HELSINKI: Finland qualified for their first major tournament finals as they beat Liechtenstein 3-0 on Friday to guarantee a place at Euro 2020. Norwich City forward Teemu Pukki scored twice in Helsinki and Jasse Tuominen also netted to bring the home crowd pouring onto the pitch at the final whistle as Finland secured second place behind Group J winners Italy. ...

RIYADH: Lionel Messi struck on his return to international duty Friday following a three-month ban as Argentina defeated fierce rivals Brazil 1-0 in a friendly in Riyadh. The Barcelona forward was suspended by CONMEBOL for accusing South American football´s ruling body of “corruption” after he was sent off in July´s third-place play-off with Chile at the Copa America. Messi netted ...

SYDNEY: Pakistan’s hopes of upsetting hosts Australia in their upcoming two-match Test series have been seriously undermined by their poor preparation schedule, former Test batsman Dean Jones believes. The tourists have played three Twenty20s, a day-night tour match against Australia ‘A’ and a two-day contest against a Cricket Australia XI since arriving in Australia. Jones, who played 52 Tests for ...

WELLINGTON: New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson has said that international cricket has had an “awesome year with fast bowlers”, and that he hopes to “bring a little bit of anxiety” to England and Australia’s batsmen after being named in the squads for their upcoming Tests against those opponents. Ferguson is in line for a Test debut, having exclusively played white-ball ...

Lahore:Ahmed Safi took six wickets as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were bundled out for 290 runs against Central Punjab at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad on day-two of the ninth-round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2nd XI matches on Friday. Resuming their first innings on an overnight score of 163 for three in 41 overs, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were bowled out in the 76th ...

Lahore:The Pakistan Cricket Board today released the preliminary list of Gold Category foreign players for the HBL Pakistan Super League Player Draft 2019 as well as a list of 325 local players who have been assigned Gold, Silver and Emerging categories. The list of 325 local players includes all cricketers from the domestic first and second XI squads as well ...

The 11th episode of the weekly PCB Podcast is now available for listening and free downloading for editorial purposes. In the latest edition: i)                    Bazid Khan reviews the Australia squad for the two-match Test series against Pakistan ii)                  Respected journalist Dan Brettig sums up Australia media’s expectations and assessment of the Pakistan national men’s cricket team iii)                Former Australia player ...

Lahore:A fitness camp will be held at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore from Monday, 18 November, it was announced today. The eight-day-long camp will run till 25 November under the supervision of PCB Director Medical and Sports Sciences Dr Sohail Saleem. The following three players have been invited for the camp: -Mohammad Amir -Mohammad Irfan -Imad Wasim They ...

Lahore:The final of the first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy has been rescheduled and will be played from 27 till 31 December at Karachi’s National Stadium, the Pakistan Cricket Board’s domestic cricket department announced on Friday. The decision has been made after Sri Lanka confirmed to play their World Test Championship matches against Pakistan in Rawalpindi (11-15 Dec) and Karachi (19-23 December).  Previously, ...

Karachi:Entering the cricket fields as a 12-year-old, Saud Shakeel has made rapid progress and is presently leading Pakistan in the ongoing ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup taking place in Bangladesh. The 24-year-old left-handed batsman who can also bowl left-arm-spin represented Pakistan U19 in 2013 after a string of impressive performances in the national U19 circuit. Saud started his first-class career ...