Month: January 2024

Watch: Shaheen Afridi and Luke Wood ran three on the last ball of the ILT20 clash against MI Emirates to register a nail-biting victory for Desert Vipers yesterday (January 30).
Needing 150 for a win, the Vipers were 140-8 after 19 overs, needing 10 to win off the last six balls. Trent Boult, given the responsibility of closing the game for MI Emirates, conceded four runs on the first three balls, reducing the equation to six off three, which soon became three from the last delivery with Shaheen on strike.
Boult sent down a fuller ball, which was slashed hard by the batter towards third man where there were no fielders positioned. As the fielder from sweeper cover came in and picked up the ball, the two batters ran a double. They set off for a third as well and Shaheen could have been in trouble if the throw was at the non-strikers end. However, he had ample time to complete the run as the throw was at the wrong end.
Shaheen dived to complete the run and celebrated by taking off his helmet and raising his arms in the air. The quick was unbeaten on 17 in 12, while Wood made a run-a-ball six.
& & !
How brilliant was that finish in #DVvMIE? #KoiKasarNahiChhodenge | #DPWorldILT20onZeepic.twitter.com/YA7Csqiypa
— Zee Cricket (@ilt20onzee) January 30, 2024
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Cristiano Ronaldo will not be playing the highly anticipated Riyadh Season Cup match against Lionel Messi on Thursday, Al Nassr coach Luis Castro said on Wednesday putting an end to the speculations of a final dance between the two rivals.“We will not see [Messi vs Ronaldo], Ronaldo is in the final part of his recovery to join the group. We hope that in the next few days you can start working with the team. He will be absent from the game,” Castro said.The anticipation of the clash had reached fever pitch but Castro’s words poured water on all the hopes that the supporters had of witnessing the two greats share a pitch once again after one year.
Breaking: Al Nassr manager Luis Castro announced that Cristiano Ronaldo is in the final part of his recovery and will not play in the club’s friendly against Inter Miami.
There won’t be a reunion between him and Messi this time around pic.twitter.com/cy1BOLVemC
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 31, 2024
This would probably been the last time these two icons faced each other with Ronaldo turning 39 in February and Messi turning 37 in July. There have been rumours that Messi might leave the USA after his contract expires to go and ply his trade with boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys. Ronaldo, meanwhile, has said that he’s still some way off from retiring.
Messi’s Inter Miami will next play a Ronaldo-less Al Nassr on Thursday and then hope to get their first win of the preseason. They have lost to FC Dallas and New York City FC and then played out a draw with El Salvador where Messi and Luis Suarez both started. Earlier this week, they also lost to Al Hilal 4-3 which will put a dent in their confidence.
As for Ronaldo, he’ll be looking to get back to full fitness so that he can continue his blistering run with Al Nassr, who are undefeated in the last 5 matches. The Portuguese talisman is on a hot streak of form, scoring 20 goals in 18 matches this season.

10 affordable furniture ideas that will make your room super elegant

Barcelona have returned to winning ways and are back in third place in the La Liga table thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Osasuna at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Wednesday evening. The Catalans struggled for most of the night against Osasunas defense even after the visitors went down to 10 men, but an inspired substitute cameo by young striker Vitor Roque decided the game and gave the Blaugrana three crucial points at home.
FIRST HALF
The game started with more bad injury news for Barça as Ferran Torres left the pitch in tears with a hamstring problem just five minutes into the match. Fermín López came on in his place and tried to impact the game with his movement and tenacity, but the Catalans really struggled to attack throughout the half against Osasunas 5-3-2 parked bus.
The Blaugrana only threatened through crosses and set pieces, with Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde each missing a couple of good headers and Fermín unable to finish a brilliant cross from Lamine Yamal that should have resulted in a goal.
Osasuna did almost nothing to offer any danger going the other way, with their only half-chance coming after a corner and a deflection that accidentally hit Ante Budimirs head and almost went in. The entire first period was played at a painfully slow pace by both sides, and neither team deserved to be ahead at the break.
At halftime the game was goalless and boring and Barça showed the familiar struggles against a low block, and they badly needed some more intensity and a touch of inspiration to find a breakthrough in the second half.
