Manchester City are expected to be active in the market over the near future and could now beat rivals Manchester United to sign a teenage sensation who has excelled at the Under-17 World Cup.

Pep Guardiola will hope his side can strike up a bid to claim the Premier League title this season. However, they suffered a setback on the road to potential glory after falling to a defeat against Newcastle United on Saturday evening.

Harvey Barnes’ double cancelled out Ruben Dias’ equaliser at St James’ Park, albeit the Citizens were off colour in front of goal and were made to rue their missed chances, something Guardiola pointed out when speaking after the match.

He said: “Newcastle is a top side, top players, top manager, so unfortunately tonight we could not make the momentum that we had. It was an entertaining game, we both had chances, and then there was a momentum shift, and ultimately we couldn’t win.”

Ultimately, there is plenty of football still to be played and twists will occur before the Premier League title race starts to take a clear course. Still, Manchester City are now sitting adrift of Arsenal and Chelsea, which is something that needs to give over the next few weeks.

Man City’s upcoming fixtures – all competitions

Bayer Leverkusen (H)

Champions League

Leeds United (H)

Premier League

Fulham (A)

Premier League

Sunderland (H)

Premier League

Real Madrid (A)

Champions League

Nico O’Reilly’s emergence into the Citizens’ first-team and Matheus Nunes slotting in at right-back show that solutions are there to be stumbled upon for Guardiola, though you get the feeling January will be an important month to conclude meaningful business.

While bringing in senior players will be the priority, there may also be a focus on acquiring stars of the future at the Etihad Stadium amid recent developments.

Man City keen to sign Under-17 World Cup star Mohamed Zongo

According to Africa Foot, Man City are keen to sign Tenakourou Academy star Mohamed Zongo, who is also on the radar of Manchester United, Villarreal and Anderlecht after giving an excellent account of himself at the Under-17 World Cup.

On the biggest stage within his age group, the 15-year-old registered two goals and three assists from an attacking midfield role, and the Citizens have now initiated talks alongside the trio mentioned.

Labelled “magic” by Under-23 football scout Antonio Mango, he may become the next exciting gem in a long line at Manchester City, though no club has reached an agreement after his exploits at the youth World Cup.

Either way, beating Manchester United to his signature would be a signal of intent by Manchester City as they build for the future at the Etihad Stadium.

Man City & Pep now keen on Real Madrid star with Erling Haaland swap possible

India, Pakistan’s next opponents in the Champions Trophy, will almost inevitably seek to expose this frailty

Andrew Fidel Fernando21-Feb-20252:31

Mumtaz: ‘Very disappointing to watch Babar’s lack of intent’

When the masters of playing spin are at their peak, the thoughts that dominate the higher functions of the mind are not necessarily about the next ball, the pitch, how fast it is turning, how much flight is being given, and how fast or slow it comes, but where the fielders are, how they manipulate them and by extension the opposition captain.Here’s Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a very good player of spin, talking about Brian Lara, who was arguably the best spin player ever (no one dominated Shane Warne Muttiah Muralidaran, quite like Lara):”I know Brian, when he bats, he hits the ball behind point, very hard. Sometimes he got spin on the ball, and sometimes he doesn’t put spin on the ball. And he does it deliberately. It depends on where the guy on the point boundary is fielding. If the guy on the boundary is out square, then he puts spin on the ball so it keep running away further behind and the guy can’t catch it. And sometimes they put him behind, and Brian hit it with no spin so it go in front for four. He still the ball, but he does not put spin on the ball. He’s an amazing batter. Serious.”Babar Azam had been an amazing batter – serious – too. Until the end of 2021, Babar averaged 89.94 against spin in ODIs with a strike rate of 89. These are, from a bowling team’s perspective, “get him off strike and try and bowl as many as you can at the other guy” numbers. Babar was weaker against pace bowling, by which I mean he averaged only 57.22 against seam bowling.Related

