BRISBANE: After a tense and lengthy innings that was shaping as one of the greatest chases in Test cricket, Pakistan's bold bid to beat Australia in the series-opening day-night Test was wrapped up in five balls on Monday.
Asad Shafiq marshalled the Pakistan tail-enders from 173-5 to 449-8 in pursuit of the improbable target of 490, scoring 137 from 207 balls before he was caught at gully, fending off a Mitchell Starc short ball. Four balls and one run later, skipper Steve Smith threw down the stumps from second slip to run out Yasir Shah for 33. That ensured Smith's young lineup held off Pakistan by 39 runs, maintained Australia's unbeaten run at the Gabba since 1988 and avoided the embarrassment of losing the unlosable.
After frustrating Australia on an extended, rain-interrupted fourth day, Pakistan started day five needing 108 to win while Australia needed two wickets. Fewer than 1,000 people were in the crowd when play started under overcast skies, including a small but vocal group of expats cheering every run and chanting "Pakistan Zindabad" — or long live Pakistan.
Shafiq and Shah kept the pressure on Australia in a 71-run partnership that went close to giving Pakistan an unlikely world-record victory.
After Shafiq's departure, the responsibility moved to Shah, who earlier had an lbw decision overturned on review. He dug out a yorker from Starc, steering it toward the slips, but moved out of his crease and Smith swooped. The Australian captain had dropped two catches at second slip, including Shafiq on 72, and admitted he was relieved he got to end the game.
New Zealand's 451 chasing 550 against England in Christchurch in 2002 remains the record for the highest fourth innings total to lose a Test, but this was a closer call.
"The pleasing thing for me, first of all, is we got across the line and won the game," Smith said. "I'm very pleased with that. But I guess last night, sort of showed we're still not the finished product. We've got to continue to work hard, and keep the foot on the throat when we've got them in that position. We've got to be a little more ruthless and get the job done."
Smith praised Pakistan's pluck, with Azhar Ali (71) and Younis Khan (65) contributing at the top of the order before Shafiq took charge to ensure no repeat of the collapse in the first innings, when the visitors lost 7-24 and were all out for 142 in reply to Australia's 429.
"Things got a little bit close for my liking," said Smith, admitting he was nervous when Pakistan got within 60. "It was an amazing game of cricket. Credit to Pakistan, they scored 450 in the last innings of a pink ball Test match — no doubt pink ball test cricket is here to stay."
Australia ended a five-Test losing streak last month with a win over South Africa in a day-night Test in Adelaide, narrowing the losing margin to 2-1 in that series. Smith then led Australia to a 3-0 sweep of New Zealand in a limited-overs series, before the opening Test against Pakistan — the first-ever day-night Test at the Gabba. Pakistan won the second ever day-night Test — beating the West Indies in the United Arab Emirates in October — but the conditions were vastly different with more swing in humid, subtropical Brisbane.
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq praised his batsmen, particularly Shafiq, who equaled his highest Test score with his 10th century.
"It set the tone for the series. I can't explain how happy I am for all the guys, especially Asad," Misbah said. "That is one of the classiest innings I have seen. In the context of the game, the way he handled the pressure playing with (the) tail, he made a match out of nothing."
Pakistan has lost 10 consecutive Tests in Australia since 1995 and has never won a Test at the Gabba, where Australia is unbeaten since 1988, but Misbah said they'd travel to Melbourne full of confidence ahead of the second Test starting Dec. 26.
Run out ends thriller, Australia beats Pakistan by 39 runs
Run out ends thriller, Australia beats Pakistan by 39 runs
Bridges outduels Wembanyama, Celtics lose again
- Knicks’ Bridges took the glory with a brilliant 15-point fourth-quarter display that left him with a season-high 41 points and the win
- Dallas Mavericks lost their Slovenian star Luka Doncic with a calf injury in the second quarter of their 105-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves
Knicks’ Bridges took the glory with a brilliant 15-point fourth-quarter display that left him with a season-high 41 points and the win
Dallas Mavericks lost their Slovenian star Luka Doncic with a calf injury in the second quarter of their 105-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a rematch of last season’s Western Conference finals
AFP LOS ANGELES: Mikal Bridges and the New York Knicks edged Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs 117-114 in a Christmas Day thriller at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
French star Wembanyama put up 42 points with 18 rebounds and four blocks for the Spurs but Bridges took the glory with a brilliant 15-point fourth-quarter display that left him with a season-high 41 points and the win.
