World Sports: Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan Excluded From BCCI Central Contracts; Chelsea Vs Leeds United In FA Cup 5th Round - As It Happened

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Houston Rockets 112-95 on Wednesday morning for their sixth straight win, Associated Press reports. Jalen Williams had 24 points and Chet Holmgren added 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder, who held Houston to 38.9% shooting. Oklahoma City are tied with Minnesota for the best record in the Western Conference. Alperen Sengun had 23 points and 11 rebounds and Jabari Smith Jr. added 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Rockets, who also lost to the Thunder earlier this week.

The second-seeded Holger Rune has eased past American Michael Mmoh 6-2, 6-3 and advanced to the second round of the Mexican Open. Rune, placed seventh in the ATP rankings, needed 92 minutes to dispatch Mmoh, who made his way into the main draw through the qualification tournament.

Afghanistan have lost four early wickets after electing to bat first on Day 1 of the only Test against Ireland at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi. The scores currently reads 89/4 after 29.1 overs and the Afghans have lost captain Hashmatullah Shahidi too. Opener Ibrahim Zadran is fighting on, and stands unbeaten on 52 runs (off 78 balls) at the crease alongside Nasir Jamal, who is yet to trouble the scorers.

In a match that went right down to the wire, Netherlands have just about edged out Nepal by two runs in Kirtipur. Chasing a competitive target of 185, Rohit Paudel's team kept losing wickets but stayed in the hunt and needed 15 runs to win in the last over.

Marauding middle-order batter Dipendra Singh Airee smashed a six and a four off veteran Roelof van der Merwe but then got out, and the hosts eventually required four runs to win off the last ball. They could only muster a leg-bye, and the Dutch team went up in jubilation.

The Pro Kabaddi League is now into is home stretch, and will see the semi-finals being played tonight. The first game features Puneri Paltan up against Patna Pirates at 8pm IST, and the second one has Jaipur Pink Panthers taking on Haryana Steelers at 9pm.

The winners of the two matches will advance to the title clash, which will be played in the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on Friday, March 1 at 8pm.

Ireland have shot Afghanistan out for a paltry total of 155 runs in the one-off Test in Abu Dhabi. Medium pacer Mark Adair bagged a splendid five-wicket haul (figures of 16.5-5-39-5) to dismantle the Afghan innings. The Irish team is now batting and the score reads 46/2 at the end of the 12th over. Hashmatullah Shahidi's team is eyeing a few more wickets before close of play on Day 1 to regain lost ground.

The Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) have announced the annual player contracts for 2023-24:

Grade A+ (4 Athletes)

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A (6 Athletes)

R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

Grade B (5 Athletes)

Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Grade C (15 Athletes)

Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar.

To add to that, two high-profile names were not on the list - Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.

"Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations," the BCCI mentioned on it's website.

"It was a difficult winter. A lot of deep thought throughout December. Now we're just working on rebuilding my own team and I have things I want to do.

"January, everything kind of turned upside down when the option came and a lot of time alone making sure you're doing your due dilligence.

Hamilton also added on Mercedes, "I know this team will win another championship."

Athletics Federation of India vice-president Anju Bobby George on Wednesday said Asian Games gold-winning steeplechase runner Parul Chaudhary is among the ones to watch out for at this year's Paris Olympics where she expecting more than one medal in javelin throw. "Then we have long jumpers, we have triple jumpers, steeplechase runner Parul Chaudhary is among the ones to watch out for but a lot cannot be predicted about the Olympics," she added. (PTI)

"For me, Zaheer Khan was someone I used to watch a lot to try and learn from. How he used the reverse swing, how he covered the ball when he ran into bowl, that's something I tried to sort of develop on the back of playing against him quite a few times," Anderson told JioCinema. (PTI)

Former India coach Ravi Shastri on Wednesday backed the duo of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan to come back stronger after they were excluded from the BCCI central contracts for ignoring the board's directive of playing in the Ranji Trophy. In the game of cricket, comebacks define the spirit. Chin-up, @ShreyasIyer15 and @ishankishan51! Dig deep, face challenges, and come back even stronger. Your past achievements speak volumes, and I have no doubt you'll conquer once again," Shastri tweeted. (PTI)

Former WWE star Michael Jones, known to fans as Virgil, has reportedly died at the age of 61.

Puneri Paltan became the first finalist of Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 after an emphatic 37-21 victory over three-time winners Patna Pirates on Wednesday. Paltan's heroics were led by their skipper Aslam Inamdar who secured seven raid points. They will now face the winner of semi-final 2 in the summit clash on Friday.

Kiran Navghire starred with the bat as her blistering innings of 57 off 31 balls along with some support down order from Grace Harris and Deepti Sharma helped UP Warriorz register their first win of the tournament by beat Mumbai Indians by seven wickets.

Read the match report here

Chelsea Starting XI: Sanchez, Gilchrist, Disasi, Chalobah, Gusto, Fernandez, Caicedo, Mudryk, Sterling, Madueke, Jackson Subs: Petrovic, Colwill, Murray-Campbell, Samuels-Smith, Chilwell, Tauriainen, Gallagher, Harrison, Palmer.

Leeds United Starting XI: Meslier, Roberts, Rodon, Cooper, Firpo, Ampadu, Gray, James, Anthony, Piroe, Joseph Subs: Klaesson, Van den Heuvel, Cresswell, Bamford, Kamara, Summerville, Byram, Shackleton, Gnonto