Welcome to the live coverage of sports ♒news from all around the world. Wednesday, January is another somewhat busy dayꦛ in sports.
Catch highlights and major news events from the sports wo💯rld on Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Welcome to the live coverage of sports ♒news from all around the world. Wednesday, January is another somewhat busy dayꦛ in sports.
Anthony Davis left 🎃the LA Lakers’ game against Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday in the first h💃alf with an abdominal muscle strain.
Davis walked to the locker room with his right hand over his stomach when he left with 2:10 to go in the first quarte🌜r. Davis had four points in 10 minutes before he was hurt.
Davis averaged 26.3 points and 12.1 rebounds in 41 games thisꦏ season for the Lakers. He h𓆏ad 42 points and 23 points on Monday in a victory at Charlotte. (AP)
Cricketer Firooza Amiri says her team will “represent millions of women in Afghanistan who are denied their rights” when the side reunites after more than three years fo෴r an exhibition game in Australia on Thur☂sday.
An Afghanistan Women’s XI will play a Cricket Without Borders XI in the match at Melbourne’s Junction Oval. It will bring together 21 female players who were formerly contracted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) before th﷽e Taliban regime re-took control in August 2021. (AP)
International Cricket Council CEO Geoff Allardice has decided to step down just weeks before the Champions Trophy with a board member indicating that his failure to pr🦂esent a "clear picture" of host Pakistan's lack of preparedness is one of the multiple reasons behind the move.
The 57-year-old joined the ICC in 2012 as General Manager of Cricket, coming from Cricket Australia, where he served as Cricket Operations Manager. He was appointed CEO of the ICC in November 2021, aft𓄧er having served as act꧂ing CEO for eight months. (PTI)
With Manchester City needing a win to avoid a stunning early exit from the Champions League, Pep Guardiola wasn't in the mood to discuss the prospect of his once-dominant team crashing out of European club soccer's most prestigious competition. The requirements are clear: Anything other than victory ov𒊎er B🥂rugge on Wednesday and the 2023 champion is out. (AP)
Neymar has agreed to return to Santos nearly 12 years after he left the Brazilian team. The 32-year-old confirmed earlier tha﷽t his contract with Saဣudi Arabian club Al-Hilal had been terminated by mutual consent.
Teams:
Australia (Playing XI): Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Josh Inglis, Beau Webster, Alex Carey(w), Mitche﷽ll Starc, Matthew Kuhnemann, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Dimuth Karunaratne, Oshada Fernando, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamiಞndu Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva(c), Kusal Mendis(w🐻), Prabath Jayasuriya, Nishan Peiris, Jeffrey Vandersay, Asitha Fernando
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav admitted his team failed to mop up the England tail after having the visitors on the mat and credited "world-class" spinner Adil Rashid for making life difficult for his battersꦰ during their 26-run loss in the third T20I on Tuesday.
"I felt there would be a little dew later in the day. I f༺eel we had the game in our hands when Hardik and Axar were b🎉atting. Credit goes to Adil Rashid, he bowled really well. That’s why he is a world-class bowler. He didn’t allow us to rotate the strike," Suryakumar said during the post-match presentation.
"I feel you always learn something from a T20 game. I felt when we were bowling around 127/8 to 170, I think that was too much at the end. We’ve gotꦛ to learn from the batting point of view. Got to go back to the drawing board and learn from our mistakes." (PTI)
ICC Hall of Famer Debbie Hockley has paid tribute to Melie Kerr after the Kiwi star became the first player from New Zealand to win the Rachael Heyh🐻oe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year.
“I’m so admiring of Melie's deᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚsire for consistency of performance and her ability in delivering that," Hockley said.
"This🅷 is what separates a good player from a truly great player."
Watch trailer for the upcoming Netflix documentary titled 'The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan' below:
Former Belgium internationa💫l Radja Nainggolan has been charged with participation in a criminal organization as part of a probe into cocaine trafficking, the Brussels public prosecutor's office said. The prosecutor's office said the 36-year-old Nainggolan was released on conditions. His next court date was not specifieꦜd.
An errant weight thrown by a competitor struck and killed a spectator at a youth track and field meet in Colorado, according to officials at the uniℱversity where the competition was held.