“It was great, man. I think just to feel the excitement from the crowd, my teammates, my coaches, this is who I play for,” Bridges told broadcaster ABC.
“They give me the energy, give me the confidence to go out there and play,” he added.
Wembanyama was just three points short of the Christmas debut scoring record of 45 set by Wilt Chamberlain in his rookie season in 1959.
The 20-year-old, who stands 7-foot-3 (2.21m), was 16-31 on shooting and made six of 16 three-point throws and while Bridges took the applause from the home crowd, he was quick to praise the Frenchman.
“From 40 feet out, from right under the rim, from 15 feet out, he’s just unbelievable, just to see what he’s doing, credit to him and how much work he has put in,” said Bridges.
The 28-year-old Bridges, who was traded from the Brooklyn Nets in July, shot 17-25 from the field and was six for nine on three-point attempts as his team improved to 20-10.
San Antonio were just a point behind with two minutes remaining before Bridges made back-to-back jumpers to open up a five-point lead.
Josh Hart came up big for New York at the death, grabbing two misses to ensure the win and leave the Spurs on a 15-15 record.
Karl-Anthony Towns with 21 points and Jalen Brunson with 20 points and nine assists were crucial for the Knicks in the win.
Jeremy Sochan supported Wembanyama with 21 points for the Spurs.
Defending champions the Boston Celtics (22-8) lost back-to-back games for the first time this season when they were upset at home by the Philadelphia 76ers 118-114.
Injury-prone 76ers star Joel Embiid hurt his ankle in a pregame fall but was able to start and showed his importance with 27 points, nine rebounds and the game clinching free throws at the end to clinch the win for the 11-17 Philadelphia.
Tyres Maxey scored 33 points and made 12 assists with his 13 points in the fourth quarter crucial as Philadelphia, who had led by 16 at the break, recovered from Boston’s third quarter rally.
Jayson Tatum top scored for the Celtics with 32 points and also grabbed 15 rebounds.
It was far from a Merry Christmas for the Dallas Mavericks who lost their Slovenian star Luka Doncic with a calf injury in the second quarter of their 105-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a rematch of last season’s Western Conference finals.
Doncic, who had scored 14 points, limped out of the game and did not return. The Mavericks did manage a brave comeback attempt without him, before falling short.
Anthony Edwards put up 26 points for Minnesota.
The Timberwolves led 57-40 at the half and extended that advantage to 28-points before Dallas, led by Kyrie Irving who made 39 points, started to work their way back into the contest.
It was close at the end but Irving missed a three-point shot that would have given Dallas the lead in the last minute and a two-foot shot from Edwards and a pair of free throws from Julius Randle made sure of the win.
“Kyrie to me is the greatest point guard and so when he gets going, it’s tough to stop him,” said Edwards.
“We got a couple of big stops down the stretch and got some buckets so that helped us,” he added.
The Los Angeles Lakers scored a 115-113 road win over Golden State Warriors.
Lakers big man Anthony Davis didn’t return for Los Angeles against Golden State after spraining his left ankle midway through the first quarter. Davis stepped awkwardly and rolled the ankle while moving through the paint toward the Lakers basket and exited with 4:48 remaining in the quarter.
Sydney-Hobart yacht crews set off on gale-threatened race
- Race crews face rough weather and big waves as they move down Australia’s east coast, then tackle the notorious Bass Strait toward the Tasmanian state capital Hobart
- LawConnect and rival Comanche battled for the lead as crews vied to be first out of the harbor
SYDNEY: Crews of more than 100 yachts set sail Thursday on a “boat-breaking” Sydney-Hobart yacht race, with gale-force winds and high seas forecast for the grueling bluewater classic.