SECOND HALF
The start of the second half brought more of the same from both sides as Osasuna stayed in their low block looking to keep frustrating Barça, while the Blaugrana showed very little urgency in their play and continued to struggle to create anything apart from a couple of dangerous crosses by Lamine Yamal.
But Xavi Hernández made an inspired substitution when Vitor Roque replaced Fermín, and the Brazilian needed just 90 seconds on the pitch to inject speed and life to the Barça attack and finish off their best passing sequence of the entire game, which ended with a cross by João Cancelo and a header by Roque to put the home team in front.
Roque made another key impact in the game shortly after his goal when he was fouled by Unai García to stop a promising attack, which led to a second yellow and a red card for the Osasuna captain. The visitors went down to 10 men just as they were making attacking substitutions to chase an equalizer, and Barça were suddenly in a strong position to get a second goal and confirm the victory.
But they were in serious danger of conceding an equalizer for a while as Osasuna had nothing to lose even with 10 men and threw plenty of bodies forward and created real chances to score, with Budimir hitting the post and Iñaki Peña making a strong save on a shot from distance as the visitors came very close to finding the back of the net.
Barça finally wrestled back control of the game and nearly doubled their lead with 10 minutes to go when Roque played it through to Lewandowski who scored a beautiful curler on the counter, but the Pole was just offside in the buildup and the goal was ruled out.
The home team did a good job running out the clock and avoiding a late blitz by Osasuna, and the final whistle came to give Barça three crucial points. It wasnt a great game by any means and Barça once again struggled against a parked bus, but at this point in the season they just needed a win and some good news.
They got the win, and the good news is that Vitor Roque has arrived. The injuries in attack will mean an increased role for the Brazilian in the next few weeks, and his game-winning cameo off the bench will provide some much-needed confidence for a young man with obvious potential. Parabéns, Tigrinho!
Barcelona: Peña; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsí, Cancelo; Pedri (Romeu 77), De Jong; Yamal, Gündogan, Ferran (Fermín 7 (Roque 62)); Lewandowski
Goal: Roque (64)
Osasuna: Fernández; Areso, U. García, D. García, Herrando, Mojica; Moncayola (Barja 83), Torró (Ibáñez 83), Aimar (Brasanac 68); Budimir (Ru. García 68), Arnáiz (Ra. García 68)
Goals: None
Red Card: U. García (67)

In this exclusive interview, he breaks down the difficult life of a wristspinner ©Getty
Wrist spinners are cricket’s tightrope walkers. Millimetres this way or that and they reach terra firma in triumph. Millimetres that way or this and they plummet even as their deliveries soar out of the ground. Their margin for error is as big as the rope is thin, and they are more likely than other bowlers to put a foot wrong.
Tightrope walkers are also called funambulists. The Latin root of the word is ambulate, to walk. Tabraiz Shamsi reaches terra firma in triumph more often than his fellow wrist spin artistes, and while he’s at it he is invested in the first syllable of funambulism.
“I like to enjoy my cricket; I like to have fun,” Shamsi told Cricbuzz. “All our journeys shape us into the type of people we are and the way we work. Having gone to the CPL early in my career [in June 2015, almost a year before his South Africa debut] and experienced the way the Caribbean players are – laid back and chilled and having fun – made an impact on me. A player can be intense when they need to be, but when I enjoyed my cricket in the Caribbean was also when I played my best cricket. I’ve made a conscious decision to make great memories. Enjoying my cricket helps me play better.
“People may see it as a distraction. Maybe it’s a distraction for them. For me it’s a pressure release. When I take a wicket, I run around, I enjoy myself, I celebrate. It breaks the game down for me. You hear batters saying they refocus with every ball. They step away from the crease or they use a phrase that makes them refocus, because you can’t stay switched on for 100 overs. Well, that’s my break. When the new batter comes in, that’s my way of starting again.”
Shamsi fulfilled his mission statement in an SA20 match at Boland Park on January 21. Having kept MI Cape Town’s Sam Curran scoreless for three balls, he pitched the fourth on leg and forced a hoik that blooped to mid-on. Once the catch had been taken Shamsi whipped a handkerchief out of his trouser pocket. As he ran his hand over it the cloth changed from green and gold – South Africa’s colours – to blue and red, or close to Paarl Royals’ blue and pink. Two balls later Shamsi trapped Kieron Pollard in front with a delivery that turned sharply into the pads.
