6 h. ago Pat Cummins: ‘We want to play hard and fair, and I think we’ve got it right’

The Australia captain talks about leading the side against South Africa and not getting too big for his boots – but plays a dead bat regarding the Bairstow dismissal at Lord’sAs Pat Cummins opens up at the pavilion end, while gazing across the vast empty space of Lord’s a few days before Australia face South Africa in the World Test Championship final, it’s clear that the unexpected opponents this week have helped to frame his remarkable career.On Wednesday morning, while towering a foot over Temba Bavuma, his 5ft 3in South African counterpart, Cummins will lead Australia for the 34th time, in his 68th Test. The fast bowler stands at the summit of world cricket, his grizzled matinee idol charm allied to the grit which has helped him to become such a successful captain. Australia have won almost everything during his tenure of three and a half years and they are expected to retain their Test title. Continue reading...

Politics

10 h. ago Australia v South Africa: where the World Test Championship final will be won and lost

There are subplots aplenty in the winner-takes-all contest between the once familiar foes at Lord’s Defending champions Australia face the No 1 team in the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle with South Africa out to claim the crown for the first time and finally put to bed their “chokers” tag. Australia have played their part as much as any side in stamping that label on South Africa across three decades, but much of that pain and misery could be washed away with a shock triumph at Lord’s.South Africa might be the underdogs but topped the WTC table after taking 69.44% of their possible points from 12 Tests, with Australia the clear next best on 67.54% from 19 matches. The once familiar foes did not meet over the past two years but with an intense rivalry always simmering below the surface and a winner-takes-all contest sure to light a fuse, we look at where the WTC final will be won and lost. Continue reading...

Sport

15 h. ago Injury crisis brewing for British & Irish Lions with Fagerson out of tour

Tighthead Bealham called up with Furlong also injuredOpoku-Fordjour and George join Portugal training campThe British & Irish Lions are facing mounting injury problems at tighthead prop with Zander Fagerson ruled out of the tour of Australia amid serious question marks over Tadhg Furlong’s fitness.Glasgow’s Fagerson has withdrawn from the squad due to a calf injury with the Ireland and Connacht tighthead prop Finlay Bealham added to the 38-man group as a result. Furlong, meanwhile, has not featured for Leinster since the Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Northampton on 3 May and is also battling with a calf injury. Continue reading...

Events

15 h. ago Injury crisis brewing for British & Irish Lions with Zander Fagerson out of tour

Tighthead Bealham called up with Furlong also injuredOpoku-Fordjour and George join Portugal training campThe British & Irish Lions are facing mounting injury problems at tighthead prop with Zander Fagerson ruled out of the tour of Australia amid serious question marks over Tadhg Furlong’s fitness.Glasgow’s Fagerson has withdrawn from the squad due to a calf injury with the Ireland and Connacht tighthead prop Finlay Bealham added to the 38-man group as a result. Furlong, meanwhile, has not featured for Leinster since the Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Northampton on 3 May and is also battling with a calf injury. Continue reading...

Events

27 h. ago Portugal crowned UEFA Nations League champions after scrappy final with Spain

Portugal have won the UEFA Nations League after the pair couldn't be separated until penalty kicks in Munich on Sunday evening

Sport

34 h. ago Rangers 'arrange' friendly against French Ligue 1 side as Russell Martin squeezes in final Champions League warm up game

Reports in France say that the Light Blues will take on Toulouse on July 18

Sport

43 h. ago French Open: Defending champion Alcaraz faces No. 1 Sinner for the men's title

Jannik Sinner faces defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open final in a match pitting the world’s top two men’s players

Politics

61 h. ago Coco Gauff v Aryna Sabalenka live: Scores and updates from heavyweight French Open final

There will be a new Roland Garros champion as Gauff and Sabalenka clash in the women’s singles final

Sport

66 h. ago ‘I was locked in the bathroom sulking’: Temba Bavuma on his path from township to WTC final

The South Africa captain talks about street cricket in Langa, adapting to new schools after a scholarship and why playing at Lord’s means so much“There was always some sort of allegiance with Lord’s when we were growing up in Langa,” Temba Bavuma says of his childhood as a township boy living just outside Cape Town. Bavuma, the first black cricketer to captain South Africa, will lead his country against Australia in the World Test Championship final, which begins at Lord’s on Wednesday.In the quintessentially English surroundings of Arundel, the 5ft 3in Bavuma looks as if he has gone back to being a kid in the dusty townships. “In Langa we had a four-way street,” he says, his face crinkling with the memories. “On the right-hand side of the street the tar wasn’t done so nicely and we used to call it Karachi because the ball would bounce funny. The other side was the MCG [Melbourne Cricket Ground] but my favourite section of the street was clean, and done up nicely, and we called...

