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On Saturday, South Africa hammered England to progress into the semi-finals. In their two group stage matches (one was rained off), South Africa bowled England out for 179 and Afghanistan for 208 - the two lowest totals in completed innings in this edition of the Champions Trophy.

"I think one good thing about South Africa is that all three of their fast bowlers that played today - of course Mulder is the one who bowls the middle periods - but if you look at the three tall fast bowlers, all of them are really tall. And all of them are different," Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo's Match Day show.

"Their angles are very different. Rabada is very classical whereas Ngidi is pretty awkward to face with his action and Marco Jansen comes at such height. So all three are very different. So that's the nature you want in a one-day. That's the variation.

"Even on a flat track, it's not easy for the batters to line up because all three are very different. And that's something that South Africa can certainly feel [confident] they have this kind of a quality and also the variety going into the business end of the tournament."

Kumble: Jansen the 'complete package for South Africa'

Jansen set the tone in South Africa's win against England, dismissing their top three inside seven overs with his bounce. He also took three catches, including one off his own bowling.

"I think he's still very young, although he has played quite a lot of cricket. He has certainly matured," Kumble said. "I'm sure these three wickets [will give him confidence], and also you can see his athleticism in the field with all those catches.

"He has improved a lot with his batting as well. He has contributed with the bat on many occasions for South Africa. So in that sense he's a complete package for South Africa at No. 7 or No. 8.

"And with the ball, with the new ball he can bring the ball back in. He's tall so it's not easy for the batters to just get under him," he said. "We saw that with Phil Salt, it just took off. It was quite steep, the bounce, and he couldn't get over it. You need that variety in your bowling attack and that's something that South Africa have in plenty."

Jofra Archer a flicker of hope amid England's gloom

Published in Cricket
Saturday, 01 March 2025 23:39
There are few positives from what has been, even by England's recent ODI standards, a disastrous Champions Trophy campaign. But according to Brendon McCullum, there were glimmers amidst the darkness.
The one that shone brightest was the performance, as well as the fitness, of fast bowler Jofra Archer. He bowled his allotted quota in each of the first two games, as well as nine of the 29.1 England needed to send down in Karachi. He did so with decent pace, picking up wickets in each game, and was the pick of the English bowlers by a distance despite South Africa's romp to victory.

"He's been out of competitive cricket for a couple of years," McCullum said. "I think it's taken just a little bit of time to get that rhythm of gameplay back but I think he's been really good. He's bowled high pace, he's played a lot of cricket, he's been able to get significant workload under his belt throughout this time and we've seen moments of how great Jofra is, even tonight, a couple of wickets he took the other night against Afghanistan, three with the new ball.

"We know how great a player Jofra is at the very top of his game and to have him back and to have him fit and excited about playing is a real win for English cricket."

Archer's use of the wicket as well as the new ball was perhaps what stood out. He prised out Travis Head early with a sharp catch off his own bowling, but with little swing on offer, didn't go searching, keeping things tight in his first spell. Against Afghanistan, each of his first 12 deliveries were banged in short before he changed it up in his third over, taking two wickets in five balls. And with Mark Wood out injured in a game with nothing on it and an impossibly low total against a rampant South Africa to defend, Archer was the quickest bowler from either side, cleaning up openers Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs in his first spell.

With one English eye perpetually on the Ashes, his ability to tolerate increased workloads is bound to raise hopes he can feature prominently in the five-match series at the end of this year. McCullum looked to balance hope with guarded optimism.

"We've got to make sure that we're always doing the right thing by Jof as well and understand the risks involved," McCullum said. "But I'm pretty sure he's pretty keen to play Test cricket and you look at someone like Jof - and if you can add him to the battery of fast bowlers you're trying to build, that can only strengthen this squad. We'll wait and see, but overall, I'm really pleased with where Jof's at and it's great to see him back playing and injury free at the moment."

That, however, is where the positives end. It has been little short of a horror start to his all white-ball stint for McCullum, winning three and losing eleven games, including the last seven on the bounce: England's longest such streak in ODI cricket since 2001. While McCullum said on Thursday England may quite plausibly have won each of their first two games, the crushing loss at South Africa's hands has left little doubt about the true state of their current ODI side.

"We weren't good enough across, obviously very disappointed," McCullum said. "We had high hopes of being able to finish the tournament with a bit of a bang, but we were very poor and we've got a lot of work to do. We'll put our thinking caps on over the next few weeks and start to try and navigate our way through what an improvement looks like across our white-ball cricket and make sure we try and be pretty thorough with that and work out a way that we can get ourselves back to where we should be."

While they do have just under three months until their next ODI, the scale of the rebuild has left McCullum with much to ponder. It begins with appointing a new captain after Jos Buttler quit on Thursday, citing the drop in results.

His final innings as captain was a pale shadow of the player who will likely go down as the greatest white-ball batters in England's history. It ended when he tentatively pushed a Lungi Ngidi delivery straight to mid-off; he had scored 21 in 43 deliveries without hitting a single boundary - his second-longest such innings without sending a ball to the fence.

McCullum reiterated his plans to keep Buttler around England's white-ball side. "We still see Jos as obviously a big player within that and he's got a huge role to play. He cared so much about it and he admittedly said that he wasn't able to get the best out of the guys at this stage. I thought it was a brave decision to make and it gives us now an opportunity to be able to start to plot and plan our way forward.

"I'll get home in the next couple of days and start having some conversations with Rob Key and the guys at the ECB about who the right person is for us to put in that position of white-ball captain. Then we assess how to learn some of the lessons that we've been dealt on this tour and in this tournament to ensure that we're a lot more competitive than what we've been."

Watkins drops 30 on UCLA; USC clinches Big Ten

Published in Breaking News
Saturday, 01 March 2025 22:26

LOS ANGELES -- All USC's JuJu Watkins could do was laugh. Her 3-point shot halfway through the third quarter had not even grazed the net.

"Air ball! Air ball!" the UCLA student section at Pauley Pavilion shouted at her.

Watkins smiled. She already had scored 25 points, and USC was up by nine at the time. But the UCLA students on hand saw their opportunity. Every time Watkins would touch the ball, the "air ball" chants resumed, louder with every word. Yet by the time she checked out of the game with a minute left and the Trojans up 17, Watkins leaped over to the now-quiet crowd, raised her hands and asked for their noise.

"That did fire me up," Watkins said postgame, displaying another smile. "I think I would be remiss to say playing UCLA doesn't motivate me extra."

In two games this season, Watkins and No. 4 USC have had UCLA's number, beating the No. 2 Bruins twice, including an 80-67 decision in Saturday night's regular-season finale, a win that clinched the Trojans' first Big Ten regular-season title and their first conference title since 1994.

"It's the truest test of consistency and excellence," USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. "It literally took every single person, it was such a team effort."

Over the course of the pair of crosstown matchups, Watkins combined for 68 points, continuing her propensity to play her best in the biggest stages and against the toughest opponents. The sophomore phenom now has four straight outings of 30 points or more against UCLA. According to ESPN Research, that is tied for the third-longest such streak against a single opponent in Division I since 1999-2000. The only player with longer streaks during that span is Caitlin Clark; the former Iowa guard had 10 straight against Nebraska and five straight versus Minnesota.

"She's 19 years old. Her talent is off the charts," Gottlieb said of Watkins in her postgame TV interview. "But it's her humility and the stuff you can't teach, [like] the inner drive. I literally had a phone call with her yesterday and I could just sense through the phone how ready she was."

With basketball greats Cheryl and Reggie Miller sitting courtside, Watkins owned the first half, draining four 3s on her way to 23 points. As she is prone to do, Watkins drew an entire defense into her orbit and made tough shots look easy while dismantling UCLA's defensive game plan.

"We did make the adjustment in the second half that we started switching the ball screens more," UCLA coach Cori Close said. "We started having some different rotations that we tried to have to give JuJu some different looks, and I thought we defended much better in the second half. But it's really hard."

In the second half, Watkins had only seven points, but she helped force many of UCLA's 16 turnovers on the night (USC scored 25 points off those miscues) and sealed the deal in the fourth quarter with three blocks and two assists that led to two 3s.

"She has stuff no one can teach," Gottlieb said.

USC forward Kiki Iriafen offered her take on Watkins.

"Playing with JuJu, I'm super confident," Iriafen said. "I know maybe I'm not having the best day; she's going to take care of what she needs to do."

Despite Watkins' magic on both ends of the floor, it was Iriafen who became a second-half scorer, adding 15 crucial points after UCLA had cut its deficit to four points. The Bruins never held a lead.

"We have learned to appreciate the greatness of our stars and also value what everyone else does," Gottlieb said.

The combination of Watkins' prowess and the team that Gottlieb has built to complement her has worked wonders, especially against UCLA, and it has given the Trojans not only the conference title (and a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament) but also a projected top seed in the NCAA tournament.

As USC celebrated another rivalry victory, this one at Pauley Pavilion and complete with a trophy and championship gear, some of the remaining fans in the student section had changed their tune. While Watkins walked into the arena tunnel, one held up a whiteboard that read, in blue lettering, "We love you JuJu."

"We're not done. There's a lot more," Gottlieb said. "But I think you have to stop and recognize moments along the way or else you lose the joy of it."

Davis escapes in controversial draw with Roach

Published in Breaking News
Saturday, 01 March 2025 22:26

Gervonta "Tank" Davis' history of slow starts nearly caught up to him Saturday night.

Davis' defense of his WBA lightweight championship against Lamont Roach Jr. ended in a majority draw in front of a stunned soldout crowd of 19,250 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Davis retained his title in a fight he would like to soon forget.

Two judges scored the fight 114-114 while a third judge scored it 115-113 in Davis' favor. ESPN scored the fight 114-114.

"Lamont is a great fighter," Davis said after the fight. "He got the skills, like I said before, he got punching power. It was a lesson. Hopefully, we can run it back."

In a strange scene that could have turn the tide of the fight, Davis inexplicably took a knee in the ninth round after getting touched by a jab, but referee Steve Wilkes decided not to score a knockdown for Roach. Davis suggested the reason he went to a knee was because grease from his hair had gotten into his eye. The fight resumed with no penalty, but the knockdown could have swung the pendulum in favor of Roach.

Had the knockdown been called, Roach could have won the ninth round by a 10-8 score. Instead, two of the judges scored the round 10-9 for Davis.

"I just got my hair done two days ago and she put grease in my hair," Davis said. "When I was sweating and things like that, it burned my eyes."

Roach didn't disagree with Davis' assessment of the situation. However, he made it clear that the rules are the rules and he should have been awarded a knockdown.

"If you take a knee and the ref starts counting, it should be a knockdown," Roach said. "If that's a knockdown, I win the fight. I'm not banking on that knockdown to win. I just thought I pulled it out."

Davis (30-0-1, 28 KOs) entered the fight as a massive -2000 betting favorite on ESPN BET and was expected by many to collect his 29th career knockout by stopping Roach, who was making his lightweight debut. Behind a pro-Davis crowd, "Tank" was unable to give the fans the highlight-reel finish they have come to expect from the Baltimore native.

Instead, Roach (25-1-2) stood in the line of fire, absorbed what the hard-hitting Davis had to offer and responded with shots that stunned not only Davis but those in attendance.

The notoriously patient Davis got off to a slow start in the early rounds as he waited for Roach to make a mistake that he could capitalize on. But Roach refused to give Davis the window to counter and pressed the action. Davis smiled and talked to Roach early in the fight but had to get serious once he realized that his opponent wouldn't wilt under the bright lights.

Roach Jr., 29, had faced Davis in the amateurs and fell short. Their careers went in different directions once they turned pro with Davis being one of boxing's biggest stars and Roach being known as a solid fighter who lost in his only other opportunity at a world championship in a defeat to Jamel Herring for the WBO super featherweight title in 2019.

Davis' ascent to stardom was punctuated by his knockout win over Ryan Garcia in 2023, where he laid claim to be the face of boxing. He almost let the title slip away in an underwhelming performance. Their history may have given Davis a false sense of confidence heading into the fight, but Roach was well prepared for everything "Tank" had to offer, including his renowned fight ending power.

By the middle rounds, Davis' smile dissolved, and he realized that the knockout he expected wouldn't come easy. The champion began to let his hands go to create openings, but Roach held his ground and caught the champion with counters and combinations. Davis worked almost exclusively to the body, banging away as Roach stayed on the front foot and pushed forward. Undeterred, Roach would sneak a counter in whenever Davis' assault stalled. In Round 8, Roach stunned Davis with a counter right hand. Although Davis was never in any real danger, the counterpunching signaled that he couldn't rumble in recklessly.

"I feel like I was breaking him down as the rounds were going on, but he kept coming, so I didn't want to make no mistakes," Davis said. "I kept it cautious."

