Nour meets Nour in repeat of women’s world final
By SEAN REUTHE

PSA World Championship finalists Nour El Sherbini and Nour El Tayeb have been drawn in the same group in the women’s event of the 2018-2019 CIB PSA World Tour Finals, with the six-day, season-ending event beginning at Cairo’s Mall of Arabia on Sunday June 9.

The top eight men and women on the PSA World Tour Finals Leaderboard will do battle for the prestigious title and the lucrative $320,000 prize fund. Players have earned qualification points at all PSA World Tour events throughout the 2018-19 season, while the reigning PSA World Champions and all PSA Platinum event winners qualified automatically.

Players will compete in group stages between June 9-12 which are held under a best-of-three games format, with the top two from each group progressing to the knockout semi-finals and beyond. The finals revert to the traditional best of five scoring.

Defending champion El Sherbini, who came second on the women’s World Tour Finals Leaderboard, became a three-time World Champion at the age of 23 when she overcame El Tayeb in the final of March’s World Championships held in Chicago’s Union Station. The pair will lock horns once again in Cairo, and they will be joined in Group B by British Open champion Nouran Gohar and England No.1 Sarah-Jane Perry.

World No.1 Raneem El Welily topped the women’s World Tour Finals Leaderboard and she features in Group A alongside British Open runner-up Camille Serme, Hong Kong Open winner Joelle King and World No.9 Tesni Evans.

Group A of the men’s event is headed up by World No.1 and last year’s runner-up Ali Farag. A sensational season which saw him lift major titles at the World Championships, J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions, Qatar Classic and El Gouna International resulted in him finishing first on the World Tour Finals Leaderboard.

He is joined in Group A by Black Ball Open winner Karim Abdel Gawad, New Zealand’s Paul Coll and World No.7 Mohamed Abouelghar.

World No.2 Mohamed ElShorbagy, who beat Farag to lift a third British Open crown two weeks ago, will line up against World Championship runner-up Tarek Momen, Germany’s Simon Rösner and Peru’s Diego Elias in Group B.

The group stages begin on Sunday June 9 at 19:00 (GMT+2) with El Welily and Evans getting the action under way. Six matches will be played per night for the first four days of the event until the group stages have drawn to a close.

Group stage matches will take place at 19:00, 19:30, 20:00, 20:30, 21:00, 21:30 between June 9-12. The semi-finals will be held at 19:00 on Thursday June 13.

The finals will begin at 19:30 on Friday June 14.

Every match from the tournament will be shown live on SQUASHTV (rest of world), Eurosport Player (Europe only), ON Sport (Egypt) and the official Facebook page of the PSA World Tour.

Squash fans can stay up-to-date tournament by visiting the official website and can purchase tickets for the semi-finals and finals here.

2018-2019 CIB PSA World Tour Finals, Cairo, Egypt, June 9-12. Group Draws.

Picture and graphics courtesy of PSA 

Ulster have awarded new contracts to nine academy players for next season.

Props Tom O'Toole and Eric O'Sullivan and backs Angus Curtis and Michael Lowry have all signed senior contracts.

New development deals have been offered to Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Angus Kernohan, Zack McCall and Marcus Rea.

The arrival in the off season of Jack McGrath, Bill Johnston, Matt Faddes, Sam Carter and Gareth Milasinovich will further strengthen the senior squad.

O'Toole and Curtis were both upgraded to development contracts midway through Dan McFarland's first season as head coach but the pair have now agreed senior deals along with Lowry and O'Sullivan, who made an impressive 26 appearances during a breakout season after making his senior Ulster debut against Scarlets on the opening day of the 2018-19 campaign.

Baloucoune, the scorer of crucial tries against Leicester and Racing 92 in his debut season, has earned a development contract after scoring six tries in 13 appearances while academy team-mates Hume, Kernohan, McCall and Rea have also been given improved terms.

If there was one moment that summed up England's performance in the field in Nottingham, it came in the 46th over.

