British curlers join Canada in Olympic curling controversy






















Opener’s 77 proves decisive on tricky pitch
A day of no handshakes, and for Pakistan many head shakes. India coasted to victory in what became global cricket’s most lucrative mismatch after a superlative innings from the opener Ishan Kishan skewed it definitively in their favour. In its second half a game that was dramatically off and then on again became one where a parade of Pakistan batters were dramatically in and then out again. Chasing a target of 176 they were seven down before they even got halfway, and were eventually skittled for 114 to lose by 61 runs.
Kishan’s innings was a glorious anomaly, the 27-year-old thriving on a surface that few came to terms with. Only one other player struck more than three fours; Kishan hit 10. Nobody else produced more than a single six; Kishan managed three. In all he hit 77 runs off 40 balls, the extent to which he stood out illustrated by the fact that when he was dismissed he had scored 88.5% of his team’s runs. “Ishan thought something out of the box. Someone needed to take responsibility and he did that amazingly,” said Suryakumar Yadav, the India captain.
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© Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP

© Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP

© Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP
Jamie Bell and Elle Fanning lead a starry cast in this clumsy satire that provides little fascination in a wealthy family’s suffocating lives
Since Jesse Armstrong’s Succession and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, wealthy, spoilt, dysfunctional siblings are the new rock’n’roll, and now here is a film from Greek screenwriter Efthimis Filippou (co-author of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Alps and Dogtooth) and directed by Karim Aïnouz. It is a weird-wave contrivance concerning a messed-up US plutocrat clan living in Spain, freely remade from Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 film Fists in the Pocket. Their bizarre and cartoony secrets, involving sex abuse, manipulation and self-harm, are satirically symptomatic of capitalism and the patriarchy, and how the rich, however entrepreneurial and smart, create a next-gen class of useless drones, on whose behalf all this wealth has supposedly been accumulated. I have to admit to finding it heavy-handed and clumsy more often than not, although there are some good performances, notably from Jamie Bell and Elle Fanning.
A strange extended family lives in a luxurious modernist house; the father (Tracy Letts) is a blind widower haunted by the memories of his late wife (Pamela Anderson) who was savaged by wolves in a nearby forest. His grownup children, infantilised by wealth, all live there: highly strung Robert (Lukas Gage) has epilepsy, and is entrusted with supervising his father’s horse riding; Anna (Riley Keough) is a talentless singer-songwriter; and Ed (Callum Turner) is a would-be fashionista. First among equals is Jack (Jamie Bell), who has the intimate honour of helping his father with his nightly teeth-cleaning; their mother’s teeth were always dazzlingly white.
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© Photograph: © Felix Dickinson

© Photograph: © Felix Dickinson

© Photograph: © Felix Dickinson
















It has been a testing few months for the man who scored the winner for Crystal Palace in last season’s FA Cup final. But after being hooked at half-time during the disappointing draw with Brentford on Thursday when Mikel Arteta said he is still adapting to life in north London, perhaps this competition could help breathe new life into Eberechi Eze’s Arsenal career.
As well as providing assists for Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli’s opening goals – albeit against a poor Wigan side who are languishing in League One’s relegation zone – the England midfielder’s swagger was back for the first time since he scored a hat-trick in the north London derby in November.
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© Photograph: John Walton/PA

© Photograph: John Walton/PA

© Photograph: John Walton/PA
Dutch star’s years of dominance culminates in gold
Jutta Leerdam wins silver in Dutch one-two
USA’s Erin Jackson misses out on retaining title
Speed skater Femke Kok had admitted that anything but gold in her signature 500m race would be a disappointment after opening her Olympic account last Monday with silver in a Dutch one-two alongside Jutta Leerdam in the 1000m. On Sunday evening, she performed like an athlete insistent on leaving no room for doubt.
Kok leveraged two years of total sprint dominance into the first Olympic gold medal of her career. She blew away the field in the women’s 500m in an Olympic-record time of 36.49sec with the kind of controlled, furious circuit that has made her a three-time world champion at the distance at 25 years old.
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© Photograph: Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock




This proved the game of Scotland’s top-flight season. The seriousness given to it by Rangers, plus their scale of full-time celebration, said much about the progress of their opposition. Hearts’ lead at the summit has been cut to two after the Edinburgh side lost out by two goals. As the scoreline suggests, this was pulsating stuff.
Youssef Chermiti was once ridiculed in these parts. His £8m arrival for Everton was used as a stick with which to beat Kevin Thelwell, the now departed sporting director. Chermiti’s hat-trick against Hearts, added to a recent double at Celtic Park, means he at least has a useful knack of standing up on the big occasion. Rangers’ next task is simple; to build on recent progress and overhaul Hearts.
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© Photograph: WM Sport Media/Getty Images

© Photograph: WM Sport Media/Getty Images

© Photograph: WM Sport Media/Getty Images













© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian

© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian

© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian



