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Francesco Lindor got the NLCS rematch between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers off to an electric start on Monday night by crushing a leadoff home run.

Lindor launched a 417-foot homer off of Dodgers pitcher Dustin May's second pitch of the night, right into the bleachers at Dodger Stadium.

It was Lindor's 14th home run of the season, tied for the 10th most in the league, but it was also his sixth leadoff homer of the year. The Mets' franchise record for the most leadoff home runs in a single season is seven accomplished by Curtis Granderson in 2015 and '16, via MLB's Sarah Langs.

Lindor is one more leadoff homer away from tying the team record and two away from breaking it—and it's only June 2. He has plenty of time left in the season to add his name to the Mets history books.

The all-time MLB record is held by Philadelphia Phillies star Kyle Schwarber with 15 leadoff homers, which he just achieved last season. As we're not even halfway through the MLB season, Lindor could make a push to break this young record.

Pratika Rawal did not open India’s chase against Bangladesh after hurting her knee and ankle while fielding during the first innings of their final league game of the Women’s World Cup in Navi Mumbai.”The BCCI Medical Team is closely monitoring her progress,” the board said in a statement.The injury occurred off the final ball of the 21st over in a rain-hit game in Navi Mumbai, when Bangladesh batter Sharmin Akter swiped Deepti Sharma across the line. As Rawal ran towards her left from cow corner, her foot appeared to get stuck in the turf and her ankle twisted as she fell to the ground. While the ball went to the boundary, Rawal winced in pain and held her ankle. Though a stretcher was sent out for her, she got up with the physio’s help and hobbled off the field. Amanjot Kaur filled in as Smriti Mandhana’s opening partner in Rawal’s absence.The match between India and Bangladesh began two hours after the scheduled time due to rain and was initially reduced to 43 overs a side. But another spell of rain delayed play for two more hours with Bangladesh on 39 for 2 in 12.2 overs. The match eventually resumed at 8.05 pm local time as a 27-overs-a-side contest. However, there was a drizzle even minutes before the restart.Bangladesh dragged themselves to 119 for 9 in their 27, and India – with a revised target of 126 – were cruising at 57 for no loss when another spell of rain forced a washout.Rawal, 25, is the second highest run-scorer at the World Cup, behind Mandhana, with 308 runs at an average of 51.33 in six innings. She had scored a century in the previous game against New Zealand, which India won by 53 runs to seal their spot in the semi-finals.Shortly after the Rawal injury, her team-mate Radha Yadav also seemed to get her foot stuck trying to stop the ball at point in the 25th over. But she gathered herself up and bowled the next over.India were going to finish fourth in the league stage irrespective of the result against Bangladesh and will play table toppers Australia in the second semi-final on Thursday in Navi Mumbai.

تحدث خالد العوضي مدير النشاط الرياضي بالنادي الأهلي، عن أزمة مباراة الاتحاد السكندري، بنهائي دوري المرتبط لكرة السلة التي كان مقرر إقامتها مساء الإثنين.

وانسحب فريق الاتحاد من مواجهة الأهلي، اعتراضًا على خروج الجماهير من المدرجات وذلك بعد قرار الاتحاد المصري لكرة السلة، عقب الاشتباكات التي حدثت في مباراة الشباب بين فريق الأهلي والاتحاد التي أقيمت في الخامسة مساءً.

طالع | الأهلي يتوج بدوري المرتبط لكرة السلة بعد انسحاب الاتحاد السكندري

وقال العوضي خلال تصريحات عبر قناة “إم بي سي مصر 2″، لبرنامج “الكورة مع فايق”: “فريق الأهلي تواجد في أرض الملعب حتى صافرة النهاية، نشكر إدارة الاتحاد، وما حدث يعد انسحابا ويعتبر فوزا رسميا لنا بالبطولة”.

وأضاف: “أرض الملعب لا تخصنا، الأهلي كان ملتزمًا بكل قرارت اتحاد السلة، ولد صغير ناشىء هو السبب فيما حدث، أتمنى اتحاد السلة يأخذ قرارا حتى لا يتكرر الأمر”.

وأتم: “نحن مع الاتحاد المصري قلبًا وقالبًا، طول عمره الأهلي يكون مثالًا مع النظام ونحن مع النظام”.

