A youth coach in Italy was sacked after his side won 27-0 on Saturday as the president of the club criticised him for disrespecting the team's opponents.

Under-18 side Invictasauro, based in the Grosseto region of Tuscany, faced Marina Calcio and racked up the huge scoreline, only for coach Massimiliano Riccini to lose his job afterwards.

Tiberio Pratesi, the sporting director of bottom side Marina Calcio, complained after the match that league leaders Invictasauro had disrespected his side. Marina Calcio suffered from a string of injury problems and had to field an outfield player in goal for the match, which featured two Invictasauro players scoring six goals each, and one netting seven.

Pratesi received a phone call from a representative of Invictasauro after the match in which the club apologised for the result.

Paolo Brogelli, the president of Invictasauro, released a statement and said the junior team decided to part ways with coach Riccini.

"We were stunned and deeply regretful when hearing that our Juniores team had beaten Marina Calcio 27-0," President Brogelli said in a statement.

"The values of youth team football are antithetical to such a thing. The opponent must always be respected and that did not happen today.

"As president, I sincerely apologise to the Marina club. I announce that our directors decided, unanimously, to sack coach Riccini.

"Our coaches have the duty to train young players, but above all to educate them. That did not happen today."

Victoria 265 (Short 88, Fraser-McGurk 54, Sams 5-46) beat New South Wales 259 (Henriques 98, Hughes 83, Siddle 3-40) by 6 runs

Victoria got a glimpse into the future with Matthew Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Will Sutherland starring to overcome New South Wales in a close contest at the MCG.

Short put together a Man-of-the-Match display, making a career-best 88 and taking 2 for 21 that included the key wicket of Daniel Hughes. Fraser-McGurk stole the show with 54 on debut after scoring 51 on his Shield debut earlier this week. Sutherland took two sensational outfield catches and bowled Moises Henriques for 98 in the penultimate over of the match to seal the game for Victoria as the Blues veteran was on track to see his side home.

The Blues were left to rue a game that slipped from their grasp. Daniel Sams' career-best 5 for 46 helped restrict Victoria. His mix of cutters undid Aaron Finch, Marcus Harris, and Peter Handscomb. The Blues were 1 for 143 halfway through the chase with Hughes and Henriques in complete control. But Hughes' dismissal, lbw to Short, triggered a collapse and Henriques ran out of support.

Short and Fraser-McGurk put together an outstanding 95-run stand to underpin their total of 265 after Victoria won the toss on a good surface. They came together with the side on 4 for 150 after veterans Marcus Harris (44) and Peter Handscomb (38) were unable to capitalise on fluent starts. Short played beautifully, attacking the spinners with positive footwork on the way to his fourth List A half-century.

But he was overshadowed by Fraser-McGurk. The 17-year-old made a stunning 54 from just 49 balls; four of his first five scoring shots were boundaries and in all, he struck seven fours and a six.

Short threw away a century holing out with more than seven overs remaining and Victoria were bowled out with four balls left in the final over of the innings.

Veteran seamer Peter Siddle showed his class taking the early wicket of Jack Edwards. But the game was slipping away from Victoria before Short turned it with two wickets in the middle overs. Siddle compounded the Blues pain by nabbing two more.

Henriques tried to manage the chase with the tail but aside from Sams' 13, none of the last eight batsmen reached double figures. Sutherland took a sensational diving catch in the outfield to remove Sams and then backed it up by removing Henriques with a yorker to leave 12 runs needed from the final over. The final pair couldn't get it done.

Mohammed Shami and Mayank Agarwal, the standout stars in India's innings-and-130-run win over Bangladesh in the Indore Test, made massive strides up the ICC Test rankings, getting up to seventh and 11th among bowlers and batsmen respectively in the latest update.

Shami returned 3 for 27 and 4 for 31 as Bangladesh were bowled out for 150 and 213, while Agarwal scored 243 - his second double-century in just 12 Test innings - when India put up 493 for 6 declared.

His seven-wicket haul meant Shami moved up eight spots in the rankings to a career-high No. 7, three positions below Jasprit Bumrah and three spots above No. 10 R Ashwin. Shami's current tally of 790 rating points is also the third best for an India quick ever, only behind Kapil Dev (877) and Bumrah (832).