Realizing the fight could be slipping away, Davis, 30, pressed the action in the championship rounds. Although he landed some big power shots, he never came close to hurting Roach. But the activity gave him the final two rounds on all three scorecards to salvage the draw and leave New York with the title.

Davis landed 103 of 279 punches in an extremely economic affair while Roach was more active, landing 112 of 400 punches.

"I'm just a little disappointed in the decision," Roach said. "I thought I pulled it out, but that's what two skilled fighters do. I definitely thought I won but we could run it back. ... Even though I didn't win tonight, I thought I did but it's a win for me in my book. We are not satisfied with that. We need a real 'W.'"

Sabonis leaves Kings' win with hamstring injury

Published in Basketball
Saturday, 01 March 2025 22:27

HOUSTON -- Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis left Saturday night's game against the Houston Rockets early in the first quarter with a hamstring injury and the team said he wouldn't return.

Sabonis was running down the court about a minute into the game when he pulled up and grabbed his left hamstring. Interim coach Doug Christie took a timeout and Sabonis was lifted from the game and taken to the locker room.

The team announced that he had a hamstring injury and would miss the rest of the game.

Christie didn't have any details about the injury after the game.

"We'll see in the coming days," he said. "Probably tomorrow or the next day we'll have have an idea."

Sabonis entered the game averaging 19.9 points, 14.4 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game.

Christie raved about how the Kings team pulled together to make up for his absence in the 113-103 win where six players finished with at least 12 points.

"We're talking about Domantas Sabonis, who covers the stat sheet in a way that's difficult to do," he said. "A lot of guys stepped in and weren't trying to do too much. They were just trying to do what they do and that adds up to everyone pulling the rope in the same direction."

After rare dunk, Steph declares it's 'the last one'

Published in Basketball
Saturday, 01 March 2025 22:27

PHILADELPHIA -- With just over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter Saturday, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry leaked out after seeing teammate Buddy Hield steal the ball.

Hield quickly passed it to Curry for what usually would be a breakaway layup. Except, for the first time since 2019, Curry threw down a one-handed dunk as Golden State fans at Wells Fargo Center roared.

At the 7:15 mark, Curry recorded his 27th career regular-season dunk. But he said after the 126-119 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers that it was the final slam of his storied career.

"That will probably be my last dunk," Curry said. "I'm calling it right now. That was the last one you're going to see."

Curry had 29 points and 13 assists as the Warriors' five-game winning streak ended with Jimmy Butler on the sideline because of back spasms.

But the Warriors fought to keep their streak alive. They trailed by 13 points with 10:34 left when they went on an 18-6 run, which included three consecutive dunks. The first was when Curry's breakaway jam.

The play happened near Allen Iverson, who was seated on the baseline; Curry arrived at the game wearing an Iverson jacket in honor of the Sixers legend.

Curry, 36, was asked if he remembered the last time he dunked in a game.

"Of course I do," Curry replied. "Six years ago. At home. Right wing. The right corner. A little back cut. I think it was a pass from KD [Kevin Durant]."

Curry's memory was precise. His previous dunk occurred Feb. 21, 2019.

"I was at Oracle. I never dunked at Chase [Center]. How about that?"

Curry explained that at the Warriors' morning shootaround Saturday, assistant coach Jerry Stackhouse told him he wanted to see the game's all-time leading 3-point shooter throw down a dunk.

After the dunk, he pointed toward Stackhouse as Curry walked to the Warriors bench during a timeout.

"He hadn't said that all year," Curry said. "And I haven't heard that in years and it happened tonight.

"It was a very random comment this morning and the fact that it happened, it was hilarious."

Curry said the dunk was a byproduct of how good his body is feeling after battling knee pain for much of the season. And he couldn't turn down "a cherry-pick opportunity."

"And you want to take advantage of a cherry-pick opportunity," Curry said. "That will probably be my last dunk though. ... For sure, I will only lay the ball up. It took everything out of me to get up there."

Tsitsipas beats Auger-Aliassime to win Dubai final

Published in Tennis
Saturday, 01 March 2025 09:22

Stefanos Tsitsipas secured a maiden ATP 500 title with a straight-set victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

The 26-year-old Greek produced a strong performance to beat his in-form Canadian opponent 6-3 6-3.

The fourth seed had reached the final of the tournament twice before, losing to Novak Djokovic in 2019 and then again to Roger Federer a year later.

Saturday's win was world number 11 Tsitsipas' 12th tour-level title, and the biggest outdoor hard-court trophy of his career.