Farooq Nazar, the fan in question, refused to cover his Pakistan shirt during the fourth England vs India Test and was “asked to leave the stadium” by security officials

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2025Lancashire have apologised for an incident at the Old Trafford Test between England and India where a fan was ejected from the ground after he refused to cover his Pakistan team t-shirt.Farooq Nazar, the fan in question, posted a video on social media documenting the sequence of events, which started with a request from a member of the security staff that he cover the shirt, a replica of Pakistan’s traditional green limited-overs kit.The security guard, who identified himself as working for Lancashire, said he had been sent by “control” to ask for the shirt to be covered. Nazar refused. He was subsequently escorted away by police officers and, according to a statement from Lancashire, “asked to leave the stadium by stewards and police officers due to unacceptable behaviour directed towards the stewarding team”.In the days since – the incident took place on the last day, a Sunday, of the Test – the club conducted an internal review and apologised for “any upset and offence caused which was not intended and will review its procedures for handling similar situations in the future”.Lancashire, however, explained that a separate incident at the ground between a set of Indian and Pakistani fans on the Saturday of the Test influenced their handling of the situation with Nazar.

“A stand supervisor politely asked the individual to cover his shirt in the interest of his own safety and to avoid any potential escalation. Despite several courteous requests from the supervisor and the response team, the individual repeatedly declined to comply”Lancashire statement

“Firstly, we wish to make it clear that there was no intention to remove the individual simply for wearing a Pakistan cricket shirt,” the club said in a statement. “The approach taken was informed by an incident on Saturday, during which a group of supporters waved a Pakistan national flag, leading to tensions with nearby Indian fans. In that case, our stewards were able to de-escalate the situation by respectfully asking the individuals to put the flag away, which they did without hesitation.”In light of this context, our team adopted a precautionary, safety-first approach on Sunday. A stand supervisor politely asked the individual to cover his shirt in the interest of his own safety and to avoid any potential escalation. Despite several courteous requests from the supervisor and the response team, the individual repeatedly declined to comply.”Earlier, the ECB CEO Richard Gould had said Nazar was known to the ECB from previous years.”There may well be a context [to what happened] and I know the ground is looking at that, and we’ve also referred it along to the Cricket Regulator to make sure that they’re aware,” Gould said.Relations between India and Pakistan, have been at a low following a brief military skirmish between the two countries in May. Those tensions have filtered into relations between the BCCI and PCB; the two sides have not played a bilateral series since 2012-13 and no Test cricket since 2007-08. Their participation in ICC events hosted by either country has also recently become an issue, with a neutral venue added in to stage their games as part of a hybrid solution to the issue.Earlier this week, an India veterans team refused to play their Pakistan counterparts in two games – including the semi-final, which they forfeited – of a legends tournament in Birmingham.

After New Zealand’s bowlers restricted South Africa to their lowest total of the series, Seifert’s half-century made it a one-sided contest

Firdose Moonda22-Jul-2025

The New Zealand bowlers kept a lid on the scoring rate throughout•Zimbabwe Cricket

New Zealand will take the advantage into the tri-series final after beating South Africa for the second time in two meetings in the group stage. The two sides will meet again on Saturday, and New Zealand will have one more opportunity to fine-tune when they play Zimbabwe on Thursday. Zimbabwe have already been eliminated.In a competition where the chasing team have won four out of the five games so far (including this one), New Zealand played the situation to perfection. On a dry Harare surface, they restricted South Africa to their lowest total of the series and then chased it down inside 16 overs with seven wickets in hand. They made batting look relatively easy with an opening stand of 51, the highest powerplay score of the series, 55 for 1, and had the only half-century of the match courtesy of Tim Seifert.Contrastingly, South Africa struggled to find fluidity or string together partnerships. Their highest was a sixth-wicket stand of 30 off 16 balls between Reeza Hendricks and George Linde, who were also the only two batters to have individual scores over 20. None of their bowlers could keep New Zealand quiet and Gerald Coetzee was particularly expensive. His three overs cost 37 runs while Zakary Foulkes and Adam Milne gave away just 33 runs in seven overs.New Zealand’s early squeezeUnder cloudy skies, New Zealand made run-scoring particularly difficult and found the right lengths straight away. Jacob Duffy opened the bowling and set the tone with back-of-good-length balls and a hint of extra bounce. He would not have been too unhappy when the first runs came off the edge as Rassie van der Dussen threw his hands at one and earned a streaky boundary. Foulkes followed up with a similar strategy and Milne reaped the rewards from the early pressure when van der Dussen made room to try and find the boundary but exposed his stumps and was bowled. South Africa managed just 17 runs off the first five overs, off seven scoring shots.Tim Seifert led New Zealand’s chase•Zimbabwe CricketSouth Africa’s slew of soft dismissalsAt 52 for 2 and approaching the halfway mark, South Africa needed quick runs and made several reckless attempts to get them. Dewald Brevis tried to upper-cut Will O’Rourke but only managed to give Seifert a simple catch. In the next over, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, moved down to No. 5 for this match, sent a Mitchell Santner ball that was zoning in on the pads straight to Duffy at short fine when he could have hit it anywhere on the leg side. While those two mistakes could be put down to inexperience, Hendricks, who was holding the innings together on 41, will be livid with the shot he played off the penultimate ball of the 17th over. Duffy offered him width and Hendricks tried to smash it over the covers but only got it as far as Michael Bracewell in the ring. South Africa were 109 for 6 at that stage but had Senuran Muthusamy, who can bat as high as No. 4, in hand. He was deceived by a change-up from Milne and sent a slower ball straight to extra cover as South Africa’s innings stuttered at the death. They scored 30 runs off the last four overs and lost three wickets.South Africa’s wayward startThe fielding team can ill-afford mistakes when defending a small total but South Africa had three in the first over, which made things even more difficult for them. Linde’s first ball went wide down the leg side, his second did the same thing and snuck past Pretorius behind the stumps to go for four, which meant New Zealand had six runs on the board before a legitimate ball was bowled. Three deliveries late, Linde floated one up, Seifert, who had yet to score a run, went inside-out and tried to clear long-off but didn’t quite get enough on it. Andile Simelane ran around to attempt a catch. He got both hands to the ball but could not keep it under control and it popped out as he fell to the floor. Seifert collected his first three runs and went on to score his 11th T20I half-century.Seifert’s charmed life After he was dropped on 0, Seifert could have been bowled when he shuffled across his stumps to try and lap Coetzee but missed and then could have been caught when he top-edged Coetzee on the leg side but the ball fell safely over both Rubin Hermann and Linde who converged from midwicket and mid-on, respectively. Seifert went on to hit Coetzee for back-to-back boundaries and seemed to settle. Just as things seemed to become easier for him, he survived a caught-and-bowled chance off Linde, who could not snatch a return chance. Seifert wrested back control with the shot that brought up his fifty, a massive six off Muthusamy over long-on, off the 38th ball he faced. He hit another off Nqaba Peter and put the result beyond doubt.

