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Play had to be halted for three minutes after a 5.5 magnitude earthquake caused severe tremors in parts of Bangladesh and India in the morning session of the third day of the ongoing second Test between Bangladesh and Ireland in Dhaka.There was immediate panic in the stands as the jolts were felt, and the players and umpires gathered near the pitch. Both dressing rooms emptied at around 10.38am (10.08am in India). The small crowd looked for open areas to escape to. Some went out of the stadium while others tried to get close to the ground. The media centre, a five-storey building at the north end of the stadium, also emptied quickly as people tried to go out to safe spaces.While there was some confusion about the magnitude of the earthquake, local media in Bangladesh has reported that it was recorded at 5.5 on the Richter scale, with the epicentre in Madhabdi, a municipality around 40 kilometres east of Dhaka. There have been reports of at least two damaged buildings in the capital city but no confirmed reports of casualties.”I have been personally involved in in a couple of earthquakes,” Ireland coach Heinrich Malan said after the day’s play. “I have lived in New Zealand for a while. It’s never a nice feeling. You are trying to understand what is happening at the minute around you. But also you have to think about some bigger impacts, about where the earthquake obviously struck, and hopefully that’s not too bad. Everything stood still for a couple of minutes, and we got back to business. We are just thinking and hoping that there wasn’t too much damage done. We will obviously find out about what that happens as we go.”Reports from Kolkata, across the border from Bangladesh in India’s West Bengal, said tremors were felt there too, as was the case in Guwahati, the venue of the second Test between India and South Africa from Saturday, and in other parts of northeastern India.Play resumed in the Dhaka Test after the pause, with Ireland losing two more wickets in the first session to go to lunch on the third day at 211 for 7 in reply to Bangladesh’s 476.

If Chelsea’s draw against Arsenal showed them at their best, the last week of results has shown them at their worst.

Enzo Maresca’s side were just six points off the Premier League leaders after their match against them, but a defeat away to Leeds United and a draw away to Bournemouth now sees them eight points adrift and in fifth place.

It’s been a frustrating week for the Blues and one that has shown that, for all their talent, they are still vulnerable and have more than a few week links.

In fact, one of those weak links could be Chelsea’s biggest liability since Tiémoué Bakayoko.

Tiémoué Bakayoko's Chelsea career

In the 16/17 season, AS Moncao shocked the world by mounting a surprising and successful title charge, their first to end in glory for well over a decade.

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That side was full of incredible players who’d go on to have glittering careers, like Kylian Mbappé, Bernardo Silva and Fabinho.

However, instead of signing any of them, Chelsea opted to splash north of £40m on Bakayoko, who, to be fair to the club, did look like a star in the making at the time.

Unfortunately, once he arrived in England, it was clear that he was anything but.

The Frenchman made 43 appearances across the 17/18 season, but very rarely, if ever, looked convincing, be that in possession or out of it.

The midfielder’s most notable performance in Blue just so happened to also be his worst, when, against Watford in February 2018, he was sent off just 30 minutes into the game.

In all, while he was once a hugely promising midfielder, Bakayoko is now known as a flop in England.

Following a slew of loans, he joined Lorient in 2023 before moving to PAOK last summer, and is now without a club at just 31 years old.

Unfortunately for Maresca, he might now have Chelsea’s biggest liability since the Frenchman in his current squad.

Chelsea's biggest liability since Bakayoko

Now, there are a few players Chelsea need to sell as soon as possible, but if you were to ask fans who in the first team needs to go first, most would likely land on Tosin Adarabioyo.

The Blues signed the Englishman for free after his contract with Fulham expired last summer, and while he has been a useful stand-in at times, it has become increasingly clear this season that he’s a problem.

For example, in the last five games he has started, the West Londoners have conceded 11 goals and won just two, drawing one and losing the other two.

Moreover, while the entire backline should be held to account for some of those goals, the 28-year-old has made some high-profile and almost comical mistakes.

Against Leeds United, for example, Dominic Calvert-Lewin only scored his goal because the Englishman lost control of the ball within the Blues’ penalty area.

It was a mistake Chelsea fan and content creator Tom Overend branded “utterly embarrassing”, and while that might sound harsh, it’s hard to dispute.

