Pakistan reached T20I tri-nation series final after grabbing a 32-run victory over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following Fakhar Zaman’s half-century fifty and spinner Abrar Ahmed’s four-wicket haul in today’s match at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

Pakistan finished with six points in four matches, while UAE remained at the bottom with zero points in as many games and thus were knocked out of the final contention.

As a result, Afghanistan, placed second on the points table with two points in three matches also booked their spot in the summit clash, scheduled to be played at the same venue on Sunday.

Chasing a daunting 172-run target, the hosts could only accumulate 140/7 in 20 overs despite opening batter Alishan Sharafu’s half-century.

UAE got off to a decent start to the pursuit as their opening pair of Sharafu and skipper Muhammad Waseem took the total to 41/0 in six overs.

Mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed gave Pakistan a much-needed breakthrough on the first delivery of the seventh over when he got rid of UAE captain Waseem, who scored a run-a-ball 19.

His dismissal sparked a collapse which saw the hosts lose wickets at an alarming rate and consequently slipped to 102/5 in 15 overs.

Sharafu, who ticked the scoreboard singlehandedly during the collapse, eventually fell victim to Shaheen Shah Afridi in the 17th over. He remained the top scorer with a 51-ball 68 with the help of four sixes and as many fours.

Besides the opening pair, only Dhruv Parashar (18 not out) and Haider Ali (12) could amass double figures, while the rest struggled against Abrar-led Pakistan bowling attack.

Abrar Ahmed was the standout bowler for Pakistan, taking four wickets for just nine runs in his four overs, while Afridi chipped in with one.

Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha’s decision to bat first proved beneficial as his team’s batting unit yielded 171/5 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Green Shirts got off to a brief flying start to their innings as their opening pair of Sahibzada Farhan and Saim Ayub added 28 runs for the first wicket inside three overs.

The opening stand culminated on the penultimate delivery of the fourth over when Dhruv Parashar got Farhan caught at deep square leg. The right-handed opener walked back after scoring 16 off 11.

Following his dismissal, Pakistan lost four more wickets in quick succession and had consequently slipped to 80/5 in 11.3 overs before Fakhar and Mohammad Nawaz launched an astounding recovery.

The duo launched a counterattack on the home side’s bowlers and added a quickfire 97-run stand, which lifted Pakistan to a fighting total.

Fakhar top-scored for Pakistan with an unbeaten 77 off 44 deliveries, studded with a dozen boundaries, including two sixes, while Nawaz made a 27-ball 37, featuring three fours and two sixes.

For the UAE, Haider Ali led the charge with two wickets, while Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Rohid and Muhammad Jawadullah made one scalp apiece.

It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan are at the top of the T20I Tri-series standings with four points in two matches, while UAE are at the bottom as the hosts are yet to win a game.

Chelsea and United States women’s national team forward Catarina Macario said she feels Serena Williams’ new affiliation with her club perfectly encapsulates the upward trajectory of women’s football.

In May, 23-time Grand Slam singles winner Williams’ husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, announced he had purchased a reported 8-10% stake, worth around £20 million ($26.87m), in the six-time reigning Women’s Super League (WSL) champions.

The couple flew over for the FA Cup final four days later at Wembley — where Macario scored in the 3-0 victory over Manchester United — on a weekend Ohanian predicted his new investment could become a billion-dollar operation.

“This is a win for women’s football,” Macario, asked about Williams’ presence, told PA. “It’s a win for women’s sports.

“It doesn’t really matter who you root for, it’s just to have someone like that back the game, back the women’s game, it’s just tremendous.

“It’s amazing. It’s so cool. We all know who Serena is, she was a role model growing up, and to have someone like her be part of the team and the club is an incredible support.

“I think it really shows how far the game is going. I think people are starting to wake up and know, actually, this is very profitable.”

Chelsea get their title defense underway with Friday’s WSL season opener against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

Macario joined Chelsea from Lyon in July 2023 but did not make her debut until March 2024, scoring six minutes after coming on against Leicester to end a 20-month recovery from serious injury.

The U.S. forward is no stranger to relocation. She moved to the U.S. from Brazil at age 12, a period she said was a “very tough, very difficult transition which required a lot of sacrifices from myself and my family.”

She added: “We went through a lot to make my dream come true and to get me to the point where I am today. Not knowing any English, being separated from your mom, and just starting a whole new life is always very tough, especially at that age, but I guess it is something that has proved to have been worth it.

“I think, as hard as it was, I would do it all over again if I had to, if I knew that it would lead to so many open doors.”

One of those doors led to Lyon, where she played a critical role in their 2021-22 French title and Champions League-winning campaigns, scoring 23 goals in 33 games.

That spell left her in a unique position when Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, left at the end of the 2023-24 season to become her national team head coach. Her former Lyon boss, Sonia Bompastor, was named as Hayes’ replacement at Stamford Bridge.

Any questions about how difficult it might be for the Frenchwoman to follow the charismatic Hayes were answered when Chelsea sealed an unbeaten domestic treble in Bompastor’s first season in charge.

“I wasn’t surprised in the slightest,” Macario added. “She’s a serial winner. That’s just who she is. She demands the very best from every player, every staff member.

“She took us to even greater lengths and now that we are one year into her era, we’re all excited to see what more we can achieve.”

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The new College Sports Commission has cleared more than 8,300 name, image and likeness deals worth nearly $80 million, it said Thursday in its first full update on how the new system is working.

The commission, which is in charge of approving contracts worth $600 or more between college athletes and third-party companies, said 28,342 students signed up on its NIL Go platform between June 11, when it launched, and Aug. 31. Nearly 3,200 “representatives” or agents had also signed up.

The platform was created as part of the House settlement, which allows schools to pay athletes directly for their NIL while also offering them a chance to make money from outside groups. NIL Go is in charge of analyzing the outside deals.

It said 332 deals had not been cleared to date and 75 had been resubmitted, while none had entered arbitration, which is available for parties who feel their deals have been wrongly rejected.

The commission said the most common clearance issues were delays in attesting to or providing required information; contradictory deal terms; misreporting of deal terms or mistakes in entering deal terms; and deals that don’t satisfy the “valid business purpose” requirement that caused confusion when the platform first rolled out.

The CSC said values of the deals ranged as high as $1.8 million. It said its “deal flow reports” will be updated on a regular basis.