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But spin? Uff. He’s never swept his way to hundreds, as others often do on Asian surfaces. But there were jaunts down the crease to clip balls through wide long-on, sinkings deep into the crease to play that whip shot through midwicket, cuts either side of point, and the regular array of Babar cover drives. When he slog-swept, the ball tended to travel over wide long-on, rather than square leg. No one much cared at the time, where it was going. Because it was going somewhere pretty often.That a wall has been hit and a decline has been entered since then is public knowledge by now. The Babar of February 2025, has demons to overcome. Oppositions know this well. New Zealand, the kings of finding little gaps in the armour of opposition and wriggling through them to the semi-finals of major tournaments, landed on a big one in the tournament opener. Babar, by his high standards, doesn’t love the ball that turns into him. Since 2022, he’s loved it even less.Until the end of 2021, he’d averaged 51.72 against balls that turned in (offspinners and left-arm wristspinners combined). From 2022 onwards, he’s averaged 31.80 against balls turning in. The killer stat is the strike rate – where before the end of 2021 it had been 88.49 against bowlers whose stock delivery turned the ball into him, since then it has dipped to 67.65.And where Babar was once a batter who would dictate fields to bowling teams, sides such as New Zealand, who play the percentages beautifully, have begun to dictate terms to him. In the Champions Trophy opener, Babar scored 22 off 35 balls off bowlers whose stock delivery came in. These were not offpsinners of the highest quality. With apologies to the index finger of Michael Bracewell, the man is clearly a better batter. For Glenn Phillips, offspin is clearly his third-best cricketing discipline, to follow his spectacular fielding and manic batting.Babar Azam played a scratchy innings against New Zealand•ICC/Getty ImagesThat the two were so adept at keeping Babar quiet is down to their field placements too. For much of that innings, there was a short midwicket in place, which would have made Babar think twice about that whip to the legside that is a favoured middle-overs shot. A more confident Babar would have hit over the top, smoked boundaries either side of that fielder, and wormed his way in the brain of the opposing captain. He made 64 off 90, when to be up with the required rate he would have had to make better than a run-a-ball. It was, if we are being brutally honest, a match-losing innings.In ODIs at least, the batting against spin has been Babar’s primary problem. In fact, his batting against pace has improved – he averages 57.52 against pace since 2022, when he’d averaged 47.35, both strike rates hovering around the 90 mark. Oppositions know this now. Babar opened the innings Wednesday, but he faced 57 balls of spin, to the 33 deliveries of seam bowling.India have such a surfeit of spin options, that they will almost inevitably seek to expose this frailty. They have Kuldeep Yadav as one bowler who can turn the ball into Babar. In the squad, also is Washington Sundar.Spinners turning the ball into a great right-hand batter tend to fare poorly, generally speaking. But we are not in a great phase of Babar’s batting right now. India will also come armed with the knowledge that this particular great player of spin is scratching his way to fifties, rather than dictating fields to oppositions. And in Dubai, they will likely play on a track that will envenom the kinds of bowlers Babar does not love facing right now.

Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh had a dream 2025 MLB season but ultimately it will feel like a nightmare as his Mariners fell a game short of the World Series after losing to the Blue Jays, 4-3, in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night.

The switch-hitting catcher belted 60 home runs during the regular season and then added five more in the postseason. His last dinger came in the Game 7 loss when he gave the Mariners a 3-1 lead with a solo shot to right field in the fifth inning.

Raleigh was understandably emotional after the loss. He fought through tears while talking to reporters at his locker, calling the season a "failure" after the team fell short of its ultimate goal of winning a championship.

“I’m super proud of these guys. It was a great team effort. I love every guy in this room but ultimately it’s not what we wanted," Raleigh said when asked to sum up his team's year. "I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure. We expected to get to the World Series and win the World Series and that’s what the bar is and what the standard is and it’s what we want to hold ourselves accountable to but yeah, it hurts. But I don’t want that to take away—like I said I’m proud of the guys in the room, I thought we fought all the way to the end and like I said I think it’s a great group of guys and I love every single one of them."

Here's that emotional post-game interview.

While Raleigh was rightfully bummed out with how his season came to an end, he could still very well win the AL MVP award thanks to his monstrous year.

The Mariners, however, will be kicking themselves for a while about how they fell just short of making it to the World Series. The took a 3-2 series lead over the Blue Jays with a win at home in Game 5 but then were not able to get one more win on the road as that 3-1 lead in Game 7 was wiped out by a three-run home run in the seventh inning by Toronto's George Springer.

The Blue Jays will now face the Dodgers in the World Series with Game 1 taking place Friday night in Toronto.

The National League Division Series between the Brewers and Cubs hasn't had any shortage of runs thus far.