ALSO READ: 'Tell us your secret, we're tired of only beating the bat'

Agarwal, meanwhile, finished just outside the top ten, which includes team-mates Virat Kohli at No. 2, Cheteshwar Pujara at No. 4, Ajinkya Rahane at No. 5 and Rohit Sharma at No. 10. The 28-year-old batsman has had a spectacular start to his Test career, totalling 858 runs in just eight games so far, his runs coming at an average of 71.50, with three centuries and three half-centuries.

From Bangladesh's point of view, it was a disappointing start to the World Test Championship campaign, as they lost the first of two Tests inside three days. Mushfiqur Rahim, though, did well with the bat, scoring 43 and 64, which helped him move up five spots to No. 30, while Abu Jayed, the fast bowler who picked up four wickets in the Indian innings, moved to the 62nd position, a jump of 18 spots.

Among the other Indians who did well in Indore, Ravindra Jadeja advanced to be joint-35th among batsmen (with Australia's Marnus Labuschagne) after scoring an unbeaten 60, while there were one-spot gains for Shami's fast-bowling mates Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav, up to No. 20 and No. 22 respectively.

The Indore win meant that India carried forward their perfect start to the World Test Championship, currently on a maximum of 300 points from six Tests, with New Zealand Sri Lanka, who have both played just two games so far, way behind on 60 points apiece. The second and final Test of the series will be played under lights in Kolkata from November 22.

LOS ANGELES -- Paul George drove to the rim, was shoved from behind and still found a way to score with the foul.

"I'm back!" George screamed before completing a three-point play in the third quarter Saturday night against the Atlanta Hawks.

Many came to Staples Center hoping to see Kawhi Leonard and George play their first game together as members of the LA Clippers. But with Leonard missing his second game in a row due to a left knee contusion, George put on a historic show in 20 minutes.

In his second game as a Clipper, George scored 37 points, the most in NBA history in fewer than 21 minutes, to help the Clippers demolish the Hawks 150-101. The 49-point rout was the largest margin of victory in Clippers' franchise history.

"I got [a] new shoulder," George said after the game. "I can't say nothing else to that: I got new shoulders. And they haven't been this healthy in a long time."

George set franchise records for most points by a player making his Clippers home debut and most points by a player in his first two games as a Clipper. The All-Star swingman had surgery in May to repair a partially torn tendon in his right shoulder and another surgery a month later for a partial tear of his left labrum.

Since returning to play Thursday at New Orleans, George has scored a total of 70 points in 44 minutes, making 10 of 17 shots in each of his first two games and drilling a total of nine of 16 3-pointers. He has converted a perfect 21-of-21 from the free throw line, absorbing his share of hits to his body and surgically repaired shoulders.

"It could have been my first 50," George said of what might've happened had he played longer and not been coming back from shoulder surgeries. "That's just how I felt, but ... I'm a confident player. It wasn't more so a confidence [thing] by me saying I'm back. It's just a statement. I'm just happy to be back to this game."

After spending the past couple of months working on the side and making his way back in 3-on-3 games with some of the younger Clippers, George through he already had his shooting rhythm. It showed, as he made four of his first seven shots and had 15 points in the first quarter.

When he knocked down his sixth 3-pointer, a 29-footer to start the fourth quarter and push the Clippers up by 33, George just shrugged his shoulders like Michael Jordan once famously did. He added a highlight alley-oop off the glass to Montrezl Harrell before coming out with 9:58 remaining. George was tripped and took a spill, and Clippers head coach Doc Rivers decided he wasn't going to risk anything.

"I mean, honestly, for a guy to miss ... what was it, 200 days in a row he's missed?" Rivers said of George, who did not play from his last playoff game with Oklahoma City on April 23 to Nov. 14. "And the two games he's played, his efficiency is incredible. There's more than just his scoring, which is a lot, but it's his passing and his ability to play through contact has been unbelievable."

"He's taking advantage of our offense like he's been playing the offense for five years," Rivers added. "He did three or four things tonight that you can't know how to do it, in what we're running, unless you've been running it. Even Lou [Williams] said it once, 'Wow, that's tricky.'"

