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India win Test series as Australia force draw in Ahmedabad

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PUNIT PARANJPE/ AFP

Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne helped Australia draw the fourth and final test against India on Monday, as the home side retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 2-1 series victory in Ahmedabad.

India took a 91-run first innings lead on Sunday to put themselves in an unbeatable position heading into the final day of the only test in the series that lasted the full five days.

Australia declared on 175-2, batting resolutely to frustrate India, who have held the trophy since 2016-17 and registered their 16th consecutive home series victory.

Head made 90 and forged a 139-run stand with Labuschagne, who made 63 not out, before players from both sides shook hands at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

India also confirmed their place in the World Test Championship final against Australia in June following Sri Lanka’s two-wicket loss to New Zealand in Christchurch earlier in the day.

“It was fantastic right from the word go,” India captain Rohit Sharma said of the series at the presentation ceremony.

“You saw how exciting it was. In all the test matches that we played, there was something in it for every one.

“After playing good cricket for 40-45 days, we stand here with the result, which we are quite happy with.”

India’s hopes of a third victory in the series hinged on a batting collapse but the wicket in Ahmedabad did not deteriorate as much as their spinners would have liked.

Australia had sent out Matt Kuhnemann to open the innings with Head on Sunday after Usman Khawaja hurt his knee while fielding.

Kuhnemann, who faced 35 balls for his six runs, was unlucky to be given lbw to a Ravichandran Ashwin delivery which, replays confirmed, would have missed the stumps.

Axar Patel denied Head a century by hitting the top of his off stump with a ball from the rough but Australia had reached safety by then.

India let batters Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara to roll their arms just for fun on a track where only 22 wickets fell in five days.

“That was a pretty flat wicket that one,” said Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith.

“It was a really well fought series. I think we started to play a lot better as the series went on.”

Smith led Australia in the last two tests after regular captain Pat Cummins flew home to be with his mother who passed away last week.

Virat Kohli was adjudged player-of-the-match for his painstaking 186, his first test hundred since November 2019.

Indian spinners Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who claimed a combined 47 wickets, shared the player-of-the-series award.



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Journalist for 25 years with leading publications in India and UAE such as The National, Mumbai Mirror, DNA, Indian Express and former Sports Editor of eIndia.com. Now managing editor of Headline.ae, part of MEMc (https://www.memc.co)

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Sinner breezes into Miami Open semis – ARN News Centre

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Jannik Sinner rolled past Tomas Machac 6-4 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Miami Open on Wednesday where the second seed will face either defending champion Daniil Medvedev or Nicolas Jarry.

The first set of the match played in humid conditions hinged on a Machac service game at 3-3 where the unseeded Czech’s forehand missed its target on break point to give Sinner a 4-3 lead.

The Italian would wrap up the set with a love hold when Machac was unable to put a second serve back in play.

In the second set, Machac’s forehand sailed long to give Sinner the break and a 2-1 lead. Sinner would break again with a backhand winner for 4-1 and closed out the contest with a serve out wide that Machac could not get back.

Sinner, who was a finalist at the tournament in 2021 and 2023, produced 16 winners to four unforced errors in a stress-free victory.

The win was Australian Open champion Sinner’s 20th of the year and sets up a potential rematch with Medvedev in the semis after the pair met in last year’s Miami Open final and January’s Melbourne Park final.

Sinner has lost just one match this year, falling in the semi-finals of Indian Wells to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.

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Brave Sainz leads Ferrari 1-2 in Australia after Verstappen retires – ARN News Centre

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Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday in a triumphant return two weeks after appendicitis surgery as Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement in two years.

Sainz, the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race last season, held off teammate Charles Leclerc before a final-lap crash by Mercedes driver George Russell triggered a virtual safety car and eased the Spaniard’s path to victory.

“It was a really good race. I felt really good out there,” said a thrilled Sainz.

“Of course a bit stiff and especially physically it wasn’t the easiest but I was lucky that I was more or less on my own and I could manage my pace, manage the tyres, manage everything, and it wasn’t the toughest race of all.