Under blue, mid-summer skies, spectators crowded onto boats and lined the shore of a breezy Sydney Harbor as a starting cannon set the fleet of 104 on a dash to the open ocean.
Race crews face rough weather and big waves as they move down Australia’s east coast, then tackle the notorious Bass Strait toward the Tasmanian state capital Hobart.
Weather is a critical factor in the 628-nautical mile event, first held in 1945.
Six men died, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued in 1998, when a deep depression exploded over the fleet in the Bass Strait.
“We are seeing strong wind warnings developing through the afternoon today and getting up to gale, so about 35 knots,” meteorologist Gabrielle Woodhouse said in the last briefing hours before the start.
A strong south-westerly change would move across Bass Strait early on Friday morning, potentially bringing showers, lightning, thunder, and waves of up to 4.0 meters (13 feet).
In the first minutes of the race, reigning line honors champion LawConnect and rival Comanche battled for the lead as crews vied to be first out of the harbor.
“These conditions are probably the worst forecast I’ve ever had to go through. The odds of boat damage are obviously very high,” LawConnect skipper Christian Beck said ahead of the race.
But the forecast conditions could favor LawConnect, he said.
“We’ve had a crew that’s been together for six years. We hope our crew is our main strength. The harder it is, the more that comes to our advantage,” Beck said.
LawConnect edged Comanche to win by just 51 seconds last year, and the two 100-foot supermaxis are again expected to battle for line honors.
“It’s going to be a fast and furious first night out there on our way down to Hobart,” said Matt Allen, co-skipper of Comanche, a four-time line honors champion and the race record holder.
“It’s probably going to be boat-breaking sort of conditions,” Allen said ahead of the race. “The really small boats are really going to cop it a few times in this race.”
Fellow skipper James Mayo said strategy would be key for Comanche, which surged over the finish line in one day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds to set a new mark in 2017.
“It’s about keeping the boat in one piece, you know there’s going to be some good rides,” Mayo said.
Two other supermaxis are entered — Wild Thing and Maritimo.
Alive, last year’s overall winner of the Tattersall Cup, which takes into account boat size and other factors, will again be in contention to defend its title.
Other previous overall winners in the fleet include Centennial 7 (formerly Celestial) and Love and War.
Lamar Jackson breaks NFL QB rushing record, accounts for 3 TDs in Ravens’ 31-2 romp over Texans
- Jackson threw for 168 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 87 yards and another score
HOUSTON: Lamar Jackson broke the NFL career rushing record for quarterbacks in Baltimore’s 31-2 victory over the Houston Texans on Wednesday, bolstering his case for MVP as the Ravens moved closer to the AFC North title.
Jackson threw for 168 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 87 yards and another score. He pushed his career rushing total to 6,110 to move past Michael Vick, who had 6,109 in his 13-year career.
The Ravens (11-5) have already wrapped up their third straight playoff berth and need a victory over Cleveland next week to win the division over Pittsburgh. The Steelers dropped a third straight with a loss to Kansas City on Wednesday.
Jackson, the MVP last season and in 2019, put on a show rivaled only by the spectacular Super Bowl-caliber halftime performance by Beyoncé to give Baltimore its third straight win. And he needed just more than three quarters to do it, giving way to Josh Johnson with about 10 minutes left and the game long decided.
Jackson threw 9- and 1-yard TD passes and was not touched on a 48-yard scoring scamper that made it 24-2 in the third quarter.
Derrick Henry ran for 147 yards and set the Ravens season record with his 16th touchdown on a 2-yard run in the first quarter. He eclipsed Ray Rice (2011) and Mark Ingram (2019).
Baltimore dominated a Houston team reeling after losing dynamic receiver Tank Dell to a season-ending knee injury Saturday.
