The chances were there; the plot was set, yet the batsman could not do their job. A disappointing middle order batting performance and lack of power hitting resulted Bangladesh to put only 127 on the scoreboard.

Nazmul Hasan Shanto scored the highest 54 runs for the team, which came at a cost of 48 runs.

Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and chose to bat first against Pakistan in their fifth match of the Super 12 encounter of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Adelaide on Sunday (November 6).

Bangladesh have brought three changes in their Playing XI. Soumya Sarkar, Nasum Ahmed and Ebadot Hossain have replaced Shoriful Islam, Yasir Ali Rabbi and Hasan Mahmud respectively.

Bangladesh (Playing XI): Najmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan(c), Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan(w), Mosaddek Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Nasum Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman.

Pakistan (Playing XI): Mohammad Rizwan(w), Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi. 

Bangladesh put a listless performance to taste a 50-run defeat to India in their ‘do or die’ clash in the Super 8 phase of the T20 World Cup at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua today.

The defeat, their successive second in this phase, ruined their hopes to play the semifinal for the first time in tournament’s history.

India put up a mammoth 196-5 and the had Bangladesh held off to 146-8 on the back of some superb bowling. The victory helped them made a giant stride towards the semifinal of yet another ICC tournament.

Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav was the wrecker-in-chief with 3-19 from four overs while fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah was as usual unplayable even in a good batting pitch as he scalped 2-13 from four overs.

Pacer Arshdeep Sing returned figures of 2-30 and Hardik Pandya who blasted 27 ball-50 not out with the willow, finished with 1-32.

For Bangladesh, captain Najmul Hossain Shanto was the top-scorer with 40, hitting one four and three sixes from 32 balls. Opener Tanzid Hasan Tamim made 29 and Rishad Hossain clubbed an entertaining 10 ball-24.

But Bangladesh went nowhere right from starting the chase as they were well below par as far as the asking run rate was concerned.

After lifting the side to a respectable total, Pandya broke through with the wicket of Liton Das (13) who was baffled by the slower delivery and chipped it straight to Suryakumar Yadav.

Kuldeep strangled Bangladesh, varying his pace well and confounding the batters with sly googly that was hard to read.

He removed Tanzid and Towhid Hridoy (2) in his consecutive two overs to leave Bangladesh at 66-3. Shakib Al Hasan tried to curb his dominance by hitting him a six but Kuldeep took the sweet revenge by getting rid of the ace allrounder, changing his pace well.

Bumrah then returned to his second spell to dismiss Shanto before ending Rishad’s high-octane innings, varying his length cleverly.

Arshdeep Singh also had his say when he got rid of Mahmudullah in the penultimate delivery of the innings as Bangladesh tasted a big defeat.

Put in to bat first, Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma gave the India a fluent start before Shakib Al Hasan broke through with the wicket of the latter for his 50th wicket in T20 World Cup history.

Having done so, he became the first bowler in the tournament's history to take 50 wickets.

Rohit made 23 off 11 while Kohli gave the glimpse of returning back to form with 28 ball-37 that studded with one four and three sixes.

Pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib removed Kohli and then took the prized scalp of Suryakumar Yadav for 6 to finish with 2-32.

Tanzim’s double strike put India a troublesome 77-3 ninth over but India’s middle order was unfazed. The likes of Rishab Pant and Shivam Dube kept hitting all the things, thrown at them in impeccable fashion to leave Bangladesh bowlers in disarray.

They were particularly harsh on leg-spinner Rishad Hossain who was the most successful bowler for the team in the previous matches. But the young leggie saw the other side of the coin against a quality batting attack. He ended with two wickets but conceded 43 runs in three overs.

Rishab Pant made 34 while Shivam Dube scored 34 at a strike rate over 140 and set the platform for Hardik Pandya.

Pandya responded aggressively, smacking four fours and three sixes in his 27 ball-50 to help the side edge closer to 200.

Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan in their last match of the Super 8 on Tuesday at St Lucia, a slow-paced pitch which would suit their bowling attack.

