18 Dec 2020

Today's sports news: What you need to know

12:28 pm on 18 December 2020

Latest - India captain Virat Kohli forged two half-century partnerships to rescue his side against Australia before falling victim to an almighty mix-up on an attritional opening day of the day-night first test at Adelaide Oval.

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli Photo: Photosport

The right-hander sacrificed flair for efficiency in his industrious 74 as the tourists reached 233-6 at stumps after opting to bat in the series opener.

Wriddhiman Saha, on nine, and Ravichandran Ashwin, who is 15 not out, will return on Friday hoping to continue India's march towards the 300-mark.

Earlier, Mitchell Starc removed the scoreless Prithvi Shaw with the second delivery of the day and Pat Cummins castled fellow opener Mayank Agarwal (17) later in the opening session to give Australia a strong start to the four-match series.

Cheteshwar Pujara, Australia's nemesis when India won their first series Down Under two years ago, proved more difficult to dislodge and eked out 43 runs from 160 deliveries before falling to Nathan Lyon.

The usually aggressive Kohli proved he could be an excellent accumulator too as he followed his 68-run partnership with the obdurate Pujara with an 88-run collaboration with deputy Rahane before being sold down the river.

Rahane's indecision over a single resulted in Kohli being run out after a resolute knock which included eight fours.

It triggered a mini-collapse with Rahane, who made 42, and Hanuma Vihari (16) joining Kohli in the hut as the hosts struck with the new ball in front of a restricted crowd of 21,000.

-Reuters

Kai time for Manchester United

The son of former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney's has signed for club.

The 35-year-old Rooney posted a picture on Instagram alongside his wife Colleen and 11-year-old Kai, who held up a United No. 10 shirt - the number his dad wore for the Premier League club - with his name on the back.

"Proud day. Kai signing for Manchester United. Keep up the hard work son," Wayne Rooney said.

Rooney senior joined United from Everton in 2004 and became the club's record goalscorer, netting 253 times in 559 appearances over 13 years at Old Trafford before re-joining Everton.

Also England's all-time leading scorer, Rooney moved to Major League Soccer side DC United in 2018 before joining English Championship club Derby County as player-coach in January this year.

Meanwhile Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski has been named FIFA's best men's footballer of the year - beating off competition from last year's winner Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

ANd Burnley have moved out of the bottom three in the English Premier League drawing nil-all with Aston Villa.

Manchester United have struggled past bottom placed Sheffield United 3-2.

-Reuters

Pakistan's Amir retires from internationals claiming 'mental torture'

Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 28, claiming he could no longer play in an atmosphere where he did not feel welcome in the national team.

Amir, who was jailed in 2011 for his part in a spot-fixing scandal, served three months in prison and a five-year ban from all forms of cricket before returning to the Pakistan squad in January 2016.

The left-arm bowler has since excelled in limited-overs cricket, helping Pakistan to the Champions Trophy title in 2017, but last month he was dropped from the squad to tour New Zealand.

Asked if he was leaving the sport altogether he said: "No, I'm not going away from cricket. If you have seen the atmosphere here and the way I've been sidelined, I got a wake-up call when I was not selected in the 35-man squad," Amir told Samaa TV.

"I don't think I can play cricket under this management. I think I should leave cricket this time. I am being tortured mentally. I don't think I can tolerate any more torture now.

"I've experienced a lot of torture from 2010 to 2015. I was away from the game and sentenced for my mistake. I'm being tortured again and again..."

Amir, who has 259 wickets across all formats, had retired from test cricket last year to focus on the white-ball game.

He was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers in last year's 50-overs World Cup in England with 17 wickets as they missed out on a semi-final spot.

-Reuters

Premier League to trial concussion replacements, votes against five subs

Premier League clubs agreed in principle to introduce additional permanent concussion substitutions after the sport's rule-making body IFAB approved trials.

Representatives from all 20 clubs attended a shareholders' meeting, where they discussed the issue following IFAB's decision to give the go-ahead to trials on Wednesday.

The new rule will allow a maximum of two permanent concussion replacements in cases of head injury, regardless of the number of substitutions a team has made already.

The new protocols will also allow the opposing team to make an equivalent number of changes and the league has said it hopes to begin trials by January.

The clubs also voted against allowing teams to make five substitutions per match this season, a Premier League source told Reuters.

It comes after repeated calls from a number of top-flight managers -- including Liverpool's Juergen Klopp and Pep Guardiola of Manchester City -- to protect player welfare amid a fixture schedule affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet the proposal once again failed to meet the threshold of 14 votes in favour at a meeting of the 20 clubs.

Instead, the shareholders agreed to increase the number of players allowed on the bench from seven to nine.

-Reuters