Cheeky Messi magic keeps Barcelona 10 points clear in Spain

Agencies
March 31, 2019

Madrid, Mar 31: Lionel Messi continued his remarkable run of form as his second-half double, including an impudent free-kick, helped Barcelona continue their march towards the La Liga title with a 2-0 win over Espanyol.

The visitors gave their city rivals a tough game at the Camp Nou, but Messi's chipped free-kick over the wall from 19 yards and a late second kept the reigning champions 10 points clear of second-placed Atletico Madrid, who thrashed Alaves 4-0.

Messi has now netted eight times in his last four games for Barca, and leads the way in the La Liga scoring charts with 31 goals, 13 ahead of teammate Luis Suarez.

"I had no idea he would hit (the free-kick) like that," said Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde.

"I would love to say that we had planned it, but it's not true, it's up to him. He didn't need my opinion and he scored." 

It was a fitting way for the Argentinian to mark his 675th Barcelona appearance, which moved him ahead of Andres Iniesta into second on the club's all-time list -- 102 adrift of Xavi Hernandez.

He made a low-key return to international action in midweek as Argentina lost a friendly to Venezuela, but Valverde was delighted it did not affect Messi on Saturday.

"Messi is the same player no matter what team he is playing in," he said. "He would be the same if he played in Australia... We are delighted to have him, it's a luxury for me to coach him." 

Barca struggled to break down Espanyol early on, with Messi, Suarez and Ivan Rakitic all wasting half-chances in the first period.

Barcelona saw a penalty appeal waved away by both the referee and VAR on the stroke of half-time, and Malcom was denied just after the hour mark by away goalkeeper Diego Lopez as the Catalan giants grew frustrated.

But Messi has been consistently unplayable this season, and he dinked in a wonderful effort from a set-piece despite Victor Sanchez's best efforts to clear off the line.

The three points were sealed in the 89th minute as Malcom ran clear on the breakaway, before cutting the ball across for Messi to sweep a trademark finish low into the bottom corner.

Barcelona next visit Villarreal on Tuesday with a second successive title looking even more like a mere formality after a sixth straight victory extended their unbeaten league run to 17 matches.

Atletico at least did not give up further ground to Barcelona as Diego Costa scored for the first time since November in an impressive win at fifth-placed Alaves.

The Spanish international has struggled for form and fitness this season, but grabbed his second league goal of the campaign with a magnificent 11th-minute strike from the edge of the area, six minutes after Saul Niguez had put Atletico in front.

Costa was replaced by Thomas Lemar at half-time, but the Frenchman sent Alvaro Morata through on goal to put the game to bed just before the hour mark.

The on-loan Chelsea striker has now scored four goals since joining Diego Simeone's men in January.

Thomas Partey added extra gloss to the scoreline late on with a fine 20-yard strike into the top corner.

Earlier on Saturday, fourth-placed Getafe missed the chance to solidify their spot in the Champions League places as they slumped to a 2-0 home defeat by Leganes.

Uruguayan Michael Santos and Spaniard Juanfran scored in the second half for Leganes to leave Getafe just two points ahead of Alaves, with Valencia and Sevilla both also within six points with a game in hand.

Celta Vigo gave their survival hopes a massive boost as Iago Aspas scored twice in a dramatic comeback from two goals down to beat fellow strugglers Villarreal 3-2 and move within a point of their 17th-placed opponents and safety.

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News Network
April 8,2020

London, Apr 8: England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler has raised more than 65,000 pound (USD 80,000) to help fight the coronavirus by auctioning off his World Cup final shirt.

Buttler's shirt, which he wore when completing the last-ball run-out that saw England beat New Zealand at Lord's last year, was sold to raise money for specialist heart and lung centres provided by the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals in London.

Buttler, who earlier in the showpiece match had hit a fifty and batted in the Super Over, put his long-sleeve keeping jersey up for sale on eBay a week ago.

By the time the auction closed on Tuesday, the shirt had attracted 82 bids with the winner paying 65,100 pound.

Buttler, speaking on Monday, said: "It's a very special shirt but I think it takes on extra meaning with it being able to hopefully go to the emergency cause.

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, Jun 13: Five centrally contracted Indian cricketers including Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul have been issued notices by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts as the BCCI cited "password glitch" as the reason for delay.

The other players to have received the notice include women stars Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, who are among the five cricketers in the 110 strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP). Speaking to PTI, NADA DG Navin Agarwal confirmed that BCCI has sent an official explanation for their five NRTP players' failure to submit whereabouts.

"There are two ways to fill up the whereabouts form in the ADAMS (Anti Doping Administration & Management Systems) software. Either athlete does it himself or association fills it up on his or her behalf," Agarwal said. "Now athletes in some discipline aren't educated enough or do not have access to internet and find themselves unable to handle the whereabouts clause of the ADAMS or upload the filled up

"They use assistance of their concerned federations. So federations have accepted responsibility of uploading their whereabouts," Agarwal said.

He said cricketers too at times find it tough to complete the process on their own. "Similarly in cricket also, although these people are well qualified and they can do it, perhaps they don't have the time for whatever reasons, so the federation concerned, the BCCI has taken upon itself the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts." So why didnt BCCI upload the the three-month whereabouts this time?

"Well they have given an explanation which appears to be reasonable but a decision will be taken. They have said that there has been a glitch with regards to password in ADAMS. Now they have said that issue has been resolved," Agarwal added. NADA DG added that "BCCI's explanation will be discussed as to whether it will be counted as one of three filing failures or not. It will be decided on the explanation given and how they (BCCI) proceed from here."

While country has been under lockdown, the rule to submit three months of whereabouts is mandatory. Three such failures to disclose leads to one Anti Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), which could lead up to two years of suspension upon hearing.

While BCCI has "officially gagged" its employees from talking to the media, it couldn't be ascertained that why as normal a glitch as a password error took days to resolve. A BCCI veteran, who has been privy to cricket operations, asked why the five cricketers were not told to upload the form themselves.

"This was lockdown period where they are not living out of suitcases. Some of the names have also engaged in multiple instagram chats and podcasts which their agents are managing," he said.

"If cricket operations team were having a glitch in fixing password, well the five cricketers could have been asked to do so and they would have done it individually with some guidance. "Probably NADA would be lenient this time but if it becomes an official warning, then who's responsible," he added.

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Agencies
January 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 19: Opening batsman Rohit Sharma on Sunday became the third-fastest batsman to register 9,000 runs in the 50-over format.

He achieved the feat in the ongoing third ODI against Australia here at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Only Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers have achieved the feat faster than Rohit.

Sharma brought up the milestone in the first over of the Indian innings as he clipped Mitchell Starc away for a single.

With this, the right-handed batsman has become just the sixth Indian to achieve the milestone.

Apart from Sharma, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and Sachin Tendulkar have more than 9,000 runs in the 50-over format.

Overall, 20 batsmen have more than 9,000 ODI runs to their name.

In the match between India and Australia, the former won the toss and elected to bat first.

Steve Smith played a knock of 131 runs to propel Australia to 286/9 in the allotted fifty overs.

 

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