Joe Root, at point, had just pulled off a fine save in the field to prevent a well-timed cut from Sarfaraz Ahmed. But then, with Sarfraz just out of his ground, Root threw fiercely at the stumps only to see the ball bissect the fielders backing up and concede four over-throws. It was reflective of a somewhat messy showing that was in marked contrast to their excellence at The Oval.

The nadir of England's performance in the field came with Jason Roy's dropping of Mohammad Hafeez. It was, by any standards, a straightforward chance: a mis-hit drive spooned up to long-off; a chance that, at this level, would be expected to be held every time. But the chance went down - Roy seemed to suggest the sun had caused him some difficulty; it didn't seem obviously apparent that it should have done - and Hafeez, who was on 14 at the time, went on to top-score for Pakistan with 84.

All sides drop the odd catch, of course. But the real issue for England here was that it wasn't so much an aberration as reflective of England's general performance in the field. ESPNcricinfo's figures suggest there were 13 mis-fields in all.

In the first over of the innings, Eoin Morgan failed to stop a routine effort at point to concede an unnecessary boundary. Maybe he was slightly worried about his recently fractured finger - he insists it is fine - but it was an out-of-character error that seemed to set the tone for his side's efforts. It was a fielding performance that would have had Nasir Jamshed or Monty Panesar tutting at their TV screens in disgust.

Some will blame complacency. But even the sub fielder, James Vince, fumbled a simple ball on the boundary that conceded an extra run. It is hard to believe Vince, who has played only 10 ODIs and is fighting to gain a place in the side, could be complacent.

It seems more likely that concentration was the issue. A combination of nerves, a full house - many of them vocally supporting Pakistan - and the sense of expectation growing upon this England side, might have resulted in these fumbles. Either way, it will be a worry for an England side that prided itself on its performance at The Oval.

It wasn't a uniform story, though. Jos Buttler, one of the few men who endured a modest game in the field at The Oval, took a sharp stumping, while Chris Woakes held onto a World Cup-record four outfield catches; one of them an outstanding effort on the long-on boundary. No non-keeper has ever taken more catches in an ODI for England. Jonny Bairstow, sweeping on the cover boundary, could also feel satisfied with his work, while Moeen Ali bowled especially well.

The rest? It was an oddly sloppy-looking performance that, according to ESPNcricinfo's figures, saw England concede 17 more runs than might be expected. Combined with the 11 wides their bowlers gave way, it left England chasing nearly 30 more than might have been the case.

England's problems were not limited to the fielding, either. With Adil Rashid proving expensive (he went for 43 from five overs), Eoin Morgan only felt able to allow him five overs. Partially as a result, their over-rate suffered to the extent that there were more than three overs remaining by the time England would have been expected to complete their overs. In all, Pakistan's innings over-ran by 19 minutes.

It's only a few games since Morgan served a one-match suspension for repeated over-rate violations. While there is an amnesty on such issues for global events like this, the possibility that Morgan could be censured again here is very real. While that may only amount to a fine, it will remain on his record and be taken into account should England over-run again. Coming at this stage of the tournament, it is also a real concern. England do not want to be without their captain for the latter stages of the competition.

For that to be relevant, though, they need to get there. And if they field like this, there is no guarantee at all of that.

Ottis Gibson, South Africa's coach, says that his team will need to channel the spirit of Anthony Joshua, and dust themselves down following a damaging defeat against Bangladesh at The Oval on Sunday, a result that has left their World Cup campaign in serious jeopardy.

After losing the tournament opener, against England at The Oval on Thursday, South Africa's 21-run defeat against Bangladesh has left them with a record of no wins in two matches going into Wednesday's crunch clash with India in Southampton.

And with Lungi Ngidi set to miss both that match and potentially the West Indies game in Southampton on June 10 after picking up a hamstring strain, Gibson admitted that the squad would need some geeing-up in the midst of a mounting crisis of confidence.

"We were expecting to win today, we were trying to win today, but we got beaten by a better team, and we have to try and refocus," Gibson said in the aftermath of the match. "But India is going to be another tough game and there's no place to hide at the World Cup.