The AFC South champs struggled to finish drives and got their only points on a safety in the second quarter. C.J. Stroud threw for 185 yards, but was sacked five times and threw an interception and Joe Mixon managed just 26 yards rushing as the Texans (9-7) lost a second straight.
Rookie Kamari Lassiter dropped Henry for a 4-yard loss for the safety with about 10 minutes left in the first half to cut the lead to 10-2.
Dameon Pierce then returned the kickoff 45 yards to get the Texans to their 43. But they came away empty when Mixon was stopped on the 1 after grabbing a short pass on fourth-and-3.
Jackson then orchestrated a 99-yard drive to pad the lead. He scrambled to evade the rush and found Mark Andrews for a 67-yard gain to get the Ravens in the red zone with just more than two minutes left in the first half.
Isaiah Likely’s 9-yard TD reception two plays later made it 17-2. It was the first 17-2 halftime score in NFL history.
Kyle Hamilton intercepted Stroud’s pass on the first drive of the second half. Two plays later, Jackson’s long TD run made it 24-2.
He set the rushing record on a 6-yard run on Baltimore’s next drive. Later in the drive, he scrambled to escape several defenders before finding Andrews for a 1-yard score to leave Baltimore up 31-2.
Injuries
Ravens RB Rasheen Ali injured his hip in the third quarter and didn’t return. … Texans TE Cade Stover returned after missing two games following an emergency appendectomy.
Up next
The Ravens host the Browns, and the Texans visit the Titans next weekend. The game dates have yet to be determined.
World No. 1 Sabalenka ready for more Slam success
- Sabalenka: I love Australia and I always come here hungry and always come here ready
- The 26-year-old enjoyed a sensational 2024, reaching seven finals and winning four titles, including the US Open
BRISBANE: World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka says she is “fresh and ready to go” in her bid for a third straight Australian Open title, warning she has plenty of room for improvement.
The 26-year-old enjoyed a sensational 2024, reaching seven finals and winning four titles, including the US Open.
Her year was kickstarted by defending her Australian Open crown, beating China’s high-flying Zheng Qinwen in the final.
Should she win it again, she will become the first woman to claim three straight Melbourne Park singles titles since Martina Hingis between 1997-1999.
“I feel fresh and ready to go,” the Belarusian said, according to the WTA website Thursday, after arriving for the Brisbane International which starts on Sunday ahead of the Australian Open from Jan. 12.
“I love Australia and I always come here hungry and always come here ready.
“I feel all the support here, and I think that’s the best thing about Australia, that people are really, really, into tennis.”
Sabalenka also began 2024 in Brisbane, reaching the final without losing a set only to crash to Kazakstan’s Elena Rybakina in the decider.
She spent time in the off-season at her home in Florida before heading to the Middle East to prepare for Australia and will use the Brisbane tournament to fine-tune her Grand Slam preparations.
“You work hard on lots of things in the pre-season,” she said.
“The first tournament before the major tournament is the one where you can try it out and see what’s going to work well for you, and what’s not.”
Despite her rise through the ranks to be the player to beat heading into 2025, Sabalenka said there were still parts of her game that need work.
“Oh, there is so many things to improve,” she said.
“I mean, I’m not that good with maybe my game at the net in singles. There is a lot of things to improve in my touch game.
“There is so many things, even my serve is not as good as I want it to be, so there is always (elements) to improve.”
Mahomes throws 3 TDs as Chiefs clinch AFC’s top seed by breezing past the skidding Steelers 29-10
- Kansas City (15-1) spent three hours toying with the Steelers (10-6) like a cat batting around shreds of leftover wrapping paper
PITTSBURGH: Andy Reid donned a Santa Claus suit in a giddy Kansas City Chiefs locker room on Christmas Day, then handed his team a present it increasingly looks like it deserves: home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.
How Reid managed to slide into the costume so quickly after Kansas City’s clinical 29-10 victory over the reeling Pittsburgh Steelers to lock up the top seed in the AFC for the fourth time in seven years is a mystery (though he hinted there’s an elf involved).