The hammer in the hammer throw event cleared certified barriers before striking the man Sunday morning at the University of Colorado's Colorado Spring🍒s campus✃, according to a university statement.
Australia’s batting maestro Steve Smith joined the 10,000-run club🌃 after he reached the elite landmark against Sri Lanka in the first Test at the Galle International Stadium in Galle on Wednesday, January 2♈9.
Cricketer Firooza Amiri says her team will "represent millions of women in Afghanistan who are denied their rights” when the side reunites after more than three years for an exhibition game in Australia on Thursday. According to an AP report, an Afghanistan Women's XI will play a Cricket Without Borders XI in the match at Melbourne's Junction Oval. It will bring together 21 female players who were formerly contracted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) before the Taliban regime re-took control in August 2021. Since fleeing Afghanistan, the women were cricketers. banned from playing in tꦗheir home country, have been based in Canberra and Melbourne and playing for various club teams in local competitions.
Veteran striker Vandana Katariya was on Wednesday named in the 24-member Indian women's hockey team for the Bhuba🐽neswar leg of the FIH Pro League, beginning next month, while teenage forward Sonam was included as 𓆉a standby. According to a PTI report, India will face England, the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany twice each from February 15.
Women’s cricket will be a major attraction in the 'Bengal-Britain Travel Friendship Cup - Season 2' slated to be held at the Police Athletic Club here from February 1-2. According to a PTI report, the event will feature both the men's and womꦅen's teams in a unique blend of cricket and cultural engagement, according to the British Deputy High Commission.
The Pakistan C𒀰ricket Board (PCB) insists that the National Stadium in Karachi will be ready to host matches of the upcoming Champions Trophy despite mounting concerns around the venue's preparedness for the marquee event starting February 19. According to a PTI report, Pakistan's respected leading English daily 'Dawn' on Wednesday carried a story which stated that "it seems absolutely impossible to contemplate the renovation work being completed within the deadline, but the personnel handed the responsibility are beaming with confidence."
Steven Smith surpassed Younis Khan, Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara and Mahela Jayawardene in the list of the most Test centuries list when he hit the 35t꧋h Test hundred against Sri Lanka in Galle on Wednesday.
Former world no.1 Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth entered the second round of the Thailand Masters BWF Super 300 event with a straight-game win over his opponent on Wednesday. According to a PTI report, Srikanth defeated Israeꦇl's Danii Dubovenko 21-13 21-18 in the men's singles opening round. This is Srikanth's second straight win over Dubovenko, having defeated him previously in the 2024 Macau Open back in September 2024.
Rain brings a premature end to Day ♒1 in the Galle Test. Australia have dominated, going to stumps with a commanding score of 330 runs for the loss of two wickets after 81.1 overs were bowled. Usman Khawaja is not out at 147, and Steve Smith on 104. Stand-in skipper Smith has made the day special by not only going past the 10,000-run mark bu𒉰t also amassing his 35th Test century.
Asian Games medallist Ramita Jindal has produced a wor༒ld-class display in the women’s 10m air rifle qu🍨alification competition of the 38th National Games. She tops the charts in the event, with her score of 634.9 bettering the 634.5 by Korea’s Ban Hyojin in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Mehuli Ghosh had shot 634.5 to lead the qualification in the 2023 World Championships in Baku.
Soorma Hockey Club are in a must-win scenario tonight, if they are to qualify for the HIL 2024-25 semi-finals. And they have begun 🌟that quest in right earnest, with Gurjant Singh scoring in the first quarte♚r to put the Harmanpreet Singh-led side ahead 1-0 at half-time against the Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers in Rourkela.
American long jump great Greg Bell, who had been the oldest living Olympic gold medallist in athletics, has died at the age of 94. Bell breathed his last on January 25, according to World Athletics which paid tribute to the 1956 Olympic long jump gold ♐medallist. "World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear t﷽hat Greg Bell, the 1956 Olympic long jump champion, died on Saturday at the age of 94. He had been the oldest living Olympic gold medallist in athletics," it said.
