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* England take unassailable 2-0 lead in series* Dawson player of the match with three wickets* Buttler first player to hit 15,000 T20 runs* Final match in Manchester on Saturday Jos Buttler became the first batsman to score 15,000 career T20 runs and Liam Dawson took a three-wicket haul as a dominant England beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in Cardiff on Thursday to secure the series 2-0.The hosts won Tuesday’s first T20 in Southampton by 119 runs and followed it up on an overcast evening with a 14th consecutive victory over Sri Lanka in the format.Set a target of 146, after winning the toss and opting to bowl at a murky and overcast Sophia Gardens, England had marched to 48-0 after four overs but openers Aneurin Donald (21) and Buttler (30) then walked in quick succession for 55-2.Big-hitting captain Harry Brook smashed three sixes in one over but went for 23, well caught by a diving Eshan Malinga off a Wanindu Hasaranga delivery, before Tom Banton steadied the ship with a top scoring 52 not out from 24 balls as England cantered towards another easy win with 47 balls and 7.5 overs to spare.”Tonight was a special performance, very clinical. Sri Lanka got off to a flier but the way we fought back with the ball was outstanding,” said Brook.”The way Dawson reads the game was outstanding, too.” RIDICULOUS MILESTONE FOR BUTTLERButtler reached his career 15,000 with a single and Brook said his milestone was simply ridiculous.”Long may it continue. He has been phenomenal for 15 years and someone you want by your side and in the changing room,” he added.Sri Lanka posted 145 for 9 from their 20 overs, an improvement on their previous 135 all out in 19, with opener Pathum Nissanka hitting 37 from 21 balls.They had carved out a promising 56-0 but lost momentum with Jamie Overton taking the first wicket with a leaping catch off Player of the Match Dawson, who took his second wicket with the next ball of the sixth over and ended with figures of 3-32.Jofra Archer (2-34) returned for his 50th T20 cap after being rested for the first T20 of the series, with fellow-seamer Josh Tongue dropping out, and took two wickets in the final over with Dushmantha Chameera bowled middle stump for a duck and Tharindu Rathnayake caught by Brook.Sonny Baker had another excellent evening with the ball, finishing 1-15 from his four overs with a wicket maiden in the 19th.Donald, playing on home Welsh soil after making his debut in Southampton, dropped Dasun Shanaka but made up for it with a catch three deliveries later for Dawson’s third wicket.”They were too good. We have to improve a lot, honestly, because we are not up to the mark right now,” said Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka.The final T20 of the three-match series is at Manchester’s Old Trafford on Saturday. BRIEF SCORESEngland 146 for 4 (Banton 52*, Buttler 30) beat Sri Lanka 145 for 9 (Nassanka 37, Asalanka 31, Dawson 3-32) by six wickets Related Story Source link
The Arabian Gulf Cup has a rich history of goalscorers who have left their mark on the tournament over more than five decades since its inaugural edition in 1970, establishing the competition as one of the region's foremost stages for producing stars and setting records that have endured in Gulf football history. With the 27th edition of the tournament approaching, to be hosted by Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from Sep. 23 to Oct. 6, attention is once again turning to the leading goalscorers who have shaped the competition's history, foremost among them Kuwait's Jasem Yaqoub, who remains the tournament's all-time leading scorer with 18 goals. Yaqoub reached that tally in just three appearances. He scored three goals at the second edition in Saudi Arabia in 1972, finishing second behind Saudi Arabia's Saeed Ghorab, who scored five. Yaqoub then scored six goals at the third edition in Kuwait in 1974 to finish as top scorer, before netting nine goals at the fourth edition in Doha in 1976 and claiming the top-scorer award for a second consecutive tournament, taking his overall tally to 18. The record has stood for decades since Yaqoub retired in 1983 due to injury, allowing him to retain the all-time scoring record for nearly five decades. Iraq's Hussein Saeed and Saudi Arabia's Majed Abdullah share second place with 17 goals each. Hussein Saeed holds the record for the most goals scored in a single edition, having netted 10 at the fifth tournament in Iraq in 1979. He then added seven goals at the seventh edition in Oman in 1984, where he was named both top scorer and best player, taking his overall tally to 17. Abdullah, meanwhile, scored 17 goals in 26 matches across five consecutive appearances. He made his tournament debut at the fifth edition in Iraq in 1979, scoring seven goals to finish second in the scoring standings. He added three goals at the sixth edition in the UAE in 1982, sharing the top-scorer award with Kuwait's Youssef Suwaid, Bahrain's Ibrahim Zowaid and the UAE's Salem Khalifa. He then scored once at the seventh edition in 1984, which he was unable to complete because of injury, four times at the eighth edition in Bahrain, and twice at the ninth edition in Saudi Arabia in 1988. Kuwait's Faisal Al Dakhil and Jassem Al Huwaidi share third place with 14 goals each. Al Dakhil, one of the leading members of