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Test cricket LIVE: Australia chase series clean sweep in West Indies

Test cricket LIVE: Australia chase series clean sweep in West Indies

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4.35am
Wicket: First ball, Green in castled
Bang. First ball of the day, Cameron Green leaves Shamar Joseph's first offering and it cannons into his off stump. Look lively people, the cricket is well and truly on.
4.33am
How day two played out
Kingston: A week ago, Australian coach Andrew McDonald leapt to the defence of four-Test rookie Sam Konstas following returns of 3, 5, 25 and 0 in the first two matches against the West Indies.
'Four games, eight innings - it's probably early for anyone to judge really,' McDonald told reporters, while acknowledging the performances hadn't been spectacular.
McDonald and fellow selectors will now have 10 Konstas innings – or 'data points', as they like to call them – to assess ahead of Australia's next Test assignment.
The only problem is that it's the biggest of the lot: an Ashes series on home soil.
How many do they need? Is 10 enough? Or 20?
The scores do not make for pretty reading, and selectors are the ones accountable – albeit on challenging pitches in the Caribbean. They knew picking Konstas, with such little first-class experience, was a gamble. They'd argue it has been an investment.
For the second summer in a row, Australia does not have a settled opening batting combination.
4.28am
How does today pan out?
4.26am
Hello and welcome
By Tom Decent
G'day cricket fans.
Welcome to our live blog of today's action between Australia and the West Indies in Kingston.
It's Tom Decent at Sabina Park in the blogging chair. Another warm day. Some talk of showers but I'll believe that when I see it.
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Australia's amazing bowling line-up dominate top 10 Test rankings after West Indies rout
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The Australian bowlers' destruction of West Indies in Kingston has resulted in five of their record-breaking attack now flourishing in the top 10 of the ICC's Test bowling rankings. Scott Boland's three wickets in each innings at Sabina Park, including a hat-trick as Australia sealed their whitewash three-Test triumph by, incredibly, bowling out the home side for 27, has ensured the veteran paceman moves up six places into a career-best sixth place in the rankings. The late-blooming 36-year-old, who never lets Australia down whenever he gets the chance with his 62 wickets at 16.53 apiece, has joined captain Pat Cummins (third), Josh Hazlewood (fourth), Nathan Lyon (eighth) and Mitchell Starc (10th) in a rare single-country domination of the bowling table. Boland's PB is quite staggering with respected sports reporter Harrison Reid noting that: 'The sixth best bowler in the world isn't in his own country's best four.' The ICC said you would have to go back to 1958 to find a similar domination of the table. A historical rating showed that England had half-a-dozen bowlers in the top 12 back in 1958, including the likes of Jim Laker, Tony Lock, Freddie Trueman and Brian Statham. Still, though, top of the current pile remains the uniquely brilliant Indian quick, Jasprit Bumrah, whose seven wickets during their defeat by England at Lord's this week enabled him to stay 50 points ahead of Australia's World Test final tormentor, South African Kagiso Rabada. Meanwhile, Joe Root's knocks of 104 and 40 in the enthralling third-Test win have ensured he goes back to the top of the batting rankings, a week after his fellow Yorkshire star Harry Brook had gone to No.1. It's the eighth time Root has taken top spot and, at 34, he's the oldest No.1 batter since Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara was leading the way back in December 2014 at the age of 37. It's not looking so healthy for the Australian batters on the world stage, after some of their top-order struggles in the Caribbean, with only fourth-placed veteran Steve Smith in the top 10 with a ranking of 816 compared to Root's 888. Travis Head is the next best Aussie in 11th place on 740.

'Own up': Tszyu backs his corner after Fundora fiasco
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'Own up': Tszyu backs his corner after Fundora fiasco

Tim Tszyu is sticking doggedly with his trusted entourage, confident there will be no devastating repeat of last year's corner carnage in his much-anticipated rematch with Sebastian Fundora in Las Vegas. Tszyu's corner came under fire and candidly conceded they "needed an uppercut" for allowing their superstar charge to lose his WBO super-welterweight strap in controversial fashion. Sixteen months on and acknowledging the great fortune of being offered a world-title rematch, Team Tszyu are promising "no excuses" after again pinning their faith in trainer and uncle Igor Goloubev, strength and conditioning coach Dave Barker and cut man Mark Gambin. Gambin was unable to stem the fountain of blood that streamed out of a savage cut to the top of his head after accidentally walking into the 197cm high Fundora's elbow late in the second round. The Australian famously fought on for 10 rounds half blinded only to suffer a split-decision loss. Apart from Gambin being armed with additional shots of adrenaline for the return bout at the MGM Grand on Sunday (AEST), the Tszyu camp is backing the corner to do the job following a brutal review of last year's debacle. "After the whole team got together and had a real frank and honest open session, we agreed that this was the best course forward," Tszyu's manager Glenn Jennings told AAP. "The one thing you can't buy in corners is loyalty and respect, and these boys have been with us forever so there was never any intention to make any changes." After also being heavily concussed in a second world-title loss last year to Russian Bakhram Murtazaliev, team doctor Bill Anseline, was also flying in from Sydney this week to be at the blockbuster fight. Jennings insists Tszyu has forgotten the 2024 fiasco. "It was one of those things that you couldn't in a million years repeat," Jennings said. "A ruptured carotid artery is just unheard of, but you might as well turn on a gas sprinkler system in your head and try and put it out with vaseline and adrenaline. "Doctor Bill said he does that when he removes cancers in the head. He said it takes him 20 minutes to sort that shit out. "It was just unfortunate. It was a one-in-a-million misfortune. It tested all of us. It tested Tim. "He fought 10 rounds without clear vision and still only got beaten by a one-point split decision. "So it tells you a lot about the kid. The kid is a genuine matador. "He's going to go out there, round after round losing that much blood and literally put his life on the line." Tszyu says he has moved on. "Look, I believe everyone needs to own up and everyone has to improve and everyone has done that and I'm a loyal guy," he said. "I'm true to who I stand by with. That's how I am. I don't really care about the cut man because I'm not intending to use him." What Jennings now accepts is the corner should have given more consideration to asking for the fight to be stopped before the fifth round and be declared a no-contest. "In context now looking back, it's easy to pull it apart. On the night under the duress and everything going on, it's not so easy," Jennings said. "But what we do know now is Tim didn't want the fight to stop. Coach Igor didn't want the fight to stop because his fighter didn't want the fight to stop. It didn't mean he didn't care. "But you've also got a doctor who's saying 'no, he's fine', and you've got a referee who's saying nothing. "And keep in mind that at no stage did the referee tell us that it was an accidental elbow. "So if you pull early, you lose. If you pull late, you're in trouble. "So here's the problem. If we've got it right, we'd be geniuses. If we get it wrong, we're arseholes." This AAP article was made possible by support from No Limit Boxing.