Tosin vs Leeds

Minutes

96′

Tackles

1

Ground Duels (Won)

4 (1)

Fouls

2

Errors Leading to a Goal

1

Touches

121

Shots

1

Key Passes

0

Expected G+As

0.07

All Stats via Sofascore

It’s not just the eye-test where the defender fails, either: according to FBref, he ranks in the top 43% of centre-backs in Europe’s top five leagues for tackles won and in the bottom 4% of dribblers tackled, all per 90.

In other words, he’s not proactive enough at the back, and even when he is, he isn’t very effective.

Ultimately, it’s clear that Tosin is not good enough to play for Chelsea, and therefore, the club should look to move him on as soon as possible, for everyone’s sake.

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Posts ByKelan Sarson 4 days ago

The Detroit Tigers are moving on to the American League Division Series.

Detroit went on the road and topped the Cleveland Guardians 2-1 in a tightly contested wild-card series. On Thursday, the Tigers secured a 6-3 win thanks to an excellent effort from five pitchers and some timely hitting that eluded them in Game 1 and Game 2.

After an epic collapse to end the season that cost them the AL Central, Detroit rebounded and will now face the top-seeded Seattle Mariners in the ALDS.

What follows are three takeaways from their big win in Game 3.

Jack Flaherty Earned His Rotation Spot

Jack Flaherty led the American League in losses this season, going 8-15 with a 4.64 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP. Detroit lost eight of his last 10 starts, the last two of which came against Cleveland. On Thursday, he stepped up and largely locked down the Guardians.

The 29-year-old allowed one run on three hits over 4 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking two. He was wild, throwing only 43 of his 74 pitches for strikes, but he managed to limit the damage. A George Valera double opened the fourth inning, and Jose Ramirez singled to drive him in, tying the game at 1-1. He worked his way out of it. After getting two outs in the bottom of the fifth, he walked C.J. Kayfus and was relieved by Kyle Finnegan.

He left in a 1-1 game and didn't finish five innings, so he was ineligible for the win, but he put Detroit in position to come out ahead. He's earned his postseason rotation spot.

Detroit Can Get Timely Hits

In the first two games of the series, the Tigers were 2-23 with runners in scoring position, including going 1-15 in a 6-1 loss in Game 2. Their bats woke up in Game 3 as they went 5-12, including three straight singles with runners in scoring position in the seventh inning.

Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, and Wenceel Perez came through when they had to, giving Detroit a 6-1 lead and some breathing room. Catcher Dillon Dingler, who grew up in Ohio rooting for the Guardians, also came up big. His two-out home run in the top of the sixth put the Tigers up 2-1. They never trailed again.

The Tigers can hit in the clutch, they just needed to get some confidence back. Once they did, it was contagious.

Cleveland Didn't Have Enough Offense

Yes, the Guardians' late-season run was remarkable and even inspiring. Unfortunately, it wasn't sustainable.

On the season, Cleveland's wRC+ of 87 ranked 28th in all of baseball, ahead of only the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies. Guardians hitters generated 13.2 fWAR, which ranked 25th, and their wxOBA of .299 was dead last. Eventually, that was going to catch up with them.

In the three games of the series, Cleveland's hitters slashed .178/.253/.322 for a woeful OPS of .575. They did have three home runs and eight RBIs, but also struck out 24 times with nine walks. Something has to change.

The Guardians brought up Chas DeLauter for the postseason in a move to juice the team's lineup, while top prospect and former No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana is at Triple A. While Bazzana struggled a bit at that level, it wouldn't surprise me if Cleveland had him at second base to start the 2026 campaign.

The defeat, despite Mohammad Rizwan’s battling unbeaten 60 off 41 balls, left St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at No. 5 on the points table

