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A late goal in the second half secured Cavan Sullivan and Philadelphia Union U17's place in the GA Cup semifinals on Thursday evening.

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Sullivan on verge of Man City transfer14-year-old playing with U17s in GA CupUnion advance to semifinals with massive winWHAT HAPPENED?

In the 2024 Generation Adidas Cup, Sullivan and the Union advanced out of the group stage after going 2-1 through their first three matches. In their first test of the knockout round, they prevailed over South Korean side Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors thanks to a 57th-minute goal. At the full-time whistle, Sullivan and his teammates celebrated with friends, fans and family by leaping onto the chain-link fence behind the pitch to cheers and applause from many.

Get the MLS Season Pass today!Stream games nowAdvertisementWATCH THE CLIPTHE BIGGER PICTURE

Sullivan is one of the hottest prospects in all of world soccer at the moment, and is on the verge of completing a monumental move to the Premier League with Manchester City. Scouts of the Pep Guardiola-coached side have dubbed the 14-year-old the 'most exciting' player of his age in the entire world. Now, Sullivan will hope to lead the Union to glory on the podium, while also looking to put pen to paper on his first professional contract shortly thereafter.

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MLSWHAT NEXT FOR SULLIVAN AND THE U17 UNION?

Sullivan and the Union will take on Croatian side Hajduk Split in the semifinals of this years tournament as the Union look to go back-to-back in the U17 division. The match will be streamed on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV at 5:00 pm ET Friday night.

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The scorecard suggested nearly total domination from Pakistan. After all, they finished the day at 255 for 3, thanks to a 205-run opening stand from Mohammad Hafeez and Imam-ul-Haq. They made Australia wait for the opening wicket in the first innings of a Test longer than they’ve ever done – 63 overs, to be precise.And yet, anyone who tuned into the final session would have wondered how Pakistan had amassed those runs, so complete was the Australian bowlers’ command. Pakistan scored 56 runs in 29 overs for the loss of three wickets in that session on an attrition first day in Dubai.Test cricket in the UAE is a game of phases. In other parts of the world it might be harder for teams to get back into the game once they’ve fallen behind, but surfaces here give teams an opportunity to bounce back. And so, even as Hafeez, who scored a century in his first Test in two years, and Imam accumulated the fifth-highest opening stand batting first against Australia, the visitors’ bowlers came roaring back into the contest, with a chance of bowling Pakistan out under 350.It began with Nathan Lyon, expected to grow in importance as the game and the pitch wears on, tempting Imam to cut a ball that was a bit too full, drawing a faint edge through to Tim Paine. At the the other end, Peter Siddle bowled a scintillating spell, justifying his inclusion in the side. Vicious reverse swing combined with relentless accuracy slowed down Pakistan’s merry progress. Siddle finally got one to beat Hafeez’s defences, with a beauty that just kept coming in, hitting the opener halfway up his shin, right in front of middle.With both openers gone, Pakistan’s scoring rate almost ground to a halt altogether – at one stage, they managed 16 runs in 16 overs as Haris Sohail and Azhar Ali dug in, desperate to see it through to stumps. All that work, however, was undone by a moment of madness from Azhar. Having gutsed his way to 18 off 79, he lofted a drive off Jon Holland, nowhere near middling it as Mitchell Starc dived forward to complete the catch. Nightwatchman Mohammad Abbas and Haris took their side to stumps without any further damage.Pakistan had settled into a formidable position by the first evening on a flat Dubai surface, with both openers still around when tea was called. Hafeez, who scored his tenth Test century was instrumental in pushing the run rate up right from the outset, and ensuring the Australians were always on the back foot. He regularly forced the bowlers to adjust their lines and coaxed Tim Paine into introducing spin as early as the ninth over in the day. He wasn’t afraid to come down the track against spin, either, without losing control of his shots.The run rate picked up after lunch as the openers shook off any nerves or fears they might have had about the pitch or the Australian attack. Hafeez also went after Nathan Lyon, who was the most economical bowler for Australia in the first session. There was a period, midway through, when he lost his focus, playing a series of false shots, displaying the concentration lapses that have prevented him taking the next step in his career and becoming the batsman he could have become. While the sun beat down, lady luck, too, was smiling at him, as a lofted cover drive off Holland was put down at long-off.Imam’s innings, meanwhile, was almost chanceless. He appeared to be mentally ready for the grind of Test cricket in this inhospitable weather. His footwork against the spin, in particular, was excellent, moving back and forward to the rhythm of the pitch of the ball with the deft expertise of a tap dancer. However, It wasn’t just in service of defensive strokes, with a couple of charges down the pitch against Holland earning him two sixes.Australia bowled well despite the unhelpful conditions, with Starc the most menacing for much of the day, getting swing early on while regularly coming close to finding Hafeez’s outside edge. The odd yorker kept the batsmen on their toes, and on another day in another country he might have finished with a five-wicket haul. Here, he ended the day wicketless.But the day would end on a very different note. Life seemed to have crept back into this pitch, and, by extension, this Test match.

