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"I have decided to step down as captain to concentrate on my batting in the ODI format," Waseem, who remains part of the ODI squad, said. "My best wishes are with the new captain, I will be giving him my full support." Chopra, the new captain, has played just seven ODIs (and six T20Is).
Waseem, the 30-year-old top-order batter, took over the ODI captaincy from CP Rizwan during the 2019-2023 CWC League 2 for UAE's match against Nepal in March 2023. Under him, UAE won just seven ODIs and lost 19, with Waseem the standout performer for the team in the matches they won - he averaged 64.28 in those seven games, hitting his only century in the format (119 vs Papua New Guinea) and three half-centuries in those games.
In the 19 they lost, Waseem's average was 21.10, closer to his career number of 25.44.
Temba Bavuma to miss second Test against Bangladesh
"We just feel medically he's not going to be ready for the second Test," South Africa's Test coach Shukri Conrad said from Dhaka. "We will tone down the [rehabilitation] programme so that he can be ready for the Sri Lankan series."
It has not yet been decided if Bavuma will stay with the squad in Bangladesh or return home to continue his recovery and play domestic red-ball cricket. The first-class competition begins next week, and Bavuma's team, Lions, will play three matches before the first Test against Sri Lanka begins.
"I'd like him to stay [in Bangladesh], and I've communicated that with him," Conrad said. "But I also know that he's got a young family. But yes, I'd like him to stay. He still plays a valuable role. It's still his team. We'll see how it unfolds."
South Africa's win in Mirpur has kept them in the hunt for a place in the World Test Championship final. They have five Tests remaining in this cycle, starting with the Chattogram Test before two each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home. On paper and historical form, South Africa will go into all of those matches as favourites but Conrad is being careful not to get too carried away.
"We know that there's some hard graft that's going to have to be done along the way. That first Test match was the first one that we needed to put in the hard graft. We're certainly not going to be looking to sit on our lead and we're certainly not going to bask in the glory of that victory too much. Tomorrow, we go to Chattogram and we know that's going to be really tough, and we're going to have to play particularly good cricket. If we get a great result there, then great, and then we move on to Sri Lanka.
"The World Test Championship is our World Cup but we are not going to be building any sandcastles, we're certainly not going to have any pie in the sky but you've got to allow yourself to dream as well. And then give yourself the chance of realising that dream. But it's going to take a lot of graft, and we're a long way away from that still."
South Africa are currently fourth on the WTC points table and must win at least four of their remaining five Tests to have a chance of making the final.
Aiden Markram (capt), David Bedingham, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Tony de Zorzi, Keshav Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Dane Paterson, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton and Kyle Verreynne
Western Australia lose 8 for 1, all out for 53, Webster takes 6 for 17
Tasmania 55 for 3 beat Western Australia 53 (Webster 6-17, Stanlake 3-12) by seven wickets
Western Australia lost an incredible 8 for 1 - with their one run coming from a wide - in a batting collapse for the ages that has left their One-Day Cup defence in tatters.
Tasmania chased down the paltry victory target in just 8.3 overs to secure a seven-wicket victory and a vital bonus point.
WA's bid for a fourth consecutive title now hangs by a thread. At one-and-three, WA need to beat Victoria, South Australia and Queensland in their remaining three games - and rely on other results to fall their way - in order to secure a top-two spot and a berth in the March 1 final.
It meant WA went from 52 for 2 to all out for 53, with not a single run scored by the players batting at No. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.
The out-of-form Cameron Bancroft was the first to fall in the collapse when trapped lbw by Webster. Ashton Turner also fell lbw to Webster three balls later, and Josh Inglis was bowled by a Stanlake pearler one ball after that.
Cooper Connolly, Hilton Cartwright, Ashton Agar, Jhye Richardson and Joel Paris all posted ducks as WA's innings was brought to a crashing end.
Opener D'Arcy Short top scored with 22 in a sorry looking scoreboard for the three-time defending champions. WA fell short of their previous lowest score, the 59 they posted against Victoria at the MCG in 1969.
Webster was the hero for Tasmania, claiming the early scalp of Short before kick-starting the collapse in a career-best display. Stanlake was also hugely effective, with his removal of Inglis among the highlights of the innings.
In reply to WA's embarrassing total, Tasmania raced to 27 without loss after three overs as opener Mitchell Owen let loose with a series of powerful heaves.
Tasmania lost 3 for 1 as Caleb Jewell, Jordan Silk and Owen fell in quick succession, but Matthew Wade guided them home.
The result marked Tasmania's first win of the season, after a loss and a no-result from their first two games.
