ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has named a 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025, with wicketkeeper-batter Komal Khan leading the national side.
Zoofishan Ayyaz will be vice-captain of the Pakistan team during the 16-team tournament, which is set to be played in Malaysia from January 18 till February 2.
There are four groups in the tournament, with each group consisting of four teams each, according to the format. Pakistan are placed in Group B alongside England, Ireland and USA.
“Pakistan team, which recently featured in six-team ACC U19 Women’s Asia Cup in Malaysia, will undergo a training camp at the Hanif Mohammad High Performance Center in Karachi from 31 December to 9 January,” the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a statement.
“The team will depart for Malaysia from Karachi via Dubai on 10 January.”
Pakistan will play their opening match on January 18 against USA. This will be followed by the encounter against England on January 20, while Pakistan’s last group match will be against Ireland on January 22, according to the PCB.
“All three matches will be staged at the JCA Oval, Johor in Malaysia,” the board said.
After the conclusion of the Group Stage fixtures, three teams from each group will qualify for the Super Six. The bottom-ranked sides from Groups A and D, and B and C will contest in last place play-off on 24 January.
The 12 teams, which will qualify for the Super Six stage will be divided into two groups. Group one will include the top three teams each from Group A and Group D while Group two will have top three teams each from Group B and Group C.
In the Super Six stage every team will carry forward their wins, points and Net Run-rate (NRR) which is secured against their fellow Super Six qualifying teams. Each team will play two games in the Super Six stage.
The top two sides from the two super six stage groups will qualify for the semifinals. The semifinals are set to take place on January 31, while the final of the tournament will be played at Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur on February 2.
Pakistan squad:
Komal Khan (captain), Zoofishan Ayyaz (vice-captain), Aleesa Mukhtiar, Areesha Ansari, Fatima Khan, Haniah Ahmer, Maham Anees, Mahnoor Zeb, Memoona Khalid, Minahil, Quratulain, Ravail Farhan, Shahar Bano, Tayyaba Imdad and Wasifa Hussain
Pakistan announces squad for ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Malaysia
https://arab.news/4fsqz
Pakistan announces squad for ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Malaysia
- Pakistan will play their opening match on January 18 against USA
- This will be followed by encounter against England on January 20
Knicks roll to ninth straight NBA win, Ivey hurt in Pistons victory
- The Pistons beat the Orlando Magic 105-96 but saw guard Jaden Ivey go down with what looked like a serious leg injury
- Toronto Raptors, buoyed by the return of Immanuel Quickley, halted their 11-game losing streak with a 130-113 home victory over the Brooklyn Nets
LOS ANGELES: Karl-Anthony Towns scored 31 points and Josh Hart delivered his second straight triple-double to propel the New York Knicks to their ninth straight NBA victory on Wednesday, 119-103 over the Utah Jazz.
With leading scorer Jalen Brunson sidelined with tightness in his right calf and Miles McBride also absent, Towns and Hart picked up the slack.
Towns added 21 rebounds and Hart scored 15 points with 14 rebounds and 12 assists and Mikal Bridges chipped in 27 points.
“Over the course of a season, whether it’s injury, illness, foul trouble — you need everybody,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of the team’s ability to keep the surge going despite being short-handed.
“As a team, if you prioritize winning and doing what’s best for the group, that’s what makes it enjoyable,” he said. “You have everyone committed to each other. When you do that, good things come from that.”
Collin Sexton and Jordan Clark scored 25 points apiece for Utah, but the Jazz suffered a fifth straight defeat.
In Detroit, the Pistons beat the Orlando Magic 105-96 but saw guard Jaden Ivey go down with what looked like a serious leg injury early in the fourth quarter.
Ivey collided with Magic guard Cole Anthony as they scrambled for a loose ball, Ivey collapsing to the court and holding his lower left leg.
He was eventually stretchered from the court.
“To see something like that — it’s devastating for the whole group,” teammate Tobias Harris told NBA Network after the game. “Obviously, it’s a big win for us, but after the game it’s just the group coming together in prayer.”
Ivey was enjoying an outstanding night, scoring 22 points to lead the way as all five Pistons starters scored in double figures.
Cade Cunningham scored 19 points with eight rebounds and nine assists. Jalen Duren scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Harris scored 17 points for the Pistons, who never trailed.
The Toronto Raptors, buoyed by the return of Immanuel Quickley, halted their 11-game losing streak with a 130-113 home victory over the Brooklyn Nets.
