Updates from the series opener at the SCG
Start time in Sydney is 7.15pm local/1.45pm IST
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The players head out for the anthems but there is still a bit of mizzle lingering in Sydney. Hopefully we’ll be underway shortly.

Teams: Some shocks in store in Molineux’s first match in charge! Vice-captain Tahlia McGrath and veteran quick Megan Schutt are left out of the side. Right arm seamer and left handed batter Nicola Carey is recalled to the side for the first time since 2022, she was impressive for Mumbai Indians in the recent WPL.

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© Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images for Cricket Australia

© Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images for Cricket Australia

© Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images for Cricket Australia

The flag was raised enthusiastically after Denmark took an early lead. However, the US came back to win the game 6-3. 

Joe Judge is riding on the backtrack.

Brazil’s president hails ‘unprecedented result’ as 25-year-old wins first Winter Olympic medal for country and continent

Hundreds of thousands of international tourists are expected to descend on Brazil over the next few days for carnival. But you didn’t need to go further than the Dolomites on Saturday to see somebody performing samba on a raised platform.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen entered Brazilian sporting folklore by snaring his country’s, and continent’s, first medal at a Winter Olympics – and a gold at that. The reigning champion, Marco Odermatt of Switzerland, who leaves these Games without a title after being fancied for multiple successes, was no match for Pinheiro Braathen in the men’s giant slalom in Bormio.

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© Photograph: Anna Szilágyi/EPA

© Photograph: Anna Szilágyi/EPA

© Photograph: Anna Szilágyi/EPA

Croat never stays long but is an expert at doing what is necessary and also comes with a reputation as a taskmaster

In Italy, the interim manager of a football club is often referred to as “un traghettatore” – a ferryman. When waters are choppy, you do not need some ambitious captain with notions of heading out on an adventure. All you really want is someone who can get you safely to shore.

Igor Tudor is not keen on the word. Hearing it applied to him when he arrived at Juventus last season, he observed that every manager, everywhere, is living from game to game. “You can have a contract for five years and get sent home after three matches,” he said. “You have to construct your tomorrow today.”

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© Photograph: Jennifer Lorenzini/Reuters

© Photograph: Jennifer Lorenzini/Reuters

© Photograph: Jennifer Lorenzini/Reuters

Former Chelsea and Real Madrid idol wants merely to be remembered as ‘a good player and a funny guy’ after a career of multiple titles – and spats with Mourinho

If Italy is a boot, Lecce sits right on the heel. It is here, deep in the countryside a few kilometres outside the baroque city, that the noise of the Bernabéu and the intensity of Stamford Bridge feel like a lifetime ago. The setting is rustic, quiet and slow-paced: a stark contrast to the frenetic energy that defined Eden Hazard’s career on the pitch.

It has been almost three years since he stopped playing, and the silence since his retirement at 32 has been notable. After an injury-hit spell at Real Madrid brought a premature end to a dazzling career, Hazard did not seek the spotlight. Surrounded by vineyards rather than defenders, slumped in an armchair, he seems entirely at peace, remarkably comfortable with his life after football.

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© Photograph: Giulio Piscitelli/The Guardian

© Photograph: Giulio Piscitelli/The Guardian

© Photograph: Giulio Piscitelli/The Guardian

Dear Abby advises a man who's taking it slow with a new romantic partner.

While the searches and interviews were ongoing Friday night, Pack said other teams of agents and analysts were likely already planning a full neighborhood canvas around the location that was searched.

He should ditch the 5-iron and stick to gridiron.

Security was called, and both men were told to leave, but they did not go willingly. Eventually, the pair were thrown out onto the footpath of notorious King St.

Writers from George Eliot to Goethe put this Lombardy town on the map, then it fell out of fashion. Today it makes a picture-perfect alternative to the Italian lakes

The ancient settlement of Chiavenna, in Lombardy, near Italy’s border with Switzerland, was once well known among travellers. “Lovely Chiavenna … mountain peaks, huge boulders, with rippling miniature torrents and lovely young flowers … and grassy heights with rich Spanish chestnuts,” wrote George Eliot in 1860.

Eliot wasn’t the only writer to rhapsodise about this charming town. Edith Wharton described it as “fantastically picturesque … an exuberance of rococo”. For Mary Shelley it was “paradise … glowing in rich and sunny vegetation”, while Goethe described it as “like a dream”.