He defeated 24-year-old Auger-Aliassime - who is leading the ATP Tour this season with 16 match wins and two titles - in one hour and 28 minutes, and will return to the top 10 of the world rankings on Monday for the first time since May 2024.

Ospreys stun champions Glasgow with overtime penalty

Published in Rugby
Saturday, 01 March 2025 13:48

Glasgow Warriors: Hastings, Cancelliere, Smith, Munn, Cordero, Weir, Afshar, Schickerling, Stewart, Richardson, Oguntibeju, Samuel, Ferrie, Venter, Mann.

Replacements: Matthews, McBeth, Talakai, Du Preez, Miller, Fraser, Kennedy, Johnston.

Ospreys: Walsh, Kasende, Boshoff, K Williams, Giles, Edwards, Hardy, Phillips, Parry, Botha, Ratti, Fender, Deaves, Tipuric, Morse.

Replacements: Lewis, C Jones, Warren, Spencer, Morris, Whitlock, Florence, Hopkins.

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU).

Saracens see off Harlequins to reach PWR final

Published in Rugby
Saturday, 01 March 2025 10:45

Saracens have reached the Premiership Women's Rugby final by defeating Harlequins 32-24 in a thrilling semi-final at StoneX Stadium.

England wing Jess Breach, who returned to the Saracens side last week after sustaining a hip injury in November, was the standout player.

The 27-year-old's try, alongside two from Alysha Corrigan and tries from Marlie Packer and May Campbell, were enough to put the home side into the final on 16 March.

Gloucester-Hartpury face Bristol Bears in the other semi-final on Sunday, live on the BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website from 15:00 GMT.

Breach told TNT Sports after the match: "Last year was really horrible to lose in the semi-final [against Bristol Bears].

"To come out here, on our home turf, and win - we really fought for the win.

"It's been a long season for me to get back on the pitch; I feel like I really performed back to the best of my ability today and I'm just so glad it was in a semi-final that helped the team get to a final."

Saracens finished second in the PWR table, while Harlequins were one place behind in third.

Quins opened the scoring inside two minutes through Spain full-back Claudia Pena, but were 20-12 down by half-time.

A smart set-play by the visitors in the second half led to a try for Lauren Torley, cutting the gap to three points with 20 minutes to go.

But tries from Corrigan and Campbell, plus a conversion from Zoe Harrison, put Saracens back in control, before Babalwa Latsha grabbed a late try for Quins.

Last-gasp Ulster back to winning ways against Scarlets

Published in Rugby
Saturday, 01 March 2025 11:12

Alan O'Connor's 79th-minute try proved crucial as Ulster edged past Scarlets for a 30-28 win at Kingspan Stadium.

The Irish province, who had fallen to 15th in the United Rugby Championship (URC) prior to kick-off, were 28-23 behind in the closing stages but O'Connor's close-range score and Nathan Doak's subsequent conversion saw them narrowly avoid a third league loss in succession.

In a back and forth game, Scarlets had led 12-0 early on and 15-13 at half-time but were left to rue having to settle for just three points rather than a try during their final attack of the game when Ulster went up the other end and snatched victory.

The win lifts Ulster only up to 14th in the table but just two points off the top eight and the play-off places.

In what had been called a "must-win" game by their head coach Richie Murphy, Ulster made a disastrous start and conceded twice in the opening 11 minutes.

There were only five minutes on the clock when Scarlets first took the lead.

With scrum-half Gareth Davies alert to a lack of backfield cover, his kick over the top of the ruck was gathered by wing Macs Page for a simple opening score.

Finding and exploiting plenty of space in the Ulster defence, Page then got around Jacob Stockdale on the outside and fed Ioan Nicholas for Scarlets' second try five minutes later.

Ulster got on the board after Scarlets were pinged for infringing at the ruck. The hosts went to the corner from the penalty and Timoney dotted down at the tail of a powerful maul.

Buoyed by the score, Ulster enjoyed a spell of pressure but when next awarded a penalty, opted to go for the posts and reduce the deficit rather than try their maul again.

It was the same policy only minutes before half-time when, only a metre into Scarlets' half, Jack Murphy again called for the tee and his lengthy effort just crept over the crossbar to put his side ahead for the first time.

Ulster could not carry their advantage into the turn, however, with Ioan Lloyd kicking his side back in front after an offside penalty in the final passage of the half.

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