England captain gives backing to Alastair Cook for the rest of the Test series against India

George Dobell at Trent Bridge22-Aug-20181:25

Root backs Cook to fire at Southampton

Joe Root has insisted he is 100% committed to selecting Alastair Cook for the rest of the Test series against India.Cook is the most prolific batsman in England’s Test history but is averaging just 19.21 in the eight Tests he has played this year and 16.00 in this series against India. He has also earned an unwanted record as the most unreliable slip catcher in Test cricket since the start of 2015.But Root, England’s captain, believes Cook’s modest form can be explained, in part, by the seam-friendly conditions in which recent games have been played. And he backs Cook’s experience to find a way through his current struggles.”Alastair Cook is a world-class performer,” Root said. “He’s proven that time and time again. I’d like you to write him off because every time he’s written off he comes back and scores a double-hundred.”We have to be realistic about the surfaces we’ve been playing on. Throughout the whole summer, they’ve been very much tailored around seam bowling and we’ve had some very bowler-friendly conditions. There’s been a lot of cloud cover, the ball has seamed around quite a lot and it’s obviously swung as well. And the hardest point to bat is opening. Both sides’ top orders have struggled and it might be that’s the case again in Southampton.”But there’s no one with more experienced currently in Test cricket than him. If you watch him apply himself in training, or the way he goes about his practice, he doesn’t look like someone who is thinking about jacking it in. He seems very dedicated. I’m sure he will be calling upon all of that going into that game and giving himself the best chance. Yes, 100% I want him for the rest of the series.”While there has been a suggestion that Cook may miss the fourth Test in Southampton to be at the birth of his third child, Root was confident he should still be available for the match, starting on August 30.”I don’t think the due date is for a while yet but these things are not an exact science,” Root said. “We’ll play things slightly by ear but, as far as I’m aware he’s going to be available for selection.”Alastair Cook punches down the ground•AFP

Root also hinted that, should Jonny Bairstow be unable to keep in Southampton, the decision to give Jos Buttler the gloves would be “very easy”. Bairstow sustained a fractured finger at Trent Bridge and, while England remain hopeful he will be fit to play as a batsman, it seems the chances of him keeping are slim. Once he was forced off the field at Trent Bridge, Buttler took the gloves without drama and then registered his maiden Test century.”Jonny is obviously a world-class batter in good form and would warrant his place within the side as a batter,” Root said. “In terms of keeping, we are very fortunate to have Jos in the team already and it would make things very easy in terms of him stepping into that role.”But while Root accepted England’s first-innings batting had been “very poor” during the third Test, he took encouragement from the second-innings stand of 169 between Buttler and Ben Stokes.”That partnership between Jos and Ben is a great example and lesson to the batting group of how to go about things in Test cricket,” Root said. “We saw two guys who are generally very attack-minded adapt to a situation – still probably in bowler-friendly conditions – and find a way to build a very strong partnership and put India’s bowlers under pressure.”That’s a real lesson to our side of how to play Test match cricket.”

