England's fielding horrors returned yesterday as their three-day practice match with New South Wales petered out to a tame draw at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
NSW batted out their second innings from lunch to an agreed stumps on the final day, yet England blotted their Ashes preparations in that time with a couple of fumbles, recalling memories of their shoddy fielding in last year's 2-1 Ashes series triumph.
When stumps were drawn, NSW were 194 for six in their second innings after dismissing England for 349 to hold a six-run innings lead.
Michael Clarke, looking to return to the Australian team, topscored with 68 before he was bowled by Ashley Giles and skipper Simon Katich retired on his tea score of 55.
England put down 25 catches to Australia's 17 in last year's Ashes series victory with wicketkeeper Geraint Jones and Kevin Pietersen the worst offenders -- Jones missed seven chances while Pietersen dropped six.
Jones, preferred by team selectors to be the Test wicketkeeper ahead of Chris Read, was at it again yesterday, missing a stumping when Michael Clarke was 47 in the over after lunch, while Andrew Strauss fumbled a chance at slip before Aaron O'Brien had scored.
Both chances came off spinner Monty Panesar's bowling, while James Anderson dropped Simon Katich off Matthew Hoggard when he was on one on his way to 55.
Anderson, who has been given the nod by team selectors to play in the opening Test in Brisbane next week instead of Sajid Mahmood, was on a hat-trick at one stage after dismissing O'Brien (2) and Daniel Smith (0), but youngster Moises Henriques saw off the attempt.
Anderson finished England's best bowler with 3-40 off 10 overs.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed