Saudi Arabia ended their FIFA World Cup 2018 campaign on a winning note, edging past Egypt 2-1 in their final Group A game at the Volgograd Arena here on Monday.

With the dead rubber inching towards a 1-1 draw, Saudi’s Salem Al Dawsari struck in the additional injury time to help his side notch up their only win in the tournament.

Earlier, Mohamed Salah found the back of the net in the 22nd minute to hand Egypt an early lead in the game.

However, Saudi’s Salman Al Faraj equalised, scoring minutes before the half-time.

The game saw Egypt keeper Essam El Hadary make World Cup history when he became the oldest player to appear in the final stage aged 45 years and five months.

Hadary saved a first half penalty from Fahad Almuwallad and produced several excellent stops in the second half but could do nothing to prevent Alburayk’s late finish.

Having lost both of their opening two clashes, Saudi Arabia and Egypt’s World Cup journey ended on Monday.

Uruguay finished on top of Group A after thrashing 10-man Russia 3-0 in their final group stage match here on Monday.

Luis Suárez gave Uruguay the lead after 10 minutes with a superb free-kick just outside the penalty area, taking advantage of a gap created by Sergei Ignashevich tussling with Edinson Cavani.

Russian Denis Cheryshev then had the misfortune to double Uruguay’s lead in the 23rd minute, a shot from Diego Laxalt that was going wide clipping his heels.

The hosts’ hopes were then finished off by Igor Smolnikov picking up two yellow cards in rapid succession.

Uruguay sealed the deal in their favour in the 90th minute when Cavani followed up a header from Diego Godín that was saved by Akinfeev after a late corner, only for Cavani to tuck away the rebound.

Uruguay will next play the runners-up of Group B in the last 16 on Saturday in Sochi.

Russia, meanwhile, have finished second and will play the winners of Group B in the last 16 on Sunday at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

India will open their campaign against New Zealand at Guyana in the opener of the ICC women’s World T20 2018 to be staged in the West Indies from November 9 to 24, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Monday.

The other teams in action on the opening day of the tournament are Australia, Pakistan and hosts & defending champions West Indies.

This is the first time that the women’s tournament is being held as a stand-alone event and all the matches will be broadcast live from Guyana, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda. This is also the first time that the Decision Review System (DRS) will be used in an ICC World T20 event.

The 10-team tournament, featuring three-time champions Australia, reigning ICC women’s 50-over World Cup winners England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and defending champions the Windies, plus two qualifiers, will be played across three venues in the Caribbean.

Defending champions the Windies are in Group A along with England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Qualifier 1 from the Netherlands event, while Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Qualifier 2 will be in Group B.

The last tournament was held in India in 2016 alongside the men’s event, which saw the girls from the Caribbean nation clinch victory.

The finalists of the ICC Women’s World T20 Qualifier in the Netherlands from July 7 to 14 will complete the line-up of the tournament.

The teams participating in the Qualifying event are Bangladesh, Ireland, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates.

ICC Women’s World T20 Tournament Director, Jennifer Nero welcomed all the teams to the West Indies and also urged fans to come out and support the players.

“The West Indies is one of the great places in the world for sports, entertainment and culture…I want to urge the fans to come out and see the best players in the modern game,” Nero said in a statement.

“Women’s cricket is growing at a rapid rate as we saw from last year’s World Cup in England, and teams are getting stronger. Here in the West Indies, we are committed to playing a major role in the continued growth and development of the sport.”

“We want to invite the cricket world to be part of this exhilarating world-class event on and off the field,” Nero added.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur said the countdown for the big event has now begun and her team is looking to do well in the tournament.

“The announcement of the schedule marks the countdown to this big event and we are all really looking forward to playing in the West Indies,” Kaur said in a statement.

“The ICC Women’s World Twenty20 will be a competitive tournament with some tough league matches early on and no team can take it easy at any stage. Naturally, expectations will be high from our team after our World Cup final appearance last year and we aim to be at our best during the tournament,” the explosive all-rounder added.

