Sports News Highlights, Feb 22: Detroit Pistons Pip San Antonio Spurs In NBA; Indonesia Beat Bahrain In Bali Bash

Good morning, all. Welcome to the live coverage of everything sports on Saturday, February 22. Stay tuned for updates.

In overnight Premier League action, Leicester City suffered a 0-4 thrashing at the hands of Brentford at home to face the wrath of their supporters. The Foxes have now lost six consecutive Premier League home games without scoring, which is the longest ever run by an English top-flight team in a single season. Leicester fans chanted against director of football Jon Rudkin and vented their fury with "sack the board" as the club's survival hopes suffered another damaging blow with a 10th defeat in 11 games. Manager Ruud van Nistelrooy has won only two of his 13 league games since his November hiring, with his struggling side second from the bottom and two points from safety.

Serhii Palkin, Shakhtar Donetsk라이브 바카라 chief executive officer, has reportedly accused football governing body FIFA of not supporting Ukrainian football in the three years since Russia undertook its full-scale invasion of the country. “From the beginning of the war FIFA never supported Ukrainian football,” Palkin was quoted as saying in a The Guardian report. “They always had a slogan that we are one family, but it was not one family. They forgot about Ukrainian football completely.

“We need to set up some kind of fund for Ukrainian football and the major donors should be FIFA. They should support us because we have a lot of destroyed infrastructure and a poor economic situation in the industry. It라이브 바카라 difficult to survive in these conditions and it라이브 바카라 strange they completely ignore what라이브 바카라 going on in Ukraine. For me, it라이브 바카라 some kind of shame,” Palkin added.

Still making his way into Saudi Arabia, where he will face off against Joseph Parker in the heavyweight category tonight, Martin Bakole has missed his weigh-in as he was drafted in at just two days' notice after Britain's world heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois withdrew due to illness. Bakole is flying in all the way from Congo for the much-awaited bout. 

Reversing a 49-year-old facial hair policy, the New York Yankees have allowed their players and staff to sport "well-groomed beards". Under previous club regulations, a players' hair was not allowed to touch their collars and though moustaches were allowed, beards were not. Chairman Hal Steinbrenner announced the change ahead of the team's spring training opener after speaking to a ''large number of former and current Yankees". He added: "It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy."

In match 3 of the Bali Bash International T20I series, Indonesia have dismissed Bahrain for 128 runs in 19.2 overs and have gotten off to a good start in the chase, scoring 20 runs without loss inside four overs. Bahrain have a 2-0 lead in the five-match series and a victory today would seal the tournament in their favour. Indonesia, on the other hand, are looking to keep the series alive and have begun well in that pursuit.

Women라이브 바카라 Nations League defending champions Spain have begun the new edition by clinching a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 win over Belgium in Group A3. Mariam Toloba gave Belgium a surprise early lead against the 2023 World Cup winners in Valencia and Tessa Wullaert struck a second in the 72nd minute. Spain, who will be among the favourites at Euro 2025 where they will face Belgium again, pulled a goal back through Claudia Pina to spark their comeback. Lucia Garcia levelled in stoppage time and Benfica라이브 바카라 Cristina Martin Prieto blasted home with virtually the final touch of the game to complete the job.

Lorenzo Lucca라이브 바카라 argument with teammates about him taking a first-half penalty scarred Udinese라이브 바카라 1-0 win at Lecce in Serie A. Captain Florian Thauvian is Udinese라이브 바카라 regular penalty-taker but Lucca grabbed the ball and pushed away teammates who came to discuss his decision. There was a long delay before the spot kick could be taken as Udinese players remonstrated with the former Pisa and Ajax striker. Lucca, however, held his nerve and made no mistake to slot his third goal in five games. He was pulled off by the coach moments later, with nine minutes still remaining in the first half.

Hosts Indonesia stay alive in the five-match Bali Bash International T20I series, winning the third game with ease to cut the deficit to 1-2. Indonesia chase down Bahrain's 129-run target in 19.4 overs, losing only two wickets in the process. Padmakar Surve is named the Player of the Match for his half-century (50 off 32) and a wicket (1/7 from 1 over) to boot.

