps didn’t realise what a mighty job he’s got on his hands until West Ham’s tepid 2-0 loss at home to Brentford on Monday night.

From the offset, West Ham looked disjointed and uninspired. Their much-changed line-up, much to the bemusement of on-lookers, struggled to impose any control on the game, and their lack of creativity was glaring.

The east Londoners chased shadows for much of the match, and Brentford’s dominance was reflected in their relentless attacking play, as they repeatedly threatened the West Ham goal with 17 shots in total.

Losing just 2-0 flattered Nuno’s side, with Alphonse Areola forced into excellent saves as Keith Andrews’ side also struck the crossbar twice and had a goal chalked off for marginal offside by VAR.

Tomas Soucek and Andy Irving failed to provide the necessary balance in Nuno’s engine room. Soucek really struggled to influence the game going forward, while Irving appeared out of his depth in such a pivotal role.

Defensively, the decision to use Kyle Walker-Peters and Olly Scarles as opposing full-backs was equally puzzling. Neither player looked convincing on their weaker sides and left West Ham vulnerable on the flanks, while both Jean-Clair Todibo and Max Kilman had a nightmare as Nuno’s chosen centre-back pairing.

Lucas Paqueta also struggled in the striker role against Brentford, giving away possession a whopping 23 times, so Nuno will likely tinker the starting line-up again ahead of their tough trip to face newly-promoted Leeds United on Friday.

West Ham have now lost all of their first four home league games for the first time in their history, breaking an unwanted record, with the Hammers also standing out as the Premier League’s most vulnerable side.

No team has conceded more goals in the top flight than Nuno’s men so far, and this desperately needs to change if West Ham stand any chance of avoiding a drop to the Championship.

Their lack of options going forward, thanks in part to yet another injury for Niclas Füllkrug, is also a major problem.

Only bottom side Wolves and Nottingham Forest have scored fewer goals than West Ham in the league this term, with Sullivan and the board already making some plans ahead of the January window in a bid to save their campaign.

West Ham make January promise to Nuno as Sullivan eyes ambitious move

That is according to Sky Sports and journalist Kaveh Solhekol, who’ve now shared what West Ham are planning for the winter transfer market.

It is believed Nuno has “received confirmation” from the board that funds will be available to strengthen the squad in January, with West Ham ambitiously eyeing three major signings in total.

They want a new defender, midfielder and forward, which will be very hard to do considering just how tricky the January window can be with the lack of available, quality options.

It is very likely that the London club will look to instigate loan deals, and they’ve already been tipped to go for Real Madrid sensation Endrick or Al-Ahli’s Ivan Toney to bolster their striking department.

According to journalist Alan Nixon this week, West Ham have already worked on a loan deal for Toney, who could be open to the prospect of a London Stadium switch with the 2026 World Cup looming as he looks to battle his way into Thomas Tuchel’s plans.

Endrick, meanwhile, was on West Ham’s radar last January and his situation hasn’t exactly improved at the Bernabeu since then.

The Brazilian played a key role in Real’s run to the Copa del Rey final, scoring in nearly every game before their loss to Barcelona, but he’s scarcely been used in La Liga or the Champions League — mainly due to both injury and the fierce competition for places.

Fabrizio Romano has now confirmed that Endrick is expected to leave on loan in January as a result, so this is an opportunity that West Ham could grab with both hands.