“But very happy, very proud of the team, and happy to be in a one-two with Charles here.”

Lando Norris was third for McLaren, thwarting fourth-placed teammate Oscar Piastri’s hopes of a first podium by an Australian driver at the F1 race.

Verstappen, the winner in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, started on pole for the third time this season but retired on the fourth lap with a brake problem as flames leaped out of the right rear of his car. It was his first DNF since retiring from Albert Park in the 2022 race and ended his run of nine successive race wins.

Verstappen said he was basically driving with the handbrake on from the start. “That’s why already it felt the car was really weird to drive in some corners. It was just very snappy,” said the Dutchman. Red Bull have now suffered two defeats in 26 races dating back to the last round of 2022.

Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton was also forced to retire early with a power unit problem after starting 11th on the grid following his worst Melbourne qualifying since 2010.

His teammate Russell completed a dismal day for the Silver Arrows by skidding into gravel at turn six and crashing into the barrier to wreck his car and bring out the virtual safety car.

Sergio Perez finished fifth for Red Bull, one ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who started 10th on the grid and edged seventh-placed teammate Lance Stroll. Alonso was later summoned to the stewards over Russell’s crash.

Yuki Tsunoda was eighth to deliver RB their first points, with ninth-placed Nico Hulkenberg and Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen rounding out the top 10.

Williams had only one driver in the race, with Alex Albon finishing 11th and out of the points in his team mate Logan Sargeant’s car, the American ordered to make way after Albon wrecked his own car in Friday practice.



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Poland edge Wales 5-4 on penalties to qualify for Euro 2024 – ARN News Centre

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Poland’s Wojciech Szczesny saved a Daniel James spot kick as they dashed Wales’ hopes and won a penalty shootout 5-4 to qualify for Euro 2024 as the last country through from the playoff finals on Tuesday.

The victory at the Cardiff City Stadium, after a cagey 90 minutes and further deadlock in extra time, secured Poland a fifth straight appearance at the continental tournament.

They will be in Group D with France, the Netherlands and Austria at the finals in Germany, which start in June.

“It wasn’t easy because we knew Wales at home are dangerous. For us the most important thing was to play our own game and that’s what we’ve done,” said Poland manager Michal Probierz.

“We missed opportunities to shoot more, we are aware of that. The most important thing was qualifying and nobody cares about anything else today.”

Wales went into their first ever shootout with 10 men after Chris Mepham was sent off in added time of extra time for a second yellow card but they matched Poland until James’ miss.

It was the first time since 2012 that Wales, whose talismanic record scorer Gareth Bale retired after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, had failed to qualify for the Euros.

Defender Ben Davies, captain in the continued absence of midfielder Aaron Ramsey, had the home fans roaring when he headed into the net on the stroke of halftime but it was confirmed as offside by VAR after the linesman had flagged.

Striker Kieffer Moore also had a looping header well saved by Szczesny in the second half, while Poland’s Jakub Piotrowski shot just over the bar in extra time.

“It is a cruel game, that’s what I’ve said to the players,” said Wales manager Rob Page, whose side thrashed Finland 4-1 in the playoff semi-final last week and had home advantage again.

“One kick away from qualifying and it hurts.

“I thought we were the better team. My message to the players at halftime was: ‘We are the better team, we will go on to win this game’.”

Poland, with captain and talismanic forward Robert Lewandowski stepping up to score the first penalty after a confident shimmy to send Danny Ward the wrong way, failed to produce a shot on target until then while Wales had four.

Davies calmly levelled the score at 1-1 in the shootout, Sebastian Szymanski kept Poland ahead and Moore made it 2-2 with a shot that bounced in off the bar.

Poland’s Przemyslaw Frankowski fired into the top corner and Wales’ Harry Wilson shot bravely down the middle, with Nicola Zalewski taking the score to 4-3 for the visitors before Neco Williams again equalised for the Welsh.

Pole Krzysztof Piatek then scored a fifth, leaving Leeds United forward James the task of extending the shootout to sudden death, but Szczesny dived the right way leaving his team to sing joyously with the delirious travelling fans.



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