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Australia turn the tables to beat Pakistan after losing eight wickets | The Express Tribune

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Australia turn the tables to beat Pakistan after losing eight wickets | The Express Tribune


The seasoned Aussie campaign delivers a rescue act for the ages as the defending champions climb back to the top of the points table.

Turning the tide from Australia being eight wickets down for 115, Beth Mooney (109) delivered a masterful maiden ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup ton to inspire the defending champions to a massive 107-run win over Pakistan, according to the match report on the International Cricket Council website.

Mooney’s foray with the bat saw her partner with Alana King for a staggering 109-run partnership – the highest-ever ninth-wicket partnership in Women’s ODI history.

The fightback came on the back of Pakistan making early inroads with the ball after winning the toss at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo.

Pakistan bowlers made impressive inroads against the seven-time Women’s Cricket World Cup winners. Nashra Sandhu nabbed three wickets, while Rameen Shamim struck a brace. Skipper Fatima Sana, Sadia Iqbal and Diana Baig also got on the wickets tally.

Read: Tension lingers as India and Pakistan skip handshake in women’s World Cup

Iqbal would open the floodgates for Pakistan by trapping Australia captain Alyssa Healy into a false shot. The right-hander, looking to flick the ball away, ended up mistiming the shot straight to Diana Baig at mid-wicket.

Shortly afterwards, Sana struck, catching Phoebe Litchfield off her own bowling to make it two wickets for Pakistan inside four deliveries.

Nashra Sandhu then weaved her magic with the ball, producing two magical deliveries to send Ellyse Perry and Annabel Sutherland packing.

Dancing down the track, Perry and was deceived by the flight and turn as wicket-keeper Sidra Nawaz produced a lightning-fast stumping. Sandhu then broke through the gates of Sutherland to make it four wickets for Pakistan.

Sandhu would go on to clinch her third wicket by getting the better of Tahlia McGrath as Pakistan tightened their grip on the defending champions.

From the other end, Rameen Shamim also delivered a brace, getting rid of the in-form Ash Gardner to open her account.

Shamim’s second strike was even more impressive as she held onto a low Georgia Wareham catch off her own bowling.

Beth Mooney and Kim Garth showed some resistance with the bat, compiling a resilient partnership to come up with a response after a surge of wickets, helping the team past the 100-run mark. Mooney would go on to bring up a valuable half-century.

But just as Australia seem to be in the midst of recovery, Diana Baig snapped the wicket of Garth, with Sidra Nawaz producing a masterful piece of glovework to stump her out.

Mooney then stitched another crucial partnership with Alana King to bail Australia out of a tricky scenario in Colombo.

Coming in to bat at 10, King (51) duly complemented Mooney from the other end, scoring a power-packed half-century – comprising three fours and as many maximums – which is now the highest score in Women’s ODIs.

Defending 221, the Aussies were on their mark from the get-go. Garth opened the deadlock for the defending champions, removing Sadaf Shamas in her second over, inducing an outside edge off a nip-backer which was caught behind by captain Alyssa Healy.

Schutt then opened her account from the other end, sending Muneeba Ali packing after the latter’s hack off a hard-length delivery was caught by Annabel Sutherland stationed at mid-off.

Garth continued to challenge Pakistan batters from the other end, catching Sidra Nawaz off guard with some late movement. Soon afterwards, the right arm quick was rewarded for targetting the stumps as Eyman Fatima missed a wild slog to see her stumps rattled.

Meanwhile, Schutt completed her brace, courtesy of a good low catch of Natalia Pervaiz from Beth Mooney in the cordon.

Annabel Sutherland also got in on the act, claiming the prized wicket of captain Fatima Sana to make it six for Australia just on the other side of the powerplay.

Pakistan’s highest run-getter against India, Sidra Amin (35 off 52) showed character with the bat but her resistance was broken by Ash Gardner as Australia inched closer to a mammoth win.

Soon after, Georgia Wareham removed Diana Baig, trapping her plumb in front of the wicket. Australia had to wait another 11.2 overs before the next breakthrough as Rameen Shamim and Nashra Sandhu stuck in the middle for a slow-burning 25-run stand.

However, Alana King would finally come good with the ball as Sandhu edged a sharp leg-breaker for Australia skipper Alyssa Healy to pouch safely. Annabel Sutherland then got one past Shamim, hitting the top of off-stump, wrapping up an impressive win.



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Former Penn State, Ohio State player charged with homicide, DUI after girlfriend dies in fatal ATV crash

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Former Penn State, Ohio State player charged with homicide, DUI after girlfriend dies in fatal ATV crash


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A former Penn State football player is facing charges relating to an ATV crash back in May that injured him and killed his girlfriend.

