Eighteen months since playing his last Test, Moeen Ali feels he has so much more to achieve, including passing the 200-wicket milestone.

Back in Chennai, where he scored the last of his five Test centuries with 146 in England's innings defeat as India won their series 4-0 in 2016, Moeen said that a sense of unfinished business with the red ball was now a driving force.

"That is my biggest motivation really," said Moeen, who has 181 Test wickets. "I still feel I've got wickets and runs in me and match-winning performances within me. I have little targets I want to achieve first. I am not too far away from getting 200 wickets. I know people say they don't look at these things but it would be something I would look at. Then I would set another target after that."

So much has happened since Moeen was dropped after one Test in the 2019 Ashes. Some of it he would have imagined when it sparked his decision to take an extended break from the long-form game, some of it he never would have seen coming, like becoming infected with Covid-19 and spending 13 days in isolation in Sri Lanka, watching England win both Tests from the sidelines.

But perhaps what he did envisage, if opting out was to have the desired effect, was returning with no regrets and a renewed appetite for Test cricket.

"At the time I felt I needed it," Moeen said via Zoom. "I wanted to see if I missed it and if I yearned to play it again. At the time I was playing so much cricket - and I'd been dropped - I thought it was a chance to take a step back. And I enjoyed it, played a few leagues around the world - but ultimately it was Test cricket that I missed and I felt like I could still do quite well in.

"The one thing I did learn is that when you're playing Test cricket, you're on top of your game in terms of your batting and bowling, your technique. I don't think it's great when you're just playing white-ball, red-ball is very important for staying on top of your game."

Moeen emerged from isolation midway through England's first Test in Sri Lanka and, after an initial period of easing back into physical activity under close monitoring, he has returned to full training. According to Chris Silverwood, England's head coach, he is under consideration to earn a recall for the first Test against India, starting on Friday.

Dom Bess and Jack Leach, England's spinners in Sri Lanka, both claimed five-wicket hauls in the first Test without bowling at their best and took four wickets apiece in the second Test after going wicketless in the first innings. Moeen believed he would have completed a three-pronged spin attack in Sri Lanka had he not fallen ill and he has declared himself ready to go if called upon in India.

"I think I'm fine," said Moeen. "Whether or not I get picked is another matter. Bessy and Leachy I thought did quite well in Sri Lanka and are coming off some good performances. In terms of being ready to play, I think I'll be fine to play, I'll be ready. I've waited long enough."

During his long wait, Moeen has spent time on his batting and, having scored another century on that 2016 tour of India with a Player-of-the-Match performance in the drawn first Test, he has some fond memories to reprise.

"I've been working hard with the guys in Sri Lanka and prior to that I was training quite a bit to improve my batting and tweak a few things technically," he said. "It is usually a good wicket to bat and bowl on, even though they got 700 last time. I feel quite good and I'm just ready to go out and perform."

Returning for India will be Virat Kohli, their captain and Moeen's IPL team-mate at Royal Challengers Bangalore, who missed the last three Tests of India's triumphant tour of Australia.

"How do we get him out? He's obviously an amazing player, world class, he's very motivated to do well and I'm sure he'll be even more motivated after they did well in Australia and he had to leave for the birth of his child," Moeen said. "I don't know how we're going to get him out [specifically] because I don't think he has any sort of weakness but we have a good bowling attack, some pace in the line-up.

"He's a great guy and a good friend of mine - we don't talk too much about cricket. We do a little bit but not too much."

Moeen would have been scheduled to be rested for part of the India series under the ECB's policy of resting multi-format players over the winter. Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes missed the Sri Lanka leg of their Asian tour and Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood and Sam Curran will miss the first two India Tests, with Jos Buttler heading home after the first Test. Talks are ongoing between Moeen and team management about whether he will be rested at some stage during the India tour, given the length of time he will have spent away from home and the fact that he missed the Sri Lanka series through illness.

" I've been speaking to the selectors and the coaches," Moeen said. "They've picked the squad for the first two games and it all depends where I'm at really. I think I'm due to go home at some stage during the 3rd and 4th (Tests) but we're not 100 percent sure yet. If I'm playing and doing well, then things could change.

"It has felt like a long tour already so far but once you start playing and things gets better and you're in a better frame of mind then we'll see. At the moment I'm here for the first two games and depending on how things go, there's a chance I'll be going home after that."

Archer, Stokes and Rory Burns arrived in India while England were still in Sri Lanka and so were the first to complete their stints in quarantine, training outdoors together for the first time on Saturday.

