Sports

Barcelona: Barcelona star Lionel Messi on Sunday scored his 34th hat-trick in La Liga which helped his club register a win against Celta Vigo. With this, Messi equalled the record of Juventus` Cristiano Ronaldo as the former Real Madrid player has the same number to hat-tricks under his belt. Barcelona managed to thrash Celta Vigo by 4-1 with the help of the Argentine`s massive contribution. Messi

New Delhi: BCCI Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) chief Ajit Singh feels there is "a need to examine ownership module" of franchises in state-run T20 leagues to safeguard them from corrupt elements. The latest is the arrest of two first-class players in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL) match-fixing scandal, which, he says, will act as a "deterrent" for mischievous elements. Former India A and Karnataka

Nagpur, Nov 9: Stand-in India captain Rohit Sharma on Saturday strongly backed an under-fire Rishabh Pant, urging critics to "leave him alone" as he is only trying to execute the team management's strategy. Pant, whose shot selection has come under the scanner on several occasions, became the centre of unwanted attention due to his poor glovework in the second T20 against Bangladesh in Rajkot. He

London, Nov 8: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kings XI Punjab has traded Ravichandran Ashwin to Delhi Capitals. Also part of the deal is Karnataka spinner J Suchith, who the Capitals have offered to Kings XI as part of the exchange for Ashwin. Suchith was signed as a replacement in IPL 2019 at his base price of INR 20 lakh. The IPL Governing Council will now have to ratify the deal

Mumbai, Nov 7: Kings XI Punjab co-owner Ness Wadia has written to the BCCI, insisting that the Indian national anthem be played before the start of every IPL game, commencing with the 2020 edition. National anthems are usually played before the start of an international game but Wadia feels it should be the norm in the world's number one cricket league. He also lauded the BCCI for scrapping a

Antigua, Nov 7: India women's cricket team defeated West Indies by six wickets in the third ODI and sealed the three-match series 2-1 here at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Thursday. Chasing a target of 195, India's openers Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana provided a steady start and put on 141 runs for the first wicket. They hit regular boundaries and both made half-centuries. Their

Melbourne, Nov 6: Australia cricket legend Adam Gilchrist on Wednesday said T20 cricket is a bit of lottery but pinned India as one of the favourites to lift the format's ICC World Cup in his country next year. Besides India, Gilchrist picked England, his own country and New Zealand as the front-runners. "Probably they (India) will be featuring in semi-finals and the finals. I can't predict who is

Rajkot, Nov 6: India captain Rohit Sharma hinted at rejigging the pace combination for the second T20 International against Bangladesh on Thursday while defending the batting line-up, in which senior opener Shikhar Dhawan has been struggling for some time. India had a par-score of 148 on a sluggish Kotla track and it was pacer Khaleel Ahmed, who was hit for four boundaries by Mushfiqur Rahim in

Mumbai, Nov 5: The players' auction for the next Indian Premier League (IPL) will be held on December 19 in Kolkata, the event's Governing Council decided in a meeting here on Tuesday. The glitzy league is usually held in April-May every year and players' auction is being conducted in Kolkata for the first time. The city is the home ground of the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned Kolkata Knight Riders

World Champion P V Sindhu suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the opening round to be ousted from the USD 700,000 China Open on Tuesday. World No.6 Sindhu, who made early exits in China, Korea and Denmark, lost 13-21 21-18 19-21 to world No.42 Pai in a 74-minute women's singles match here. However, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, ranked 30th, beat