George wasn't the only one who caught fire. The Clippers halted a two-game slide by making 53.8% from the field, including shooting 17-of-33 (51.5%) from behind the arc. Six Clippers scored in double figures, and the team was without Leonard, Patrick Beverley (sore left calf) and Landry Shamet (high ankle sprain).

Rivers said the Clippers could have Leonard back for Monday's game against George's old team, Oklahoma City, and that Leonard's injury is more of a day-to-day issue and not a major concern.

George has waited a long time to play alongside Leonard. But with Leonard watching, the Palmdale native had a "dream" home debut playing for the team he grew up rooting for.

"For me, it's a dream come true to be able to do this at home in front of family and friends," George said. "There's just so many faces out there that's pulling for me."

George later added, "Just a lot of familiar faces in the crowd. Honestly, that's probably the biggest thing that I am most happy about is I get to do that on a nightly basis."

Steven Smith fronted his Australian team-mates to apologise for drawing a dissent charge and fine in the Sheffield Shield as the captain Tim Paine reminded all members of the squad that they need to maintain standards of behaviour "regardless of who we're playing for", as they ramped up preparations for the Pakistan Test series.

After a period of more than a year in which the Australian team had earned significant respect for improved behaviour, while being lauded by Cricket Australia's board for making only one ICC code of conduct transgression - an audible obscenity by Adam Zampa during the World Cup - in 18 months since the Newlands scandal, standards have slipped this season with no fewer than eight code of conduct breaches being recorded across state, second XI and under-age tournaments. The pair of breaches in the last Shield around arrived from two of Australia's most high-profile players.

In addition to James Pattinson's suspension for abusive language while playing for Victoria against Queensland, Smith was fined 25% of his match fee for obvious dissent when given out caught behind while playing for New South Wales against Western Australia at the SCG. At one of the team's recurring "values" meetings, held at the start of every major assignment since Justin Langer was appointed coach, Smith told his team-mates he was sorry for raising the ire of officials and admitted he needed to improve his body language and conduct when dismissed.

ALSO READ: James Pattinson out of first Test after code of conduct suspension

"I came in and apologised to the group yesterday for getting a code of conduct," Smith said in Brisbane. "I don't think there was a great deal in it but I've copped it and I have to look at when I get out and the way I sort of conduct myself. I know lots of kids watch me play and watch all of us play and the way we conduct ourselves when we get out as well as when we're batting.

"So we have to be very mindful of that and sometimes just bite the bullet and just conduct ourselves in, I guess, a better manner at times. Sometimes your emotions can get the better of you out on the field. We're playing a game [where] everyone is trying to do their best and sometimes that happens."

The transgressions of Smith and Pattinson underline the fact that occasionally, international players are given to dropping their guard in matches not subject to major international broadcast or media attention, even though all domestic matches are streamed online in their entirety. Smith noted that, within reason, the place for letting out frustrations about a dismissal or decision disagreed with is within the dressing room itself, away not only from cameras but also spectators.

"You're going to get fines, breach notices or whatever it is, but to be honest, the feeling around the group is enough of a punishment" Pat Cummins on players staying in line

"When you get behind closed doors, go for your life, do what you need to do to let your frustrations out," he said. "Within reason - you probably don't want to punch anything. Mitch Marsh can probably attest to that. We're Australian players regardless of where we're playing and what we're doing. We sign up to values and in our contracts we've got a code of conduct there we have to play by. I got pinged and so be it. I felt I should apologise for that."

Paine said that greater consistency in behaviour across all levels of the game was something that all team members were clear about trying to achieve. "I think it's more just a reminder that we've got to set those standards all the time," Paine said. "Whether we're playing for Australia or we're playing club cricket or we're playing for our states or we're not playing cricket, there are standards we set ourselves to live by day in and day out so it's important we do that whether we're on the field off the field, regardless of who we're playing for.

