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Ellis, Zampa lead Australia to big win against Ireland
Without their captain, and down to 12 available players, Australia overcame what could have been an awkward start to their T20 World Cup campaign with an impressive all-round display as they downed Ireland by 67 runs in Colombo in a performance that showed their batting is not all about blasting sixes.
It was a dramatic build-up to the game for Australia – the last team to start the tournament – when it was announced 15 minutes before the toss that captain Mitchell Marsh was unavailable due to a testicular injury caused when he was struck in the groin while batting earlier in the week.
Travis Head, therefore, captained Australia and because of the decision to give Tim David an extra couple of days in his recovery from a hamstring injury, and no replacement for Josh Hazlewood having yet been named, it did not leave much for the selectors to choose from.
When Head was run out in the second over there was a chance it could have become a very tricky outing, but a stand of 49 between Josh Inglis and Cameron Green settled things then Matt Renshaw, who was a late addition to the squad, and Marcus Stoinis played excellently in a partnership of 61 off 44 balls to build a total of 182 on a tough, slow, gripping surface.
It was well out of reach for Ireland, who had hoped some familiarity with conditions may help after facing Sri Lanka at the same ground, but they folded for 115. They suffered a huge blow when Pul Stirling retired hurt first ball after hobbling through for a single and the top order was picked apart by Nathan Ellis.
Head was given a life in the first over when he cut Matthew Humphreys to backward point where Ben Calitz put down a low chance. Ireland had dropped seven chances against Sri Lanka and it was an ominous start. However, this one did not cost them as a horrid mix-up led to Head being run out. It added to a sense of unease around Australia, but that didn’t last for long.
Inglis and Green took the attack during the fielding restrictions and Australia were quickly scoring above ten an over. The duo struck a six apiece in the fifth over against Mark Adair – although Inglis’ was nearly a parried boundary catch by Gareth Delany who had just touched the rope with his foot – before Green picked out midwicket.
Inglis followed the over after the powerplay, driving George Dockrell to cover, but the early flurry of boundaries had earnt Australia the ability not to have to force things too hard. Still, with Glenn Maxwell’s lean run continuing when as he edged Harry Tector behind – Lorcan Tucker taking a sharp catch – Australia were 88 for 4 in the tenth over and, with an out-of-form Cooper Connolly then the bowlers to come, a vital stand loomed.
Renshaw’s elevation to the squad in place of Matt Short had been with these exact conditions in mind. He and Stoinis, not a batter often associated with working the ball around, quickly assessed it was not a surface on which to blast the side out of a tricky situation. They tried to keep dot balls to a minimum and ran hard: Australia tallied 22 twos for the innings.
Renshaw waited 28 balls to find the boundary when he drove Dockrell through the covers. Stoinis had found the rope twice in three balls against Tector in the 12th over, but they were a rare breed. It wasn’t until the 18th over, when pace was back in the attack, that the ball cleared the rope again when Stoinis launched Adair over deep midwicket. Three balls earlier, Stoinis had been dropped by Delany in the covers. Adair did remove Stoinis with a low full toss, but Australia were able to cross 180
Ireland needed to replicate Australia’s powerplay burst but instead had to watch their captain limp back to the dugout after the first ball of the innings. He jabbed a full delivery from Xavier Bartlett to the on side and a couple of steps after setting off was in clear pain, barely able to make it to the other end. Ross Adair was dropped by Renshaw, a simple chance at point, in the second over, but Harry Tector lofted Matt Kuhnemann into the deep where the catch was safely held by Green.
Then Ellis, who is the senior member of Australia’s remaining pace attack, showed his bag of tricks. His first delivery was a back-of-the-hand slower ball which completely bamboozled Ross Adair who played all round it and lost middle stump. It was pace-bowling deception at its best.
Two balls later, Curtis Campher pulled to midwicket and the wheels were coming off. At the start of Ellis’ next over, Calitz dragged into leg stump and inside the powerplay his figures red 2-1-5-3. Adam Zampa then did his job, working through the middle and lower order with four wickets, but fittingly it was Ellis who ended the match to finish with a career-best haul.
Brief scores:
Australia 182 for 6 in 20 overs (Marcus Stoinis 45, Jos Inglis 37,Cameron Green 21, Matt Renshaw 37, Cooper Conolly 11*, Xavier Bartlett 11*; Mathew Humphreys 1-33, Mark Adair 2-44, George Dockrell 1-31, Harry Tector 1-24 ) beat Ireland 115 in 16.5 overs (Ross Adair 12, Lorcan Tucker 24, Gareth Delany 11, George Dockrell 41, Mark Adair 12; Maththew Khunemann 1-29, Nathan Ellis 4-12, Adam Zampa 4-23) by 67 runs
[Cricinfo]
The head of Turkiye’s football refereeing body and four other officials have been placed in pretrial detention by a court as part of a corruption investigation, the state news agency Anadolu reports.