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2025Tabraiz Shamsi was tough to score off, and earned himself two opportunities to show off his familiar shoe-phone celebration. Despite his 2 for 17, however, St Lucia Kings had a big chase on their hands in their CPL 2025 game against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots – 178. That Kings got there with 18 balls and seven wickets in hand was down to their openers Tim Seifert and Johnson Charles. 115 runs between them, in just 62 balls, made the chase a canter.Just five runs came off the first over of the chase, bowled by Kyle Mayers. Charles took off after that, against Naseem Shah, and kept going. Kings got 13 off the second over, then 18 off the third, and 21 off the fifth, and finished the powerplay with 72 on the board. Seifert, who was slow to start with – having scored only a run-a-ball 15 by the fourth over – was now batting as quickly as Charles. It was all looking rather ominous for Patriots.Waqar Salamkheil got them the breakthrough – the wicket of Charles for a 17-ball 47 – in the seventh over, but with Ackeem Auguste, the hero of Kings’ previous match, for company, Seifert didn’t let the advantage slip.Auguste and Seifert added 60 for the second wicket, with Auguste contributing 29 in 20 balls. Though Seifert fell in the 15th over for a 45-ball 68, his opening blast had left Kings with very few to get with a lot of time.Johnson Charles smashed 47 in just 17 balls•Randy Brooks – CPL T20 / GettyRoston Chase (15*) and Tim David (16*) finished things off by the end of the 17th over.Earlier, after Patriots had been asked to bat by David Wiese at Kings’ home ground, the momentum they would have wanted never quite come. Theirs wasn’t a bad powerplay however, with Andre Fletcher especially showing enterprise as Patriots got to 57 for 1 after six overs.The brakes were applied soon after that, as Shamsi got Fletcher to miscue and attempted heave out of the stadium only to sky the ball to Charles behind the stumps. For his efforts, Shamsi was later named the Player of the Match.The fightback came from Mohammad Rizwan, batting at No. 3, who scored 60 not out in 41 balls, and put together partnerships of 71 in 52 balls with Mayers (27 in 25) and an unbroken 37 in 20 balls with Jason Holder (21* in 14). Still, neither Rizwan nor Mayers could score at the sort of rate Patriots would have wanted on a pitch that, as the outcome suggests, was good for scoring.The win took Kings to the top of the table with eight points from six games, while Patriots are now in fifth position with four points from seven games.

If the Tampa Bay Rays were disoriented by their forced exile from their Tropicana Field home this offseason, they haven't shown it.

The Rays are 50–47 and 1.5 games out of the American League's final wild-card spot at the All-Star break, despite currently occupying George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa—the New York Yankees' 11,000-seat spring-training home. That's because Hurricane Milton destroyed large parts of Tropicana Field's roof in October.

On Tuesday, commissioner Rob Manfred was asked a question that has suddenly become very pertinent: where will Tampa Bay play home games if it makes the playoffs this year? According to Manfred, the Rays have the green light to host them at Steinbrenner Field.

"Our rule has always been that people play in their home stadiums during the World Series. And I’m not of a mind to change that rule," Manfred told reporters via , presumably ignoring the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. "I understand it’s a unique situation. It’s different, but that’s where they’re playing. That’s where they’re going to play their games."

Tampa Bay is seeking its sixth postseason berth in the past seven seasons, and its seventh winning season in the past eight years.

Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah has been offered an eye-watering amount of money to leave Anfield, it has been claimed.

Salah has been alarmingly out of form by his world-class standards, but he returned to somewhere near his best on Saturday evening, opening the scoring in the Reds’ 2-0 win at home to Aston Villa in the Premier League.

It was a special night for the 33-year-old, who became just the third player in Liverpool’s history to score 250 goals for the club, joining Ian Rush and Roger Hunt in the process. Speaking after the Villa game, he admitted his delight at achieving such a great feat.

“It’s very important. We had a few losses in the Premier League and Champions League but I’m glad we start to come back on track now. It’s a good plus before very important games against [Real] Madrid and City. It’s a very important win for us. It’s a great feeling to score goals and win trophies for such a big club. It’s something I don’t take for granted. I’m so proud and so happy about that achievement.”

For Salah, it’s now a case of kicking on and returning to the form everyone knows he can achieve on a consistent basis, inspiring Liverpool’s changes in fortunes this season. He is contracted at Anfield until the summer of 2027, but now a shock exit rumour has emerged.

Liverpool legend Salah offered £132m-a-year to leave

According to a huge report from Spain, an unnamed club have offered Salah £132m per year in wages in order to tempt him away from Liverpool.

It would be a huge surprise and shame to see Salah leave Liverpool before his recently-signed new deal expires, even though he clearly hasn’t been at his best of late.

He was much-improved against Villa, and remains a hugely influential figure for the Reds, with Arne Slot waxing lyrical over his star attacker after the game.

“It is almost unbelievable if you score 250 goals, let alone 250 goals for one club. You don’t see that much in football any more. Apart from the goal he had a very good performance. When we had to play long, we mainly played to him and he held the ball and the team could come to him. What I liked was that he also helped the team defensively as well.”