The two infants of the indigenous sport of Kabaddi — Kenya and Argentina — are slowly taking their stride on the international platform and are excited to be a part of the game.

But the two nations still have a long way to go, as they both lack basic facilities. The two nations need basic infrastructure like mats, training grounds, coaches and some exposure to excel in the sport.

There is a gulf in class between top four kabaddi nations — India, Pakistan, South Korea and Iran — and the two newbies of the sport, who are currently participating in the Kabaddi Masters in Dubai.

Kenya and Argentina were hapless in both their games. Kenya were thrashed by India and Pakistan by a huge margin while Argentina were also outplayed by South Korea and Iran in the other group.

So the excitement and desire to play the sport will not be enough as they need basic facilities and experienced coaching if they want to excel in it.

Kenya’s Chief Administrative Secretary and Minister of Sports Hassan Noor Hassan also agreed to the fact that there is plenty of excitement and desire to play kabaddi in his country but the lack of infrastructure could shatter the dreams of many athletes.

“Our biggest challenges are the coaches and trainers. We are in touch with International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) and we will be soon having bilateral series and training to increase the players’ capacity on the mat,” Hassan told IANS.

“In order to do something on a grassroots level, we need to organize more matches, (we need) more space for playing, and to improve the facilities,” he explained.

Hassan also said that in the brief four years of Kenya’s history in kabaddi, many youngsters wanted to be a part of the sport.

As a result, they are taking necessary steps to popularise the game in the African nation so that more people could join.

“We are playing this game for the fourth year now, and as a Minister of Sports and Heritage, our plan is to roll down the sports to the other parts of the country. Slowly, the people of our country are realizing that kabaddi is an international game and they also want to be the part of it,” he expressed.

Argentina also wants same things to be done for the further development of the game.

In fact, their coach Ricardo Acuna met IKF president Janardan Singh Gehlot and sought help to improve the standards of the sport in his country.

“Yesterday, I met Gehlot along with Chaturvedi and they promised us to give one mat to practice, and apart from that, an Indian coach for a month to know the technicalities of the game,” the coach said.

These are the kind of platforms the newbies need to flourish in the sport.

The coach also asserted that they are in this six-nation tournament just to gain experience because back home, there are no tournaments and proper facilities.

“We knew that we are going to face four defeats. We are little bit slower than rest of the teams here,” Acuna opined.

“So we are here to learn and not to win,” he added.

(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at gaurav.sharma@ians.in)

It was exactly 35 years ago on this very day when an underdog Indian team led by Kapil Dev scripted history by stunning a star-studded West Indies in the final to lift the cricket World Cup in 1983 at the iconic Lord’s.

India’s route to the final saw them comfortably make it through Group B with four wins from six games, before seeing off hosts England at Old Trafford in the semi-final.

They came up against the Windies in the final, who were on the hunt for a hat-trick of World Cup titles, but were to be shocked by 43 runs by a determined Indian bowling line-up.

To mark the 35th year of India’s greatest cricketing triumph at the time, and prepare for a possible repeat of the feat at the same venue in the 2019 ICC World Cup, let’s relive the moments that led to India’s famous triumph.

While the entire team contributed handsomely to push India to the final, it was the skipper Kapil Dev’s remarkable unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe that saved the team from an early exit.

Reduced to 9/4, then 17/5 on a seaming pitch, Kapil single-handedly chased the ghosts of a defeat and ouster from the tournament with not only the highest World Cup score at the time, but was also a record score in one-day international cricket.

Kapil provided a one-man resistance with an unbeaten 175 from 138 balls, including 16 fours and six sixes, helping India survive the blues.

Then lets fast forward to the final…batting first, India were bowled out for 183 in 54.5 overs, with Kris Srikkanth top-scoring for them with 38.

Considering the talent in the Windies’ ranks, the total looked fairly chaseable but there came the twist in the tale.

Well no one expected India’s disregarded pace bowlers to use the pace-friendly conditions to such great use which Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal did by sharing six wickets between them to bowl out the mighty West Indies for 140.

But it was again Kapil Dev who stole the limelight in the midst of an inspired bowling effort, which saw the legendary all-rounder take a catch running back 20-25 yards to dismiss a rampaging Viv Richards when everything, except hope, seemed lost.

Well that happened out of the blue. Madan Lal bowled one short, Richards went for the pull and the ball headed towards the leg side boundary for what everyone thought would be a six except for Kapil who latched on to it comfortably.

That one moment resulted in a collapse of the famed Windies line-up which saw them slipping from 57/2 to 76/6, giving India a sniffing chance to script cricketing history.

Even then, the West Indian tail wagged a bit but India held their nerves and eventually lifted the Cup, that heralded a new dawn in Indian cricket.

India repeated the feat at home in 2011. The question is: Can they do a treble in 2019.

The Algerian Football Federation (FAF) has announced the sacking of Rabah Madjer as head coach of the national squad.

“Members of the FAF’s Federal Bureau who met on Sunday at the National Technical Centre unanimously decided to cancel the contract with national head coach, Rabah Madjer, and all of his staff,” FAF said in a statement, reports Xinhua news agency.

The source did not specify the reasons behind this decision, but observers say the recent poor performance of the Greens forced the FAF to sack the iconic ex-international star.

Madjer was appointed head of the Algerian squad in October 2017 in place of the Spaniard Lucas Alcaraz.

Madjer led the Greens in eight games, collecting four consecutive losses, the last of which was a 0-3 defeat against Portugal in Lisbon on June 7.

Defending Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton of Britain (Mercedes) won the French Grand Prix on Sunday, regaining the overall top spot in the 2018 drivers’ standings from German driver Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), who finished fifth.

In second place was Max Verstappen of the Netherlands (Red Bull), while Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) completed the podium and Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo came fourth, Efe news reported.

Vettel got into trouble after making contact in the first lap with Valtteri Bottas of Finland (Mercedes), and had to battle his way back from 17th after getting a five-second penalty for his part in the crash.

Bottas managed to end the race in seventh, behind Kevin Magnussen of Denmark (Haas).

Hamilton, who started from the pole position, earned his 65th career win and his third of the year, and sits atop the drivers’ standings with 145 points, 14 ahead of Vettel.

Colombia thrashed Poland 3-0 in a Group H encounter of the FIFA World Cup here on Sunday.

Yerry Mina (40th minute), Radamel Falcao (70th) and Juan Cuadrado (75th) scored for Columbia.

The win kept alive Columbia’s chances of advancing from the group stage.

They are on three points from two matches. They had been defeated 1-2 by Japan in their first game.

Poland, who had been defeated by Senegal in their previous match, have no points and are as good as out of the tournament.

Colombia dominated proceedings right from the start.

The South Americans controlled possession beautifully and Poland struggled to contain their star-studded attacking line-up.

Cuadrado was impressive form, keeping the capacity crowd awestruck with his runs down the right wing.

He formed a superb combination with Juan Quintero and the duo created all sorts of problems for the Poland defense.

Apart from his good work upfront, Cuadrado also did some really good defensive work, falling back with speed whenever Poland went on the counter.

Poland never really seemed to be in the game and created very little scoring chances.

They have one of the best centre-forwards in the world in Robert Lewandowski but Poland’s link up play from the midfield was rendered ineffective by Columbia’s excellent defensive organization.

The Bayern Munich star was left totally isolated in the absence of proper support from the midfield.

Whenever Poland went on the attack, Colombia’s speed down the flanks saw the Europeans being caught on the counter.

Colombia took the lead shortly before halftime off a corner when James Rodr Aguez floated in a cross into the penalty box and Mina rose above the Poland defence to head the ball in.

The South Americans continued to dominate after the break and created scoring chances at regular intervals.

But a combination of poor finishing and excellent defending by Poland prevented them from scoring.

But Colombia could not be denied for long as Falcao, who seemed to be struggling with his form, finally found his scoring touch.

A quick attack by Colombia saw Quintero put forward an excellent through and Falcao raced into the opposition box and calmly slotted home into the bottom-left corner.

Poland were forced to go all out in attack which saw Cuadrado score Colombia’s third goal off a fast counter a short while later.

James initiated the move charging out of defence down the left wing before finding Cuadrado upfront.

Cuadrado, who had raced down the right wing before receiving the ball in the centre, continued his run and beat Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny with an excellent finish.

That virtually sealed the issue as Poland never seemed capable of scoring and Colombia clinched a well deserved victory.

Uruguay and Russia will battle for the top spot in Group A and enter the knockout rounds of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in style when they meet here on Monday.

Both teams have won their previous two matches but Uruguay needs a win in order to finish the opening round as group winners while a draw will be enough for Russia since they enjoy a superior goal difference.

The most highly rated team in the group with several stars in their line-up, Uruguay have not been at their best during identical 1-0 wins over Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

However, the South Americans boast one of the strongest attacking line-ups in the tournament which includes the likes of star forward Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani, and Maxi Gómez.

Their defense, marshaled by skipper Diego Godín, are yet to concede a goal and the Uruguayans will definitely like to keep it that way. Godín is playing in his third World Cup and his experience should come in handy as the business end of the tournament approaches.

José Giménez is Godin’s partner in the center of the Uruguay defense and the Atlético Madrid star has made a good impression so far in his maiden World Cup.

Russia in contrast, have been more spectacular. They thrashed the Saudis 5-0 in the tournament’s inaugural match before outclassing Egypt 3-1.

Left winger Denis Cheryshev has played a starring role for Russia with three goals as the hosts entered the second round for the first time since the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The 27-year-old will aim to maintain his superb form as the Russians face their toughest test of the group stage.

The Russian defence however, did not face too many problems in the first two matches but the likes of Suarez and Cavani should be a different matter altogether.

India defeated Argentina 2-1 to register their second consecutive victory in the Champions Trophy hockey tournament here on Sunday.

Harmanpreet Singh gave India the lead off a penalty corner in the 17th minute before Mandeep Singh (28th minute) doubled the advantage with a field goal.

Gonzalo Peillat powered home a penalty in the 30th minute to reduce the margin for Argentina.

Coming into their second round robin match after comfortable wins on an opening day, both teams played out an exciting first quarter.

Argentina stretched the Indian defence early on as they made potential frays into the striking circle. A stick check by Jarmanpreet Singh while tackling Matias Paredes in the striking circle saw India concede a penalty corner.

However, excellent defending kept Argentina’s ace dragflicker Gonzalo Peillat from scoring, ending the first quarter in a stalemate.

Two minutes into the second quarter, India drew first blood when a deliberate foul by Maico Casella while tackling Harmanpreet fetched India their first penalty corner of the match.

A perfect injection by Sardar Singh was further improvised by Harmanpreet who kept it low as he used a powerful flick to sound the board.

The lead gave India the momentum to put pressure on the Olympic champions. India stretched the lead when a brilliant overhead pass was perfectly picked up by young Dilpreet Singh who cautiously maneuvered to play it across to Mandeep Singh who made no mistake in deflecting it past the Argentine goalkeeper.

The Olympic champions bounced back immediately with a strong attack, as they forced an error to win a penalty corner in the 30th minute. Peillat was absolutely impressive when he found the top corner of the net to beat Indian goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh.

With Argentina narrowing the deficit, India treaded cautiously, maintaining their structure while their defence ensured that they left no space for the Argentine forwards to create opportunities.

The fourth quarter was tense with India looking to pull off something similar to the match against Pakistan where they scored three goals in the final 15 minutes.

India however kept the ball tight and looked for an opening. With five minutes left, India were reduced to 10 players with Birendra Lakra getting a yellow card. It was an absolutely tense final few minutes as India held on to the lead.