Ruben Amorim has sought to explain why Manchester United have not yet opened talks with Harry Maguire about a new contract. Maguire scored the goal which gave United their first away win at Liverpool for nine years but his future with the Red Devils is in doubt as he is into the last year of his contract. From January, he will be allowed to speak to foreign clubs about joining as a free agent.

Getty Images SportSurvivor Maguire still crucial to Man Utd

Maguire joined United for a then-world record fee for a defender when he signed for the Red Devils from Leicester in 2019 for £80m ($106m). He had a dream debut in a 4-0 win over Chelsea but it proved to be a first season of ups and downs. Maguire was named club captain in January 2020 and the following year played a huge role in United coming second in the Premier League and reaching the Europa League final, which he missed due to injury. He had a hapless 2021-22 season though when United finished sixth and sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. 

The centre-back then lost his place in the starting XI when Erik ten Hag took over and in the summer of 2023 he had the captaincy taken off him and given to Bruno Fernandes instead. Maguire was also subjected to torrents of social media abuse in this period. But he rose above it and fought his way back into the team under Ten Hag and then becoming a crucial player for Amorim, scoring vital goals against Lyon, Leicester and Ipswich last season. His 85th-minute header at Anfield increased his cult-hero status, prompting Amorim to say: "Harry Maguire is really important for us and was today. He is a great example, everything he has been through, a great example to every kid."

AdvertisementAmorim: Not the time to talk about Maguire contract

The head coach, however, was not willing to discuss whether or not the club plan to renew Maguire's contract, which expires in June. Amorim said at a press conference on Friday: "We are really happy with Harry but it is not the time to talk about that. That gives the idea that we are thinking really far away, we need to think about now. We are really happy with Harry, he is really important for us but we just need to focus on the next game."

Getty Images SportMaguire 'needs to be better on the ball'

Amorim praised Maguire and said he was ideally suited to playing in a back three. But he also challenged the defender to improve his ability on the ball. Amorim added: "It was good for him to play with three centre backs, I think he feels more comfortable. Because he plays in the centre, he does not need to go to the side so much so sometimes you help players with the way you play. Sometimes it is the opposite with some players. I am really pleased. He is not young but he can learn a lot, he can improve. 

"I think he can be so much better with the ball because he has that quality and he needs to show that. Nowadays with the set pieces that you see, the amount of men that you put in the box and every cross from the opponent – everyone is playing like that. He is a massive player for us, I am really happy but that game is in the past, that goal is in the past and now let's look forward to the present and the future."

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Maguire & Mount doubts for Brighton

Amorim explained that Maguire and Mason Mount have picked up knocks since the win at Anfield. It means the former England team-mates are doubts for United's game at home to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday. The coach also declared that Lisandro Martinez is progressing well eight months after tearing his ACL but is still some way off from returning to the team.