Legendary Milwaukee Brewers radio announcer Bob Uecker passed away on Thursday. People immediately started posting tributes and sharing their favorite Uecker stories and it quickly became apparent just how high his approval rating was amongst sports fans.

One of those sports fans who happened to have the honor of working with Uecker for years was Brewers' television play-by-play voice Brian Anderson. He has been calling games on Fox Sports Wisconsin (Now known as FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin) since 2007.

Anderson called into MLB Network after the news came out to discuss his friend and shared some incredibly funny and touching stories about getting to know him and how Uecker actually helped get him his job with Milwaukee. He also explained why Uecker was so good at his job and one of the best to ever do it.

"His gift was that—and I learned this from him—is there was, there was great knowledge first of all," said Anderson. "So he could be the analyst. He could dissect the game, but he also knew when to pull back, when to be funny, when to be serious. And he mostly, you know, 90-percent of his play-by-play was he played it straight with the Brewers all these years. Everybody thinks he's hilarious and he is. He's a comedic genius, but if you just sat down for a three-hour broadcast Ueck played straight. He called the game straight and proper. And there were moments of humor in there for sure, but he definitely had that gift of understanding the moment in front of him. He was fully present. Not just to the game in front of him when he was on the air, but everything around him in life. Fully present.

"That idealogy," Anderson continued. "That philosophy of life translated into a world-class broadcaster because he felt every moment and he called it properly. He had great joy in his voice so he was fun and easy to listen to. He had a real interesting resonance to his voice as well. It got really high-pitched when he got excited. He broke a lot of the broadcasting rules, i would say. You know you wouldn't teach at Syracuse or Northwestern, but he got away with it because he was so brilliant at it and just, there's that it factor when you connect to an audience. And nobody had the it factor like Bob."

Anderson shared a couple more stories during an appearance on in 2024. Surely, he has a million more that we'll probably never hear.

Former South Africa captain Kepler Wessels talks about the talent coming through in South Africa, the impact of T20 cricket, and playing with and against Allan Border

Interview by Crispin Andrews21-Apr-2016What was it like being made captain of the South African team after years of isolation?
The short limited-overs tour to India, before the 1992 World Cup, came out of the blue. It was a complete surprise to all the players. Clive Rice was captain, but a few weeks later, when the World Cup squad was announced, Rice was out, and I was captain. I knew that I’d be in the side for the World Cup but I didn’t think I’d be in charge.There was a little bit of bad feeling in Transvaal, where Clive and Jimmy Cook played. Neither had been selected for the World Cup team, and people over there took it out on me a bit. That didn’t bother me. I knew I hadn’t sought the job. It was the selectors’ decision.Did you think that South Africa was good enough to compete against experienced international teams in that World Cup?

We knew we’d be competitive, but we didn’t have much of an idea about how well we’d do at that level. I was the only one who had played any international cricket and that was a long time ago. After we beat Australia by nine wickets in our first match, we realised that we were good enough to be playing at that level.You were noticed very early as a schoolboy cricketer.

I averaged 259 for Grey College in Bloemfontein at one point. I made the South Africa schools side aged 15 and the Orange Free State Under-18 side aged 14. Played in a week-long tournament against the other states. Allan Lamb and Peter Kirsten were at the tournament. They were a couple of years older than me. All school sport in South Africa is competitive. When I was younger I played rugby as well as cricket. Grey College was more a rugby school than a cricket school.

“Donald could crank it up and be explosive when he wanted to, but it didn’t come naturally to him. As a captain, sometimes you had to force him to bowl aggressively”

What was the toughest cricket you played? The Currie Cup, Sheffield Shield, county cricket?
Sheffield Shield, without a doubt. One week you’d be playing a Test or a one-day international, and the next it would be a Shield game, with all the international players representing their state. Everybody played. New South Wales and Western Australia were full of international players. When I made my Test debut, there were seven Queensland players in the Australia squad. Sometimes Shield cricket was tougher than Test matches. Back then, only West Indies, or a really good England side, were bigger challengers.How would the mid-’70s South Africa team have fared against West Indies in an imaginary Test series in, say, 1977?
Difficult to say. In 1970, the South African team was stronger with all those players at their peak. After South Africa was banned from international cricket, that team and those players were never really tested against the sort of pace attack West Indies had over a sustained period. You would assume that Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock would have scored runs. Barry got runs in World Series Cricket in the first season against all those quick bowlers. Mike Procter did well too. But these greats were coming towards the end of their careers, and we don’t really know how the team would have reacted when faced with a side, and a bowling attack, as good as West Indies had.”Border was always a bit grumpy, but we can all be like that at times”•Getty ImagesViv Richards or Barry Richards – who was the best batsman?

