Sports

Madrid, Feb 13: Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo faces former club Manchester United for the first time in a mouth-watering Champions League last-16 first leg at the Bernabeu on Wednesday dripping in history and intrigue. The world’s most expensive player has won over the Bernabeu faithful with some breathtaking performances and will have the perfect opportunity to showcase his talents

Lausanne (Switzerland), Feb 12: An official familiar with the decision says International Olympic Committee leaders have dropped wrestling from the program for the 2020 Olympics. In a surprise decision on Tuesday, the official tells The Associated Press that the IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon and remove wrestling instead. The official spoke to the AP on condition of

Chennai, Feb 12: Australian opener Ed Cowan, middle-order batsman Usman Khawaja and IPL’s million-dollar man Glenn Maxwell will be eyeing to get some batting practice in their first two-day warm-up match against the Board President’s XI, here on Tuesday. In the absence of regular skipper Michael Clarke and his deputy Shane Watson, who will be arriving in the next couple of days, wicketkeeper

Mumbai, Feb 10: Under-performing opener Gautam Gambhir was shown the door with Shikhar Dhawan being his surprise replacement in the 15-member Indian cricket squad, announced today for the first two Tests against Australia starting February 22 in Chennai. Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh rode on past reputation to return to the squad to form a three-pronged spin attack also comprising R Ashwin

New Delhi, Feb 10: As the selectors meet in Mumbai on Sunday to pick the team for the Australia series, they will be looking for experienced campaigners who can change the fortunes of the Test team. The likes of Harbhajan Singh, Sreesanth and even Wasim Jaffer, therefore, are all in the fray. According to sources in the Indian cricket board ( BCCI), the selection committee headed by Sandeep Patil

Mumbai, Feb 9: Sachin Tendulkar tuned up brilliantly for the upcoming Test series against Australia by hitting a record equalling 81st first-class century but couldn’t prevent Mumbai from conceding the first-innings lead to Rest of India on the third day of the Irani Cup match here on Friday. Tendulkar looked in fantastic touch as he hit a sparkling unbeaten knock of 140 off 197 balls as he

New Delhi, Feb 9: Finding BCCI guilty of abusing its dominance, Competition Commission today said its probe also found bid rigging attempts by former IPL chief Lalit Modi in award of franchises and the cricket board cannot be absolved of its responsibility in the matter. The fair trade regulator's investigation arm also found that certain actions of BCCI (Board for Control of Cricket in India) led

Mumbai, Feb 7: Suresh Raina on Thursday sent a timely reminder to the selectors for his Test recall with a brilliant century to help Rest of India post a huge first innings total of 526 but the hosts replied strongly reaching 155-2 on day two of the Irani Cup match here. Left-handed Raina, ignored for the entire four-Test rubber against England by the selectors in November-December last year

Cuttack, Feb 7: Indian bowlers kept a tight leash over Pakistan's scoring rate to restrict the archrivals to 192/7 in the seventh-eighth position playoff match of the Women's World Cup on Thursday. The decision to bat first after winning the toss didn't quite work for Pakistan, who were saved to a large extent due to the contrasting half-centuries from Nain Abidi (58) and Nida Dar (68 not out)

Mumbai, Feb 7: Opener Murali Vijay stroked his way to his second successive century in the Irani Cup as Rest of India dominated the opening day of their five-day fixture against recently crowned Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai at the Wankhede stadium on Wednesday. With good contributions from one-down batsman Manoj Tiwary (37), Ambati Rayudu (51) and Suresh Raina (36 not out), RoI ended day one at