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© Photograph: travelbild-Italy/Alamy

© Photograph: travelbild-Italy/Alamy

© Photograph: travelbild-Italy/Alamy

Agenic AI apps first interview you and then give you limited matches selected for ‘similarity and reciprocity of personality’

Dating apps exploit you, dating profiles lie to you, and sex is basically something old people used to do. You might as well consider it: can AI help you find love?

For a handful of tech entrepreneurs and a few brave Londoners, the answer is “maybe”.

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© Photograph: Jamie Grill/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

© Photograph: Jamie Grill/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

© Photograph: Jamie Grill/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

Few outsiders, if any, have ventured more widely into the centre of Sudan’s brutal civil war than Jérôme Tubiana. The French humanitarian has been granted unprecedented access to travel throughout the western region of Darfur to document the heart of a conflict that has created the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe. His powerful images offer insights into a gruelling war that shows no sign of abating, but where hope endures that one day the killing might stop

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© Photograph: Jérome Tubiana

© Photograph: Jérome Tubiana

© Photograph: Jérome Tubiana

Shiffrin is back on the slopes today.

Melitón Cordero was taken into custody as part of an investigation led by US Department of Homeland Security, the two people said.

Worst weather forecast to hit late on Sunday, a day after floods caused power outages, road collapses and home evacuations

New Zealand’s weather bureau has warned more flooding could hit the country’s North Island, a day after floods caused power outages, road collapses, home evacuations and caused the death of a man whose vehicle was submerged on a highway.

There was “threat to life from dangerous river conditions, significant flooding and slips” as a deepening low-pressure system east of the North Island brought heavy rain and severe gales to several regions, the weather bureau said.

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© Photograph: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

Anthony Kim is a champion again, completing one of the most remarkable comebacks in golf — and sports — history.

• Greenland flag raised in crowd after Danes’ opening goal

• Fans say gesture is sign of support amid Trump rhetoric

• Americans pull away after slow start for 6-3 win

Two fans who raised a flag of Greenland as the United States played Denmark in men’s ice hockey at the Winter Olympics on Saturday say they did so as a gesture of European support for the island and for Denmark.

Vita Kalniņa and her husband, Alexander Kalniņš, fans of the Latvian hockey team who live in Germany, held up a large Greenland flag during warmups and again when the Danish team scored the opening goal of the preliminary round game against the US at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.

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© Photograph: Petr David Josek/AP

© Photograph: Petr David Josek/AP

© Photograph: Petr David Josek/AP

Head coach must make changes for Ireland’s visit after his error-strewn side lacked the nous to fight back after the hosts’ fast start

England arrived at Murrayfield announcing their intentions to be “bulletproof”. Truth be told this was Scotland shooting fish in a barrel. Punishing mistakes, of which there were a litany, Gregor Townsend’s team exposed the glaring limitations of Steve Borthwick’s side that will be desperately difficult to recover from.

Defeats happen, England’s winning run was always going to end sooner or later, but the paucity of this performance is some setback for a side whose grand slam hopes are over for another year. Two years ago Borthwick bemoaned how England had “played small” after a fast start, unable to stem Scotland’s momentum after giving up the initiative. Here they barely played at all. For England unravelled at Murrayfield again. It is as if Flower of Scotland flicks a switch in these players and Murphy’s law makes a mockery of them.

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© Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Militant group’s infrastructure and weapons storage facilities were hit, as Washington praised Damascus for fresh coalition role

The US military conducted 10 strikes on more than 30 Islamic State targets in Syria between 3 and 12 February as part of a campaign against the extremist group in Iraq and Syria.

US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement on Saturday that the US had struck IS infrastructure and weapons storage targets.

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© Photograph: Bing Guan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bing Guan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bing Guan/AFP/Getty Images

Universities, builders and health trusts are feeling the squeeze, as thinktank says effect of zero net migration could be similar to Brexit

• ‘It’s been life-changing’: young Britons on why they left the UK

When Greenwich and Kent universities said this month they would merge to save money, the heart of their financial difficulties could be found in the UK government’s crackdown on immigration.

Tough restrictions on foreign students have sent the number of university applications from abroad plummeting, cutting lucrative tuition fees and leaving all universities facing the same squeeze.

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© Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

© Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

© Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

The cricket-mad South Asian neighbors have a bitter history, punctuated by violence and wars. It makes this one of the fiercest, and most financially lucrative, rivalries in sports.

© Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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Ukrainian president says US ‘too often’ asks Kyiv rather than Moscow for concessions

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