D.C. United is in the final stages of bringing Norway international forward Ola Kamara back to MLS, according to multiple ESPN FC sources.

News of the deal was first reported by The Washington Post.

Kamara, 29, will join D.C. United from Chinese Super League side Shenzhen FC, which he signed with last February. Kamara was unable to make his mark with Shenzhen, failing to score in six league and cup appearances.

The Black-and-Red still have to swing a deal with Colorado Rapids for the top spot in the allocation order to obtain his rights. One source said D.C. United will send an undisclosed amount of allocation money in the other direction.

While the Oslo-born striker struggled in China, he is a known quantity in MLS, scoring 35 goals in 64 league and playoff appearances with the Columbus Crew during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Kamara was then traded to the LA Galaxy prior to the start of the 2018 season in exchange for Gyasi Zardes and $500,000 in allocation money. He scored 14 goals in 31 league appearances for LA, but with Zlatan Ibrahimovic also on the Galaxy's books, he opted to head to China.

There is a question of where Kamara will fit into D.C. United's lineup given the presence of international star Wayne Rooney, but one source speculated that Rooney would drop into midfield to accommodate the arrival of Kamara. Manager Ben Olsen could also opt to play with two forwards.

At international level, Kamara has scored seven goals in 17 appearances for Norway.

The Colorado Rapids' home game against the Montreal Impact will go on as planned Saturday despite confirmed cases of the sylvatic plague among wildlife in the area surrounding Commerce City, Colorado, where the Rapids play their games.

The Rapids have, however, canceled the fireworks show scheduled for after the game and restricted parking around the stadium as a precaution, the club announced on Friday.

Statement regarding tomorrow's match, fireworks and closures around @DSGpark due to plague.

? Release: https://t.co/ULtvZq0xVT
? FAQ: https://t.co/6ZNnTzxN9C#Rapids96 | #Elevate pic.twitter.com/EJMwRmHjIR

— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) August 2, 2019

"Following recommendations from the Tri-County Health Department and the City of Commerce City, the Colorado Rapids game with Montreal Impact on Saturday, August 3 at 7 p.m. will go ahead as scheduled. However, it has been recommended that the post-game fireworks display be cancelled due to the confirmed presence of plague-infested fleas affecting prairie dog colonies in the surrounding areas," the Rapids said in a team statement.

"Additionally, in accordance with the Tri-County Health Department's recommendation for the safety of all attendees, parking lots at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park will be restricted to asphalt lots until further notice.

"The health department feels that these precautions will greatly minimize the risk of exposure to patrons, players, and employees and help ensure a safe experience. At this time, the post-game fireworks display will not be rescheduled. Our highest priority is the health and safety of our fans, staff, and local community. We will continue to monitor the situation in the lead up to the Rapids home game with Montreal Impact on Saturday at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park."

The stadium borders the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, which has been closed since Wednesday after plague was discovered in prairie dogs on the refuge and in other nearby areas. According to its website, plague is a "rare but serious" disease caused by a bacterium that "can be transmitted to humans via mammals and their fleas."

The Rapids are second-bottom in the Western Conference table, having lost four of their past five matches. The Impact are in sixth place in the East.

Somerset 207 for 2 (Banton 71, Byrom 54*) beat Surrey 203 for 4 (Finch 72, S Curran 53) by eight wickets

Tom Banton confirmed his reputation as one of the most exciting young batting talents in the country with a breathtaking 71 from just 37 balls as Somerset won a high-scoring Vitality Blast game against Surrey at Taunton by six wickets.

Set 204 to win, the hosts got home with eight balls to spare, Banton smashing 11 fours and two sixes to thrill home supporters in a packed crowd at the County Ground. Babar Azam contributed 43, while Eddie Byrom marked his Somerset T20 debut with four sixes in an whirlwind 54 not out off only 19 deliveries.

Aaron Finch had led the way for Surrey, hitting 72 off 44 balls after they had lost the toss. The Aussie hit six fours and four sixes, receiving good support from Sam Curran (53) and Ollie Pope (37).

