Melbourne, May 21 (IANS) Australia have announced Fraser-McGurk and Short as the reserves for their T20 World Cup squad, travelling to the Caribbean and USA as they finalised their 15-man team and travelling reserves.

Fraser-McGurk has exploded onto the scene and made a name for himself, showcasing his raw ability to strike the ball. In nine games for Delhi Capitals, McGurk has scored four half-centuries, accumulating 330 runs at a blistering strike rate of 234.04, including 32 boundaries and 28 sixes.

“You look at Jake’s form in the IPL – he took that by storm and he was a serious consideration for the final 15,” coach Andrew McDonald told cricket.com.au.

“And so was Matthew Short. His BBL form has been outstanding over a long period of time and he’s shown glimpses at the international level as well, albeit at times he’s had to play a different role,” he said.

“When you’re on the fringes potentially you’re going to have to play different roles at different times and he’s really embraced some middle-order opportunities.

“We know that he’s best suited at the top of the order – and it’s probably similar for Jake as well – hence why they haven’t been picked in the in the initial 15. But should anything move, we feel as though both of them could have the flexibility to line up anywhere in that batting order,” McDonald added.

When the 2021 T20 World Cup champions unveiled their squad for the 20-over showcase earlier this month, the absence of Fraser-McGurk was among the biggest surprises.

Fraser-McGurk’s barnstorming IPL campaign was close to winning him a berth in the 15-man squad, which was on Tuesday confirmed by Cricket Australia ahead of the ICC’s May 25 deadline, but the strength of the David Warner-Travis Head-Mitch Marsh top order saw him miss out.

Cricket Australia said the players and staff will arrive in the West Indies in stages, with those competing in the Indian Premier League given time at home before joining the group.

Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Mitchell Starc, and Cameron Green and Glenn Maxwell will instead link up with the group in Barbados ahead of Australia’s tournament opener against Oman on June 5.

The Australian squad will fly to the Caribbean on Thursday for a training camp in Trinidad, which includes two practice matches against Namibia and West Indies on May 28 and 30, respectively.

Australia open their T20 World Cup campaign against Oman in Barbados on June 5, before Group B fixtures against England, Namibia and Scotland.

Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Travelling Reserves: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matt Short

–IANS

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Ahmedabad, May 21 (IANS) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will lock horns in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2024 on Tuesday for a place in the final.

A win will guarantee a direct place in the final while a losing team will play in Qualifier 2 with the winner of the eliminator for a place in the final.

This is only the fourth meeting between the two teams in the IPL Playoffs with SRH winning two in the previous three encounters. However, in the overall head-to-head, KKR hold an advantage over SRH.

KKR v SRH head-to-head 26-

Kolkata Knight Riders: 16

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 9

Tied: 1

KKR v SRH match time: The match starts at 7:30 PM IST (2:00 PM GMT) with the toss taking place half an hour before the match i.e., 7:00 PM (1:30 PM GMT)

KKR v SRH match venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

KKR v SRH Live broadcast on television in India: The KKR v SRH match will be broadcast live via Star Sports Network.

Live stream in India: The live streaming of KKR v SRH is available on JioCinema

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Nitish Rana, Srikar Bharat, Sherfane Rutherford, Dushmantha Chameera, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sakib Hussain, Suyash Sharma, Allah Ghazanfar, Chetan Sakariya

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Shahbaz Ahmed, Abdul Samad, Sanvir Singh, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Agarwal, Aiden Markram, Anmolpreet Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Markande, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Maharaj Singh

–IANS

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Rome, May 21 (IANS) Juventus overcame a 3-0 deficit to register a 3-3 draw with Bologna in Serie A, with three players scoring in eight minutes.

It was a head-to-head for third place, as the two sides locked together on 68 points. Juve had just fired head coach Massimiliano Allegri, and Paolo Montero from U-19 team stepped in to act as an interim coach.

The home side broke the deadlock just two minutes into the game when a cross found Riccardo Calafiori to fire home.

Bologna doubled the lead in the 11th minute when Santiago Castro steered his header into the net, before Calafiori bagged a brace six minutes after the break.

Juve pulled one goal back in the 76th minute when Federico Chiesa intercepted the ball to beat the goalkeeper, before Arkadiusz Milik’s spectacular free kick directly went into the net.

The Bianconeri ran riot one minute later when the Bologna players were caught napping, Kenan Yildiz unleashed a rocket out of the box that went beyond the goalkeeper.

Elsewhere, relegation battlers Hellas Verona confirmed safety after a 2-1 away victory over Salernitana who had already relegated.

–IANS

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Mangalore, May 21 (IANS) The Surfing Federation of India (SFI), the governing body for the sports of surfing and stand-up paddling in the country, announced the schedule for the fifth edition of the Indian Open Surfing (IOS). Recognised by the International Surfing Association, this premier surfing competition will be hosted by the Mantra Surf Club at the tranquil Sasihithlu Beach in Mangalore, Karnataka, from May 31 to June 2.

The three-day surfing competition will feature participation from all the top-ranked surfers in India. The Karnataka government has extended its support to the event for the fifth time in a row. The competition will include four categories: men’s open, women’s open, groms (U-16) boys, and groms (U-16) girls.

IOS will be the second stop of the national championship series of the 2024 calendar year, following the International Surfing Festival Kerala 2024, held in March at the beautiful cliff beach of Varkala.

