SHORT CORNER

Ronaldo brace overcome Empoli

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice, the first a penalty and the second a booming long-range shot, to give Juventus a 2-1 win at Empoli in Serie A on Saturday.

Promoted Empoli stunned the visitors with a Francesco Caputo goal -- the first time Juve had trailed at halftime this season.

But the champions turned the match around after the break as Ronaldo took his league tally to seven and left his side top with 28 points out of a possible 30.

Warner walks off due to sledging

David Warner scored his second century of the NSW Premier Cricket season on Saturday, but his knock was overshadowed by a sledging incident that saw him walk off the field in protest.

Former Australia captain David Warner walks off the field yesterday after he deemed some sledging to have gone over the line. However, he eventually returned. PHOTO: COLLECTED

Warner made 157 for Randwick-Petersham against Western Suburbs at Pratten Park, but on 35 the left-hander departed the field after taking issue with a sledge directed his way.

After spending a few moments off the ground, Warner walked back out to the middle to continue.

TDS win sans sole

Much like the Bangladesh team did recently, The Daily Star cricket team overcame the absence of their best player and trounced ATN News in their Step-BSJC Media Cup opening match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium outer stadium yesterday.

The tournament, known informally as 'Bad Fielding Expo 2018', was declared open in the morning by Railway Minister Mujjbul Haque before The Daily Star took the field in the six-a-side, six-over match after squeezing into their ill-fitting jerseys. Former professional cricketer Mazhar Uddin sat out the match because he was on the infinitely less important assignment of covering Bangladesh's 3-0 whitewash of Zimbabwe.

Skipper and wicketkeeper-batsman Fazlur Rahman hit a fluent fifty, but Toufiqul Islam stole the show when, in the second over, he lost the sole of his left shoe. He kept batting and along with Fazlur scored a lion's share of Star's total of 85 for three. In reply, ATN News could score just 53 before they were bowled out by a bowling unit which, remarkably, did not concede too many wides.

Star will continue their inexorable march to the trophy when they take on Gazi Tv on October 31. If Mazhar has his priorities straight, he is likely to return. Kaler Kantho, Channel I, Bangladesh Pratidin, Manab Zamin and SA TV also won their matches yesterday.

Stephens sets up Svitolina final

A gutsy Sloane Stephens recovered from early embarrassment to storm past Karolina Pliskova on Saturday, setting up a mouth-watering WTA Finals decider against in-form Elina Svitolina.

The former US Open champion triumphed on Saturday against an inconsistent Pliskova 0-6, 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and 55 minutes in Singapore.