But even Finch was eclipsed by the spectacular efforts of Banton and the inspired Byrom, surely two Somerset stars of the future.

Surrey lost opener Will Jacks to the last ball of the second over, well caught above his head by Max Waller at mid-off for nine off the bowling of Jerome Taylor.

By the end of the six-over powerplay, Finch and Sam Curran had taken the total to 47 for 1, and Curran hit the first six of the innings off Roelof van der Merwe in the eighth over.

At the halfway point, Surrey had moved to 86 for 1. Finch brought the 100 up with a six over cow corner off Tom Lammonby's only over, which went for 15.

Curran was first to his fifty in the 12th over, having faced 31 balls and hit six fours and two sixes. Two overs later he was caught at long-on off Waller and for a short spell Somerset exerted some control.

But after reaching his half-century in the 15th over, Finch cut loose, hitting a pair of sixes off Waller before falling to the legspinner, caught at long-off by van der Merwe.

Pope then took over, reverse-sweeping a remarkable six off Taylor as the 17th over went for 20. When Tom Curran launched a maximum off the final ball of the innings, sent down by van der Merwe, Surrey had scored 85 off the last six overs.

Banton began by taking two fours off the second over from Tom Curran and then reverse-sweeping Sam Curran for a stunning six. By the end of the powerplay that total had moved on to 66, as Banton reached a brilliant fifty off just 22 balls.

Babar was largely content to run singles: the Pakistan star had contributed just 14 when the partnership reached 82 at the end of the seventh over.

Banton was given a life on 67 when Clarke failed to hold a difficult diving catch on the boundary off Imran Tahir, but it didn't prove expensive as the next over from Gareth Batty saw the young opener's superb exhibition ended by a catch at deep backward square leg.

Babar moved quickly to 43 before being bowled trying to sweep Tahir, leaving Somerset 127 for 2 in the 13th over.

But it was Byrom, coming in at four, who ensured the Surrey bowlers could never gain any sort of grip. Two sixes off Batty and another off Tahir were just the start of a memorable innings by the 22-year-old, as he led Somerset to a vital win.

Worcestershire 179 for 5 (Wessels 91) beat Yorkshire 177 for 7 (Lyth 68) by five wickets

Worcestershire recovered from early strife with the ball before Riki Wessels mixed power with a touch of invention in a superb 91 as Yorkshire, defending 178, were ultimately brushed aside by five wickets with 15 balls to spare at Emerald Headingley.

The Vikings lost their third game in six and will rue not making the most of being 104 without loss in the 12th over.

Their 177 for 7 looked competitive, but they should have been closer to 200 after openers Adam Lyth and Tom Kohler-Cadmore laid the platform with a century partnership having elected to bat.

In reply, Rapids opener Wessels made the chase towards a fourth win from six North Group games look a routine one with 10 fours and five sixes in 51 balls.

Lyth top-scored and hit four sixes in 48 balls, sharing 104 for the first wicket with ex-Worcestershire player Kohler-Cadmore, who hit two sixes.

They shared their second century opening stand of this season's Blast and took the visitors' seamers to task on an excellent Headingley surface.

Lyth hit successive sixes off Wayne Parnell and Pat Brown in the second and fourth overs en route to a 32-ball fifty. He was particularly strong square on both sides of the wicket, while Kohler-Cadmore was more measured, hitting nicely on the up down the ground and over cover.

But they were two of seven wickets to fall inside the last nine overs of an innings which fell away to devastating effect.

Both fell caught at deep mid-wicket off the off-spin of George Rhodes. That Rhodes - who finished with 2 for 12 - only bowled two overs was a surprise, especially with none of Worcester's five seamers going at less than eight an over. They were the only two overs of spin in the innings.

That said, their seamers did hit back with effect. Dillon Pennington removed Harry Brook and David Willey in the 16th over, leaving the score at 140 for four, just when they were looking to launch. And Brown also struck twice at the death.