the Kuwait team that won the 1980 AFC Asian Cup and qualified for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, scored eight goals at the fourth edition in Doha in 1976, finishing second behind Yaqoub. He added one goal at the fifth edition in Iraq in 1979 and five at the eighth edition in Bahrain in 1986. Al Huwaidi began his Gulf Cup career with one goal at the 11th edition in Doha in 1992 before producing his best performance at the 14th edition in Bahrain in 1998, scoring nine goals to finish as the tournament's top scorer. That made him the second-highest scorer in a single edition behind Hussein Saeed. He then added four goals at the 15th edition in Saudi Arabia in 2002. Qatar's Mansour Muftah and the UAE's Ali Mabkhout share fourth place with 13 goals each. Muftah appeared in six editions, beginning with five goals at the fourth tournament in Doha in 1976. He then scored once at the fifth edition in Iraq, once at the sixth, three times at the seventh, once at the ninth, and twice at the 10th edition in Kuwait in 1990. Mabkhout scored twice on his first appearance at the 21st edition, before netting five goals at the 22nd edition in 2014 to finish as top scorer. He added one goal at Gulf Cup 23 in Kuwait and five at Gulf Cup 24 in Doha in 2019, earning the top-scorer award for a second time and taking his overall tally to 13. Fifth place is shared by Kuwait's Youssef Suwaid and Bader Al Mutawa, with 12 goals each. Suwaid scored seven goals at the fifth edition in Iraq, three at the sixth in the UAE and two at the eighth in Bahrain in 1986. Al Mutawa appeared in six editions, scoring twice at Gulf Cup 16 in 2003, twice at Gulf Cup 17 and another two at Gulf Cup 18. He missed Gulf Cup 19 before finishing as top scorer at Gulf Cup 20 in Yemen with three goals. He then scored twice at the following edition in 2013 and once at Gulf Cup 22 in Saudi Arabia in 2014, his final appearance in the tournament. Qatar's Mahmoud Soufi, the UAE's Fahad Khamis and Saudi Arabia's Yasser Al Qahtani share sixth place with 10 goals each. Soufi scored once at the ninth edition and once at the 10th, followed by two goals at Gulf Cup 11 in Doha. He then shared the top-scorer award at Gulf Cup 12 with Saudi Arabia's Fuad Anwar after both scored four goals, before adding two more at Gulf Cup 13 in 1996. Khamis scored twice at the sixth edition and once at the seventh before excelling at the eighth tournament in Bahrain, where he scored six goals and finished as top scorer. He concluded his Gulf Cup appearances with one goal at the 10th edition in Kuwait in 1990. Al Qahtani scored three goals at Gulf Cup 16 in 2003, one at Gulf Cup 17, three at Gulf Cup 18 in 2007, two at Gulf Cup 19 and one at Gulf Cup 21 in Bahrain in 2013, taking his overall tally to 10 goals. These figures remain a testament to a tournament history rich in stars and prolific goalscorers, while the 27th edition in Jeddah will provide a new generation with the opportunity to pursue those records and add new chapters to the history of Arabian Gulf Cup goalscorers. Source link
Heavily-damaged and destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jobar suburb northeast of Damascus on August 12, 2026. Since…
* Antonelli leads Russell by 66 points after Monza victory* Italy buzzing after historic win Kimi Antonelli is a phenomenon, on course to become Formula One’s youngest world champion at 20 years old, but Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff sees the Italian also as flagbearer for a new generation better equipped than ever for success.Asked at Monza if he saw the 2026 cars, with their increased electric element and characteristics that demand new ways of driving, as a factor in Antonelli’s meteoric rise as a rare talent, Wolff recognised that was an interesting point.”This is a generation that’s coming up that is better prepared than the generation before,” he said.”Simulators have become much more than a toy. You can see that all the people once they drive simulators, they drive all kinds of cars – rally cars, sportscars, GT cars.”So that’s an additional tool that this generation of drivers have,” added the Austrian, who compared Antonelli to a continuously self-improving AI agent such was his capacity to learn and absorb.”I think if you put a five or six-year-old in a simulator, you teach them cognitive abilities. Or they learn cognitive abilities without doing it actively.”I think that’s why they come into Formula One at that age with so much more bandwidth. Everything goes in slow motion because they are doing this every day, day in and day out … and the next one is probably going to have another layer on top.”SPAGHETTI FROM A SILVER TROPHYAntonelli’s teammate George Russell, the pre-season favourite who has found the end of one era and start of another to be a tough transition, is 28 and from the same generation as McLaren’s world champion Lando Norris and Red Bull’s four-times champion Max Verstappen.Norris and Verstappen are keen gamers and simulator drivers, with Verstappen also taking part in endurance racing.Britain’s Arvid Lindblad, the only rookie on the grid this season, is 19 and of Antonelli’s generation. With Racing Bulls he has scored in eight of 13 races.Antonelli’s stunning home win from 19th on the grid at Monza on Sunday revived memories of comeback wins of old and drew immediate comparisons with some of the greats of