How Reid’s team manages to pull away from the pack year after year is not.
A lot of Patrick Mahomes. A dash of Travis Kelce. A splash of speed. A defense that quietly goes about its business, even when its leader is standing on the sideline in sweatpants.
Yes, it has been ugly — by Kansas City’s lofty standards — at times while the Chiefs have chased a third straight championship. Yet as the playoffs loom, the group that looked so vulnerable for most of the season suddenly seems to be rounding into form.
And the road to the Super Bowl will once again go through Arrowhead Stadium. Just the way the Chiefs like it.
“Getting the No. 1 seed is important,” Mahomes said after throwing for 320 yards and three touchdowns. “It’s like winning a playoff game.”
Even if how the Chiefs locked it up didn’t exactly feel like one.
Kansas City (15-1) spent three hours toying with the Steelers (10-6) like a cat batting around shreds of leftover wrapping paper. The Chiefs raced to an early 13-point lead and were never really threatened by Pittsburgh, which has dropped three straight to see its chances of capturing the AFC North take another hit.
“That sucked, to be blunt,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
It often does when Pittsburgh is on one side of the line of scrimmage and Mahomes is on the other. Mahomes is now 4-0 against the Steelers with 17 touchdowns against just one interception. He connected on first-half scoring tosses to Xavier Worthy and Justin Watson and added a history-making 12-yard touchdown flip to Kelce to seal it in the fourth quarter.
The grab was the 77th scoring reception of Kelce’s career, breaking a franchise record set by Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez. The 35-year-old Kelce celebrated by dunking the ball over the goal post, a nod to Gonzalez’s signature move. The gesture drew a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, though it hardly mattered. Harrison Butker made the longer extra point and the Chiefs were firmly in control.
“It’s just showing Tony some love,” Kelce said with a laugh on the day he joined Gonzalez and Jason Witten as the only tight ends to reach 1,000 receptions. Kelce finished with eight catches for 84 yards while playing for an offense that is starting to get its swagger back.
The defense wasn’t bad either, even with five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Chris Jones sidelined by a calf injury. Jones’ teammates hardly looked gassed while playing for the third time in 11 days.
“It was tough,” cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “I mean, three games in 11 days is crazy for anybody. But I thought we handled it very well.”
The Steelers did not. Pittsburgh went 0-3 during the span, a brutal stretch against Super Bowl contenders Philadelphia, Baltimore and Kansas City in which the Steelers looked outclassed.
Perhaps more troubling than the losses is the way they played out. Pittsburgh lost each contest by at least 14 points and could find itself starting the postseason on the road after playing fast-and-loose with the two-game division lead it enjoyed just three weeks ago.
“I think that there’s highs and lows in every season,” Pittsburgh quarterback Russell Wilson said after throwing for 205 yards with an ill-timed pick in the end zone in the first quarter. “We’ve got to make sure that we end this last game on the right footing and right belief.”
That hasn’t been an issue in years in Kansas City. Not with Mahomes at the controls. He spread his 29 completions to eight different players, including a career-best eight to Worthy and four to Hollywood Brown, whose return from injury has given the Chiefs another playmaker in what is starting to look like another stacked deck.
“We’re playing, especially offensively, our best football of the year,” Mahomes said.
Looks like it. The two-time MVP hardly bothered by the ankle injury he suffered against Cleveland, throwing touchdowns to cap Kansas City’s first two drives. And while the Steelers drew within 13-7 and 16-10, they never had the ball with a chance to take the lead in the second half.
Instead, the Chiefs — who spent most of the first three months of the season squeaking by most weeks — zoomed away with the No. 1 seed and several weeks to rest before a bid for a three-peat that certainly looks doable.
Injuries
Chiefs: RB Isiah Pacheco left in the second half with a rib injury.
Steelers: DT Cam Heyward exited briefly in the fourth quarter but managed to return.
Up next
Chiefs: finish up the regular season by heading to Denver.
Steelers: host Cincinnati in the regular-season finale.