"There's no point in sulking around, we've got to get up and think about where we are going wrong, and put better spells of bowling together, and better batting together."

That may, however, be easier said than done - certainly where the bowling is concerned. As South Africa's captain Faf du Plessis admitted after the Bangladesh loss, the glut of injuries to their fastest bowlers has scuppered the plans that Gibson has spent the past two years working towards. The upshot is that South Africa are caught between praying for their injured quicks to return to fitness quickly, and trumpeting the claims of the back-up squad members who may have to hold the fort in the interim.

"We've got to play with the ones that are fit, first of all," said Gibson. "Dale Steyn is getting closer every day, he was on the field today bowling again, he is 85 percent, so we have to decide if 85 percent is good enough to play against India."

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It's been a while, however, since Steyn has been a force in white-ball cricket. He has played just 21 ODIs since the 2015 World Cup, which ended with him being struck down the ground for six by Grant Elliott in a pulsating semi-final defeat, and just four matches since the start of 2019.

"His white-ball record overall is outstanding though," said Gibson. "Any team that sees a fit Dale Steyn on the scorecard still sees somebody that he can do some damage.

"The plan for the last two years was to build a bowling attack not just around Steyn but around KG [Rabada] as well, and Lungi. But we lost Lungi and there's a lot more weight on KG's shoulders to get wickets. He bowled well, but he didn't strike, and we need our strike bowlers to strike and our best batters to get runs. That's how the game is played."

If Steyn is not fit, then South Africa may have to improvise with their balance. The seam-bowling allrounder Dwaine Pretorius and the second spinner Tabraiz Shamsi among the men who may be called upon to play in the India match.

"I believe [they are good enough]" Gibson added. "Otherwise they wouldn't be at a World Cup.

"Obviously they are not the first choices in terms of names but we thought they were good enough to be a part of the 15, so they now have to believe that themselves and put their best cricket on the field.

"You keep telling them how good they are, you go back to our best experiences," he added. "We've won eight or nine of our last ten games with the guys in the dressing room, so you keep reminding them of that, and keep showing them what they've done in our recent history."

Gibson insisted though that, however he attempts to elicit a response from his players, he would not be resorting to ranting and raving in the dressing room, and pointed to the shock boxing upset in New York on Saturday night, where Joshua lost his world heavyweight crown to the unfancied Mexican Andy Ruiz Jr.

"There's no anger in me," Gibson said. "It's cricket we're playing, and in sport, there's nothing that says you are going to win because you might be the favourite.

"Look at Anthony Joshua last night, he was the favourite and he got put on the floor. I'm sure he's going to get up and go on to his next fight, and probably win. We must look at that, get ourselves up off the floor, dust ourselves off and put our best game out on the field.

"Losing early isn't always a bad thing when you are learning and improving," he added. "Because when you lose in the last week, you're going home. At the moment we've lost two games and were hurting, but we still have the opportunity to play better.

"If you are going to lose, it's better to lose now than in the first week of July."

Big Picture

Bookmakers are offering near-equal odds on the Sri Lanka-Afghanistan contest in Cardiff, and although there was no way of calling this four years ago, when Sri Lanka were contenders until being blown away by South Africa in Sydney, things are a little different now, especially after their walloping at New Zealand's hands last week.

And don't forget what happened last year, when Afghanistan knocked Sri Lanka out of the Asia Cup.

And if you stopped watching cricket after the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene and have just tuned back in, here's another staggering statistic: Afghanistan have won more ODIs than Sri Lanka since the last World Cup, despite having played 22 fewer games.

While Dimuth Karunaratne, the Sri Lanka captain, is realistic about his side's chances in the tournament, he is hopeful they can put on a better show than they did against New Zealand. They'll have to script a quick turnaround at a venue where they have never won a cricket match, in six attempts, and on the same pitch on which they were decimated by New Zealand.