the sport, Ayrton Senna included, and brought scenes of jubilation despite Ferrari having a bad day.In the past Ferrari have always been the big draw for the fans, whose loyalties lay primarily with the national team and in the past perfectly aligned with a winner like seven-times champion Michael Schumacher racing in their red colours.It will take a lot to change that, but having a world champion Italian — and Antonelli is now 66 points clear of Russell — would be new territory for almost all those present on Sunday as the first since 1953. ITALIAN PM MELONI’S CONGRATULATORY MESSAGEItalian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sent a congratulatory message, the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper devoted its first 15 pages to Antonelli’s exploits and the youngster’s beaming face was everywhere, even eating spaghetti from the bowl of the shining silver trophy (and declaring it not as good as his grandmother’s).To say that Italy has waited a long time for such a moment would be an understatement.Antonelli, the son of a racer, is the only living Italian to know how it feels to be a Grand Prix winner at Monza, the first to do so since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966 and just the fourth since the championship started in 1950.The other two Italian winners at Monza were Giuseppe Farina (1950) and Alberto Ascari (1951 and 1952)Antonelli was already the first Italian in 73 years to lead the championship to the ‘Temple of Motorsport” and he left as the youngest Italian Grand Prix winner and first to win seven championship Grands Prix in a season.Only one driver in history had ever won from further back on the grid — Britain’s John Watson who took the 1983 U.S. Grand Prix West at Long Beach, California for McLaren from 22nd position. Related Story Source link
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Aspire Academy has launched its new football season with a series of residential training camps for its various age groups. The opening week featured players from the 2011 and 2012 generations, followed by the 2010 generation, before the 2013 and 2014 squads completed the programme.The week-long camps were designed to help players refocus on key areas, including rebuilding fitness after the summer break and returning to the rhythm of regular coaching sessions. Living on site at Aspire Academy during the camps gave the players the opportunity to socialise, strengthen team relationships, and adapt to time away from home.The camps also enabled the coaching staff to identify focus areas as they develop their training plans for the season ahead. Ahead of the new season, Aspire Academy has also welcomed Mikel Antia as Technical and Methodology Manager. Antia returns for a second spell at the Academy, having previously worked there from 2012 to 2016.He brings extensive experience and expertise from a professional playing career and coaching roles at several clubs, including working alongside Rafa Benitez at Newcastle United and, most recently, at English Premier League side Leeds United. The Spanish coach explained why he chose to return to Aspire Academy and Qatar for the next chapter of his career.“I had a very positive experience during my four years here at Aspire Academy, and now they have offered me an opportunity that I could not turn down,” he said. “I know this place very well. I know the quality of work we can deliver, and I am confident that I can help the organisation continue to evolve and improve.”Antia believes that Qatar hosting the next four editions of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup can provide a major boost to the country’s football development. “The most important thing is that everyone – from the organisation to the coaches and players – understands what it takes to compete against the best,” he said.“The players need the right tools, and it is our responsibility to provide those tools so they are ready.” “These competitions are valuable because they help players understand the level of effort and commitment required – not only from them, but from the entire system.”“It is excellent to have this level of competition here in Doha because it reinforces the belief that we can compete, while also reminding us that we must continue improving every year.” Antia said his message to players and fellow coaches is simple: “one more”.“If we want players to grow and develop, we as coaches must lead by always giving ‘one more’ – asking what more we can do, change, or offer to help them improve. We cannot simply say, ‘It is done.’”“We must keep thinking about what else we can do. If players see that commitment from us, they will add it to their own habits – one more effort, one more repetition, one more sprint, or whatever is required. It starts with us as coaches, creating a culture that supports the development of a competitive mentality.”The student-athletes returned to full-time study and training at the Academy on 6 September, with additional local and international training camps, as well as friendly match series, planned for the coming months. The Academy’s pitches will once again host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup from 19 November to 13 December, with Qatar’s squad expected to include Aspire Academy student-athletes and graduates. Related Story Source link
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