Usman Khawaja moved toward his first century in more than a year, captain Steve Smith surpassed 6,000 Test runs and Australia reached 193-2 at stumps, 153 runs behind England after the second day of the fifth Ashes Test.
After some big hitting by the lower order yesterday helped England reach a competitive 346, Australia had an early set back before half centuries by David Warner and then Khawaja helped place their team strongly in its push for a 4-0 series victory.
Australia went through yesterday’s last session without losing another wicket and had Khawaja, nearing his first Test century since November 2016, unbeaten on 91. Smith contributed an unbeaten 44 to the 107-run third-wicket stand.
Khawaja struggled early to find any rhythm, particularly against spinners Moeen Ali and Mason Crane, but survived to raise his 50 off 107 balls just after tea with a six-straight down the ground off Ali.
Smith tallied his 6,000th Test run in his 111th innings, joined West Indies great Garfield Sobers as the second fastest to reach the mark. Only Don Bradman reached 6,000 runs quicker, from just 68 innings.
England resumed at 233-5 and lost its last specialist batsman, Dawid Malan (62), early in the morning session to a spectacular one-handed catch by Smith at second slip of Mitchell Starc (2-80). Australia spurned easy opportunities to thwart England’s rally, including two dropped catches in the space of four balls to give both Curran (39) and Moeen Ali (30) reprieves.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but