Worcestershire made a bright start to their chase as Wessels took the lead role.

When Martin Guptill top-edged a short ball from Duanne Olivier to short fine leg, they were 28 for 1 in the fourth over, and well on the way to a powerplay score of 47 for one after six overs. Wessels had 26 of them.

But in the next over, bowled by returning Vikings captain Steve Patterson after a five-game rest, Wessels launched sixes over long-off and long-leg as 20 runs came off it.

Wessels reached his second fifty of this season's Blast off 32 balls, but not before he lost Callum Ferguson caught at backward point off Lyth's off-spin as the score fell to 93 for two in the 10th.

When he fell in the 15th over, caught at long-on off Dom Bess' off-spin, the damage had been done with the score at 152 for 3and only 26 more needed.

Olivier and David Willey claimed the consolatory wickets of Parnell (27) and Ross Whiteley late on, but it proved too little, too late, as Worcestershire stayed second in the North Group, still just a point behind Lancashire.

Hampshire 128 for 7 beat Glamorgan 87 (Dawson 3 for 11, Crane 3 for 22) by 41 runs

Mason Crane and Liam Dawson spun Glamorgan's middle-order into a stupor as Hampshire made it three Vitality Blast wins in a row.

Spin twins Crane and Dawson replicated their middle-over removal service for the second night in a row, having stunned Essex at Chelmsford, to claim figures of 3 for 20 and 3 for 11 respectively.

The pair were backed by South African overseas Chris Morris' 2 for 21 as Hampshire won by 41 runs - leaving Glamorgan winless at the bottom of the South Group.

Hampshire set Glamorgan 129 to win after James Vince had won the toss and decided to bat on a sun-kissed evening on the south coast. A lack of fluency had marred the host's innings due to a combination of a slow wicket and long boundaries - but the visitors failed to learn from the hosts.

Fakhar Zaman couldn't build on his 58 against Gloucestershire as Chris Wood, whose first two overs went for just two, had his caught at first slip to the third ball of the innings.

Colin Ingram was duped by the slow nature of the pitch as he threw his hands at Kyle Abbott, but only struck straight at short cover.

Like against Essex the previous night, Hampshire's twirlers teamed up to throttle their opposition and tear their batting apart after the powerplay.

Left-armer Dawson bowled Billy Root, who was attempting to scoop, and Chris Cooke in consecutive overs.

At the other end, legspinner Mason Crane tempted David Lloyd into a slog sweep, which was caught on the deep midwicket boundary, before Dan Douthwaite was stumped - leaving Glamorgan 63 for six.

Jeremy Lawlor and Merchant de Lange both picked out long-on off Chris Morris and Crane as the rate started to catch up with Glamorgan. Graham Wagg was yorked and Dawson bowled Lukas Carey - as Hampshire remained in the quarter-final hunt.

Earlier, Glamorgan used their inside knowledge of Aneurin Donald's game, having developed it until he joined Hampshire last winter, to have the Welshman smartly caught on the square leg boundary.

It took 22 balls until the first boundary, one of only eight in the innings, when Rilee Rossouw clubbed over midwicket.

Next ball he was bowled by de Lange to give the bowler his 100th T20 wicket in his 88th appearance, before Sam Northeast was stumped.

Vince followed his explosive 87 against Essex on Thursday with a 21-ball 25 but his frustrations showed with a top-edged hoick to long-on.

Morris, James Fuller and Dawson all found various boundary riders but a crucial late cameo from Lewis McManus, which included the sole maximum of the innings took Hampshire to what appeared a below-par 128 for 7. Ultimately, it proved to be more than enough.

Sussex 158 for 1 (Evans 65*, Salt 63*) beat Kent 154 for 8 (Bell-Drummond 50, Mills 3-23) by nine wickets

Vitality Blast leaders Kent Spitfires lost their maximum record when they were outplayed by Sussex Sharks at Hove. The Sharks, who themselves are unbeaten in the competition, moved to second place in the South Group table with this emphatic victory by nine wickets with four overs remaining.