Scottie Barns scored 33 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and Quickly — who missed 22 games with a torn elbow ligament — added 21 points and 15 assists to help Toronto bounce back from a demoralizing 54-point loss to the Celtics in Boston on New Year’s Eve.
Cameron Johnson scored 24 points to pace the Nets and D’Angelo Russell, newly arrived in a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers, added 22 off the bench.
In Washington, Jordan Poole returned from a two-game injury absence and scored 30 points to propel the Wizards to a 125-107 victory over the Chicago Bulls.
Poole connected on 10 of his 21 attempts from the field and drilled six of Washington’s 17 three-pointers.
Justin Champagnie added 15 points and seven Wizards players scored in double figures in an encouraging performance for a team that notched just its sixth win of the season.
Chicago’s Zach LaVine led all scorers with 32 points, but the Bulls were hampered by 20 turnovers leading to 33 Wizards points.
The Miami Heat, fueled by 32 points from Tyler Herro along with 23 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists from Bam Adebayo, led wire-to-wire in a 119-108 victory over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans.
Trey Murphy III scored 34 points to lead the Pelicans, who were playing with heavy hearts after at least 15 people were killed when a US army veteran drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year revelers in New Orleans early Wednesday in an attack authorities are investigating as an act of terrorism.
Xander Schauffele has 2 majors and still a long way from No. 1 in the world
- Even without the No. 1 player at The Sentry, Schauffele feels a lot further away than his No. 2 ranking might suggest
- The Sentry also starts a new structure on the PGA Tour in which only the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup keep their full cards
KAPALUA, Hawaii: Winning two majors only made Xander Schauffele that much more eager for the next one. The only downer about winning the claret jug at Royal Troon was knowing it would be more than eight months until the next one.
Also on his agenda is reaching No. 1 in the world.
That might take a little longer.
The PGA Tour embarks on a new season without Scottie Scheffler, who cut open his right hand on broken glass preparing Christmas dinner. Even without the No. 1 player at The Sentry, Schauffele feels a lot further away than his No. 2 ranking might suggest.
“It’s a wild time,” Schauffele said. “Winning two majors and being closer to the 30th-ranked player than the first ... hat’s off to Scottie. He’s a beast.”
Schauffele, of course, is no slouch. Both put together a season of remarkable consistency. Schauffele had 15 finishes in the top 10 out of his 21 starts in individual play on the PGA Tour. From May until the end of the season, he went 11 straight events no worse than 15th.
That included a birdie on the last hole to win the PGA Championship at Valhalla, and a command performance in the rain and wind of Royal Troon to win the British Open.
It was the latter that got the attention of Chris Kirk, the defending champion at Kapalua.
“You cannot accurately describe how horrible it is to play golf in that conditions,” Kirk said. “That was one where — obviously, I have a lot of confidence in myself, I believe in my game, I’m a top-50 player — I watched that and was like, ‘There’s no way in hell I could do that.’”
The difference in seasons was Scheffler converted more of those top 10s into titles — seven on the PGA Tour, Olympic gold, and the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, all of them boosting his lead at No. 1 to the largest gap since Tiger Woods in his peak years.
“It’s one of my goals that will just have to stay on the calendar for a few more years,” Schauffele said with an easy smile. “If I get there I’ll be very happy. But just based on looking at the numbers, yeah, it’s going to take some time and patience.”
Now he’s on island time, where no one is in a rush.
The 60-man field gets started on the mountainous Plantation Course at Kapalua, which is playing longer than ever with a steady dose of overnight rain.
The Sentry also starts a new structure on the PGA Tour in which only the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup keep their full cards, and the size of fields is shrinking to make sure those who have cards get into more tournaments.
This is the second year that a tournament once limited to only winners has been expanded to include anyone who finished in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup. Of the 60 players, 29 of them failed to win a tournament last year.
That includes Justin Thomas, who at least would appear to be on the upward trend. He missed out on the postseason in 2023 and made it back to the Tour Championship. It was a better year, but not enough for him to be picked for the Presidents Cup.
Consider that to be a big motivator this year with a Ryder Cup on the horizon. The first step is winning, which Thomas hasn’t done since the PGA Championship in 2022. Before that, he piled up 15 wins on the PGA Tour in a seven-year stretch.