If that sounds familiar it could be because Shamsi turned a red handkerchief into a silver rod after he dismissed Wihan Lubbe during the 2019 MSL. Several times, to celebrate taking a wicket, he has removed a boot and pretended to talk into it as he would a telephone – as he did after he had Suryakumar Yadav caught in the deep during a T20I at St George’s Park in December last year.
“Absurd” appeared in one headline on a story describing the Lubbe incident, and in another Shamsi was said to “flaunt” his Curran caper. After the Yadav episode, as Cricbuzz reported at the time, Shamsi and even his wife were subjected to online abuse. It seems some people won’t stand for fun infecting their idea of cricket.
Maybe because Shamsi appears, to cricket’s mumpsimuses, not to take cricket as seriously as they demand he should, he attracts a level of public distrust others don’t have to endure. Consequently he has been labelled, often snidely, a “confidence bowler”, which suggests he is a bystander in his own success. What did he make of that charge?
“That would be the same for any player. When your confidence is high you’re going to be running hot, and when it’s not so high you start doubting a few things,” he said. “I have the ability to win games for the team that they’re not supposed to win. There are a lot of guys who can help you win games you’re supposed to win – your steady players – versus guys who have the x factor. I know that, as long as I have overs in the bank, even if we’re in trouble, I can turn the game. The opposition also know that. It’s not going to happen every game, but I do believe that.
“It’s an unfair assessment, because any player can only showcase what they can do if they get a decent run. In my international career so far, it’s probably only in the T20 space between 2020 and 2021, where I regularly played for the Proteas without being in and out. You can’t find rhythm if you’re in and out of the side.
“So I don’t agree with it. It’s just cricketing sense that the more you play the more rhythm you’re going to find. The more you play, the quicker you learn from your mistakes. If you play on Friday and you make mistakes, you can correct them on Sunday. But if you play in September and your next game is in December, you’ve probably forgotten how you were feeling and what you learnt.
“When I feel like I’m backed I run hot. Then I can focus on making the team win. If you are given licence to do your work properly you’re going to be great at what you’re doing. If you feel that if you don’t write a great article today you may not have a job tomorrow, you’re not going to be able to express yourself.”
Shamsi has featured in 65 of the 78 T20Is South Africa have played since his debut in June 2016, but in only 51 of their 119 ODIs from his first, in June 2017. His involvement in 23 T20I series and tournaments has been limited to one match just once, but has suffered that fate seven times in 25 ODI rubbers. He had the bad luck to come up when Imran Tahir was in his prime and now has Keshav Maharaj – who arrived on the international scene in November 2016 as a Test specialist – muscling in on white-ball territory.
Shamsi’s celebrations have been nothing less than ‘magical’ at times, including at this year’s SA20 ©Cricket South Africa
“At the beginning of my career Imran Tahir was there, and anybody who understands cricket will know what the reasoning was,” Shamsi said. “He’s one of my closest friends in cricketing terms, because even though it could have turned into a competition it never did. We would always help each other out. He would ask me for advice, even though I was much younger than him and I had no experience of international cricket. Even though I was on the bench for close to four years because he was playing, the knowledge he shared with me allowed me to fill my place in the team seamlessly and accelerate my growth.”
Fair enough. But the Maharaj end of the equation will make worrying reading for Shamsi fans. South Africa played 37 ODIs and 26 T20Is in 2022 and 2023. Both Shamsi and Maharaj were picked in 14 of the ODIs and a dozen of the T20Is. Maharaj featured in 29 ODIs and 19 T20Is. Shamsi? Twenty ODIs and 18 T20Is.
Not that there’s bad blood between Shamsi and Maharaj, as anyone who saw them celebrate like brothers guiding South Africa to victory by a solitary wicket in a World Cup match against Pakistan at Chepauk in October last year would attest. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t often contesting the same spot in the XI. And that, as he offers the safer option of finger spin and has significant batting ability, Maharaj cracks the nod ahead of Shamsi frequently.