(Source: BSS)

Iga Swiatek refused to take victory at the French Open for granted despite romping to a third Rome title when sweeping aside Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-3 in Saturday's final.

World number one Swiatek will be red-hot favourite to successfully defend her Roland Garros crown afer comfortably prevailing on the clay against second-ranked Sabalenka.

In front of a packed centre court crowd Swiatek became the first woman since Serena Williams in 2013 to win on the clay surface at Madrid and Rome in the same season.

She can join Williams in a European capital city hat-trick if she wins her fourth French Open title, and third in a row, with the clay-court Grand Slam starting in Paris on May 26.

"Obviously I am confident. I feel like I'm playing great tennis but that doesn't change the fact that I just want to stay humble," Swiatek told reporters.

"Grand Slams are different. There's a different pressure on the court and off the court. Of course I love to come to Paris and be there. It a great place for me to be and I really enjoy my time there.

"But these are a hard seven matches that you need to win so I don't take anything for granted."

Swiatek won her 12th successive match on clay by besting Belarusian Sabalenka as she did in the recent Madrid final.

The Pole took her winning record over Sabalenka to 8-3 in another hugely impressive display from what has been an almost flawless tournament from the four-time Grand Slam winner, who didn't drop a single set on her way to another championship victory.

Saturday's match was less dramatic than Madrid's three-set thriller as Sabalenka, who has won the two most recent Australian Opens, gave herself too much to do.

Swiatek took the opening set in just 36 minutes in a clinical display of tennis against Sabalenka, who has said repeatedly that Rome is her dream tournament to win.

Going into Saturday's final Swiatek had won 97 percent of her matches in which she went one set ahead since the start of 2022 and Sabalenka didn't help her cause by wasting seven break points over two games in the second set.

After Swiatek broke Sabalenka's serve in game seven it was only a matter of time before she closed out the match and championship.

"I would say the first set I didn't play well at all. I wasn't, I don't know, feeling my game well," Sabalenka told reporters.

"In the second set I just tried to stay a little bit more aggressive... I just tried to put her a little bit under pressure.

"I had couple of opportunities to break her serve. Probably if I would take that opportunity, the match would go differently. I didn't use it, so it is how it is."

On Sunday Alexander Zverev bids to win his second Rome title when he faces Nicolas Jarry in the men's final.

Zverev is in his 11th Masters final, equalling Boris Becker's record for the most by a German since the series began in 1990.

England will face South Africa in the opening match of the ICC Women's Twenty20 World Cup to be held in Bangladesh later this year, the International Cricket Council announced on Sunday.

The event will run from October 3 to 20 in the capital Dhaka and the northeastern city of Sylhet, with warm-up matches starting on September 27.

Hosts Bangladesh and the top six teams from the previous edition in South Africa -- Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies - qualified automatically for the tournament, with Pakistan joining them as the next best ranked team.

Ireland, the UAE, Sri Lanka and Scotland are in contention for the remaining two places, with the semi-finals of the qualifying tournament being held in the UAE.

Six-times winners and current world number one Australia will play in Group A alongside India, New Zealand, Pakistan and a Qualifier 1.

Neighbours and rivals India and Pakistan will face off on October 6.

Group B will feature South Africa, Bangladesh, England, West Indies, and Qualifier 2.

"Over the last six to seven years we have seen women's cricket grow exponentially," ICC chief executive officer Geoff Allardice said at the announcement of the fixture list and trophy unveiling in Dhaka.

"This is going to be a very special tournament," he added.

It will be the ninth edition of the tournament, with Bangladesh previously hosting in 2014.

Lionel Messi continued his rich vein of scoring in MLS, scoring twice as league leaders Inter Miami came from behind for a 4-1 win at the New England Revolution on Saturday.

With his brace Messi, the top scorer in MLS, took his tally to nine goals from seven appearances this season.

A crowd over 65,612 turned up at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the stadium the Revolution share with the NFL's New England Patriots, to see the Argentine World Cup winner.