For all the progress Afghanistan have made, they haven't really been tested against top sides that often, and a clearer idea of their standing in ODIs will emerge only at the end of this tournament. In their only match so far, they went for broke, perhaps hoping to catch Australia by surprise and get lucky, an approach likelier to succeed in T20s. Over 50 overs, they need their batsmen to exercise a little more caution, though without going into a shell, and give their bowling attack a better opportunity to showcase their skills.

Form guide

Sri Lanka LWLLL (completed matches, most recent first)
Afghanistan LWLWL

In the spotlight

Rahmat Shah is Afghanistan's leading run-scorer since the start of 2015, and at No. 3 he provides an old-school solidity. In 26 of his 52 innings during this period, he has had to come in inside the first five overs, which isn't surprising given the gung-ho approach of some of their openers. But as often as he has been able to hold the innings together after the fall of an early wicket, he has been equally guilty of squandering starts, with 47% of his dismissals coming between the scores of 10 and 49. Afghanistan need him to become more consistent and add to his four hundreds and 14 fifties.

Should Angelo Mathews have been the captain of this Sri Lanka side? Should he be batting higher up the order? He certainly needs to be getting his runs at a faster clip. For all middle-order batsmen (Nos. 4 to 7) who have played a minimum of 30 innings since 2016, Mathews has the third worst strike-rate behind Ireland's Gary Wilson and Afghanistan's Asghar Afghan.

Team news

Lasith Malinga has said he is fully fit and Nuwan Pradeep, who was surprisingly left out against New Zealand, bowled quite a bit in the nets on the eve of the match. Sri Lanka might consider bringing in Pradeep for Isuru Udana, whose style of bowling is more suited to drier surfaces than the one expected in Cardiff, particularly with rain around.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), 2 Lahiru Thirimanne, 3 Kusal Perera (wk), 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Jeevan Mendis, 9 Isuru Udana/Nuwan Pradeep, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Lasith Malinga

Gulbadin Naib defended Mohammad Shahzad despite a duck in the tournament opener, so he should keep his place. But given the conditions at the venue, Afghanistan could consider playing an extra seamer in Aftab Alam instead of Mujeeb ur Rahman, who was taken apart by Australia. Asghar Afghan missed the Australia game with a calf strain, and it is unclear if he is fit to play.

Afghanistan (probable): 1 Mohammad Shahzad (wk), 2 Hazratullah Zazai, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 5 Najibullah Zadran, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Gulbadin Naib (capt), 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mujeeb-ur-Rahman/Aftab Alam , 10 Hamid Hassan, 11 Dawlat Zadran

Pitch and conditions

Cardiff has been a good chasing ground over the years with teams batting second winning 15 of the 22 completed ODIs here. The average first-innings winning score here is 322 for 8, exemplifying the difficulty in setting totals. There's a possibility of thunderstorms on Tuesday, which should make it even easier for captains to decide whether to bat or bowl if the statistics alone weren't enough.

Strategy punt

• Kusal Mendis has shown a vulnerability against right-arm pace and legspin: 43 of his 54 ODI dismissals have come against those two types of bowling. He also struggles to get past the Powerplay, failing to do so 19 of the 41 times he has batted during that phase. Afghanistan should ideally target him with Hamid Hassan and Rashid Khan in tandem.

• Since 2015, Thisara Perara has fallen 9 out of 21 times to right-arm legspin and his strike-rate against right-arm offspin is just under 65. That suggests that Afghanistan would benefit by attacking Sri Lanka's big-hitting allrounder with the combination of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi.

Stats and trivia

• From 2010 to 2015, Lasith Malinga's economy rate in the death overs was an exceptional 6.3, but since returning to the side in 2017, it's risen to 8.3.

• Sri Lanka have lost all their internationals in Cardiff, five ODIs and one Test.