Shamsi admits that “for the first time in my career I had a few off [ODIs]” after the 2022 T20 World Cup, which he attributes to being left out when he felt he should have played – in particular for three of the five games South Africa played at the tournament. And that despite him having arrived in Australia as the second-ranked spinner and third overall among the world’s T20I bowlers. When the tournament ended he was fourth among spinners and sixth all told. “That affected me mentally and I didn’t have a great [2023] SA20 [where 20 bowlers took more wickets and 15 had a better economy rate]. It’s natural for a player to feel that way. But since Rob [Walter] has come in, he’s been a great communicator. He’s pushed me to be better.”
Walter picked Shamsi and Maharaj for South Africa’s World Cup match against India at Eden Gardens in November. Maharaj took 1/30 in 10 tight overs. In his 10, Shamsi claimed 1/72. India soared to 326/5 and registered South Africa’s heaviest defeat in the format by dismissing them for 83 in 27.1 overs.
Shamsi lost his line, length and shape, was hit for five fours and a six, and sent down seven wides and a no-ball. The blue-shirted majority of the watching 66,000 clearly enjoyed seeing him fall off his tightrope. They would be surprised, and disappointed, to learn that Shamsi wasn’t unsettled by their schadenfreude. “I enjoy that kind of stuff. I got that when I moved to the Titans, which was a super star XI; guys who are Proteas players. And then there’s Mr. Nobody, Tabraiz Shamsi. Nobody cares about me because I’m from KZN Inland. I realised that I needed to shine among those guys, because they’re big players.”
In his first match for the Titans, the pre-season eKasi Challenge against the Lions in Soweto in August 2014, Shamsi shared a dressingroom with eight former, current or future internationals. Among them were Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen and Roelof van der Merwe. “People are coming to watch them. The eyes are there. That means those eyes are on me as well. So it’s a great opportunity to embrace that pressure and do something special. Why else do we play this game? You want to play in big games. You want the eyes. Otherwise you could be playing club cricket on a Sunday, where there’s no crowd besides your family and friends and half the players are drunk. So I’ve always enjoyed big moments. It’s a chance to say I’m the one who’s going to win this game for my team.
“It might sound contradictory because I had a horrible game [against India], but that can happen. We can laugh about it now, but I didn’t sleep for two days after the game. Before the game I was excited, but the way I bowled was shocking. The more you play the more you realise it could happen at any time. I was able to bowl better in the semifinal, a more high pressure game.”
In that match, also at Eden Gardens and 11 days after his mauling by the Indians, Shamsi dismissed Marnus Labuschagne and Glenn Maxwell in consecutive overs and limited the damage in his 10 overs to 42 runs. Did that illustrate the jeopardy of bowling wrist spin for a living?
“Of course. Who do you bring on when the heat is on? Shamsi. Who do you bring on if Shamsi’s running hot? You maybe hold onto a few of his overs and get a few of the other guys’ overs out of the way, and wait for the batters to get to 40, 50, 60. Then you bring him back towards the end of the innings.
“There are days when I might go for runs, but it’s something I don’t tell captains not to do because they have faith in me. Sometimes you need someone to save you; to say, hey, this guy is not doing an easy job. If I end up going for runs bowling in tough situations trying to help the team win, I can’t look at that as a negative. Because the day I get it right …
“One bad over can ruin it, and then people who look exclusively at the result will say you’ve had a bad day. Fortunately there are enough sane people around.”
People who know how difficult it is to stay on the tightrope. And to have fun while you’re on it.

“After 12 years, everybody had a necessity to live that kind of moment. I have to say it was more emotional than any other celebrations I have lived in my life.”
If a man who has been part of title celebrations with FC Barcelona and Galatasaray says a trophy celebration at East Bengal was bigger than any other he has seen, then you know the magnitude of the achievement.
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Carles Cuadrat’s name in maidan folklore is now guaranteed. After guiding Bengaluru FC to their first Indian Super League (ISL) title back in 2019, the Spaniard has now broken a 12-year national trophy drought for one of India’s most storied clubs, as he won the Super Cup title with the Kolkata giants.
In the final, the dream was close to being shattered again, with Odisha equalizing in the 97th minute after East Bengal had overturned a 1-0 deficit to lead 2-1 through goals from Nandhakumar Sekar and Saul Crespo.
