England striker Daniel Sturridge, who has not played since the end of August, is back in training and could return to the Liverpool side soon, manager Brendan Rodgers said on Thursday.
Speedster Umesh Yadav, on Friday, joined the growing list of Indian players who feel 'SG Test' ball was not ideal, saying the bowlers are unable to run through lower-order when it gets old.
South African speedster Dale Steyn will miss the fourth and final test against India with a lingering groin injury that has limited his participation in the four-match series to a solitary contest in the series-opener in Mohali.
Should India try out Shreyas Iyer or Manish Pandey at No 4? Who should be the two spinners in the playing XI? Should India include young pacers Khaleel Ahmed and Navdeep Saini?
'Not having the best bowler in the world is never a nice thing.' 'It is not the name that we play, it is a cricket ball that we face.'
Pep Guardiola's formidable managerial skills will be put to the test again when his stuttering ManchesterCity side visit his former club Barcelona in a top-of-the-bill Champions League clash on Wednesday.
Lionel Messi scored within three minutes of returning to action for the first time in more than three weeks to help fire La Liga champions Barcelona to a resounding 4-0 home win over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday.
Barcelona will travel to Borussia Moenchengladbach for their Champions League match on Wednesday without Lionel Messi but the Spaniards have enough options and firepower to plug the gap left by the Argentine, coach Luis Enrique said.
Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah claimed his third five-wicket haul of the series but Sri Lanka took the upper hand on day two of the third and final Test by restricting the visitors to 209 for nine at Pallekele on Saturday.
Batsman AB de Villiers will return to the role of wicketkeeper for South Africa in the opening two Tests of their four-match home series against England starting in Durban on Boxing Day.
Included in Barcelona squad to face Dortmund
Manchester City look to take an important step in their transformation into one of the world's leading clubs on Tuesday by reaching the Champions League semi-finals for the first time.
It is time to deliver for Paris St Germain and Manchester City as the two mega-rich teams prepare to lock horns in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
Barcelona failed to capitalise on Real Madrid dropping points against Villarreal as the La Liga champions were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, while talisman Lionel Messi limped off with a groin injury.
Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge is set for a January return, according to manager Brendan Rodgers, who hinted he was unlikely to dip into the transfer market to solve the club's current striker issues.
Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech has made a surprise return to Chelsea's training ground ahead of Sunday's big London derby after Adidas sent a consignment of gloves to his former club by mistake. Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink, whose misfiring champions travel to Cech's Premier League leaders on Sunday, made light of the situation at a news conference on Friday. "I was here when Petr showed up. It was nice to see him," the Dutchman told reporters at the Cobham facility to the south-west of London. "We had a chat here. Almost everyone was gone already, it was late afternoon....we tried to hide them, which he did not accept. Also we tried to make them a little bit slippery but he discovered that also. "They were wrongly sent here and we gave them back. It was nice. That's the story."
Atletico aim for Champions League revenge against Real at fourth attempt.
Following is a match by match look at the English Premier League's weekend fixtures:
Germany coach Joachim Loew has been forced to make changes to his team for Thursday's semi-final against hosts France at Euro 2016 because of injuries and a suspension, including replacing key goalscorer Mario Gomez.
Double centuries by in-form Baba Aparajith and Manish Pandey helped South Zone amass 553 for 7 against West Zone on the second day of their four-day Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Chennai on Friday.
Images from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Tuesday night.
World number one Novak Djokovic produced sublime form to clinch an unprecedented fifth men's title at Indian Wells with a 6-2, 6-0 demolition of big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in the men's final.
Salgaocar FC picked up their first home win of the season today as they breezed past East Bengal by a margin of 3-1 at the Tilak Maidan. The result came as a shocking performance as the Greens had been struggling for a while to get the required results, but an inspiring performance against the Red and Golds gave them much needed three points. There were a plethora of changes in Salgaocar FC lineup from their loss to Mohun Bagan. Calvin Mbarga, Semboi Haokip started in the forward line with Darryl Duffy while Saran Singh started in the back. The game got off the best possible start for Salgaocar FC, as Haokip put the Goan side ahead in the third minute. Darryl Duffy's cross from the right was received by the striker who took one touch and blasted it past Luis Barreto into the back of the net. However, there was an immediate blow to Salgaocar in the 10th minute as the Hero I-League's leading goal scorer, Darryl Duffy, picked up a groin injury, and had to be substituted by Jackichand Singh.
Robin van Persie's hat-trick lifted the gloom surrounding Manchester United and manager David Moyes as the English side beat Olympiakos Piraeus 3-0 to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit and reach the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Under-fire Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard may not be enjoying his best spell of form but he is still "a top class player", manager Brendan Rodgers said ahead of their Champions League clash with Bulgarian club Ludogorets.
News of all that's transpired on and off the tennis courts.
De Minaur, 20, went the entire tournament without facing a break point, and the Australian fittingly clinched victory with a deft serve-and-volley backhand winner.
A 0-0 Premier League draw against old foes Everton at Goodison Park is not how the Liverpool captain would have dreamt about signing off from the rivals' habitual battle for superiority.
Paris St Germain substitute Edinson Cavani, criticised by French media lacking composure in front of goal, responded in style to earn a 2-1 home win over Chelsea in their Champions League last-16 first leg on Tuesday.
A series win in Australia will certainly put Kohli on a higher pedestal even though the quality of the home team's batting line-up suffered adversely due to the bans of former skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner.
Tite was asked about reports that he was set to take charge of the Champions League winners during a news conference ahead of Sunday's friendly against Austria, although it was not clear where they had originated.
Sealing the match with a thumping serve, the 2014 US Open champion will bid for his second grand slam title against Friday's winner of Roger Federer and South Korea's rising star Chung Hyeon.
Tasmanian batsman Alex Doolan could be in line for a test debut pending the fitness of all-rounder Shane Watson after being named in Australia's 14-man squad for the fifth and final Ashes Test in Sydney.
Rediff.com brings a preview of the main matches coming up this weekend in the English Premier League.
South Africa's status as the top-ranked Test-playing nation has been dented after their crushing defeat in India last month and is in danger of being eroded completely by England over the next month or two.
India's Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin thrived on a spinners' paradise in Mohali, bamboozling South Africa's batsmen in the first Test to secure a 108-run victory with more than two days to spare on Saturday.
Rafael Nadal swept into the quarter-finals of the Italian Open on Thursday with a ruthless 6-4, 6-1 victory over Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov. The top seed, who will reclaim the world number one ranking from Roger Federer if he wins his eighth title in Rome, turned in a near-flawless performance, losing only five service points as he honed in on victory in an hour and 22 minutes.
An in-form Bayern Munich will be looking to notch up their fourth straight win in the Champions League group stage and seal a spot in the final 16 when the Bundesliga champions face Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday.
Australia will have to win both Tests in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to go one point clear of South Africa, who displaced them at the top in July, but there is still little clarity about the side who would walk out for the first match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
'We have a quality group of players and we need to be smart about how we use them against opposition. I thought we played a very good game given the fact that what they had to offer. But definitely (Harbhajan was) not dropped in the way that you want me to say it. Just that it was a tactical decision'