China's Shi downs Wang to set up semi-final clash with Antonsen
June 6 (Reuters) - Defending champion Shi Yuqi of China powered past compatriot Wang Zhengxing 21-13 21-6 in the Indonesia Open on Friday to set up a semi-final clash with last year's runner-up Anders Antonsen.
Shi, who won the Malaysia and All-England Opens this year, took just half an hour to beat Wang while twice runner-up Antonsen of Denmark defeated Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu 23-21 21-9.
Thailand's world number one Kunlavut Vitidsarn eased past Frenchman Alex Lanier 21-12 21-16 to set up a semi-final clash with the 2019 winner Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan, who took out China's Li Shifeng after losing the first game.
In the women's draw, defending champion Chen Yufei withdrew due to injury, allowing her fellow Chinese opponent Han Yue to advance to the semi-finals. World number two Wang Zhiyi of China took down compatriot Gao Fangjie 21-18 23-21.
Women's top seed and Olympic Champion An Se-young continued her dominant form, dispatching Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong, seeded sixth, 21-11 21-10 in under 40 minutes.
Japanese third seed Akane Yamaguchi crushed home hopes by beating Putri Kusuma Wardani, the last remaining Indonesian in the women's singles draw.
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Harry Brook smiles and riles India's attack with swagger and fortune
Scientists say that the typical human can recognise 21 distinct facial expressions. After seven years of Test cricket, Jasprit Bumrah has grown to know a good handful of them about as well as any man can, from awe, through disgust, to fear, sadness, surprise and all their many combinations. You would guess it's been a while since he's seen a happy batsmen looking back at him from 22 yards, but if you had the binoculars on Harry Brook first thing on Sunday morning, you could see he was wearing such a big, goofy grin that his teeth were glinting through the gloaming. You don't want to kink-shame him, but you'd think there must be easier ways to get your kicks than to go running down the pitch to hit a man bowling 90mph bouncers. But Brook's brain seems to be wired a little differently. On the third ball Bumrah bowled him on Sunday, he decided to take two quick steps forwards and wallop it through the covers for four. It was an extraordinary shot, in an innings studded with them. Brook picked up one of Prasidh Krishna's short balls from outside off and heaved it into the stands beyond mid-wicket; he walked down the pitch to launch Mohammad Siraj over the silly mid-off he's just set to try and deter exactly that shot, and even played Rishabh Pant's roly-poly scoop over the wicketkeeper to score a four off Ravindra Jadeja. It was like watching a kid copying the trick he'd just seen on TV, except he got away with it. These aren't strokes your typical batsman could imagine, let alone execute. But then Brook is the most richly gifted shotmaker England have had since Kevin Pietersen was in the team. Time was, and not so long ago, when you would have been told off for trying them. But Brendon McCullum is the only England coach Brook has ever known – he has grown up being encouraged to play this way. By the time the second new ball came around, India's bowlers had had just about enough of it. They already thought they'd got Brook out once when he couldn't help himself but try to hook one of Bumrah's bouncers and was caught at midwicket off what turned out to be a no-ball, and then they thought they had got him a second time when he edged a ball from Jadeja through to Pant, who couldn't hold on to the catch. They had spent all morning trying, and failing, to persuade the umpires to let them change the soft ball they'd been working with, and now they finally had a shiny new one by right. They gave it to Siraj. He is one of those bowlers who likes to pick a fight, and always seems to be pissed off with his lot. The Telangana police recently swore him in as an honorary deputy constable, and he has the air of a man you wouldn't want to make ask twice to see your licence. Siraj beat Brook once outside off, when Brook swung so hard at a cut that he threw himself off his feet, then he beat him again when he hit his inside edge and the ball ricocheted away off his thigh. He was starting to warm up, then Brook went and belted his next two deliveries for four, and he reached a boil. Siraj banged the next ball in short at Brooks's ribs, and hit him on the elbow. He followed the delivery in and, while Brook winced, Siraj stood in the middle of the pitch, staring at him. He shot him a couple of kind words – exactly what is between the two of them – and then a length delivery which Brook spanked back over his head for six. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion He might as well have flicked him on the forehead. Siraj fired the next one in so quick that even though Brook missed it, it shot off his pads for four leg byes. When Siraj overcorrected himself and dropped the next one wide on the off-side, Brook hammered him for four more through point. That made it 18 off the over. And it was at this point that Pant decided everyone needed a time out, and called a trainer on to strap up his ankle. His teammates gathered in a huddle. Apart from Siraj who stood, hands on hips, staring into the distance. He looked as if he was going to blow up if anyone came within three feet of him. Somewhere in among all this, Brook was dropped yet again when he cut one of Bumrah's away-swingers to gully. He was finally out on 99, caught in the deep. You sometimes wonder if there's a thought in his head at all, except to belt the ball. In this, at least, he is part of a long Yorkshire tradition – Geoff Boycott, Herbert Sutcliffe and Norman Yardley all got out one shy of a Test hundred in their time, too, though you have to guess they probably weren't trying to belt a six when they did it.