The first HIL encounter of tonight ends in a 1-1 draw between Soorma Hockey Club and Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers in Rourkela. Soorma earn the bonus point by winning༺ the subsequent penalty🌟 shootout, and storm into the Hockey India League semi-finals as a result. The Tigers had already sealed their last-four berth. We now await the remaining two semi-finalists, who will be decided with the outcome of the final league game between UP Rudras and Tamil Nadu Dragons. It's coming up next at 8:15pm.
Fourteen-year-old swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu has scooped up three gold medals in🌟 a dazzling performance as powerhouse Karnataka have grabbed five gold and two silver on the opening day of swimming competitions at the National Games. Srihari Nataraj, a Paris Olympian like Desinghu, earned two gold medals -- in men's 200m freestyle and men's 4x100m freestyle. Desinghu first wins the women's 200m freestyle event in a Games record time of 2 minutes and 3.24 seconds before adding a gold each in 100m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle.
Fortune Barishal have thrashed the Dhaka Capitals by nine wickets in match 38 of BPL. The Tamim Iqbal-led side has chased down a paltry 74-run target in 6.3 overs, losing the solitary wicket of Towhid Hridoy in the process. Mohammad Nabi, Tanvir Isla🀅m an𝕴d Faheem Ashraf picked up three wickets apiece for the victors.
Lewis Hamilton has crashed his Ferrari during the team's pre-season testing programme at Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The seven-time wo🗹rld champion was unhurt after losing control, with the team now working hard to fix the car in a bid to allow teammate Charles Leclerc to complete his running. This was Hamilton’s second proper day of testing a Ferrari, having run the 2023-spec car on Tuesd♕ay without any problems, and is in addition to the 30 exploratory laps he completed in his first taste of red machinery last week at Fiorano.
A massive night awaits us in European football, with all 36 teams in action at 1:30am IST. As many as 25 of these 36 teams still await their qualification fate. Manchester City face a huge elimination threat after a 4-2 defeat against Paris St-Germain, whꦛile Liverpool are through, Arsenal almost there and Aston Villa and Celtic - who meet - somewhere in between.
This is the first season of the new format, wherein the teams finishin⛎g in the top eight automatically advance to the last 16, where they will be seeded. They will await the winners of eight two-legged knockout play-off ties featurinꦓg the clubs ranked from ninth to 24th. Those finishing between ninth and 16th will be seeded and face a team placed 17th to 24th, with the advantage of playing the second leg at home. The clubs 25th or lower are eliminated and do not gain entry to the Europa League.
Liverpool, Barcelona are guaranteed top eight spots, while Arsenal, Inter Mil🧜an, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa, Monaco, Feyenoord, Lille, Brest, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus, Celtic are all certain of a top-24 finish. Others, namely SV, Club Brugge, Benfica, PSG, Sporting, Stuttgart, Manchester City, Dinamo Zagreb, Shakhtar Donetsk are not guaranteed progression.
In the second match of the evening, UP Rudras defeat Tamil Nadu Dragons in the penalty shootout and get two points, but it's not enough for them as the latter qualify for the HIL semis. We thus have our last-four line-up ready: Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers, Soorma Hocke🧸y Club, Hyderabad Toofans 🍎and Tamil Nadu Dragons.
Ahead of the Champions League match between Stuttgart and Paris St-Germain, German police have arrested 59 French "hooligans". Bundesliga club Stuttgart host Ligue 1's PSG with both teams still vying for a play-off spot. Police said they carried out "targeted checks" of supporters at train stations and hotels after finding that there were planned clashes between the sets of fans. Banning orders have also been issued to 47 Stuttgart fans, preventing them f🍷rom attending the game or entering the city centre.
On what is bound to be a high-voltage night of Eu💜ropean football, dozens of F🍎eyenoord fans banned from travelling to Lille for the final Champions League group game between the two clubs have been turned away or arrested at the border, according to French authorities.
The Prefecture du Nord, which represents the French state in the Lille region, said 64 fans of the Dutch team have been refused entry to France and that 17 have been arrested and taken into custody. Police officers seized pyrotechnic devices and various objects that could beౠ used as weapons during their checks, an AP report quoted the prefecture as s💃aying.