New England, who had been hit by a flu bug in the build-up to the game and bottom of the Eastern Conference, delighted the bumper home crowd after just 40 seconds through an Argentine of their own -- Tomas Chancalay.

Miami defender Nicolas Freire gave the ball away to Spanish midfielder Carles Gil who clipped a ball over the top to Chancalay, who spotted Drake Callender well off his line and chipped it over the stranded Miami keeper for the opening goal.

Messi got Miami back on level terms in the 32nd minute when he was found by Robert Taylor's through pass and the 36-year-old made no mistake, slotting home.

The eight-times Ballon d'Or winner struck again to put Miami ahead in the 68th minute when he collected a superb defence-splitting pass from his former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets and finished with his usual ease.

Miami added two more in the final stages -- both created by Messi.

Substitute Benjamin Cremaschi made it 3-1 in the 83rd minute, pouncing after a Messi shot was parried out. Luis Suarez completed the scoring, finding the top corner after a pass inside from Messi.

Danielle Collins and Ekaterina Alexandrova will meet in the semi-finals of the WTA Miami Open after victories in the last eight on Wednesday. Collins powered into the last four with an emphatic 6-3, 6-2 win over France's Caroline Garcia before Alexandrova emerged triumphant from a near two-hour three set battle with American fifth seed Jessica Pegula.

Thursday will see the opening semi-final with three-time Miami winner Victoria Azarenka up against fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina, the highest ranked player left in the tournament.

Garcia went into the match against Collins on the back of an upset win over third-seeded American Coco Gauff but was unable to get a foothold against the Floridian.

Garcia still appeared to be troubled by an injury to her right shoulder and received some treatment early in the second set.

Collins broke to go 5-3 up in the first set and then held serve for the set, then in the second set broke in the third game and never looked back as she wrapped up the win in one hour and 19 minutes.

Collins reached the semi-finals of Miami six years ago as a qualifier and at 53rd is the lowest ranked semi-finalist in the tournament.

The 30-year-old American is now 4-0 against Garcia and has yet to lose a set to the Frenchwoman but said the numbers didn't tell the true story.

"I think against someone like Caro, it forces me to be more concentrated. I know I don't want to give her an inch or she can get in there," Collins said.

Garcia said she had felt the pace of back-to-back tournaments.

"It's been a long two weeks for the body for me, between the back at the beginning and then the she shoulder which came back," she told reporters, adding that the shoulder issue was a recurrence of a previous injury.

"I think it's nothing too serious but (shoulder) is always quite problematic for a tennis player," she said, before adding that Collins had played "an amazing match".

Collins intends to retire at the end of the year but while she agreed she had a relaxed look to her play, she rejected the idea that it was a result of her impending departure from the sport.

"I think I feel pretty relaxed, but that could be due to a number of things. I've got a new hobby. I'm playing some more golf, running more, Pilates, all of these different things," she said.

"My dog is here. I'm feeling relaxed because I get to be with him at night. I don't know," she said with a smile.

- Home favorite -

Alexandrova beat home favorite Pegula 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, showing plenty of grit in a third set where both players showed signs of fatigue.

Pegula broke to go 4-3 up in the first and broke again to clinch the set but the Russian fought back, breaking in the first game of the second set.

Again 14th seed Alexandrova broke early in the third but she let Pegula back into the set when she double-faulted on break point to leave the set balanced at 3-3.

The pair produced a fantastic rally in the subsequent game which Pegula was able to hold, but at 4-4, Alexandrova struck the decisive blow with Pegula going long on a back-hand return on the second break point.

The Russian held to grab the win and fell to her knees in joy at the result.

Alexandrova, who upset world number one Iga Swiatek in the previous round, said it was tough to break down Pegula's gritty defense.

"I couldn't understand how it was possible to return that ball it was always back. She was everywhere so I needed to do something," she said. "I tried to wait and use any opportunities that I got."

The win was Alexandrova's third against a top five player this year and she said her success was the result of developing patience.

"You have to wait and wait and something is going to come - and then you have to use it," she said.