Politics

66 h. ago Barcelona’s rebirth and one last job for Szczesny: La Liga season review

It’s the Sids! Barça reclaimed the title as Madrid’s giants faltered while Athletic, Celta and Rayo shook up the European placesThe day La Liga 2024-25 began, Wojciech Szczesny was sitting on the beach in Marbella lighting up a cigarette, enjoying his retirement. The night it ended, he sat in the dressing room in Cornellà, 1,000km round the coast, and lit up a cigar instead. He had walked away in August, at 35 years old, unwanted and his heart no longer in it, or so he thought. Nine months on, here he was surrounded by kids half his age, a footballer again and winner of every trophy his new home country had to offer. He had not lost a single league match en route to becoming a champion.“I’ve arrived where even my imagination wouldn’t even dare to take me,” Szczesny had said when he retired. And if he hadn’t dared imagine that, there was no way he could imagine this: a Copa del Rey, a Super Cup and a Champions League semi-final to go with the title. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Stuart Broad to help out South Africa bowlers but not interested in coaching job

Broad will join the Proteas as a consultant for one day ahead of their World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s.

Politics

4 d. ago The ‘shocking’ truth behind Aryna Sabalenka’s French Open destruction of Iga Swiatek

Sabalenka won 19 of the final 21 points to power over the finish line against the three-time defending champion, and will play Coco Gauff in Saturday’s final

Events

4 d. ago Sabalenka ends Swiatek’s reign on clay to set up French Open final against Gauff

World No1 wins 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-0 as champion crumblesGauff ends Boisson’s fairytale run with 6-1, 6-2 routAfter successfully devoting the past few years of her life to becoming a more well-rounded player and mentally durable individual, Aryna Sabalenka arrived on court for her second French Open semi-final certain that she was finally ready for more. No challenge, not even the task of ending an era of total dominance at Roland Garros, felt beyond her.In the face of her greatest rival on the court Iga Swiatek has made her own, Sabalenka converted her phenomenal form and fortitude into one of the most significant victories of her career as she held her nerve in three delicious, tension filled sets to topple the four-time French Open champion 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-0 and reach the final at Roland Garros for the first time in her career. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Arsenal star's reaction to Champions League question says it all before 'improve' message

Arsenal came close to competing in their first Champions League final since 2006 but were bested in the semi-finals by eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain

Sport

4 d. ago Family of drug kingpin gunned down in Costa Del Sol pub say notorious rival gang are NOT responsible for killings as fears grow over 'revenge' attacks

Monaghan, 43, and Eddie Lyons Jnr, 46, were shot dead as they were watching Saturday's Champions League final at a pub on the Costa del Sol.

Events

4 d. ago Liverpool star Ibrahima Konate explains Anfield influence on PSG wonderkid Desire Doue

Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate has lauded Desire Doue after the Paris Saint-Germain talent helped inspire the French giants to victory in the Champions League final

Politics

5 d. ago Fans spent 27 hours in stadium toilet to watch Champions League final

They watched a historic final as Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 to lift the title

Sport

5 d. ago TikTokers spend 27 hours in stadium toilet to break into Champions League final

They watched a historic final as Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 to lift the title

Sport

5 d. ago The Spin | Why neutrals should back South Africa against Australia in WTC final

Wealth of Big Three is skewing Test cricket and a big win for Australia at Lord’s would only emphasise this gulfOn a recent episode of The Grade Cricketer podcast, the hosts, Sam Perry and Ian Higgins, tore lumps out of South Africa in a foul-mouthed tirade about the World Test Championship final against Australia. Perry predicted a finish “inside three days” and Higgins, practically thumping the table, said: “If I don’t look at a scorecard and South Africa are three for spit my TV is going through the window.” Cue big alpha chuckles and main-character knee slaps.I know they were joking, skewering Australian arrogance as much as South African frailty, and that they have built a formidable brand that runs on side-mouthed jibes and hyperbolic bluster. Still, the lizard part of my brain lit up in protest. How dare they dismiss my countrymen? I wasn’t alone in taking offence. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Wiegman optimistic Lauren James will be fit for Lionesses’ squad at Euro 2025

Forward sidelined since April with hamstring injuryEngland squad for tournament named on ThursdaySarina Wiegman spoke positively about Lauren James’s chances of being fit enough to play at this summer’s European Championship, as she prepares to name her final squad of 23 players for the tournament on Thursday.The Chelsea forward has been sidelined since sustaining a hamstring injury in April during a victory for England at home to Belgium at Ashton Gate, and her involvement in July’s Euros in Switzerland has been in doubt, but on Tuesday night Wiegman appeared more than optimistic. Continue reading...

Politics