Smith finds form, Cummins returns, Hazlewood ill, as NSW hammer Victoria
New Zealand eye big lead, India lose 6 for 91 before lunch
Lunch India 107 for 7 (Jadeja 11*, Washington 2*, Santner 4-36, Phillips 2-26) trail New Zealand 259 by 152 runs
Right from the first over, the threat of the pitch was writ large. Three balls from Santner behaved differently from the same spot: one turned less than expected, one angled in to nearly get Shubman Gill lbw and one turned big part the outside edge. Santner was all over India from that moment on, bowling through the session for figures of 14-1-34-4. It took persistence and patience to get the first wicket, Gill in the 11th over of the day, but newer batters found it incredibly hard to start on this pitch.
Once Virat Kohli missed a full toss to be bowled for 1, Tom Latham brought Phillips on for two left-hand batters, whom he duly went on to get, one with the turn and one with a ball that went straight on and stayed low.
It was in the first hour that New Zealand needed to keep believing. They kept attacking fields despite Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal's penchant for the big hits. Known of late to respond to such situations with counterattack, India were itching to attack, but the bowling from Santner was good enough to deny them that. Gill managed to hit Tim Southee for a six, but he had to charge at the fast bowler for that. Jaiswal had to play the reverse-sweep to get a boundary.
Eventually, Santner was rewarded for the hard work when he had an umpire's call on an lbw go his way. For Gill, this was almost a repeat of the chance in the first over. As the 15 seconds on the DRS timer lapsed, the crowd broke into a big cheer for the arrival of Kohli. The joy for them was short-lived as Kohli soon missed a full toss, which he tried to mow to square leg.
By now the effect of the roller was wearing off. Batters were shanking even full balls or those that they got close to by using their feet. The ones that didn't turn created further doubt. As it tends to happen at such times, fielders were everywhere, a hard sweep went straight into the shin of short leg, a short ball stopped and turned, and the pressure kept mounting.
It took Phillips four balls to turn one and take Jaiswal's edge to slip. Rishabh Pant, who had been kept quiet with in-out fields, then went to pull one that was only slightly short of a length. The ball stayed low and bowled him, drawing an inaudible invective that might end up hitting Pant in the wallet.
Sarfaraz Khan, who showed proficiency against spin in Bengaluru, soon found out that the margin for error was little here. If you had to attack, you needed rank bad balls. He tried to go inside-out to a really full ball, and it still spooned just over cover. His sweep was blocked, and brought him just singles. Eventually he tried to the clear the deepish mid-off without getting to the pitch of the ball, a reminder of Phillips' dismissal on day one. A shooter then did R Ashwin in, the first time Santner went past three wickets in a Test innings.
India were now left looking at Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to rescue them.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo
Ref: Couldn't see apparent face mask on Darnold
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- An apparent face mask on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold went unpenalized late in the fourth quarter Thursday night at SoFi Stadium because no official had a clear view of the play, referee Tra Blake told a pool reporter after the game.
Broadcast replays showed Los Angeles Rams linebacker Byron Young grabbing Darnold's face mask and throwing him to the ground in the end zone for a sack and a safety, giving Los Angeles a commanding 30-20 lead with 1 minute, 46 seconds remaining in the game. The game ended at the same score.
According to NFL officiating fundamentals, the referee has primary responsibility for fouls involving hits on the quarterback.
"The quarterback was facing the opposite direction from me, so I did not have a good look at it," Blake said. "I did not have a look, and I did not see the face mask being pulled, obviously."
Umpire Carl Paganelli had secondary responsibility for making the call. But he was also blocked, according to Blake.
"The umpire had players between him and the quarterback, so he did not get a good look at it," Blake said. "He was blocked out as well. So that was the thing. We did not see it, so we couldn't call it."
The play is not reviewable, according to NFL rules.
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell said he would not use the missed call as an explanation for losing the game.
"It looked like he got a pretty good amount of face mask there," O'Connell said. "I'm not going to get into the call, or no-call, or all that stuff. I talked to our team, officiating and all that stuff ... for us to talk about that, for us to seek comfort in that, is not how we're going to respond to this. It's just not going to happen. I'm going to do the same thing right now. I really don't have a comment on that. Looked like he got a piece of the face mask, but they didn't think so, so they didn't throw the flag."
Darnold added: "The face mask, it is what it is. I thought we could have done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation that we were in. ... So we've just got to continue to play better and not put ourself in that position to begin with."
Kupp scores in return; McVay expects WR to stay
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- For the first time since Week 1, the Los Angeles Rams had receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua back on the field together in the team's 30-20 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night.
Rams coach Sean McVay would like it to stay that way. Amid reports that the Rams had approached teams about trading Kupp before the Nov. 5 trade deadline, McVay said he was "really glad" to have him back on the field.