“I truly felt like I was going to win multiple times every season pretty much, until I lost it a little bit,” Thomas said. “It’s just so hard to win out here. Naturally, the better player that you are, you can get away with more mistakes, but come the end of the week on Sunday, you have to win the golf tournament.
“I was fortunate where I was doing it quite often and I still feel like I’m fully capable and expect to do that more,” he said. “But I definitely felt like it should have happened regularly.”
Schauffele can appreciate the feeling. He also had gone two years without winning until he ended that drought in the best way possible — not one major, but two.
It starts with chances, and that has become his hallmark, much like it is for Scheffler. Schauffele comes into Kapalua with the longest active cut streak on the PGA Tour at 56 in a row, which will increase because there is no cut this week.
The record is 142 in a row by Woods. That might be even further away than his goal of replacing Scheffler at No. 1 in the world.
Seko Fofana joins French club Rennes after spell in Saudi Arabia
- In July 2023, he joined Al Nassr — where Cristiano Ronaldo plays — in the Saudi Pro League
- Rennes said Fofana signed a four-and-a-half year deal
RENNES, France: Ivory Coast midfielder Seko Fofana ended his brief spell in Saudi Arabia to sign a long-term contract with French club Rennes on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old Fofana helped Lens to a second-place finish in Ligue 1 in 2022-23, and Rennes hope he can provide a similar boost for the Brittany club.
Rennes said Fofana signed a four-and-a-half year deal. Financial terms were not disclosed. The team is in 12th place.
“There are some talented players at Rennes and I don't think the club is where it should be,” Fofana said in the team's announcement. “We're going to get the chance to play a series of games and show that the start of the season was below the club's potential. I hope we can turn things around very quick.”
Fofana scored 21 goals and provided 12 assists over 112 appearances for Lens.
In July 2023, he joined Al Nassr — where Cristiano Ronaldo plays — in the Saudi Pro League and then was loaned to Al-Ettifaq six months later.
Fofana previously played four seasons for Udinese in Serie A.
He has made 25 appearances for Ivory Coast and helped the team win the Africa Cup of Nations in February.
Arsenal moves up to 2nd place in Premier League with 3-1 win over Brentford
- Arsenal extended its unbeaten streak to 12 games in all competitions
LONDON: Arsenal is back into second place in the Premier League and in no rush to add players in the transfer window.
Mikel Arteta’s team beat Brentford 3-1 on Wednesday to leapfrog Nottingham Forest and close the gap on league leader Liverpool to six points.
“If there’s an opportunity, we’ll look at it,” Arteta said of the January window. “I really like my players. I really value what we have, because it’s a lot of quality and a lot of commitment from all of them.”
That includes 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, who got his first Premier League start in place of the injured Bukayo Saka. The teenager was involved in second-half goals by Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli.
Bryan Mbeumo put the home team ahead in the 13th minute at Gtech Community Stadium, but Gabriel Jesus made it 1-1 just before the half-hour mark — his sixth goal in the past four games.
Merino scored in the 50th minute and Martinelli added a third three minutes later.
It was Arsenal’s second straight win without Saka, who is likely to be sidelined until at least March. The England winger tore his right hamstring in a 5-1 win over Crystal Palace on Dec. 21.
Arsenal extended its unbeaten streak to 12 games in all competitions.
Liverpool has a game in hand on the Gunners, who play at Brighton on Saturday. Liverpool hosts Manchester United on Sunday.
Brentford remained in 12th place and has lost three of its past four Premier League matches.
Saudi Arabia hosts Italy’s football giants for Italian Super Cup
- Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus and Atalanta prepare to battle it out in Riyadh
RIYADH: The Italian Super Cup hosted by Saudi Arabia gets underway on Thursday with giants Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus and Atalanta preparing to battle it out for the silverware.
The four-team knock-out tournament will take place at Al-Awwal Park Stadium in Riyadh.
Serie A champions Inter Milan will play the first semifinal against the Italian Cup runners-up Atalanta on Thursday.
AC Milan, who finished second in Serie A last season, on Friday will play the second semifinal against Juventus, the Italian Cup winners.
The final will take place on Sunday, Jan. 6.
It will be the fifth time that Saudi Arabia has hosted the Italian Super Cup.
The event is organized by the Ministry of Sports and is expected to attract local and international attention from fans and media alike.
It is the latest major global sporting event to be hosted by the Kingdom as part of the Ministry of Sports’ commitment to the Saudi Vision 2030 reform program.