Very difficult to say. They were both so different. Viv was destructive and powerful, Barry a great technical player. Both of them were brilliant in their time. It’s a pity that Barry wasn’t able to play more Test cricket.Garth Le Roux, Allan Donald and Dale Steyn – how do these great South African fast bowlers compare?
Allan Donald bowled quicker for more years than Garth. Garth was really quick for a couple of years and then settled down to bowl medium-fast outswingers. I never faced Dale Steyn, but I’ve seen a lot of him obviously, and to look at, you can’t distinguish between him and Donald.Donald was like a lot of fast bowlers. He had raw pace when he first started, then like Dennis Lillee and Richard Hadlee, as he gained more experience, he refined his action, bowled within himself, but always in good areas. He could crank it up and be explosive when he wanted to, but it didn’t come naturally to him. As a captain, sometimes you had to force him to bowl aggressively.

“I’m not so sure about all these private leagues springing up all over the world, though. That’s a bit excessive”

On the 1985 tour of England, when you were playing for Australia, Allan Border, the Australian captain, was criticised for being too friendly with the opposition. Is this true?

I was joking with Ian Botham about this the other day. During that series, Botham spent more time in our dressing room than in his own. Botham and Border were good friends, but it wasn’t a serious issue, and had nothing to do with the result. England were just better than us. They had a better bowling attack. For the first four Test matches we kept things even. But we knew that we’d just been hanging in there, and that sooner or later the dam walls would break.How had Border changed by the time you faced him, for South Africa, in the early nineties? It is said that he’d hardened up, become grumpier and more distant from opposition.
I didn’t see that he’d changed at all. We were pretty close when I was in Queensland, so I knew his personality. By the time I played against Border for South Africa, he was coming towards the end of his career, and when you get older you become more intense, we all go through it. He was always a bit grumpy, but we can all be like that at times.Is T20 doing for the game what Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket did in the late ’70s?
It probably is. In some ways it’s taking over [the game] and that’s inevitable. It’s not a bad influence, it has grown the game, brought a lot of money in, resulted in players being paid more. I’m not so sure about all these private leagues springing up all over the world, though. That’s a bit excessive. One year they take the best players, the next year they don’t pay their bills and they are gone. I’m hoping that somehow that gets controlled – I’m not sure how – and that international cricket takes preference.International T20 and the established leagues like the IPL and the Big Bash League – yes, that’s benefiting the game.”Kagiso Rabada’s emergence on the scene has been terrific”•Getty ImagesDoes South Africa have enough young talent coming through?
I think they do, but it’s inevitable when you lose players as good as Jacques Kallis, and with Dale Steyn coming towards the end of an illustrious career, it will take a while to replace them. In this country, though, there’s always enough talent coming through, in cricket or rugby. The question is harnessing that talent and developing it.Will South Africa be okay when AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla retire?
There’s nobody in domestic cricket right now who can replace those two. There are other guys who are good and consistent, and who can do well. Whenever players as good as Amla and de Villiers retire, though, there’s always a tendency to think that no one that good will ever come along again. Yet they do.How good is Kagiso Rabada?

