Fifth Test, day one: India 204-6 Woakes leaves field after landing heavily on shoulder Welcome to England, India. Or at least, welcome to the England you might have expected when touching down here at the start of June. Cloud cover, stoppages for rain, and seamers probing away on a green-tinged surface – the opening day at the Oval was certainly a far cry from what came before. The problem for India, 2-1 down in the series and chasing only a share of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, was that they were the ones tasked with negotiating these new conditions after Shubman Gill lost his fifth toss in a row. By stumps, 7.30pm, the tourists had scrapped their way to 204 for six from 64 overs and Gus Atkinson was the toast of his home ground. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/cpWD9ER
A challenge on Boubakary Soumaré in 2022 triggered a chain of events that left the forward fighting for his career Almost a thousand days have passed since Lucas Paquetá was shown a yellow card for a late challenge on Leicester’s Boubakary Soumaré in a tame home defeat for West Ham in November 2022, an otherwise inconsequential booking that triggered an extraordinary chain of events that left the Brazilian fighting for his career. As Paquetá’s lawyer noted after he was cleared of spot-fixing on Thursday, Paquetá has shown more spirit and resilience during his two-year legal battle with the Football Association than his teammates managed that afternoon, although even after being exonerated in the most high-profile corruption case to hit English football since the Bruce Grobbelaar match-fixing trial three decades ago, the West Ham midfielder’s victory feels somewhat pyrrhic. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/tOd2kHb