England routs West Indies to sweep ODI series 3-0
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Late start, early finish.
England needed just 30 of 40 available overs to beat the West Indies by seven wickets and achieve a 3-0 clean sweep of their one-day international series at the Oval on Tuesday.
Jamie Smith's maiden ODI fifty, 64 of the 93-run opening stand in seven overs, launched England's successful assault on the rain-revised target of 246.
The game was delayed twice, first because a traffic lights outage trapped the West Indies bus long enough so the team wasn't even at the ground at the scheduled toss, and secondly for a 90-minute rain break.
Without a warmup in the nets, and forced to bat in gloomy bowler-friendly conditions, the West Indies slumped to 28-3 before the rain and 154-7 soon afterward.
That it eventually racked up 251-9 was impressive.
Sherfane Rutherford kept the innings alive with 70 off 71 balls, then teammates Gudakesh Motie and Alzarri Joseph, the Nos. 8 and 9 batters, gave their side a fighting chance with a partnership of 91 in 11.2 overs.
In the highest ever eighth-wicket ODI stand by the West Indies against England, Motie and Joseph clobbered the host with five sixes and 10 boundaries.
Joseph was out to a skier on 41 off 29, and Motie was bowled on the last ball on 63 off 54.
Spinner Adil Rashid was the pick of the bowlers with 3-40.
England players adapted to the pre-game traffic problems near the Oval by exiting their bus and hiring bicycles to get to the ground.
Smith used more of that dynamic thinking on the fly to deflate West Indies hopes again on his home ground.
Smith blasted 10 boundaries and three sixes before his off stump was bowled by Motie in the seventh over after scoring 64 from 28 deliveries.
Smith scored at such a rate that England's 100 in the eight-over powerplay was the fourth fastest in ODIs, and its 121-1 after 10 overs was England's best-ever 10-over total.
Ben Duckett propelled England further with 58 from 46, falling at 155-2 with the chase more than half over.
The mopping up was left to Joe Root with a casual 44, and Jos Buttler's unbeaten 41.
The teams play three Twenty20s from Friday, starting at Chester-le-Street.
___
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
recommended
in this topic
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
Ex-Arsenal player Jay Emmanuel-Thomas sentenced to four years for involvement in drug smuggling plot
The former Arsenal player Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has been sentenced to four years in prison for his involvement in an attempt to smuggle 60 kilograms of cannabis into the United Kingdom. The 34-year-old will serve one year and seven months, having already served nine months on remand, before being released on license. The maximum sentence for cannabis importation in the UK is 14 years in prison. Advertisement At Thursday's sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court, Emmanuel-Thomas sat behind a glass-panelled dock in a grey suit jacket, flanked by two security officials. Prosecutor David Josse KC told the court that Emmanuel-Thomas was expecting a payment of £5,000 ($6,800) for his part in getting the cannabis into the country. 'It is clear this was about money despite you being in a position where you had the privilege of playing football as a living,' the judge, Alexander Mills, told Emmanuel-Thomas. 'It is through your own actions that you will no longer be known for being a professional footballer. You will be known as a criminal, a professional footballer who threw it all away, and put others at risk of imprisonment, in pursuit of money.' Appearing via videolink from HMP Chelmsford on May 21, Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty to the charge of fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of cannabis, between July 1 2024 and September 2, 2024, at Chelmsford Crown Court. The former England youth international had been detained by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in September 2024 after the cannabis was detected in suitcases which had arrived on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand to London's Stansted Airport on September 2. The suitcases belonged to Rosie Rowland, 29, and Yasmin Piotrowska, 33, the latter being Emmanuel-Thomas' partner. Having been arrested at Stansted, charges against the women, who denied their involvement at an earlier hearing, were dropped by the prosecution. In May, Josse told the court that the investigation into their involvement was discontinued after analysis of Emmanuel-Thomas's mobile phone. 'They thought they were importing gold, not cannabis,' Josse said. Emmanuel-Thomas initially denied his involvement in importing class B drugs at a hearing at Carlisle Magistrates' Court in September but changed his plea to guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in May. Advertisement He had been playing at Scottish Championship club Greenock Morton, who terminated his contract after he was charged. After making one Premier League appearance for Arsenal, Emmanuel-Thomas left the north London side in 2011. He then played for clubs including Ipswich Town, Bristol City and Queens Park Rangers, as well as teams in India and Thailand, before joining Morton in July 2024. (Top photo of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas playing for Aberdeen:)
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What the Trump travel ban means for the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games
GENEVA (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump often says the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are among the events he is most excited about in his second term. Yet there is significant uncertainty regarding visa policies for foreign visitors planning trips to the U.S. for the two biggest events in sports. Trump's latest travel ban on citizens from 12 countries added new questions about the impact on the World Cup and the Summer Olympics, which depend on hosts opening their doors to the world. Here's a look at the potential effects of the travel ban on those events. What is the travel ban policy? When Sunday ticks over to Monday, citizens of 12 countries should be banned from entering the U.S. They are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Tighter restrictions will apply to visitors from seven more: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Trump said some countries had 'deficient' screening and vetting processes or have historically refused to take back their own citizens. How does it affect the World Cup and Olympics? Iran, a soccer power in Asia, is the only targeted country to qualify so far for the World Cup being co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico in one year's time. Cuba, Haiti and Sudan are in contention. Sierra Leone might stay involved through multiple playoff games. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Libya have very outside shots. But all should be able to send teams to the World Cup if they qualify because the new policy makes exceptions for 'any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state.' About 200 countries could send athletes to the Summer Games, including those targeted by the latest travel restrictions. The exceptions should apply to them as well if the ban is still in place in its current form. What about fans? The travel ban doesn't mention any exceptions for fans from the targeted countries wishing to travel to the U.S. for the World Cup or Olympics. Even before the travel ban, fans of the Iran soccer team living in that country already had issues about getting a visa for a World Cup visit. Still, national team supporters often profile differently to fans of club teams who go abroad for games in international competitions like the UEFA Champions League. For many countries, fans traveling to the World Cup — an expensive travel plan with hiked flight and hotel prices — are often from the diaspora, wealthier, and could have different passport options. A World Cup visitor is broadly higher-spending and lower-risk for host nation security planning. Visitors to an Olympics are often even higher-end clients, though tourism for a Summer Games is significantly less than at a World Cup, with fewer still from most of the 19 countries now targeted. How is the U.S. working with FIFA, Olympic officials? FIFA President Gianni Infantino has publicly built close ties since 2018 to Trump — too close according to some. He has cited the need to ensure FIFA's smooth operations at a tournament that will earn a big majority of the soccer body's expected $13 billion revenue from 2023-26. Infantino sat next to Trump at the White House task force meeting on May 6 which prominently included Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. FIFA's top delegate on the task force is Infantino ally Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs partner whose two-year run as U.S. Soccer Federation president ended in controversy in 2020. Any visa and security issues FIFA faces — including at the 32-team Club World Cup that kicks off next week in Miami — can help LA Olympics organizers finesse their plans. 'I don't anticipate any, any problems from any countries to come and participate,' LA Games chairman Casey Wasserman told International Olympic Committee officials in March. He revealed then, at an IOC meeting in Greece, two discreet meetings with Trump and noted the State Department has a 'fully staffed desk' to help prepare for short-notice visa processing in the summer of 2028 — albeit with a focus on teams rather than fans. 'Irrespective of politics today,' Wasserman said in March, 'America will be open and accepting to all 209 countries for the Olympics.' FIFA and the IOC didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about the new Trump travel ban. What have other host nations done? The 2018 World Cup host Russia let fans enter the country with a game ticket doubling as their visa. So did Qatar four years later. Both governments, however, also performed background checks on all visitors coming to the month-long soccer tournaments. Governments have refused entry to unwelcome visitors. For the 2012 London Olympics, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko — who is still its authoritarian leader today — was denied a visa despite also leading its national Olympic body. The IOC also suspended him from the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021. ___ AP soccer: and AP Olympics at
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jury deliberations begin in Harvey Weinstein's sex crimes retrial
NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors started deliberating Thursday in Harvey Weinstein 's New York sex crimes retrial, tasked with deciding — again — a case that encapsulated the #MeToo movement. The seven-woman, five-man jury is considering two counts of criminal sex act and one count of rape, each relating to a different accuser and a different date. In this case, the criminal sex act charge is the higher-degree felony. The jury got the case after a juror was replaced by an alternate after she couldn't come to court due to illness. Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty. Nearly eight years ago, a series of sexual misconduct allegations against the Oscar-winning movie producer propelled the #MeToo movement. Some of those accusations later generated criminal charges and convictions in New York and California. The New York conviction from 2020 was subsequently overturned, leading to the retrial before a new jury and a different judge. Jurors heard more than five weeks of testimony, including lengthy and sometimes fiery questioning of Weinstein's three accusers in the case. Jessica Mann said he raped her in 2013, when she was trying to build an acting career. Miriam Haley accused him of forcibly performing oral sex on her in 2006, when she was looking for work in entertainment production. Kaja Sokola, who wasn't involved in Weinstein's first trial, told jurors that he forced oral sex on her, too, during 2006. At the time, she was a teenage fashion model trying to break into acting. 'They all had dreams of pursuing careers in the defendant's world, the entertainment industry,' prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told jurors in her closing argument Tuesday. She contended that Weinstein let the women think he was interested in their careers when what actually interested him were their bodies, and "he was going to have their bodies and touch their bodies whether they wanted him to or not.' Weinstein chose not to testify. His defense called other witnesses, including some former friends of Sokola's and Mann's. Weinstein's attorneys argued that all three accusers consented to Weinstein's advances because they wanted help with their Hollywood aims. All three stayed on friendly terms with him afterward, a point the defense emphasized. 'It's transactional, folks. Yes, he wants to fool around with them, and yes, they want something from him,' defense lawyer Arthur Aidala said in his summation Tuesday. The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Sokola, Mann and Haley have agreed to be named.
