Khalid Hossain

New Zealand’s outstanding five-wicket victory over hot favourites England in the first semifinal of the T20 World Cup is destined to go down as one of the classics, given how the game unfolded.

‘Fortune favours the brave’ as they say, and when a team play the beautiful game as if they are a man down before actually becoming one, it is akin to playing with fire, especially on the big stages like the virtual semifinal match that was played between Bangladesh and Nepal in the National Stadium of Maldives in Male yesterday.

Mustafizur Rahman may have gone wicketless in the third T20I between Bangladesh and Australia on Friday, but the wily left-arm pacer was the player that took control of the most important stage of the game.

In the latest press conference following the third T20I of the bilateral T20I series, the Alien cricket team introduced an outrageous Four-Point Demand at the hosts amid the pandemic, saying they will only continue playing if they are met.   

Football fans around the globe have been surfing the tides of sheer entertainment, the kind matched on by a World Cup, for almost a month since Euro 2020 and the 2021 Copa America began.

Novak Djokovic may not seem like the intimidating tennis virtuoso athlete from the outset; rather, like somebody one might approach in a room full of strangers to ask for the Wi-Fi password, for instance. Fondly referred to as the Djoker, his demeanour in general, feels so vibrant and likeable that one might feel like cracking an informal joke with him; and he seems humble and humane- way more than an average superstar athlete or a comic superhero, yet he has morphed into a champion hero for the ages and for all ages.

Apart from the playing style, the only predictable feature of Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola’s game is the unpredictability of his starting eleven and consequently the formation, especially when it comes to huge occasions such as the Champions League final.