The Sun
41 minutes ago
- The Sun
Ex-World Snooker Champ maverick Luca Brecel fails to show up for start of season after going public with new girlfriend
LUCA BRECEL did not bother to turn up for the first day of the new snooker season and will miss out on a mega-money Chinese takeaway. The Belgian Bullet has fallen a long way since becoming champion of the world in thrilling style in May 2023. 3 3 3 The 2025-26 baize campaign began on Sunday with Wuhan Open qualifying and Brecel, 30, was due to play Pakistani Haris Tahir. It was scheduled to take place at 2.30pm at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. Yet Brecel, who has fallen to 39th on the WST list, appears not to have been in the country. So, a 5-0 walkover was awarded to his opponent, who secured a spot in the main draw in the Far East. On Saturday, he posted images of himself with his reported new girlfriend and hours before his match he uploaded a photo of pizzas and two wine glasses. If anything, it suggested he was not necessarily in the mood for break-building. It is another sorry situation for a potting maverick who lives by his own rules. His absence means he will not take part in the Wuhan Open, which takes place in the last week of August and has a top prize of about £140,000. Former world champions Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy and John Higgins all made the effort to play over the weekend despite qualifying being behind closed doors. During the World Championship, Brecel flew to Sheffield, from Holland via East Midlands Airport, on the day of his second-round clash with Ding Junhui. That is because he did not want to stay the night before in a hotel in South Yorkshire. Amazingly, he dominated the opening session 7-1 against Ding even though he had only arrived in the UK a few hours earlier.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Why Bumrah is most complete fast bowler ever
It is getting harder and harder to reject the claim that India's Jasprit Bumrah is the most complete fast bowler of all impact he has on a match every time he bowls is remarkable and he has been a cut above anything else we have seen in the first Test at Headingley. Bumrah took 5-83 in England's first innings, along with having three catches dropped and Harry Brook caught off a Bumrah gets the ball in his hand it is box-office viewing. It feels as though something is happening every ball. He makes the bowlers at the other end look as though they are playing a different can leave the best players in the world confused about what has just happened. A whir of arms, a flick of his wrist, and the ball has hit you before you know I ever had the misfortune of facing Bumrah, he'd be done with me in a maximum of two deliveries. A good short ball, then a searing yorker would do the trick. I'd hold out hope he'd go straight for the second of those options as, by all accounts, it is incredibly hard to see the ball when Bumrah is bowling. He would cause a tailender like me some harm. Describing a bowler as "hard to pick up" is a phrase you will hear from batters about bowlers with quirky actions. Bowlers who hide the ball from a batter's view until the very last second are horrible to Bumrah, the ball starts in his unique load-up point. Imagine a clock face and Bumrah's action from behind. His fully straightened arm points to the number two. His arm then comes quickly down in to his bowling arc, but as it comes through to deliver, his elbow hyper-extends. This is where he gets some of his pace from - the ball disappears behind his elbow and the batter momentarily loses sight of the forearm then catches up with the rest of his arm, he cocks his wrist and is ready to unleash whatever delivery he has chosen. It's like a catapult. At the very last millisecond, the ball is back in the batter's view, hurtling at somewhere around challenge to batters and an advantage to Bumrah is his release point. He delivers the ball from closer to the batter than any other pace watching a fast bowler from side on. You will see most release the ball when their arm is directly above their front foot. Bumrah somehow gets his hand about 40cm ahead of his front foot, cutting the distance between himself and the batter, thus reducing the batter's reaction approach to the crease is not befitting of someone who is going to bowl fast. Bumrah has short, stuttering steps, without any sort of fluency. There is nothing in the approach that suggests he will be capable of bowling with the speed he does.A batter could watch as many hours of Bumrah footage as they like, yet still be surprised when they face him. There is no 'tell' as to what he going to bowl. No change of arm path, no change of finger position. A batter can only rely on reacting to what is coming their way. Another phrase you might hear to describe a bowler is "beyond the perpendicular". Again, using the clock face, a bowler with an over-the-top action would, from behind, have it pointing to the number 12, directly above their head. A bowler with a round arm would be at one or a bowler goes beyond the perpendicular, they are coming from the number 11, meaning the angle always feels like it is coming in to a right-hander, making them play at deliveries they might not need example of this would be the success Bumrah has had against Joe Root, dismissing him 10 times in Test cricket - only Australia's Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have got Root makes Root push at balls wide of off stump, just like the first innings of this Test, angled in and moving away at the last second once he has opted to play at the ball, continuing in a similar vein to their duels in of the technical elements of Bumrah's bowling action, I don't think there has been a fast bowler in history able to affect matches so is like a computer constantly calibrating what is needed in any given situation, and he is able to implement almost exactly what he wants to with absolute this for versatility. Of pace bowlers from major nations to have sent down at least 500 deliveries in T20 internationals, Bumrah's economy rate of 6.27 is the best. At the same time, Bumrah has comfortably the best bowling average of any bowler in Test history with at least 200 wickets. At 19.33, Bumrah is miles ahead of West Indies legend Malcom Marshall in second place on it a stage further, the only bowlers with more than 100 wickets at a lower average than Bumrah all played before World War a climate where the disparity between the Test and T20 formats for bowlers is becoming wider and requiring a differing range of skills, Bumrah is the best in is a thinker about the game and would have been India's first choice as the new Test captain has it not been for his struggle to play in every match. He took the decision himself to not pursue the job as he did not feel it was fair on the lucky to be in an era of great fast bowlers. From recent international retirees Stuart Broad and James Anderson, to Kagiso Rabada, Cummins, Hazlewood and Mitchell sits atop of them all as the finest fast bowler to have played the game. Some accolade.