"And that's what I expect to stay that way," McVay said.
Kupp, who had been out since spraining his left ankle in Week 2, had five catches for 51 yards and a touchdown. Nacua led the team with seven catches for 106 yards on nine targets.
"Teams reached out," McVay said when asked about the trade speculation. "Some of the things that I've seen out there, they're just not true."
Kupp said he's "not thinking about that stuff," but said he thought there was something "kind of cool about all that stuff going on outside of the facility, but on a short week, every minute spent preparing, trying to get ready to come out here and play.
"And so it gave me the opportunity to focus in on just being where my feet are, being able to prepare as best I can and come out here and let it rip," Kupp said. "And all that stuff is what it is."
While the Rams expected to get Kupp back after he was inactive against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 7, the team kept Nacua's return closer to the vest. Nacua sprained a posterior cruciate ligament in Week 1 and was placed on injured reserve. The Rams started his 21-day practice window to return from IR on Tuesday and activated him before Thursday's game.
McVay said he found out Monday from vice president of sports medicine and performance Reggie Scott that there was a chance Nacua could play this week rather than waiting until Week 9 against the Seattle Seahawks.
"[Nacua] said, 'I don't know, I'm feeling pretty good,'" McVay said. "He went and had a workout session where he ran routes and did a great job. His movement looked good. I talked to him, and I said, 'Do you want to try to give this thing a shot?' And he said yes."
McVay, who has preached the importance of "return to performance" vs. "return to play" when discussing players returning from injury, said Nacua "had shown that he was ready for that performance."
"And this guy's mindset, his mentality ... he's a war daddy, he's a stud," McVay said. "I love his play energy and what he brings. He was ready to go tonight, and he made a big impact on the game."
Because of the short week, Nacua wasn't able to take part in a padded practice. Quarterback Matthew Stafford said he had thrown Nacua "one, maybe two balls in practice this week, and that's the first time since the first game."
It was Nacua's eighth career game (out of 19 played) with 100 receiving yards. That's tied with Minnesota's Justin Jefferson for the second most within a player's first 20 career games in the Super Bowl era, according to ESPN Research.
The Rams scored a season-high 30 points Thursday, snapping a streak of 10 consecutive games with fewer than 30, according to ESPN Research.
And while McVay said "everybody had a hand" in the victory, there's no doubt about the "spark" and "energy" the return of Kupp and Nacua brought to the offense.
"There's a confidence, there's a comfort, there's a rapport that's been established with Matthew and Cooper over the years and then Puka and Matthew last year and then leading into this season," McVay said. "And so, these guys are ballers.
"And Matthew brought out the best in everybody. But I thought Puka and Cooper were ready to go. They made an impact."
Wemby winded but 'felt great' in debut off layoff
DALLAS -- Playing a total of 39.8 minutes in two of San Antonio's five preseason outings, Victor Wembanyama acknowledged the team's 120-109 season-opening loss Thursday to the Dallas Mavericks proved "a little hard conditioning-wise."
Wembanyama played 28 minutes and finished with 17 points on 5-of-18 shooting with 9 rebounds, 1 assist and a game-high-tying 4 turnovers.
"Some moments felt great," Wembanyama said. "A little hard conditioning-wise at first, of course [as] I expected. But I think we had some good basketball moments and some really bad ones."
Wembanyama played a role in generating one of San Antonio's few positive opening-half highlights late in the second quarter, when he pointed his left index finger skyward, signaling for point guard Chris Paul to let it fly.
Paul fed Wembanyama with a lob with 1:47 left in the half for the duo's first alley-oop together as Spurs.
But fewer than five minutes into the contest, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had to sub out a clearly gassed Wembanyama, who had just committed his second turnover of the night. Popovich predicted earlier in the week that Wembanyama would exhibit signs of rust after sitting out most of the preseason to rest.
Even the Frenchman admitted Thursday's season opener would be new territory, considering his relative inactivity throughout the preseason due to playing late into the summer for Team France at the Olympics.
"I didn't see that he was in or out of shape," Popovich said after the game.
Wembanyama shot 2-of-8 in the first half and committed all his turnovers over that span as the Mavericks blasted San Antonio 13-2 in second-chance scoring yet trailed at intermission 49-47. The 20-year-old continued to struggle into the second half, connecting on 3 of 10 shots with five rebounds.
"None of us really have played four games since [the] middle of the summer for me," Wembanyama said. "It's a struggle. Every player in the NBA goes through it. Conditioning is not an excuse [for missed shots]. I'll have different weapons we need to know when to use. So, for the missed shots, it's more getting used to taking shots, getting used to again taking shots in a game."