Very good. He’s strong for somebody so young. I think he will continue to develop, if he doesn’t get injured. He’s already pretty quick for someone of his age, and I think he’ll be a force to reckon with. He’s got quite a heavy workload at the moment. Hopefully that won’t affect him in the long term. As a person he is mature, sensible, comes over very well spoken and has a good education. All good signs.Is it important for South Africa to have another top-class black quick bowler? It has been a while since Makhaya Ntini retired.
I think it’s massively important for South Africa to get as many of those guys coming through the system and playing well. It does wonders for the game, grows the game across the country, and gets the whole country behind the team. Rabada’s emergence on the scene has been terrific.

da luck： Sunderland are in talks over signing a striker this January, and a journalist has now dropped a key update on the terms of a deal.

Sunderland chasing a striker

da casino： Wilson Isidor missing two penalties in the closing stages of the trip to Turf Moor cost the Black Cats dearly, missing out on the chance to move into the Championship’s automatic promotion places.

The striker has since vowed to put the missed spot-kicks behind him, despite admitting it was very tough to take, saying: “I would like to apologise on my teammates, every single fans and all the person of this club for what happened.

“I feel really ashamed, but I promise you that I will come back stronger from this! See you Tuesday, HWTL.”

Regardless, Regis Le Bris remains interested in signing another striker capable of fighting for a starting spot, and one of the manager’s main targets is Westerlo’s Matija Frigan.

Related Long-term £4m+ Sunderland target now ready to leave current club this month

He could become a viable alternative amid increasing competition for Cannon’s signature.

Posts ByBen Browning Jan 17, 2025

Last week, it was reported that Sunderland had agreed personal terms with the forward, meaning all that is left to do is finalising a transfer agreement with the Belgian side.

Germanijak reporter Izak Ante Sucic has provided an update about what a deal could look like, taking to X to claim that Westerlo want the Black Cats to be obligated to buy Frigan, regardless of whether they achieve their aim of promotion to the Premier League.

The Belgian Pro League side want the Championship promotion-hopefuls to stump up €15m (£12.6m) if they go up, or around half of that if they remain in the Championship. It is unclear whether Sunderland are willing to agree to a deal of that nature, but talks are currently ongoing.

Risky move for Sunderland

Signing the Croatian could be considered a risky move for the Black Cats, as it is not a cheap deal, and if he fails to make an impression in the second half of the season, it will be frustrating to be forced to make the move permanent for a fee.

If Le Bris’ side do manage to go all the way and secure promotion, forking out £13m isn’t the end of the world, given the riches that come with playing in the top tier, but it is certainly a gamble.

The question now is whether the 21-year-old is a player worth taking a risk on, considering he has scored just six goals in 21 Belgian Pro League games this season.

Having missed out on Ben Brereton Diaz and Tom Cannon, however, Sunderland are a little short of options, so Le Bris may feel signing Frigan is a risk worth taking.

Football talent scout Jacek Kulig has likened the youngster to Ciro Immobile, indicating that he has a lot of potential, but he will certainly need to start finding the back of the net more regularly if he does complete a move to the Stadium of Light.

A look at the key issues between the BCCI and the Lodha Committee as the board prepares to respond to the status report in the Supreme Court

