CRICKET
Super 11 win in Taipei
Taipei Super 11 yesterday won their opening match in Group A of the Taiwan Premier League, beating the Taipei Indians by three wickets at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. The Indians reached 136-8 batting first and had their eye on two points for the win when they had reduced Super 11 to 99-6 on the fifth ball of the 16th over in the T20 tournament. However, Sathishkumar Chinnapaiyan walked to the crease and smacked 30 not out from just 11 deliveries, four of which went for six, to guide his team home with one ball to spare. In the afternoon game, the Taiwan Stars’ Adeel Ahmad Jamil struck 86 not out from 38 deliveries to lead his side to a three-wicket win over Formosa in Group B.
CRICKET
US reach Super Eight
The US on Friday made history by reaching the second round in their debut at the T20 World Cup after their last group game against Ireland was washed out. Rain meant the match at Broward County Stadium was abandoned without a ball bowled, advancing the US to the Super Eight stage and automatically qualifying them for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. In other games, New Zealand thrashed Uganda by nine wickets in a Group C clash of already-eliminated teams in Trinidad, while South Africa survived a scare from Nepal in scrambling a one-run victory in their final Group D match in St Vincent.
SOCCER
Messi scores brace
Lionel Messi on Friday scored twice and assisted on another goal in his first international start since November last year as Argentina outclassed Guatemala 4-1 to complete their Copa America preparations. Messi played the full 90 minutes for manager Lionel Scaloni after playing 35 minutes off the bench in a 1-0 win over fellow Copa America contenders Ecuador in Chicago last weekend. He previously missed a pair of international friendlies in March with a hamstring issue. His sharp performance on Friday should ease Argentine concerns ahead of their Group A opener against Canada in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday.
OLYMPICS
Tests deem Seine unsafe
Water in the Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of Escherichia coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, test results published on Friday showed. Contamination levels in the first eight days of this month, after persistent heavy rain in Paris, showed bacteria such as E. coli and enterococci beyond limits judged safe for athletes. The report was published by monitoring group Eau de Paris one day after a senior International Olympic Committee executive said there were “no reasons to doubt” races would go ahead as scheduled in a historic downtown stretch of the Seine near the Eiffel Tower. The final decision on approving the events safe for athletes rests with the governing bodies of individual sports. According to European standards, the safe limit for E coli is 900 colony-forming units per 100ml. During the first eight days of this month, test results showed that E coli levels frequently exceeded the threshold. Enterococci levels were better, mostly staying within safe limits.
Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday announced the signing of 17-year-old Taiwanese outfielder, Ko Ching-hsien (柯敬賢), with a contract worth a total of US$750,000 (NT $24.27 million). At a press event in Taipei on Monday, Ko was presented with a No. 91 Dodgers jersey in the presence of Dodgers’ director of Pacific Rim scouting Jon Deeble and scout Allen Lin to celebrate the signing. Ko, who is of Indigenous Amis and South African descent, had been on Lin’s radar since he was 14 years old. Deeble said he was made aware of the young left-handed hitter by Lin, and that time
Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Wednesday said that she wants to have children once she retires, and added that a trip throughout Taiwan was in her plans for when she lays down her racket. Tai, who turned 30 yesterday, has said she plans to retire at the end of this year. In an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA), she said that “there’s still a lot of places in Taiwan I haven’t visited,” adding that she also wants to rest and enjoy life without having to set an alarm. Tai first picked up a racket at age five and began training
First it was Albanian fans taunting their Italian rivals by snapping uncooked spaghetti in front of them. Then the Austrians followed suit, breaking baguettes in the faces of French fans before their UEFA Euro 2024 clash. Fans flocking to Germany for the month-long tournament are entertaining themselves with good-natured “food wars” looking every bit as spicy as the games themselves. As well as the desecration of national foods in the streets — which has sparked more laughter than outrage — food banners are springing up in stadiums. “Fondue better than goulash,” read one at Switzerland’s Group A match against Hungary on Saturday. “Eat Pasta,
FUBON TALKS: The Fubon Guardians, who are to have first pick in the draft next week, said they had already spoken to Chang and look forward to seeing him in their jersey Taiwanese baseball star Yu Chang yesterday announced he would enter this year’s CPBL draft, signaling his intent to play professionally in Taiwan for the first time after a decade in the US. In a post on Instagram, Chang said it was time to come home after spending much of the past 10 years in the MLB, most recently with the Tampa Bay Rays. “It’s been ten years working away from home, I miss home very much, therefore I’ve decided to enter the 2024 CPBL draft,” he wrote in English on Instagram. “I really appreciate that the Rays organization has been very understanding