Milwaukee won Game 1 by a score of 9-3, then each team hit a three-run home run to open Game 2 Monday, marking the first postseason game in MLB history in which both sides hit a three-run homer (or grand slam) in the first inning.

As Game 2 was tied at three runs apiece, Brewers catcher William Contreras hit a monster 411-foot bomb to give his squad the lead.

Perhaps the best part of Contreras's big home run was his celebration afterward, just watching the ball sail over the left-field fence at American Family Field and putting his hand up toward the dugout before rounding the bases. Check out the electric moment below:

After the third-inning homer, the Brewers opened their lead up to four runs in the next inning thanks to another three-run shot to center field off the bat of Jackson Chourio. Milwaukee hopes to extend their lead in the series to 2-0 Monday before they head to Chicago to try and earn a trip to the NL Championship Series.

They've already given their home fans plenty to root for with three home runs Monday night. The Brewers' offense is providing all the electricity to start their playoff schedule.

He scored 139 to help the team recover from 15 for 5 against Gujarat and set a challenging target

Hemant Brar in Rajkot03-Mar-2020Arpit Vasavada was born in 1988, three years after Clive Lloyd played his last international match. Still, Lloyd and his great West Indies side of the 1970s and 1980s played an instrumental role in Vasavada becoming a cricketer.The story goes like this: Vyomeshbhai Vasavada, Arpit’s father, used to follow cricket commentary on radio in his younger days, and was inspired by the feats of Lloyd’s side. “At that time only, I decided I would make my [future] child a cricketer,” Vyomeshbhai says. Coincidentally, just like Lloyd, Vasavada is also a left-hand batsman and used to wear specs, before undergoing a vision-correction surgery not very long ago.Vyomeshbhai was passionate for cricket but had little talent himself. “When Arpit was three, I used to take him on my bicycle to Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground,” he says. “But since I never held a cricket bat in my life, I had to look out for a coach when he grew a little older.”He was working for Indian Railways at that time and one of his colleagues there was Arvind Pujara, Cheteshwar Pujara’s father. So he decided to send his son to him, and it’s there Vasavada learnt his first cricketing lessons.Cut to the present and Vasavada needed to draw from all those lessons to rescue Saurashtra from a perilous position against Gujarat in the ongoing Ranji Trophy semi-final. Coming in at 15 for 5 on Monday, Vasavada had not only denied Chintan Gaja a hat-trick but, in Chetan Sakariya’s company, also took the side to stumps without further damage.If Gaja ruled the third day with a whirlwind 61 and a five-for, Vasavada gave the early signs on Tuesday morning to whom day four would belong. Resuming from his overnight 23, he drove Gaja through the covers for a boundary. Arzan Nagwaswalla too pitched one up in the next over and was given the same treatment. Next ball he shortened his length only to be punched in front of the point.Along with Sakariya, who proved more than a handy ally, Vasavada took the side past 100. The breakthrough for Gujarat eventually came in the form of a run-out when Vasavada called for a risky single but an Axar Patel direct hit found Sakariya short.The run-out left Vasavada on his haunches even though Sakariya was being applauded by his team-mates for his 45. “He was playing so well that it didn’t look like any bowler could get him out, so I was very disappointed,” Vasavada said at the end of the day.At 105 for 6, there was a big task ahead and Vasavada knew it. That was the reason he didn’t even raise his bat after reaching his fifty and acknowledged the standing ovation from his team-mates with nothing more than a reluctant thumbs-up.”At that time, my job hadn’t even started,” he said later. “And anyway personal benchmarks don’t matter much when the team is in such a position. What matters is if you can take the side to a strong position.”With Chirag Jani at the other end, he started the rebuilding process once again. The two were cautious initially but once the ball got soft, they started imposing themselves. Vasavada, who had consumed 108 balls for his fifty, took only 73 more to bring up his seventh first-class hundred, and the third of this season. In fact, he has converted all three of his 50-plus scores this season into a hundred.Soon after Gaja sent back Jani and Prerak Mankad with the second new ball but Vasavada carried on. Along with Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, he added 41 for the ninth wicket. But when Jadeja was dismissed, he went for quick runs, hooking Nagwaswalla for a six and a four before being caught at deep-backward square leg for 139. By then the lead had swelled to 326.All this time, his father was watching him from his fixed spot in the stands. “Now that I am retired, I come here for every game,” he says. When asked why he doesn’t sit in the invitees’ box, he reasons, “It’s much calmer here.”When Vasavada was on 93, there was a huge appeal for caught-behind as he tried to cut Axar. Gujarat went for the review after the on-field umpire deemed it not-out. The third umpire took a long time but there was no conclusive evidence to overturn the decision. Vyomeshbhai, though, was convinced his son hadn’t hit it.As soon as Vasavada reached his hundred, Vyomeshbhai started getting congratulatory calls. Those who were not following the game, Vyomeshbhai called them himself. After all, his son’s knock had made Saurashtra the favourites to face Bengal in the final.