England and Scotland will vie for the Calcutta Cup when they meet at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham today at 10:45pm IST in the third round of the ongoing Six Nations Championship. The Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy contested between any two international rugby union teams, and originated in 1872 in British India's Calcutta.

Earlier in the morning, Iago Aspas scored his second penalty in a week as Celta Vigo beat Osasuna 1-0 at home and rose five places in La Liga. Celta have lost just three of their 14 home games since August. Only Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid have won more times at home this season. The victory lifted them above Osasuna and into ninth place.

Andrey Rublev will face Jack Draper in the Qatar Open final at 8:30pm IST tonight. The 10th-ranked Rublev needed four match points to close out No. 23 Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in the semis. Draper beat No. 25 Jiri Lehecka 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 in the other last-four clash. Draper has a 0-3 record against Rublev, who is eyeing a second title in what will be his third final appearance at the Doha event.

Donovan Mitchell tallies 27 points and Evan Mobley adds 21 as the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers dominate the New York Knicks from start to end, winning 142-105 in a matchup of two of the Eastern Conference's top teams. Elsewhere, Jalen Green scores 35 points, Alperen Sengun adds 24 points and 13 rebounds and the Houston Rockets defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 121-115. And the Detroit Pistons win their fifth straight game, 125-110 over the San Antonio Spurs.

The Indian Super League has a double-header tonight. The ninth-placed Punjab FC take on East Bengal, 11th in the standings, at the JLN Stadium in Delhi at 5pm. The second fixture has the second-placed FC Goa hosting Kerala Blasters, pegged eighth, in Fatorda at 7:30pm.

It sure is a Super Saturday, when it comes to the Premier League fixtures lined up tonight. A beleaguered Manchester United travel to Goodison Park to face Everton at 6pm IST. That will be followed by five concurrent games at 8:30pm: Arsenal vs West Ham, Southampton vs Brighton, Fulham vs Crystal Palace, Bournemouth vs Wolves and Ipswich Town vs Tottenham. The final game of the day sees Aston Villa host Chelsea at 11pm.

Australia have won the toss and elected to bowl first against England in match 4 of the Champions Trophy. Head HERE for live updates from the match.

Playing XIs

Australia: Travis Head, Matt Short, Steve Smith (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson

England: Philip Salt, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith (wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c), Liam Livingstone, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood

The Indian women will meet Germany at 5:15pm, while the Indian men host Ireland at 7:30pm in the FIH Pro League today. This is the second iteration of both match-ups in 24 hours, as the two sets of teams had also faced off yesterday at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. While Salima Tete and Co suffered a 0-4 loss to Germany, their men's counterparts rallied to beat Ireland 3-1.

Veer Ahlawat has just about made the cut at the Magical Kenya Open in Nairobi. His rounds of 70-72 give him an even par total, having shot a 1-under 71 in the first round. After a disappointing finish with three bogeys in his last four holes, Ahlawat was staring at a missed cut when he came to the 17th tee in the second round. But he produced two great birdies on the closing holes to move from 3-over to 1-over and give himself a chance to make the cut. Meanwhile, fellow Indian Shubhankar Sharma endures another tough week as he cards 71-72 and misses the cut by one.

The 76th edition of the Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament gets underway soon in Sofia, Bulgaria. But no Indian will be participating at the coveted event this time around. Why is that? Find out in our guide-cum-explainer HERE.

The toss for the first T20 international between Zimbabwe and Ireland has been delayed due to rain in Harare. The covers are just being taken off from the venue, but the updated toss time is not known yet. This is the first of three games to be played in the final leg of the tour. Ireland had won the one-off Test, while Zimbabwe had clinched the ODI series 2-1.

The first of two ISL matches tonight has begun. Punjab FC are currently locked 0-0 with East Bengal at New Delhi's JLN Stadium. Head over to our dedicated live blog HERE for all the updates.

With that, we conclude our coverage here. Live updates continue from our dedicated blogs for the FIH Pro League, ISL and the Champions Trophy. We will be back tomorrow with this comprehensive one-stop sports shop. Until then, goodbye.