Bugaluu :: Sports

Everything there is to know about the top-flight clash

Stepping out of conference play sat well with 10th-ranked Texas Tech and No. 24 Oklahoma. The Sooners and Red Raiders tangle in a big Monday showdown in Lubbock, Texas, and both teams figure to bring a jolt of confidence into the game. In the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday, Oklahoma knocked off 9th-ranked Alabama 66-61, while Texas Tech stunned LSU in Baton Rouge by scoring the last 12 points of the game in the last minute for a 76-71 victory.

Carlos Sainz said he made sure to go and thank tifosi who had camped out to see his first Ferrari Formula 1 test after spotting their banners trackside at Fiorano.

Gunners are now unbeaten in seven top-flight games but were frustrated by Saturday’s result

The betting markets think the Rams put themselves in great shape to win the Super Bowl by acquiring Matthew Stafford, while the Lions waved the white flag on the 2021 season by accepting Jared Goff and a bunch of future draft picks. The Rams’ odds to win next year’s Super Bowl surged after the trade [more]

An argument could be made that the Miami Heat could not have picked a worse season for a shaky start. Their unprotected first-round pick is controlled by the Oklahoma City Thunder. An argument also could be made that the Heat could not have picked a better season for a shaky start. For the first time, the NBA has added a play-in tournament for the final two seeds in each conference, meaning as …

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Watching a promising lead suddenly transform into a defeat is admittedly nothing new for long-suffering followers of Gloucester, but even so, Saturday’s swing in momentum, going from 19-11 ahead in the second half against Northampton to conceding three tries in the space of eight minutes must have been deeply painful. Gloucester have not won in the Premiership since defeating Wasps back at the end of November, and while their rate of scoring tries has been good, with the fourth-most in the Premiership so far this season on 17, only Bath have conceded more than Gloucester’s tally of 24 tries. After initial line breaks Northampton found ample space to work with on the opposite of the field, suggesting Gloucester’s ability to rally in defence requires plenty of work. Yet for Skivington the root of Gloucester’s downfall on Saturday was their set-piece, with Northampton stealing four lineouts and dominating at the scrum having targeted both areas in the build-up to the game, according to Northampton Saints director of rugby Chris Boyd. “We targeted their set piece as statistics showed that they have been successful in that area and we succeeded in doing so,” Boyd said, after his side picked up their second straight win thanks to a brace from Shaun Adendorff and an excellent performance from Scotland centre Rory Hutchinson. “You can shift in the competition really quickly because it’s so tight. We’ve always had confidence in our ability and we know we have some ability. We’ve just got to make sure we put it on the field.” Skivington conceded: “We’re obviously not as good as we thought we were in that set-piece area so we’ll just have to fix it up and get on with it. Fair play to Northampton – they did some bits really well.” Skivington was also notably pessimistic regarding the status of Lloyd Evans, Gloucester’s first-choice fly-half following Danny Cipriani’s departure, after Evans was forced off with an injury at half-time. Billy Twelvetrees deputised at No 10 after Evans went off, but other than academy fly-half George Barton options at the crucial position are light ahead of Gloucester welcoming Bristol to Kingsholm on Friday.

Olympique Marseille’s American owner Frank McCourt has strongly condemned “thugs” who attacked the club’s training ground on Saturday, comparing the violent protest to the deadly January 6 assault on the US Congress.

Pakistan has left out veteran batsman Mohammad Hafeez from its Twenty20 squad for the series against South Africa because he would not meet the Pakistan Cricket Board’s deadline for players to enter a bio-secure bubble. The PCB had said that all players had to be in the team’s bubble by Feb. 3 ahead of the three-match series against the Proteas that starts on Feb. 11. Hafeez, who is not among the PCB’s centrally contracted players, is currently playing in the T10 League in the United Arab Emirates.