Dominik Szoboszlai shows why he is now Liverpool's "most important player"

He was outstanding in the win over Aston Villa

By
Henry Jackson

Nov 2, 2025

Salah is now undoubtedly one of the greatest players in Liverpool’s history, and while such a huge amount of money could turn the head of any player, the hope is that he wants to spend as long at Anfield as possible.

Where does Mo Salah rank among Liverpool's highest-earning players?

Aston Villa are now considering a January move for a “fantastic” Champions League player, but they will have to shell out a huge fee to get a deal over the line.

Villa looking to boost push for Europe by strengthening in January

Villa have surged up the Premier League table in recent weeks, courtesy of winning seven of their last eight matches, although there have been some suggestions that their current run of form could end soon, given that they have been defying xG.

The Villans’ 16 goals this season have come from an xG of just 11.88 xG, and they have been relying on players scoring from outside the box, with Boubacar Kamara the most recent example, firing home from distance in the 1-0 victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Regardless of how they’ve managed to win games, Unai Emery’s side have placed themselves very much in contention to qualify for Europe yet again, and they are now looking to strengthen in January to bolster their chances.

That is according to a report from Leonino (via Sport Witness), which states Aston Villa are now considering a January bid for Sporting CP defender Ousmane Diomande, but they may have to break the bank, with the Portuguese club demanding his €80m (£70m) release clause is paid in full.

Sporting have been struggling to tie Diomande down to a new contract, with his current deal set to expire in 2027, which could open the door for a move to Villa Park. However, several Premier League clubs are in the race for his signature, including Crystal Palace.

With Sporting unwilling to listen to winter bids, Villa may have to wait until the summer to pursue the centre-back, unless they trigger the release clause, although it is unclear how feasible that would be, given their well-documented PSR issues.

"Fantastic" Diomande could be exciting long-term addition for Villa

The 21-year-old, who is represented by the same agency as Harvey Elliott, is at the right age to be a long-term success at Villa Park, and he impressed right across the 2024-25 campaign, as highlighted by scout Jacek Kulig.

A modern defender, the Ivorian, who has made three Champions League appearances this season, is very comfortable in possession of the ball, as showcased by his performance across some key statistics over the past year, while the youngster also has a keen eye for goal.

Ousmane Diomande’s key statistics

Average per 90 (past year)

Non-penalty goals

0.09 (88th percentile)

Passes attempted

67.57 (90th percentile)

Pass completion %

92.7% (98th percentile)

That said, Villa have one of the best defences in the Premier League, having conceded just 11 goals, so there is no pressing need to sign a centre-back, and it may be better to wait until next summer to sign Diomande, at which point Sporting’s asking price will hopefully drop.

The building blocks of a formidable T20 side are coming together with some big names still to slot in

Andrew McGlashan29-Jul-20250:42

Dwarshuis makes early breakthroughs for Australia

Australia’s build towards next year’s T20 World Cup could not have got off to a better start with the 5-0 sweep over West Indies in which several players staked claims for permanent spots in the team, leaving some potentially big calls for the selectors in the coming months.Cameron Green was player-of-the-series for his performances at No. 4, looking the ideal make-up for a role that can be required to play in various ways depending on the start. Meanwhile, Mitchell Owen made an immediate impact in the middle-order, having been challenged to develop his game away from the opening slot that has brought him considerable T20 league success.Tim David produced the performance of the series with his record-breaking 37-ball hundred, batting higher than has often been the case at No. 5, while Josh Inglis settled in at No. 3. With the ball, it’s difficult to see how Nathan Ellis does now not command a full-time place in the XI while Ben Dwarshuis had a productive series.Related

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• Bailey declares Weatherald 'in the mix' for Ashes

• 'Not much will change' – Owen plans to bring his T20 approach to ODI cricket

• More than a finisher: David soars to new heights

• 'Warming Heady's seat' – Maxwell expects opening role will be short-lived

“Depth is a privilege to have, and hopefully we can keep building on that,” Australia T20I captain, Mitchell Marsh said. “We saw a lot of guys come in: Mitch Owen, I thought Cam Green was fantastic, Nathan Ellis, again, was outstanding. Everyone played their part. It’s going to be a good challenge for us, but we certainly will welcome a few blokes back in.”Travis Head and Josh Hazlewood are expected to return for the series against South Africa which begins in Darwin on August 10, as could Matt Short if he has recovered from the side strain he picked up early in the West Indies tour. Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc will, however, continue to rest ahead of the home summer, so the major calls around the make-up of the pace attack will wait a bit longer.