The IOS will feature intense rivalry between surfers from the east and west coasts, as these championships carry important ranking points that will determine the surfers’ standings at the end of the season.

“We are happy to extend our support to the organisers of the Indian Open of Surfing – Surfing Swami Foundation and Mantra Surf Club under the aegis of the Surfing Federation of India. They are doing a fabulous job of promoting the lesser-explored coasts of our state and boosting our tourism economy”, said Mullai Muhilan, deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada.

“Hosting a national-level competition in such a beautiful and serene part of the state can attract more visitors from different parts of the country,” he said.

Arun Vasu, president of the Surfing Federation of India, on the announcement said, “Our goal is simple, we want to elevate India to the top in surfing. After a successful start to the National Series in Kerala, we are glad to continue the championships in Mangaluru before the championship tour moves to the East Coast”.

Ramesh Budihal, Harish M, Srikanth D, and Manikandan M will be the surfers to watch in the men’s category, having performed exceptionally well in the last national championship recently held in Kerala. In the women’s category, Kamali Moorthy, Srishthi Selvam, and Sandhya Arun are among the participants competing for the top honours. Teenage sensation Kishore Kumar will have all eyes on him, having stunned everyone with his recent performances.

Rammohan Paranjape, vice president SFI and Director of Mantra Surf Club, said, “We are hoping for a really good turnout of all top surfers in the country and a very close competitive battle between the best, the last two editions of IOS have produced the best action with close finishes at the end, let’s hope for a solid swell and great weather.”

In the first championship of the calendar year (International Surfing Festival, Kerala), Ramesh Budihal and Kamali P emerged victorious in the men’s and women’s Open categories, respectively while Kishore Kumar won the groms 16 and under boys with a high score of 14.73

–IANS

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London, May 20 (IANS) Manchester City’s fourth consecutive Premier League title says it all about Pep Guardiola’s side, as they came good when they needed to and kept their nerve to hold off a strong challenge from Arsenal to lift the title. Once again, Guardiola, for all his talk of leaving at the end of next season, has shown himself to be the master of the game, tweaking a team that had a couple of low moments in the season, but had the football, the footballers and the experience to hold off their rivals in the finishing straight.

Erling Haaland, for all the criticism of his contribution outside of the penalty area, showed there is nobody in the world more reliable in front of goal, while Kevin de Bruyne is still a master of the creative football arts, even if he is starting to slow down.

And if De Bruyne slows down, the Premier League’s Player of the Season, Phil Foden, continues to develop as arguably the most exciting English player of his generation, with 19 goals this season, including the first two on Sunday, reports Xinhua.

City may have missed the silky midfield talents of Ilkay Gundogan after his move to Barcelona. Still, Guardiola’s constant evolution saw him adapt the shape of his side, give extra responsibility to players such as John Stones. At the same time, 22-year-old Josko Gvardiol has had an excellent first campaign at the club, looking calm on the ball and even scoring key goals at the end of the campaign.

Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta must feel frustrated at seeing his side fall just short after they too produced a brilliant finishing run to the campaign. It’s hard to believe that both Arsenal and Manchester City won nine of their last 10 games, with the only points dropped coming in a 0-0 draw between the two sides in Manchester back in March.

The fact Arsenal held their nerve means they can wave goodbye to the tag of ‘bottle merchants’ — a team that loses its nerve at key moments — and that is partly due to the arrival of England midfielder Declan Rice. Rice cost over 100 million pounds, but it looks like money well-spent, as he added both control and creativity in midfield. Meanwhile, Kai Havertz is another huge success for Arteta, finally finding his place as a floating No. 9 giving even more mobility to a team packed with the attacking talents of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, and Gabriel Jesus.

A reliable left-back and a specialist striker might make Arsenal’s title challenge for next season almost impossible to resist.

It was the end of an era at Liverpool where Jurgen Klopp stepped down with Arne Slot to step in as his replacement. Klopp always said it would be a transitional year, and Liverpool’s cause wasn’t helped by a long injury list, but the good news for Slot is that youngsters such as Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliot and Jarell Quansah should be the building blocks for his team next season.

Elsewhere, Mauricio Pochettino had a long, hard season at Chelsea with an expensive, but young and disparate squad of players that only started to play as a team in the last two months of the season. After spending part of the season in the bottom half, Chelsea rallied to finish sixth, and there should be more to come from them next season if the club keeps faith in the coach.

Ange Postecoglou was a breath of fresh air for a Tottenham side that faced life without Harry Kane, and although they just fell short of the line in their efforts to reach the Champions League, Tottenham have a base to push on and a style of play that will win over a lot of neutrals. The fact Spurs finished fifth and not fourth was due to Unai Emery’s excellent work at Aston Villa, where players such as Pau Torres kept them solid in defense, while Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey gave them a spark in attack.

Villa’s challenge now will be to build a squad to compete at home and abroad as they began to look stretched in the final weeks of this campaign.

And then there was Manchester United, who took two steps back in Erik ten Hag’s second season in charge and who will miss out on Europe unless they beat Manchester City in the FA Cup next weekend — an outcome that doesn’t seem likely. United end the season with everything up in the air as Sir Jim Ratcliffe ponders his options with both coach and a squad that will probably look very different at the start of next season.

–IANS

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