Julian Fleming, 24, and Alyssa Boyd, 23, were driving down a rural road in Bradford County near the Pennsylvania-New York border on the night of May 22 when they struck a deer, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

Documents obtained by TMZ Sports, though, stated that Fleming had a blood-alcohol level of .118 shortly after the crash.

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Penn State Nittany Lions wide receiver Julian Fleming against the Boise State Broncos during the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium.  (Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)

Fleming was charged with homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence and aggravated assault by vehicle.

“In my view, the prosecution here took a tragic and unavoidable accident and turned it into a crime when the facts don’t support that,” Fleming’s attorney, David Bahuriak, told TMZ Sports. “The facts don’t support criminal homicide.”

Neither Fleming nor Boyd was wearing safety equipment, police said, via The Citizens’ Voice.

Julian Fleming at Ohio State

Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Julian Fleming jokes around with teammates during an NCAA football game against Michigan State University at Ohio Stadium. (Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch / USA Today Network)

BILL BELICHICK IS ‘WORKING TOWARD BEING THE WORST COACH IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL HISTORY,’ PAUL FINEBAUM SAYS

Fleming was a standout wide receiver who played for the Ohio State Buckeyes from 2020 to 2024. He committed to Ohio State after he was a standout at Southern Columbia High School in Pennsylvania. He was the No. 1 prospect out of the state in 2020. 

He transferred to Penn State before the 2024 season to finish his NCAA eligibility.

He played in 16 games for the Nittany Lions last season. He had 14 catches for 176 yards and a touchdown. At Ohio State, he had 79 catches for 963 yards and seven touchdowns in 38 career games.

Fleming signed with the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent. However, his contract was rescinded after he failed a physical with the team.

Connor Stalions stands on the sideline

Ohio State’s Julian Fleming (4) runs with the football vs Michigan at Ohio Stadium. (David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

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Boyd suffered “extensive injuries” in the crash, police said, via the New York Post, and died at the scene. She was a student at the University of Alabama.

Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.





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‘You could feel it like in your bones’: Aaron Judge meets his October moment at last

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‘You could feel it like in your bones’: Aaron Judge meets his October moment at last


NEW YORK — Never were the questions of Aaron Judge‘s fitness for October particularly fair, but that’s life for the biggest man in the biggest city whose biggest failures had come at the biggest times. The burden of greatness is heavy. The burden of greatness in New York is planetary. And for those unleashing screeds on Judge’s postseasons — on hot take shows and sports-talk radio and in bars and at family dinners and everywhere, really, that anyone talks about the Yankees — it was never about whether they were fair. After all, his performances had been undeniably foul.

Judge never paid any of this any mind because he does not wire himself to do so. He cares about winning. He cares about success. He cares more than anyone who criticizes him, mocks him, derides him, leans into his past performances as if they’re predictive of an unknowable future. Judge always separated those struggles, not just because he needed to but because it is how he lives, purposely boring and boringly purposeful. He believed the moment would present itself and he would meet it. And why wouldn’t he think that? Every other endeavor in his baseball life had treated him that way.

Regardless of how the American League Division Series between the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays breaks, what Judge did Tuesday night was the sort of thing that should put to rest questions about his October aptitude. It won’t, because it never could, but the wide-eyed, wonderstruck, childlike gawking of everyone in the Yankees’ clubhouse told the story of Tuesday night’s season-saving 9-6 victory against the Blue Jays in which Judge left jaws agape.

Poor Louis Varland. The right-handed reliever entered in the fourth inning to protect the Blue Jays’ 6-3 advantage in a game that could have clinched their spot in the AL Championship Series. He fooled Judge on a 90 mph curveball and then blew a 100 mph fastball by him and then threw another fastball at 100, up and in. Like, really in. Like, 5.9 inches off the inner corner of the plate, at triple digits, with tremendous carry, an absolute nightmare of a pitch for any hitter at any time in the game’s history to touch, let alone punish.

Nearly 400 feet later, when the ball banged off the left-field foul pole — the one place in Judge’s world where something foul is indeed fair — no one on the field could believe it. The absurdity of it all — manipulating his 6-foot-7, 282-pound body to so thoroughly alter his standard bat path, turn on 100 and keep it fair — was not lost on Varland, the Yankees who kept watching replays of the swing in the dugout, or the 47,399 at Yankee Stadium who bore witness.

“He made a really good pitch look really bad,” Varland said.

All postseason, Judge has been doing that. His 11 playoff hits lead MLB. For all of the ugliness of striking out with the bases loaded in Game 1 of this ALDS, his at-bats have been competitive all October. What he did to Varland was the culmination, precisely what the Yankees needed to see another day.

“You could feel it like in your bones,” Yankees reliever Tim Hill said. “It was crazy. It was amazing. I mean, just the pitch that he hit. All that. I’m sure my guy over there on the other side is questioning everything.”