Chasing 155, Sussex got off to a fine start when Luke Wright and Phil Salt powerd 38 runs off the first four overs before Wright was bowled by Adam Milne with the last ball of the fifth over for 24 off 18 balls.

Sussex were looking strong at 81 for 1 at the halfway stage, with Salt leading the charge with an unbeaten 40. But in the final stages even Salt's destructive batting was overtaken by Laurie Evans, who hit Fred Klaasen for 16 in three deliveries. Evans finished with 65 not out from 35 deliveries, with six fours and three sixes, while Salt's unbeaten 63 from 44 ball included six fours and two sixes.

Jofra Archer, keen to prove his fitness for the second Ashes Test against Australia at Lord's, returned for the Sharks and so did Chris Jordan, replacing Reece Topley, who was not 100% fit.

Archer, who will also play for Sussex 2nd XI in a three-day match against Gloucestershire at Blackstone, starting on Tuesday, went for 20 in his first two overs. But Jordan broke through for the Sharks in the third over when his offcutter hit the top of the dangerous Zak Crawley's off stump.

Daniel Bell-Drummond responded by hitting Jordan for successive sixes over square-leg as Kent raced to 52 after five overs before some tight bowling by Tymal Mills, who dismissed Ollie Robinson and Heino Kuhn in successive overs, and Rashid Khan, who bowled Bell-Drummond with a googly for 50, gave the Sharks some control in the middle overs.

When Archer returned to bowl the 17th over, with the Spitfires 130 for 5, he conceded just three runs. And in the next over Mills dismissed the dangerous Mohammad Nabi for a 29-ball 43. In his final over, Archer conceded just five runs and had Milne caught in the deep by Phil Salt to finish with figures of 1 for 28 from his four overs.

Birmingham is not a classically beautiful city. Unlike Paris, for example, it was bombed heavily in the war. And afterwards it was rebuilt hurriedly and cheaply to ensure its factories continued to supply the country that had come to rely on it.

For it was here that the Spitfire was built. Here where the munitions were made that helped defeat the Nazi empire. Here where, the night after a bombing raid that lasted 13 hours in 1940, the synagogue in the centre of the city opened its doors and offered its help to the community. Here where the computer, the pen, the whistle and the internet have their roots. Here where the first world's oldest cricket league was established and here where the first plastics - cellulose-based, so biodegradable - were invented. Elgar and Shakespeare lived locally. Unions were born in the region and the city became a model for the multicultural community.

Now, if you're the sort who thinks of beauty in terms of sunsets and white teeth, in terms of Instagram 'influencers' and Love Island contestants, this may not mean much. But maybe, in an unconventional way, there is beauty aplenty in Birmingham, its history, its invention and its people.

So maybe it was fitting that this was the scene for Rory Burns' maiden Test century. He is not, by any means, a classically beautiful batsman. He plays, unlike Joe Denly, few of those elegant strokes that have a crowd purring their approval. And in this innings he had a control percentage of just 75 per cent; remarkably low for a Test centurion. 34 times he played and missed. Only Joe Root, of England players, has a century - the one against Australia at Cardiff in 2015 - with a higher false shot percentage in the CricViz database.

But this was an innings, in its way, all the more impressive for those very reasons. While other England openers of recent times may have become flustered by the regularity of ball beating bat, Burns has the priceless ability to put such moments behind him and concentrate on the next delivery. And while many of the words used to describe have an air of faint compliment about them - ungainly, limited, resilient and phlegmatic - they could also have been used to describe Alastair Cook. And his career worked out OK, didn't it?

Burns came into this match under considerable pressure. It wasn't just that he hadn't made 30 in his previous six Tests innings, it was that his dismissals at Lord's - particularly his second-innings dismissal, where he reached to defend a wide delivery and edged behind - did not befit an opening batsmen. Many prominent pundits recommended dropping him and there was concern about him from the England management.