Quotes

"Players need to get confidence, we need to get mentally tough - at this point you can't change skill. We have to play with a free mind and do our best in tomorrow's game."
Lasith Malinga on what Sri Lanka need to do to script a quick turnaround

"Sri Lanka have been struggling in one-day matches in the last one or two years, we have [an] opportunity to do well against them. If we played 50 overs in batting maybe we will beat them but they are also a good team, Sri Lanka, [so] we cannot take [it] easy. Especially for the batters, if we play 50 overs, it could be difficult for them."
Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib on what it will take for his side to topple Sri Lanka

Five Test matches, three against South Africa and two against Bangladesh, will be the highlight of a packed home season for the Indian team - the top-ranked Test team - one in which they will host five teams.

The season kicks off with South Africa's tour in September-October 2019, in which the teams will face off in three Tests - to be played in Visakhapatnam, Ranchi and Pune - and three T20Is. That will be followed by a visit from Bangladesh in November, with the teams playing three T20Is and two Tests, in Indore and Kolkata.

The five Tests will be a part of the ICC's new Test Championship.

West Indies visit next, for a series of three T20Is and three ODIs, all in December, and in January there will be three T20Is against Zimbabwe and three ODIs against Australia. South Africa complete their tour with a three-ODI series in March.

Complete fixtures

South Africa tour of India

September 15: 1st T20I in Dharamsala
September 18: 2nd T20I in Mohali
September 22: 3rd T20I in Bengaluru
October 2-6: 1st Test in Visakhapatnam
October 10-14: 2nd Test in Ranchi
October 19-23: 3rd Test in Pune

Bangladesh tour of India

November 3: 1st T20I in Delhi
November 7: 2nd T20I in Rajkot
November 10: 3rd T20I in Nagpur
November 14-18: 1st Test in Indore
November 22-26: 2nd Test in Kolkata

West Indies tour of India

December 6: 1st T20I in Mumbai
December 8: 2nd T20I in Thiruvananthapuram
December 11: 3rd T20I in Hyderabad
December 15: 1st ODI in Chennai
December 18: 2nd ODI in Visakhapatnam
December 22: 3rd ODI in Cuttack

Zimbabwe tour of India

January 5: 1st T20I in Guwahati
January 7: 2nd T20I in Indore
January 10: 3rd T20I in Pune

Australia tour of India

January 14: 1st ODI in Mumbai
January 17: 2nd ODI in Rajkot
January 19: 3rd ODI in Bengaluru

South Africa tour of India

March 12: 1st ODI in Dharamsala
March 15: 2nd ODI in Lucknow
March 18: 3rd ODI in Kolkata

Josh Heupel, who was the Heisman Trophy runner-up for Oklahoma in 2000, and former North Carolina pass-rushing star Julius Peppers are among 12 players making their first appearance of the College Football Hall of Fame ballot this year.

The Hall of Fame class will also include at least one player from outside the highest level of Division I football. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who played at Eastern Illinois, is among the first-time eligible candidates in the so-called divisional category.

The National Football Foundation emailed ballots Monday to its more than 12,000 members and current Hall of Famers. Results of the voting are submitted to the NFF's Honors Court, which selects a class of 13 players and two coaches. The 2020 class will be announced in January, before the College Football Playoff championship on Jan. 13.

Among the other first-time candidates are C.J. Spiller of Clemson, Chris Samuels of Alabama and James Laurinaitis of Ohio State. Players become eligible 10 years after their college careers end and when they are done playing professionally.

Heupel, heading into his second season as coach at UCF, was the quarterback for the Sooners when they won their last national championship. Peppers won the Bednarik Award as the nation's top defensive player and Lombardi Award as the best lineman in 2001 before going on to a 17-year NFL career. He announced his retirement in February.

Among the holdovers on the ballot of 76 major-college players are Heisman Trophy winners Eric Crouch of Nebraska (2001), Carson Palmer of Southern California (2002) and the late Rashaan Salaam (1994) of Colorado.

For coaches to be eligible for induction they must have coached at least 10 years and 100 games with a winning percentage of .600. Darryl Rogers, who coached at Fresno State, San Jose State, Michigan State and Arizona State during a 20-year head coaching career, is one of five coaches on this year's ballot.