Nagraj Gollapudi05-Oct-20162:25

Archive – Lodha proposes, BCCI disposes

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India will hear the BCCI’s response to the Lodha Committee’s status report, which had recommended that the board’s top officials – the president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer – be “superseded” with “immediate effect” and replaced by a panel of administrators. The Committee said that such a step was necessary because the BCCI had failed to put in place recommendations passed by the Supreme Court by the September 30 deadline.A bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, who had approved the majority of the Lodha report’s recommendations in a court order on July 18, will hear the BCCI’s response and decide on the status report. The following are the key points of the issue:Why was a status report presented in the Supreme Court?
While passing the order on July 18, the Supreme Court had asked the BCCI to follow the directives of the Lodha Committee, which was put in charge of overseeing the process of overhauling the governance structure of the board. “Should any impediments arise, the Committee shall be free to seek appropriate directions from this Court by filing a status report in that regard,” the order stated. RM Lodha, the chairman of the Lodha Committee, and a former Chief Justice of India, said his team had faced “serious impediments” in dealing with the BCCI and elaborated on the same in the status report.What were the impediments?
The Lodha Committee said the BCCI had not complied with as many as seven timelines by the deadline of September 30. The board had not accepted the fresh Memorandum of Association and rules and regulations, which would have been an indicator of the BCCI deciding to implement the recommendations.Lodha also said the BCCI had breached the committee’s directive by taking decisions concerning the future at its annual general meeting on September 21. The Committee had instructed the BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri to restrict the agenda of the AGM to “routine” decisions.What else did the BCCI do to draw such flak?
According to Lodha, several decisions taken at the BCCI’s AGM were contrary to the committee’s recommendations. Some of them were: Ajay Shirke being elected board secretary though he had not mentioned his eligibility criteria in the nomination form, and the board picking five-member selection panels when the recommendations said three. The Committee was also unhappy that the BCCI had called a special general meeting on September 30 to “consider” the recommendations, when it had said earlier that it would meet by September 28 to implement the recommendations.What happened at the SGM?
After the meeting in Mumbai, the BCCI said it had “unanimously” accepted “important recommendations” of the Lodha Committee. In fact, it had selectively accepted recommendations, and the key ones not adopted included: an age cap of 70 for BCCI administrators, a maximum term of nine years and a cooling-off period between each three-year term, and the one-state-one-vote policy.Why is the BCCI against adopting these three recommendations?
The nine-year tenure limit – broken into three, three-year terms with a three-year cooling off period between each term – will hinder continuity, the BCCI said. According to the board, these restrictions will deter able administrators from joining the BCCI.4:26

Archive – ‘BCCI’s conduct indicates it must have a plan’

The board’s rationale for being against the age cap is that many administrators over the age of 70 have remained fit and able, and such a limit does not apply to the country’s politicians. The BCCI argued that an age cap of 70 would deprive the board and the state associations of considerable knowledge and experience.As for the opposition to the one-state-one-vote policy, the BCCI indicated that such a recommendation was against its legacy because several associations have been full members of the board from the very beginning. “There are three associations in Maharashtra. Mumbai is the cricketing hub that has won Ranji Trophy 41 times. Maharashtra has the maximum districts. Vidarbha has the maximum infrastructure because we have two stadiums and an indoor academy. So on what basis do we decide who should be given full member status?” former BCCI president Shashank Manohar had said before resigning the post.Were there any other transgressions by BCCI?
On September 30, the BCCI conducted an unscheduled working committee meeting, at which it took a few financial decisions, including doubling the Test match fee for the men’s team. There were two other decisions taken, which the Lodha Committee objected to: an additional INR 10 crore being granted to full member state associations to increase the infrastructure subsidy to INR 70 crore, and the distribution of compensation money received from the broadcaster as a result of the cancellation of the Champions League T20, which was about INR 550 crore according to the committee. On October 4, the Committee warned state associations not to touch the funds that had been received from the BCCI between September 29 and October 1 and were related to those two transactions.What is the next step for the BCCI?
The court had given the board a week to respond to the Lodha Committee’s status report that called for a panel of administrators to replace the top BCCI officials, while telling the board to “fall in line or we will make you fall in line.”The BCCI had also filed an application in the Supreme Court, pleading for the court’s July 18 order to be “suspended” until it heard the board’s review and curative petitions against the mandatory implementation of most of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations. In its review petition, the BCCI called the court order “unreasoned” and asked for the recusal of Chief Justice Thakur from its hearing. However, the petition has been lying “in defect” because the court raised technical objections to the petition and asked the BCCI to repair them.

