New Zealand gained a slight advantage on the second day of the second cricket test Saturday, holding Pakistan to 52-2 in reply to its first innings of 366. \nMark Richardson made 82 and Jacob Oram 97 to direct New Zealand's escape from its tenuous position at 151-5 overnight. Pakistan lost opener Imran Farhat and the dangerous Yasir Hameed in 32 overs before stumps to allow New Zealand to take a slight initiative into the third day. \nOram's innings, his second half century and highest score in tests, was the most decisive contribution to a day on which batsmen struggled to play with authority. \nHe joined Richardson when New Zealand was 171-6, when the opener was attempting to stop the decline of the home team's innings. \nRichardson was once again the anchor of the New Zealand innings. He stayed at the crease for 439 minutes, from the first ball of the first day through the middle of the fifth session, to take on Pakistan's principal pace attack. Oram gave him dedicated support and the pair added 76 for the seventh wicket to give some force to New Zealand's decision to bat first on a placid pitch. \nWhen Richardson was out in the 107th over, Oram took up the cause and carried New Zealand's total towards respectability. \nOram's most significant contribution was to see off the second new ball with Richardson, the fiery spells of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, at a time when New Zealand's innings was perilously balanced. \n"The whole test probably rests on the morning session tomorrow,'' Oram said. ``If we can nip out a couple of them and maybe have them five or six down by lunch, it will be heavily in our favor."
The sight of Japanese fans at a World Cup bagging trash after a match — win or lose — always surprises non-Japanese. Japanese players are famous for doing the same in their team dressing room: hanging up towels, cleaning the floor and even leaving a thank-you note. The behavior is driving social media posts at the World Cup in Qatar, but it is nothing unusual for Japanese fans or players. They are simply doing what most people in Japan do — at home, at school, at work or on streets from Tokyo to Osaka, Shizuoka to Sapporo. “For Japanese people, this is
Portugal players idolize Cristiano Ronaldo, with many saying it is a “dream” to play with him, but young forward Goncalo Ramos on Saturday joked that he would not accept a piece of chewing gum from his compatriot. Ronaldo, who scored a penalty in Portugal’s 3-2 win over Ghana on Thursday, was pictured chewing gum he had pulled out of the front of his shorts during the game. The 37-year-old striker, without a club after an acrimonious split from Manchester United this week, became the first player ever to score at five World Cups. “Of course not,” laughed Ramos at a news conference, when
Normally, it would be horrible news to soccer fans anywhere that their team’s star player was injured. Yet even as they endured an anguished wait for a Neymar-less Brazil to score in their 1-0 win over Switzerland on Monday, some Brazilians found it hard to miss the injured superstar, who has promised to dedicate his first FIFA World Cup goal to far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Watching the match in a packed bar in central Rio de Janeiro, where fans decked out in yellow and green waited nervously for what turned out to be the lone goal — scored in the 83rd
Qatar’s top World Cup official on Tuesday said that more than 400 migrant workers died in labor accidents in the country in the years leading up to the tournament. Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary general of Qatari Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, gave the figure of 400 to 500 in a British television interview when asked how many workers had died “doing work for the World Cup.” The organizing committee said his response referred to “national statistics covering the period of 2014-2020 for all work-related fatalities” in Qatar “covering all sectors and nationalities.” It said there were 414 worker deaths over the eight-year period. Migrant
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