Matchwinner Mignon du Preez says England win gives South Africa belief they can go all the way

Annesha Ghosh at the WACA Stadium23-Feb-2020“Shosholoza
Ku lezontaba
Stimela si qhamuka e South Africa
Stimela si qhamuka e South Africa…”
The media centre at the WACA, like most press boxes in cricket stadiums around the world, denies its occupants many aural pleasures that lay at the heart of the game’s visceral appeal. On Sunday night, when South Africa’s women beat England for the first time at a T20 World Cup, the best part of the sounds of South Africa’s historic victory remained on the other side of the glass. One of the few that consistently penetrated through the gaps of its two doors was verses of “Shosholoza”, emanating from the Bradman Room, adjacent to the media centre.”That was the main song we were singing all through this game,” said Mapumi Mabuza, general manager (stakeholder relations) at Brand South Africa, a government-owned agency, who was among the 60-strong South Africa contingent in the Bradman Room, singing away, raising toasts. “It’s like an anthem of unity. Used back in the day by migrant labourers, South Africans sing it to encourage each other, cheer them on. And it seemed to have worked for our girls today, in the presence of such a strong South Africa support.”I found out recently from the high commissioner that the estimate [of the number of South Africans living in Australia] is about close to half a million. A lot of them have lived here for a while, some have come here for work. For our girls to win for the first time… it’s a proud, proud day for all of us present here, and back home too.”ALSO READ: Du Preez holds nerve in 100th T20I to seal thrillerAs celebrations among the Brand South Africa revellers picked up, Mignon Du Preez, barely catching her breath back from the thrill of the six and four she struck off the last two balls to seal South Africa’s chase, went about a string of post-match interviews near the boundary overlooked by the Bradman Room.In the lead-up to the game, too, much of the focus had been on du Preez. In a career spanning over 13 years, with more than 200 international caps across formats and appearances in all six editions of the T20 World Cup prior, du Preez, a former captain and senior batter in the side, was to become the first South African woman to play 100 T20Is. It was fitting therefore that standing atop a national record, she should go down on a knee to reflect for a moment after top-edging the third ball in the last over, with the six putting South Africa one run shy of victory.”Everybody who knows me knows that religion is very important for me, so before I go to bed, I say, ‘God gave me the story and he got me on the bus, now play for him’,” du Preez said after the match. “And in that moment also, I just said, ‘Please, just be with me. And thank you for being with me before, when I hit the six, because that was probably the hard part but now stay with me to make sure that and finish it off for the team.'”In her 99 T20I matches prior, only three times had du Preez struck the winning runs. Here then was an opportunity for her to not only make her milestone match a historic one for her team, but to also overcome an opponent that thwarted their progression to the final and semi-final in the last two world tournaments.

This will give us the boost we need to go one step further than the semi-finals and take a World Cup trophy home. We know we’re good enoughMignon du Preez

“I’ve played enough games in my career to be able to step up in crucial moments and I think to finally do that and contribute to the team is really special,” du Preez said. “It’s nice to finally beat them in an ICC tournament. This is the seventh one I’ve played in and we’ve never got close before. To put that behind us and move forward is really exciting.”We’ve always known how strong we are and that within the team we have match-winners but we had a monkey on our back. This will give us the boost we need to go one step further than the semi-finals and take a World Cup trophy home. We know we’re good enough, we just have to play well and enjoy it.”South Africa’s landmark win also coincided with the WACA recording its highest attendance – 2008 – for a women’s match. Sunday’s figures surpassed the combined numbers from Saturday’s double-header (ticketed as one game) by a count of four, the spectators including a strong travelling contingent from the UK, including families of players and members of the Barmy Army.The turnout at the WACA on Sunday was only a fraction of the 16,000-plus attendance at the Sydney Showground Stadium, where India stunned defending champions Australia two days earlier in the tournament opener. However, South Africa sinking a higher-ranked England has only underscored just how closely contested a world tournament this could be, and just how important for teams to hold their nerves.”At the halfway…she [Dane van Niekerk, the captain] said she wants every batter that walks into the crease tonight to bat themselves and know they’ve got a job to do and they can finish it off,” du Preez said. “The way she and Kappy [Marizanne Kapp] set the example, the brilliant partnership [of 84 for the second wicket] in the middle, that definitely got us close to what we needed.”We know we’ve got batting depth. I think it’s important for them to take it as deep as possible. And every batter that walked into the crease just know that you have the ability and you can win a game for your country.”

Who took the first hat-trick in international cricket? Who scored a hundred and took a hat-trick in the same Test? Read on for the answers

Bharath Seervi09-Apr-2020 Did You Know?107 Number of hat-tricks in men’s international cricket, 45 in Tests, 49 in ODIs and 13 in T20Is. Fred Spofforth was the first to take a hat-trick in Tests, in 1879, Jalal-ud-Din in ODIs, in 1982, and Brett Lee in T20Is, in 2007. In women’s internationals, there have been 31 hat-tricks – three in Tests, 11 in ODIs and 17 in T20Is.7 Bowlers to have taken a hat-trick on debut in men’s international cricket – three in Tests and four in ODIs. Maurice Allom (in 1930), Peter Petherick (1976) and Damien Fleming (1994) have achieved this feat on Test debut. Incidentally, Petherick and Fleming got their hat-tricks on the same day, 18 years apart, on October 9. In ODIs, Taijul Islam (2014), Kagiso Rabada (2015), Wanindu Hasaranga (2017) and Shehan Madushanka (2018) achieved the feat on their debuts.ESPNcricinfo Ltd5 Hat-tricks by Lasith Malinga in international matches, the most by a bowler. He has three in ODIs, the most by a bowler, and two in T20Is, the only bowler to do so. Two of those hat-tricks were part of four wickets in four balls: against South Africa in the 2007 50-over World Cup and against New Zealand in a T20I in 2019. Rashid Khan is the only other bowler to have taken four wickets in four balls in international cricket (in a T20I against Ireland in 2019). Wasim Akram is the only bowler, apart from Malinga, to take more than two hat-tricks. He has four in international matches – two each in Tests and ODIs. Akram’s two Test hat-tricks came in a span of nine days, in the Asian Test Championship in 1999. Mohammad Sami is the only other bowler with hat-tricks in both Tests and ODIs. Apart from Malinga, Lee and Thisara Perera are the others to take hat-tricks in both ODIs and T20Is.1 Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazi is the only player to score a century and take a hat-trick in the same Test. He achieved this feat against New Zealand in Chattogram in 2013. Peter Siddle is the only bowler to take a hat-trick on his birthday, which fell on the first day of the 2010-11 Ashes in Brisbane. Chaminda Vaas remains the only bowler to take a hat-trick from the first three balls of a match, against Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup; the one other instance of a hat-trick in the first over of a Test was achieved by Irfan Pathan, against Pakistan in 2006.3 Number of overs that Merv Hughes’ hat-trick against West Indies in Perth in 1988 was spread over. In the first innings, he dismissed Curtly Ambrose from the final delivery of his 36th over, and then got Patrick Patterson off the first ball of his 37th over, which ended West Indies’ innings. He then struck off his first ball in the second innings to get Gordon Greenidge, to complete a unique hat-trick that spanned across three overs. Courtney Walsh and Geoff Lawson are the only others to take a hat-trick spanning two innings.2 Only once has a bowler taken two hat-tricks in an international match: Australia’s Jimmy Matthews versus South Africa at Old Trafford in 1912. He picked up hat-tricks in both innings of the match, on the same day, and completed both feats dismissing the same batsman, Tommy Ward. These six wickets in the two hat-tricks were his only wickets in the match and he took a total of 16 wickets in his career. Likewise, Bangladesh’s Alok Kapali had only six wickets in his career, of which the last three were part of a hat-trick.