Sports
Rainy Florida awaits confident USA and demoralised Ireland
Florida is in the midst of a tropical disturbance that has brought intense rainfall. And there’s no respite for the remainder of the week. A flash-flood emergency in the region threatens to wash out the entire leg of matches at Central Broward Park.
Two days ago, Nepal vs Sri Lanka was washed out before there could be a toss. Friday’s morning fixture between USA and Ireland will likely meet the same fate. If that happens, USA can celebrate; a Super Eight berth will be theirs along with India from Group A. It will mean a dagger through Pakistani hearts; it will seem inevitable after they opened their campaign with back-to-back losses to USA and India.
Saurabh Netravalkar may need to change the date of his out of office email from June 17 until possibly the end of the month. It’s likely he won’t need to tell his employers why. The cricketing world watched his opening salvo with the new ball as he famously dismissed Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in successive overs on Wednesday morning.
Ireland are entering this game with slim hopes of qualifying. Having begun the tournament with two morale-shattering losses themselves, including one to Canada, they need to win both their remaining games by considerable margins.
But instead of plotting and planning, they will likely be scouring weather forecasts, and that may not change anything. It’s that bleak.
Monank Patel missed Thursday’s match against India due to a shoulder niggle. The USA captain has been in good form too; his half-century was pivotal in their taking the game against Pakistaan into a Super Over. In the lead-up to the T20 World Cup, he struck two match-winning half-centuries against Canada, while a cruicial 42 helped steer USA home against Bangladesh. While the team management is optimistic of him being ready for Friday, the rain may just come as a blessing in disguise to give him two extra days to recover in time for the Super Eight.
He can make heads turn with his robust approach in the powerplay, but Paul Stirling has endured a lean run lately, dismissed for 2 and 9 in Ireland’s first two games. His highest score in seven T20Is since the start of May is 36 against Netherlands. Ireland will need much more than that if they are to compete. Stirling has been a part of several giant-killing acts during the course of his career. Can he come up with another to keep the group alive, if rain allows play?
Monank is likely to come in for Shayan Jahangir for the hosts.
USA possible XI: Monank Patel (capt & wk), Steven Taylor, Andries Gous, Aaron Jones, Nitish Kumar, Corey Anderson, Harmeet Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ali Khan, Nosthush Kenjige/Shadley van Schalkwyk.
Conditions will probably dictate who among Ben White, the legspinner, or Craig Young, the fast bowler, play.
Ireland possible XI: Paul Stirling (capt), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Josh Little, Craig Young.
[Cricinfo]
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IPL 2025: Chennai Super Kings suffer fifth loss on the trot as Kolkata Knight Riders register monster win
So that’s what happens when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get the kind of pitch their spinners like. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali (12-1-55-6) went into Chepauk and burgled wickets away from the five-time IPL champions until they were a pale, weak shadow of themselves. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) crumbled to 103 for 9, their lowest IPL total at home, suffered a fifth successive defeat, which had never happened before in their entire history, and are marooned in ninth place on the points table. Welcome back to captaincy, MS Dhoni.
The major characteristic of a black-soil pitch is that it is slow and it grips. It felt like home, which is ironic because home hasn’t felt like home for them this season. KKR would prefer to play most of their matches in conditions like this but their efforts to procure them at the Eden Gardens hasn’t gone well. Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t even want to talk about it now. He did, however, spearhead a phenomenal bowling performance. He brought Moeen into the XI and set him loose on CSK’s two left-hand openers. Devon Conway couldn’t overcome the handicap. The KKR offspinner pocketed a wicket maiden. In the next over, Rachin Ravindra was gone. CSK were bleeding by the end of the powerplay, their 31 for 2 only slightly better than the season low of 30 for 3 that they themselves had set, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Exposing this CSK team’s middle order is the only thing their oppositions need to do to win against them. Rahul Tripathi was brought in as Ruturaj Gaikwad’s replacement but he couldn’t figure out whether he wanted to hit out or play through and that indecision was reflected in his final score – 16 off 22. Vijay Shankar could have been dismissed for a duck, or for 20, had KKR held onto their catches. Even with those two lives he couldn’t push on to make a big score. Shivam Dube walked out with CSK at 59 for 3. He had faced only 13 balls and that was still enough time for the score to slip to 75 for 8, at which point his team was in danger of recording their lowest total in IPL history.
For the 16th time in his IPL career, Narine bowled his four overs without conceding a boundary. No one, having got through their full quota, has done it more times. He also knocked off Tripathi, who didn’t know which way the ball would turn, and Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni, who didn’t know which way the ball would spin. There was some doubt over the Dhonii lbw, though. UltraEdge showed what looked like faint murmurs as the ball passed the bat.
CSK were being smothered. They had to wait 63 balls between boundaries – only two teams have ever been that emphatically silenced in this tournament – and hit just three after the eighth over (one of them off a top edge). They had to bring in Deepak Hooda as Impact Player, accepting the risk of going in with a bowler short when they would have to defend this total. But even that gamble backfired. Hooda fell for a duck and one of their key players, Matheesha Pathirana, could not take part in the game.
Defending 103 is a thankless job because bowlers tend to go hard searching for wickets and in that process they leak runs. After under-performing in their batting powerplay, CSK underwhelmed with their bowling powerplay. KKR ransacked 71 runs in the first six overs. This game was no contest.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 107 for 2 in 10.1 overs (Sunil Narine 44, Quinton de Kock 23, Ajinkaya Rahane 20*, Rinku Singh 15*; Anshul Kamboj 1-19, Noor Ahmad 1-08) beat Chennai Super Kings 103 for 9 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 12, Rahul Tripathi 16, Vijay Shankar 29, Shivam Dube 31; Sunil Narine 3-13, Varun Chakravarthy 2-22, Harshit Rana 2-16, Moeen Ali 1-20, Vaibhav Arora 1-31) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool.
The 32-year-old’s previous deal was scheduled to run out in the summer and there had been doubts he would stay with the Reds following comments from him during the season and speculation linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia.
However, he is staying and will have the chance to add to his 243 goals and 109 assists for the club in 393 appearances.
“Of course I’m very excited – we have a great team now,” said Salah.
“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.
“I have played eight years here, hopefully it’s going to be 10. I’m enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I have had the best years of my career here.”
Salah has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, including 27 in the Premier League as the Reds chase a 20th top-flight title. Liverpool are 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with seven games remaining.
Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup with the Reds.
He was one of three key Liverpool players who will be out of contract this summer, along with right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
Netherlands defender Van Dijk has said there has been progress on talks over a new deal but Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.
[BBC]
Warm Weather Advisory issued for Eastern and Uva provinces and Polonnaruwa and Mullaitivu districts.
IPL 2025: Chennai Super Kings suffer fifth loss on the trot as Kolkata Knight Riders register monster win
Sun directly overhead Adiyakulam, Veppankulam, Padawiya and Kuchchaveli at about 12:11 noon today [12]
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