"We've had a couple of instances this week but we always revisit them. We did again last night, just to brush up on what's expected and what we expect of the group. Both of those guys apologised, they know that they fell a little bit short of what we set ourselves in the Test team. And the fact that it's important that we maintain that when we go back to state cricket and lead the way there. They're disappointed with that but we are going to keep on top of it and maintain the level that we've set so far in the last couple of years."

Pat Cummins, one of the joint vice-captains, said that more often than not, the knowledge of team-mates that mistakes had been made and values not lived up to provided as stinging a punishment as any fine or ban. "It's pretty clear how we want to play and go about it and our standards we set ourselves," he said. "You're going to get fines, breach notices or whatever it is, but to be honest, the feeling around the group is enough of a punishment. You now when you've stepped out of line. He [Pattinson] has owned up to it, he'll be super remorseful and it's a good lesson for him to learn.

"We've identified five key values, and we just want to stay on top of those, so every few months it's just trying to talk about them and say 'what does this look like'. We'll break up in groups, talk about different values and also it gives us something to measure against that at the end of the series to see how we're tracking. It's run by the players, we own it, we know what standards we have to uphold, and it's a good little reminder and it's no different for the T20, one-day or Test side, if someone comes in, these are the expectations."

Western Australia 252 (Green 86, W Agar 5-40) beat South Australia 246 (Ferguson 127, Coulter-Nile 5-48) by seven runs

Callum Ferguson nearly pulled off a miracle, Nathan Coulter-Nile reminded the Australian selectors of his worth, Cameron Green continued his stunning form, and Ashton Agar was left bloodied by his brother Wes as Western Australia won a nail-biter against South Australia in a thrilling game in Adelaide to qualify for the Marsh Cup final.

Chasing 252 to win, Ferguson almost pulled off the impossible for the Redbacks, dragging his side back from 7 for 126, to get within seven runs of victory with a stunning 127 from 125 balls. South Australia were 9 for 190 when Ferguson was joined by Daniel Worrall and he farmed the strike bowling expertly to make his 12th List A century and reduced the equation to 23 from 12. He then smashed two sixes and a four off Jhye Richardson to cut it to 7 from 7, before Richardson trapped him with a brilliant yorker to put Western Australia into the final.

Coulter-Nile had run through South Australia's top order taking his second List A five-wicket haul and had 5 for 18 at one stage as he ripped through Jake Weatherald, Jake Lehmann and Alex Carey with express pace in the powerplay. He returned after a steadying partnership between Ferguson and Cam Valente to take out two more in quick succession and remind the Australian selectors he is still a high-class white-ball bowler.

The selectors would have also kept a close eye on Green, who made his highest List A score of 86 from just 78 balls to steer Western Australia from a perilous position of 5 for 73 to post 252. Following on from his stunning performance against Queensland in the Shield, Green again showed his maturity and his class controlling the second half of the innings. He shared an 85-run stand with Hilton Cartwright who contributed 43, and a 54-run partnership with Richardson. He fell trying to clear the rope for the fourth time.

Among the chaos, the most bizarre storyline of the day belonged to the Agar brothers Ashton and Wes playing on opposing teams. Wes Agar got early bragging rights over his brother, clean bowling him for 5 as part of his brilliant five-wicket haul. He claimed 5 for 40 in 10 overs to continue his excellent start to the summer in both formats.

More dramatically, however, while batting late in the chase Wes flat-batted a ball towards Ashton at mid-on where he got his feet in a tangle and the ball appeared swerve as he slipped and it hit him flush between the eyes. He had blood streaming down his face as his younger brother rushed to his side. Ashton was able to walk off the field unassisted but did not field for the last 10 overs of the match.

Western Australia have now qualified for the final. South Australia's hopes are all but dashed. The Redbacks now need to win their last match against Victoria on Tuesday by a large margin and hope Queensland are beaten by a big margin by Tasmania.

Australia's captain Tim Paine has declared Ben Stokes' revelations about using David Warner's words as motivation to score his epic Headingley century is the latest in a trend of using the opener's name to "spike book sales".

Warner has made a significant change to his behaviour on the field since his return from the Newlands scandal ban, not resorting to the kinds of abuse he subjected other players to at regular points over his international career.