Yes, pitching to Aaron Judge is the sort of thing of which existential crises are made. Before Tuesday, he had never hit a pitch 100 mph or faster for a home run. He hit 53 home runs this season — and none on a pitch outside the rulebook strike zone. Before Tuesday, the Blue Jays were 39-0 this season in games during which they led by at least five runs, too.

It’s impossible to overstate how out of character this was for Judge. He prides himself on good swing decisions because he knows how important they are. On pitches in the strike zone this season, Judge batted .400, 40 points higher than the next-best hitter. He slugged .867, 115 points higher than Shohei Ohtani. In his 214 plate appearances this year that ended on pitches outside of the rulebook zone, Judge batted .109 and drove in one run. All year. He didn’t have a single extra-base hit on such pitches.

One of the biggest home runs in the career of a two-time MVP favored to win a third this year was on something he never does. And if a willingness to exit his comfort zone and in the process do something that few in the history of baseball would be physically capable of doing doesn’t show that Judge isn’t just capable of success in October but destined for it, well, nothing would. And that’s fine with him. He knows emotion is the fuel that feeds the prognostications of inevitable letdown, not consistency or logic.

“I get yelled at for swinging at them out of the zone, but now I’m getting praised for it,” Judge said. “It’s a game. You’ve got to go out there and play. I don’t care what the numbers say or where something was at. I’m just up there trying to put a good swing on a good pitch, and it looked good to me.”

Inside the Yankees’ clubhouse, they’ve been yearning for Judge to have a game like this, to further validate their unflinching belief in him. The past is indisputable. Judge’s postseason OPS is more than 250 points lower than during the regular season. The Yankees haven’t won a championship during his 10 years in the big leagues. It’s real, and it’s regrettable, and it’s part of his legacy. It is also not the ink with which the future is written, which is why Aaron Boone, the Yankees’ manager with whom Judge is extremely close, said: “I don’t worry about Aaron and his state, even understanding all the outside noise.”

From Boone’s perch atop the dugout, he had the perfect view of the left-field foul pole. As the ball carried through the night, Judge stood near home plate. He didn’t pull a Carlton Fisk, trying to wave it fair. He just waited for it to land.

And when it did, helping raise his batting average this postseason to .500 and his OPS to 1.304 — nearly 300 points better than his career regular-season OPS, for the record — Judge uncorked a mini-bat flip and started his jog around the bases. When he got back to the dugout, teammates lined up and greeted him with a full high-five line.

“He’s the real deal, and as beloved a player as I’ve ever been around by his teammates,” Boone said. “They all admire him, look up to him, respect him, want his approval, and that’s just a credit to who Aaron is and how he goes about things.”

After slapping the last hand, Judge took one more step toward the end of the dugout. There awaited a television camera. Judge looked at it, pointed and turned around. He then pirouetted back and gave the audience one more stare. This was not an accident. Nothing Judge does is. It was a message, a reminder, a siren for everyone that didn’t believe.

The Yankees were still alive. And as long as that’s the case, he plans on carrying them. Even in October.



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NCAA closer to letting athletes bet on pro sports

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NCAA closer to letting athletes bet on pro sports


The NCAA Division I Administrative Committee on Wednesday adopted a proposal to allow student-athletes and athletic department staff to bet on professional sports, a shift in a long-held policy that had become difficult to enforce with the spread of legal sports betting in the United States.

Divisions II and III are expected to consider the proposal in their respective meetings at the end of October, the NCAA said. If approved by the lower divisions, the rule would go into effect Nov. 1.

Athletes and athletic staff have been prohibited from betting on any sport, professional or collegiate, that was sponsored by the NCAA. Betting on college sports will remain off limits.

The potential change comes as the NCAA has faced an increasing number of alleged betting violations by student-athletes in recent years. In September, the NCAA announced that a Fresno State men’s basketball player had manipulated his own performance for gambling purposes and conspired with two other players in a prop betting scheme. The NCAA is investigating 13 additional student-athletes from six schools regarding potential gambling violations dealing with integrity issues.

“The enforcement staff continues to investigate and resolve cases involving sports betting quickly but thoroughly,” Jon Duncan, NCAA vice president of enforcement, said in a release announcing the proposed rule change. “Enforcement staff are investigating a significant number of cases that are specifically relevant to the NCAA’s mission of fair competition, and our focus will remain on those cases and those behaviors that impact the integrity of college sports most directly.”

NCAA officials emphasized that the rule change is not an endorsement of sports betting and that they remain concerned with the risks associated with all forms of sports gambling. The change was supported by the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

“Abstinence-only approaches to social challenges for college-aged individuals are often not as successful as approaches that focus on education about risks and open dialogue,” Dr. Deena Casiero, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, said in the release.



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