Video plays from the three-match Test series between Sri Lanka and India

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Sep-2015The goodbye
In a way this series was all about Kumar Sangakkara and his farewell. Fittingly, in his last Test, the umpires and the Indian players joined together to give him a guard of honour.The pitch invasion
On the third day of the first Test in Galle, just as Dinesh Chandimal and Jehan Mubarak were building Sri Lanka’s lead, an unexpected long-tailed visitor showed up on the field of play.Record-breaking hands
Ajinkya Rahane started the three-match series in style on the field, claiming eight catches in Galle, setting a world record in the process. Five fielders had previously taken seven catches in a Test.Sangakkara conquered
Sangakkara, in his last series, would have been hopeful of at least one big score but R Ashwin had different ideas. Ashwin took Sangakkara’s edge in his final innings to have him out for the fourth time in four innings.A case of déjà vu
Learning from previous dismissals in Test cricket is imperative to a batsman’s growth but some of the Indian batsmen failed in that regard in the third Test. As many as four batsmen had an uncanny similarity between their first and second-innings dismissals.Incensed Ishant
Ishant Sharma might have been on fire with the ball, but that fire extended to the way he interacted with the Sri Lankans too. Did he go too far? The match referee certainly thought so and handed him a one-match ban.Mishra gets a lift from Rahane
Following India’s memorable 2-1 series win, Rahane and Naman Ojha decided to have some fun with Amit Mishra during a television interview…

21-May-2016The opening burst ended when Rohit holed out to Shadab Jakati off Dhawal Kulkarni•BCCIDwayne Smith removed Martin Guptill and Krunal Pandya in the fifth over to leave Mumbai on 45 for 3•BCCINitish Rana rose to the occasion and struck his maiden IPL fifty. He added 75 for the fourth wicket with Jos Buttler and scored 70 off 36 balls to put Mumbai back on track•BCCIWith a spot in the playoffs at stake, players of both sides stepped up the intensity•BCCILate strikes by the Lions bowlers stalled Mumbai, who finished on 172 for 8. Dwayne Bravo was the pick of the lot with 2 for 22 off his quota•BCCIAaron Finch was brought back to the opening slot but Vinay Kumar trapped him leg before for a duck, with one that skidded on, on the second ball of Lions’ chase•AFPSuresh Raina rode his luck. First, a slap to mid-on bounced just in front of a diving Krunal Pandya, before Jasprit Bumrah dropped a return catch with Raina on 31•BCCIBrendon McCullum took his time to get his eye in, before unleashing his brutal repertoire of strokes•BCCIA topspinner from Harbhajan Singh ended McCullum’s party as he failed to make contact on the pull and the ball clipped the bail•BCCIRaina made his chances count. The Lions captain added 96 for the second wicket with McCullum and crunched 58 off 36 balls before perishing with 51 needed off 46•BCCIDwayne Smith blasted an unbeaten 37 off 23 balls and shared an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 51 with Ravindra Jadeja to take Lions to a six-wicket win with 13 balls remaining and ensure a top-two finish•BCCIVinay was the pick of the Mumbai bowlers with 2 for 17 in three overs, but it went in vain. However, not all was lost for Mumbai, who can still make it, albeit depending on other results•BCCI

Kylian Mbappe has matched the goal tally set by Cristiano Ronaldo in his debut season at Real Madrid by netting his 33rd strike of the campaign.

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Ronaldo scored 33 in debut seasonMbappe matches that tallyScored twice against Leganes in 3-2 winFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

The France international netted a brace against Leganes as Madrid won 3-2 on Saturday evening. Los Blancos remain in second place in La Liga but are now level on points with Barcelona and, in the process of netting his double, Mbappe has matched the haul Ronaldo reached in his first campaign at the club.

AdvertisementGetty ImagesTHE BIGGER PICTURE

After moving to Madrid from Manchester United, Ronaldo scored 33 goals throughout the campaign and Mbappe is already level with that tally. The former PSG superstar, though, will have to go some to match the Portugal international's highest-scoring season; in 2014-15, Ronaldo netted 61 goals in all competitions.

Mbappe is now just four goals away from matching Ivan Zamorano's record for the best debut season in Madrid history, having scored 37 in 1992-93.

WHAT MBAPPE SAID

Mbappe told reporters on matching his idol's record: "Very special. I'm sure the most important thing is the things you do with the team, but scoring the same number of goals as Cristiano is always good. We know what he means to Real Madrid and to me. He gives me a lot of advice; he's scored a lot of goals, but we have to win titles here."

DID YOU KNOW?

Mbappe is the leading goalscorer in La Liga for the entirety of 2025, having netted 12 times. His closest rival, Robert Lewandowski at Barcelona, has scored seven.