Andrew Johns gives Kalyn Ponga blessing to leave, real problem at Knights ‘rats nest'
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Andrew Johns gives Kalyn Ponga blessing to leave, real problem at Knights ‘rats nest'

Decades in the rugby league wilderness have seen Knights fans acclimatise to spending the majority of their seasons crying in the bathtub. But for a club that lives with a gentle hum of peril in its ear even at the best of times, 2025 has been a season that has surpassed most by sinking beyond the gurgler and down in to the stink. Not only is Newcastle moored at the foot of the table with an attack backfiring on all cylinders, rumours are now circling that Kalyn Ponga's mooted release to rugby and Adam O'Brien's uncertain future as coach are both about to receive the dreaded full support of the board. FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every game of every round in the 2025 NRL Telstra Premiership, LIVE with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. Andrew Johns has given his blessing for Ponga to leave the Knights — either to join another NRL club, play rugby union or sign up to the breakaway R360 league — insisting he would say 'thank you' to Ponga for his service. 'I give him a big thank you for coming to the club and if he wants to move on, I say thank you for what you have done for the club,' Johns told the Freddie and the Eighth podcast. 'He has carried the club. He signed after the three wooden spoons in a row and that year, the Cowboys got to a grand final. 'Look, he got signed for big money but struggling clubs have to pay overs for a marquee player. 'He has attracted players to the club, he has attracted sponsors, I would imagine his social media reach would be huge. 'So I would say thank you to Kalyn for what you have delivered to the club. Thank you very much. If you want to move on, so be it. 'No animosity whatsoever.' But with everyone rubbernecking at McDonald Jones Stadium as it burns, one factor has been conveniently lost like a red-headed middle child in a shopping mall. When Dylan Brown was announced in April as Newcastle's new signing for 2026, the club couldn't have dreamt of the impact his signing would immediately make. That's because everything at Newcastle has gone so belly-up since he agreed to terms that the only explanation is he signed the deal in puppies blood with a dodo feather. Not only has the club gone in reverse on the paddock as it suffers a calamitous injury toll, it's now about to swap out a marquee player for a new coach who'll be walking in to a rats nest as his predecessor departs with a seven-figure payout. And while Brown has played no direct role in this cursed period for the Knights, never fear: he'll have plenty of chances to personally contribute when he arrives. Not only is the Eels five-eighth about to hoover $1.3m a year from the club's salary cap for an entire decade, he's supposed to do so while playing in the foreign position of halfback. This would be fine if he wasn't a robust running playmaker who deals more in muscle than minutiae, but he's not — and that's why signing him to play as a librarian is the cardboard straw of popular and practical decisions. 'He is not a Nathan Cleary or a Mitchell Moses, who are dominant halfbacks that go pretty much everywhere and do all the kicking,' club legend Johns warned on WWOS' Immortal Behaviour in April. 'He's not that dominant voice. He's not a dominant halfback, it's not Dylan's nature.' Of greater concern, Brown was supposed to subsidise his logbook on the L-Plates playing alongside Ponga, but now he'll either be busy in France or learning to scream 'through the gate sir!' in Japanese. Add the fact the new arrival is playing for a coach he didn't sign for in a team missing the generational talent he was promised, and you can already hear the decade of blame he'll cop for going viral leaving a toilet cubicle and not being Gary Johns' son. Even Brown himself thinks his deal is already a lemon, with the Kiwi international reportedly knocking back an offer to join the Knights early in favour of somewhere safer for his ego, like playing reserve grade in front of 35 people and an Otto bin. All in all, the new recruit shapes as the face of Newcastle's next lap around its möbius strip of pain, a club that as rugby league's Boom peaked in the late 90s and burst in the early noughties. While inarguably an upgrade on the ghastly Nathan Brown years, O'Brien's era will be remembered for making up the numbers in finals before switching his halves pairings so frequently that it became a game of three card monte where everybody won except Newcastle. A new coach will at least provide fans with a psychological band-aid before another decade of a salary cap weighed down by one reluctant saviour and a smattering of journeymen and mulleted locals. As for Ponga, it can only mean two things when rumours emerge of his interest in rugby: either the Knights are struggling, or it's Tuesday again. The club might as well get his dalliance over and done with by allowing him to finally embark on the rugby league 'gap year' he's craved: A stint in French rugby, six games in Japan and then an unsurprising return with the Roosters. - Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He's never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.

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