Ferhat Gundogdu, head of the Central Referees Committee, and six others appeared before a judge over allegations of manipulation of the referee administration process, Anadolu said on Saturday.
They appeared on Friday before a judge at Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse on several charges, including forgery of official documents, breach of trust and illegal acquisition of personal data, the report said.
The judge remanded five people in custody and granted the other two conditional release, Anadolu said.
It was the latest scandal to shake football in Turkiye, coming exactly a year after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees on charges of illegal betting.
On Thursday night, police from the illegal betting and sports crime unit also detained Yasin Kol, a referee from Turkiye’s top-flight Super Lig, as well as an assistant referee, media reports said.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said prosecutors are examining claims about “interference in the processes of referee classification, assignments, scoring and appointments as well as the exams on rules”.
During raids on Tuesday, police searched the VAR room at TFF’s headquarters in Istanbul. Observers said the investigation was likely linked to last year’s betting scandal and would have implications for the federation.
“It does seem to be a continuation of 2025, and it looks like it will continue further,” sports journalist Ayhan Sensoy told the AFP news agency.
Sensoy, who wrote a 2024 book on the issue called The Gambling Pit, said it was unlikely that federation bosses “have any chance of staying in office”.
So far, the TFF has not directly addressed the arrests as its top officials are due to fly home on Saturday after attending Friday night’s Belgium-Turkiye UEFA Nations League clash in Liege, which Turkiye lost 3-0.
[Aljazeera]
A car has crashed into a crowd of rugby league supporters in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle, injuring 10 people, including three children.
New South Wales police said on Saturday that two of the injured – a five-year-old girl and a 67-year-old man – were in a critical condition and the other eight were in stable condition in hospital.
Police said they had arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to “terrorism”.
The crowd had gathered to farewell the local rugby league side, the Newcastle Knights, ahead of their grand final against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Gavin Morris said the driver, a rugby league fan, had lost control of his vehicle and had been taken into custody.
“He was revving the car, he was excited, he was a supporter, he was there for the joy of the moment,” Morris told the national broadcaster ABC.
“Somehow he lost control of the car … and he’s gone into the crowd,” he added.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “My thoughts are with everyone injured or involved in the horrible incident this morning in Newcastle.”
“Rugby league brings people together, and this should have been a weekend of excitement and pride for Newcastle fans,” he wrote in a social media post.
[Aljazeera]
Polls have opened in Latvia for an election taking place against the backdrop of perceived security threats from Russia and a nationwide cost-of-living squeeze.
Saturday’s vote is the first electoral test for Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs after coming to power in May this year when his predecessor resigned due to a backlash from stray drone incursions from Ukraine.
Kulbergs, whose right-wing United List party is currently polling at about 20 percent, is expected to hold onto his position, but the decline of two allies in his current coalition means he is set for a complicated negotiation over the makeup of any future government.
Polls opened at 05:00 GMT and will close at 17:00 GMT. The results are not expected to change Latvia’s pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course.
About 1.5 million people are eligible to vote in the country’s 11th parliamentary election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Latvian politics are highly fragmented, with parties rarely seeing above 20 percent vote share and coalitions being the norm.
This year, 14 electoral lists are contesting the election, but polls indicate only seven are likely to enter parliament, with the rest expected to fail to meet the minimum 5 percent vote threshold.
Rising living costs, low wages, strains on the healthcare system and long-term population decline have all featured prominently in campaign debates.
Most parties in Latvia are pro-Ukraine; however, the populist Sovereign Power party – which says it wants Ukraine to win but argues money spent supporting Kyiv would be better spent at home – looks likely to become the country’s second-biggest party, with more than 9 percent of the vote. Most other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with Sovereign Power.
Latvia First, a pro-Ukraine and populist nationalist party currently polling at about 9 percent, could be a potential coalition partner for PM Kulbergs.
The Progressives, a pro-European social democratic party, are polling at 6 percent.
Ethnic Russians make up roughly one in four Latvian citizens, but their vote, which has traditionally been cast along identity-based lines, looks set to be made according to economic and social issues.
Latvia is the poorest of the Baltic states, and it has sharply increased its defence spending since Russia invaded Ukraine, now allocating nearly 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defence.
[Aljazeera]
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