“To make the win even more heroic, Odisha scored a penalty in the 97th minute. Football is the kind of game that makes impossible things happen,” Cuadrat told ESPN.
That ‘impossible thing’ happened midway through the second period of extra-time as Cleiton Silva scored the winner for East Bengal to win the Super Cup, and with it, a spot in next season’s AFC Champions League 2, Asia’s second biggest club competition.
“Football is the kind of game that makes impossible things happen.” – Carles Cuadrat Sandeep Shetty / Focus Sports / ISL
Be it communicating to Lalchungnunga and Naorem Mahesh Singh that they would have to come on as second half substitutes, or sensing some discontent in his ranks to bring off PV Vishnu 20 minutes after he had substituted him on, Cuadrat won his team the final with clear thinking and decisive actions at the right times.
Also Read: East Bengal, champions again, complete metamorphosis under Cuadrat to end 12 years of pain
Cuadrat went into that final with positivity. He didn’t believe it was impossible at all. He believed it was a game that East Bengal could win. He was wary of the big moments which flip games either side on the big occasions, but he felt that leading up to the final, circumstances favoured his team, even though Odisha were heading into it with a 15-match unbeaten streak.
Cuadrat said that right from his first day at the club, he understood the importance of keeping the environment positive, of ensuring as less negative impact on his players as possible from external sources, of which there has traditionally been no shortage in Kolkata, given the stature of East Bengal.
“It was very very difficult,” he said. “It’s about two things. You have to communicate positively, you have to go for positive messaging, but you have to give results, because this is a big club.”
There are times when words are no longer needed, where emotions are already overflowed…then the best thing is to dance
LET’S DANCE #AmagoFansYou have been waiting too long for that moment DANCE & CELEBRATE @eastbengal_fcpic.twitter.com/DnD4Zdxcv9
– Carles Cuadrat (@CarlesCuadrat) January 31, 2024
“It was important for us to start well, important to win a very difficult group in Durand Cup, and winning the first boro match (Durand Cup derby win over Mohun Bagan Super Giant) of the season. It gives positive energy to the environment, to the journalists, to the people around. And then we built from there,” the Spaniard said.
He might be a Barcelona man through and through, but in football terms, he isn’t. He says he’s a fan of Diego Simeone’s way of understanding the game. He’s a complete football geek, he points to Bayer Leverkusen and Girona this season, as styles of play that he’s a fan of. But he knew that with the set of players available to him, he couldn’t stick to the same methods that he used in his last stint in the ISL, with Bengaluru FC. Even then, he had shown that he was nothing if not adaptable.
“We knew it was very different to the Bengaluru side, with Miku, Sunil [Chhetri], Dimas [Delgado], Erik [Paartalu], Juanan. Now we as a team had to build from a different situation. Being defensively compact, taking advantage of counter attacks, using the pace of Nandha and Mahesh. The players understood the ideas, they have been competing very well throughout the season,” he said.
After 12 years, everybody had a necessity to live that kind of moment. I have to say it was more emotional than any other celebrations I have lived in my life. – Carles Cuadrat Dipayan Bose/Focus Sports/ISL
Cuadrat knows, though, that this trophy isn’t the endgame. It is just the beginning of a journey. The expectations are bigger. “We are celebrating a trophy after 12 years, but at the same time in social media, I see a lot of critics saying that we are not using the transfer window well,” he joked.
Cuadrat has been in India long enough to know the pressures that come with the territory at East Bengal. For now, he’s relishing it. He has a simple message to the supporters. “We are professionals, we are doing our jobs, we are building a project for the next year and a half. So just be patient, be calm and trust in the people behind the scenes,” he said.
By professionally doing their jobs this season, the East Bengal hierarchy and Cuadrat have brought home a big trophy. But there’s still half a season to play in the ISL, where they could yet be in with a shout for the playoffs. Two wins from 10 isn’t good enough. Cuadrat knows that, but he also knew that a final where his team went in as rank underdogs would favour his own side. Here’s a man who seems to have got a grasp on what he’s doing as he goes about transforming one of India’s oldest football clubs. Who would bet against them celebrating again, come April?

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