Burns knew all this. But he didn't fret about it any more than he wasted energy worrying about those balls beating his bat. Instead, he avoided the newspapers - "I stuck my head in the sand," as he put it - cleared his mind and went for several sessions with the man who had coached him since he was six years old. Neil Stewart is not as well-known as his brother Alec or his dad Micky, but several generations of Surrey batsmen swear by him. And somewhere in those sessions, he reminded Burns of the qualities that have made him one of the top run-scores in Division One of the County Championship in each of the last three seasons.

So Burns was more compact here. And while he was beaten really quite often, he ensured he played the line of the ball and did not follow it. And even when it seemed he was stuck on 99 - he spent 10 balls there; only two England batsmen have spent longer on the score this century - he retained his composure and waited for the ball that was in one of his scoring areas. One he could turn, nudge, nurdle or drop into a gap. By stumps he had recorded the fifth century by an England opener in their last 100 Test innings and the first in the first innings of a home Ashes since Graham Gooch in 1993.

He had some fortune. He was lucky to survive a leg-before appeal off Nathan Lyon on 21 - had Australia reviewed, he would have been out - and three or four times, he flashed outside off stump. But he wasn't dropped, he didn't tire and he will resume, in the morning, for his seventh session in succession on the field.

"I just tried to stay true to what has got me here," Burns said. "I just tried to stay level. I wasn't tired; I've done that [bat all day] before in county cricket. But it's quite a slow, attritional wicket and, in a way, that probably suits how I go about my business. It was nice to just keep going on the treadmill and be as stubborn as I could be."

There may be a lesson here. Burns has, in many ways, developed the tough way: he wasn't drafted straight onto the Surrey staff and he didn't play lots of England age-group cricket. Instead he went to university - he was a product of the MCCU system at Cardiff - played club cricket overseas and found his own way to do things over years in county cricket. A method that is built on resilience and mental strength as much as it is range of stroke and natural ability. Maturing through those institutions may have been key.

He has a series of unusual trigger movements which he has worked out for himself. It includes an odd peer towards the leg side, as if the midwicket fielder has just said something appalling about his parentage, as the bowler runs in, a flourish of the hands as he completes his backlift and a stance which suggests he is mooning the square-leg umpire. But there is logic in there: the jerk towards the leg side is to ensure his head is level and his dominant eye is trained on the ball; the flourish of the hands is to ensure his wrists are relaxed and do not push at the ball and the stance is to ensure he is balanced. "You wouldn't coach kids to do it that way," he said with a smile afterward. "But sometimes you have to scrap."

Now compare that to James Vince. Who looks pleasing. Who oozes class. Who graduated, at every stage, through England systems and was seen as a future star from his teenage years. But on the evidence of what we've seen so far, who looks to have the game - the mentality as much as the technique - to succeed in Test cricket? Sometimes aesthetics can fool us into making the wrong judgments about players.

Cricket is an odd game for spectators. Many of those making their way to the ground in the morning would have been excited for the day ahead yet delighted to reach lunch and then tea having experienced some uneventful cricket. There was none of the drama of the Ireland Test at Lord's. Instead it was wonderfully, reassuringly incident free. The run-rate - 2.96 over the course of the innings so far - is England's sixth lowest in any Test innings since April 2016. And yet it was, from an England perspective, arguably as encouraging a day with the bat as they have enjoyed this year.

For this contribution from Burns - and Root, to be fair, who set a fine example by taking 70 balls to hit his first boundary - was exactly what England have required for years.

They have been down the route of taking the attack to bowlers. They have experimented with aggressive openers and attempting to hit bowlers off their length. It took them nowhere. Instead they have taken the more old-fashioned route here: they've waited they've accumulated and they've started to ground down an attack that already looks a bowler short. Saturday presents a great opportunity to build a match-defining position.

Burns has given them the platform. And, from an England perspective, what a beautiful platform it is.