Wembanyama expects to work himself back into shape in "one or two games," he said.
San Antonio hosts Houston on Saturday at the Frost Bank Center.
"Even through preseason, Vic missed a game or two," Paul said. "I missed a game or two. We had guys in and out. But man, I love the fight we showed. There are no moral victories, but we played against a team that went to the Finals. So, there's a continuity they have. For me, not knowing what to expect in the preseason is one thing. The regular season is another thing. But I'm honestly so excited about the spurts that I've seen and what I know our team is capable of."
Day later, NBA changes Warriors-Blazers score
NEW YORK -- Golden State's blowout win at Portland on Wednesday got a little better Thursday.
One point better, to be precise.
The NBA found a scoring error, one where the Warriors weren't credited with a free throw that De'Anthony Melton made with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. The league revealed the miscue Thursday, changing the final score from 139-104 to 140-104.
Statisticians at the game recorded Melton as having missed both free throws in that sequence, even though Melton made the first one.
It became the fourth 140-point season opener in Warriors franchise history. Golden State scored 162 points -- an NBA record for an opener -- against Denver in 1990, the San Francisco Warriors scored 144 against Seattle in 1967, and San Francisco scored 140 against Detroit in 1962.
By either total, it was the most points allowed by Portland in an opener. The Trail Blazers gave up 129 against Cleveland to open the 1974-75 season -- in a quadruple-overtime game.
It was also the biggest win ever by Golden State in an opener and the biggest loss by Portland to start a season. The extra point Thursday just made it a little better for the Warriors, a little worse for the Trail Blazers.
The new score didn't sway anything sports betting-related, either. At ESPN BET, the game closed with an over-under of 223.5 and the Warriors favored by 5.5.
Scoring errors are rare in NBA games, with teams employing several game-night statisticians and league officials also reviewing stats of all contests in real time.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Klay sinks 6 3's, all smiles in winning Mavs debut
DALLAS -- Klay Thompson folded the box score placed on the table in front of him into a paper airplane during the news conference following his debut with the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, continuing one of the postgame customs he developed throughout his 13 years with the Golden State Warriors.
Thompson was particularly proud of the plane's flight after he launched it to the back of the room before exiting.
"Oh, look at that!" Thompson said. "It's like an F-16."
Thompson's takeoff with his new franchise was pretty impressive, too.
Thompson scored 22 points in 26 minutes during the Mavs' season-opening 120-109 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night. He was 7-of-13 from the floor and 6-of-10 from 3-point range, setting a franchise record for 3's made in a Dallas debut. He contributed in the gritty aspects of the game as well, grabbing seven rebounds and three steals.
"He was great, man," Mavs superstar Luka Doncic said. "Just knocking down a lot of shots and he was moving out there. He played great defense, too."
Doncic described himself as "rusty" after missing the entire preseason because of a left calf contusion. He finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, but Doncic was only 9-of-25 from the floor.
It was the first time that Doncic and Thompson played together outside of a pickup game and a handful of practices, but the chemistry between them clicked. Doncic assisted on four of Thompson's seven buckets, one of the league's premier playmakers setting up an all-time great shooter.
"It's easy to play with a guy like that," Doncic said. "It makes your life easier. You got to find him."
It was the type of dynamic that Thompson envisioned when he chose to come to Dallas in free agency, a decision he has said he made in part out of a desire to play with Doncic.
"What an incredible talent," Thompson said of Doncic. "I mean, it doesn't make any sense, because what we're taught growing up as far as being the best basketball player is you got to jump the highest, you got to run the fastest, but somehow Luka defies that. He plays at his own speed and manipulates the game as good as I've ever seen anyone do it. And it's great to be a recipient of that and get great looks."
Four of Doncic's feeds to Thompson resulted in 3-pointers. On one of those in the fourth quarter, when Thompson popped out to the right wing after setting a back screen in a "Spain" pick-and-roll, he was so wide open that he had time to take a dribble before taking an uncontested shot.
Doncic began trotting back on defense as soon as he delivered the pass to Thompson. The big smile on Doncic's face indicated how confident he was that Thompson would hit the shot.
"Happy I made it," Thompson said. "Made him not look stupid."
Thompson, a four-time champion with the Warriors, acknowledged that he felt "a lot of nerves, anxiousness" in his first official game for a new franchise. He calmed down after his shot early in the first quarter, when Thompson caught a pass from Doncic on the right wing, pump-faked to get former Golden State teammate Chris Paul to bite and took one dribble before knocking down a 19-foot pull-up jumper.
"Great debut," Thompson said. "It's only one game in October, but it feels good just to get that first one out of the way. ... Just a ton of excitement, really just an awesome feeling. And you only get the first time of something so often."
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