His overall visage has remained talkative however, something that Stokes claimed to have raised his ire during the Headingley innings that bloomed from an initial rearguard into an unforgettable, match-winning century that delayed Australia's retention fo the Ashes until the fourth Test of the series at Old Trafford. Paine, who as wicketkeeper stood alongside Warner throughout, said there was nothing abusive in the opener's words, even if they were frequent.

"I was obviously standing next to David the whole time and you are allowed to talk on the cricket field," Paine said when asked whether the Stokes allegations were a "cheap shot". "But by no means was he abusing him or sledging him. It just seems to be a common trend in England that they like to use Davey's name to spike book sales. So good luck to them."

Stokes wrote that he was spurred on by Warner in particular, stating that he would have been happy to accept similar words from "just about any other opponent" other than him. "I had extra personal motivation due to some things that were said to me out on the field on the evening of day three when I was trying to get through to stumps," Stokes wrote. "A few of the Aussies were being quite chirpy, but in particular David Warner seemed to have his heart set on disrupting me.

"He just wouldn't shut up for most of my time out there. I could accept it from just about any other opponent. Truly. Not from him, though. The changed man he was adamant he'd become, the one that hardly said boo to a goose and even went as far as claiming he had been re-nicknamed 'Humble' by his Australia teammates, had disappeared. Maybe his lack of form in his new guise had persuaded him that he needed to get the bull back?

"Although he'd enjoyed a prolific World Cup campaign, he had struggled with the bat at the start of the Ashes and was perhaps turning to his old ways to try to get the best out of himself," Stokes wrote. "The nice-guy act had done nothing for his runs column. I muttered 'Bloody Warner' a few times as I was getting changed. The more time passed, the more it spurred me on. All kinds of ideas of what I might say to him at the end of the game went through my head. In the end, I vowed to do nothing other than shake his hand and say 'Well done' if I could manufacture the situation.

"You always shake the hands of every member of the opposing team at the end of a match. But this one would give me the greatest sense of satisfaction."

Paine, however, pointed out the abuse that Warner had to face throughout the England tour from spectators, as well as a few choice words here and there from England's players, without ever retaliating in a way that would have brought disrepute to the game.

"I was standing right next to him, I had absolutely no issue," Paine said. "The way David handled himself during the Ashes was excellent. Particularly given the fact he wasn't scoring a hell of a lot of runs and I'm pretty sure he was on the end of a fair bit himself on and off the field in England. So I thought he did a great job of handling that and held himself really well throughout the series. They write books to sell and they have to get headlines to get sales.

"We're going to concentrate on what we do and maintain our own standards. What Ben and England want to do is completely up to them."

New Zealand A 302 for 6 dec and 169 for 8 (Phillips 36, Archer 3-34, Curran 3-42) drew with England 405 (Buttler 110, Pope 88, Denly 68, Kuggeleijn 3-46)

England had to settle for a draw in Whangarei as a stubborn ninth-wicket partnership provided an example of some of the challenges likely to confront them in the Test series against New Zealand.

At just after 3pm, with New Zealand A eight wickets down and around 35 overs left in the match, England will have fancied their chances of securing a victory that looked most unlikely at the start of play. But some admirable defiance from William Somerville and Ajaz Patel saw the hosts survive for another 22.4 overs and secure a hard-fought draw. When they came together, the lead was just 26; by the time England settled for some early handshakes, the lead was 66 and time was running out.

These matches aren't really about the result, of course. They are about preparation for the Test series. And in that context, England will be pretty pleased with their workout against good quality opposition and in conditions which challenge them.

This is what they wanted. While they may have been encouraged by the ease with which they breezed through a West Indies President's XI at the Three Ws Oval in Barbados in January - that President's XI side were, ridiculous though it sounds, 200 for 19 at one stage - the worth of such experiences was betrayed when the Test series started and they encountered a far more motivated Test side which simply blew them away. The lesson, it seems, were that first-class warm-up matches provide far more intense and valuable preparation.

So England will, up to a point, have relished the fight. And while there may have been moments when the bowlers quietly cursed the flat pitch and a kookaburra ball that refused to yield to their attempts to make it swing, the management know that it is only by improving in such circumstances that England can look to the away Ashes series in two years with any degree of confidence. And that, it is becoming more clear by the day, is England's new priority.

