England 192/4 against SA on rain-hit Day 1

Johannesburg: Zak Crawley scored a maiden Test half-century before South Africa fought back to restrict England to 192/4 when bad light stopped play early in the opening day of the fourth Test. Crawley suffered a nasty blow to the head but still made 66 as he and Dom Sibley put on 107 for the opening wicket but the home side hit back with four wickets in an extended evening session, including the prize scalp of Ben Stokes. Stokes could face disciplinary action after a foul-mouthed row with a spectator after his dismissal. Stokes was shown on television exchanging insults with a middle-aged man as he walked off the field after being caught cheaply for two runs.

Brief Scores: England: 192/4 (Crawley 66, Sibley 44); vs South Africa

New Delhi

Ministry to hire around 1,500 coaches: Rijiju

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government has decided to recruit around 1,500 coaches to fill up existing vacancies and ensured full support to the country’s athletes. “We are not going to wait for the eight years period and will promote the assistant coaches to the senior level after a few years on the basis of their service record, so that there is no dearth of coaches. We are hiring reputed foreign coaches, irrespective of their remuneration. There will be no shortage of funds for the training of the Indian athletes. There are some very good Indian trainers and coaches and we are hiring them as well,” he added.

Lahore

Malik stars in Pak’s 5-wkt win over Bangladesh

Shoaib Malik smashed a half-century to anchor Pakistan’s five-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first T20I. Malik’s unbeaten 45-ball 58 helped Pakistan overhaul a modest 142-run target in 19.3 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Brief Scores: Bangladesh: 141/5 (Naim 43, Tamim 39); Pakistan: 142/5 in 19.3 overs (Malik 58*, Ahsan 36; Shafiul 2/27)

Kolkata

Sindhu’s duty to adapt to calendar: Gopichand

Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand has admitted that the crammed Badminton World Federation (BWF) itinerary is causing problems to the players, but added that they must adapt. Gopichand said the onus is on a player of PV Sindhu’s calibre to adapt to the calendar instead of complaining about it. Though Sindhu won in the World Championships gold last year, she failed to win any other tournament. “I think the crammed schedule is a problem for the top players, but also to be fair, world over it (crammed scheduling) is a problem. We need to find a solution for it. The players need to be smart and the system needs to put these boundaries in place which as a country we have not done,” he said, and added: “As a top player, it’s her (Sindhu) duty to adapt without complaining.”— Agencies

Hyderabad

ISL: Hyderabad steal point after a late penalty

Marko Stankovic scored a late penalty as Hyderabad FC held Mumbai City FC to a 1-1 draw in an enthralling Indian Super League match. A Mohamed Larbi (43rd minute) spot-kick seemed to have given Mumbai City all three points before an injury-time penalty from Stankovic (90+4th) ensured Hyderabad salvaged a point at home.

Bengaluru

KRYPSHA FC beat Kickstart FC 4-0 in IWL opener

Dangmei Grace scored a brace as KRYPSHA FC cruised to a 4-0 victory over Kickstart FC in the opening match of the 4th Indian Women’s League football. In the second match, defending champions Sethu FC thrashed Kolhapur City FC 5-0, with Sandhiya getting a hat-trick.

Wolverhampton

Firmino secures another late Liverpool win at Wolves

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hailed another moment of magic from Roberto Firmino as the Brazilian’s late winner opened up a 16-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 victory at Wolves on Thursday.

Madrid

Copa del Rey: Atletico lose to third division club

Atletico Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey on Thursday, defeated 2-1 in extra-time by third division club Cultural Leonesa.

Amsterdam

Dutch rider Straver dies a week after Dakar fall

Dutch motorcycle rider Edwin Straver has died after crashing on the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia last week. The 48-year-old is the second rider to die as a result of a fall during this year’s gruelling event, held for the first time in the Middle East. Portuguese rider Paulo Goncalves died after a crash in the seventh stage. Straver broke one of his upper neck vertebrae during the fall, and had no heartbeat for 10 minutes before being resuscitated. agencies