What did we learn here? Well, it is clear already that England, in such conditions, are heavily reliant upon Jofra Archer. He looked a threat - both in wicket-taking and physical terms - in each one of his three spells in the second innings. Despite the suspicion that he is still holding back just a little before the Tests, he was bowling with impressive pace and consistency by the end of the game. Joe Root was, no doubt, quite right not to push him into longer spells in such an encounter.

Archer apart, however, England struggled to find a wicket-taking edge once the ball had lost a bit of its hardness and shine. Stuart Broad, who appeared to be striving for rhythm in the first-innings, looked far more fluent in the second but, without much help from seam or swing, was generally forced into a holding role. Jack Leach, too, struggled to offer much threat, though he did concede under 2.50 an over for the second time in the match. Ben Stokes might, if pressed, have performed the role of fast-bowling back-up to Archer but it is well accepted that he will have more important days ahead of him. There wasn't a huge amount of point going for broke here.

Sam Curran's performance will have secured his position in the team for the first Test. While his first wicket, that of Glenn Phillips, was more than a little fortunate - the batsmen simply edged one down the leg-side - he later had Jimmy Neesham, driving somewhat lavishly, caught behind by one that left him slightly and bowled Scott Kuggeleijn with a well-directed yorker.

Just as pertinently, Curran also had Tom Blundell dropped at leg slip by Root, as he experimented with the short ball and leg side field. Curran knows he can't simply run in, hit the seam and gain movement as he does in England and while he will probably always lack a bit of pace, he did show a willingness to "find a way," as Darren Gough put it, to challenge batsmen in such conditions. Whether it's with his bouncer, his willingness to go around the wicket, or his swing, he is a little less one dimensional as a bowler than is sometimes suggested. It was interesting to note, however, that Chris Woakes appeared to be hitting the gloves extra hard in training. He won't be going without a fight.

Some other concerns may linger, though. In an ideal world, England would have wanted their openers, as well as Root and Stokes, to spend a bit longer at the crease. And in an ideal world, Root would have clung on to both the chances offered to him in New Zealand A's first innings. The first, at leg slip off Curran, looked tough; the second, at conventional slip off Archer, less so. And yes, there will be just a bit of concern that they were unable to part two tail-enders - neither Somerville or Patel have ever scored a first-class half-century - once they had decided to simply block for the draw.

But England will, overall, have been delighted to have reduced New Zealand A to 129 for 8 at one stage. And they will, overall, have been delighted to bat for 117.5 overs in their innings and pass 400. And they will have been encouraged that, after a poor miss in the first innings, Dom Sibley held on to three catches including one sharp chance in the cordon.

But most of all, they will have been delighted by the form of Jos Buttler who, after a disappointing Ashes, compiled a mature century and then claimed a couple of impressive catches - not least the one to dismiss Phillips - with the gloves.

To put Buttler's innings in context, this was just the second first-class century he has scored since June 2015 (the most recent was in the Trent Bridge Test of August 2018) and his first overseas. It was also just the sixth first-class century of a career that has brought nine ODI centuries. Afterwards he credited a break from the game and a couple of sessions working with former Somerset teammate Marcus Trescothick as contributory factors.

"It was a tough summer," he said afterwards. "Great fun but a huge challenge which took a lot out of most of us. So it was good to have some time away from the game and get refreshed. I've had four or five weeks off and that has been invaluable. It's allowed us to refresh, have time away and get excited to come back.

"I'm absolutely aware of my record as regards scoring first-class centuries. It's something I've been very light on, really. I know this was a warm-up match but it's nice to spend time in the middle and get to three figures.

"I went down to Somerset to work with Marcus Trescothick, who is someone I know really well. I got a lot out of it. It gave some building blocks - more around my set-up, really, trying to be in the right place at the right time when the ball is released - to coming here and feeling in good touch."

A similar surface is expected in Mount Maunganui and England's bowlers may well still struggle to make inroads. But if their batsmen can occupy the crease for 120 overs or more and their fielders hold their chances, they will give themselves a chance of a first victory here since 2008.