Didi Gregorius is returning to the Philadelphia Phillies after the free-agent shortstop agreed to a two-year, $28 million deal with the team, a source confirmed to ESPN on Saturday.

Gregorius, who turns 31 on Feb. 18, proved to be a huge bargain in 2020 for the Phillies, who signed the free agent to a one-year, $14 million deal last offseason. He rebounded from an injury-plagued 2019 season with the New York Yankees by hitting .284 with 10 home runs, 40 RBIs and 34 runs scored -- and an .827 OPS -- for the Phillies during the pandemic-shortened season.

Philadelphia hasn't reached the postseason since 2011, the last year it had a winning record. The Phillies finished 28-32 in a pandemic-shortenened 2020 season, missing a wild-card berth by one game in the expanded playoff format.

Gregorius missed extensive time for the Yankees in 2019 as he recovered from Tommy John surgery, which he had to repair an elbow ligament that was torn during the 2018 AL Division Series vs. Boston. He wound up hitting .238 with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs in 2019.

Over the past five seasons, Gregorius is tied for fourth with Xander Bogaerts among all major league shortstops in home runs (98), trailing only Trevor Story (134), Francisco Lindor (126) and Javier Baez (108). He is also fifth in RBIs (344), ninth in slugging percentage (.469, with a minimum of 150 games) and ninth in extra-base hits (215) in that same span.

Gregorius has provided Gold Glove-caliber defense throughout his career, and his .978 career fielding percentage is the fifth best among players with at least 800 games played at the position since 2012.

Overall, Gregorius has a .265 career batting average with 120 home runs, 457 RBIs and a .748 OPS over nine seasons with the Reds, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Phillies.

Gregorius' deal with the Phillies was first reported by The Athletic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is taking a "break" from Twitter after saying his family received personal threats this week amid an ongoing stock-trading standoff between day traders and hedge funds.

"I've really enjoyed the back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter which was unfortunately overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that led to our family getting personal threats," Cohen said in a statement Saturday after deactivating his account Friday night. "So I'm going to take a break for now. We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and remain committed to doing that. I love our team, this community, and our fans, who are the best in baseball. Bottom line is that this week's events in no way affect our resources and drive to put a championship team on the field."

Cohen's decision to step off Twitter appears to stem from conflict between independent investors and hedge funds. Day traders, mobilized on Reddit, have poured about all the money they can find into the stocks of struggling video game retailer GameStop and a few other beaten-down companies. Their buying has swollen those companies' share prices beyond anyone's imagination and inflicted huge losses on the hedge funds that had placed bets that the stocks would drop.

Cohen's Point72 Asset Management became involved when it invested in Melvin Capital Management, a hedge fund that had heavily placed bets against GameStop and drew the ire of the Reddit users.

GameStop rocketed nearly 70% on Friday to close at $325. Over the past three weeks, the stock has delivered a stupefying 1,600% gain. The danger for the day traders is that, at any time, the stocks could collapse.

Before closing his Twitter account, Cohen -- the richest owner in baseball, worth more than $14.5 billion -- responded to the controversy Tuesday by tweeting, "Rough crowd on Twitter tonight. Hey stock jockeys, keep bringing it."

Among the critics of Cohen, WFAN morning host and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason said he would stop going to Mets games "until I find out exactly what's going on here" regarding Cohen's involvement with the GameStop situation.

The Mets owner had previously garnered a Twitter following of nearly 200,000 for his irreverent interactions with fans, where he took suggestions about how to run the team, reacted to the team's biggest moves -- such as the trade for shortstop Francisco Lindor -- and teased a return of black jerseys.

ESPN's Joon Lee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Carlos Rodon will return to the Chicago White Sox after the team reached a one-year, $3 million deal with the left-hander, a source told ESPN on Saturday, confirming multiple reports.

Rodon, who was selected by the White Sox with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 amateur draft, became a free agent after he was not tendered a contract after the 2020 season.

He broke into the majors in 2015 and looked as if he could be a key member of the team's rotation for years to come before he was hampered by a series of injuries.

Rodon, 28, is 29-33 with a 4.14 ERA in 97 career major league games, including 92 starts. He made four appearances last season, going 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

It took 94 days into the offseason for the National League Central to see its first big-name player acquisitions, and the latest -- Joc Pederson signing with the Chicago Cubs being the first, earlier in the day -- is a doozy: The St. Louis Cardinals agreed late Friday night to acquire four-time defending NL Platinum Glove winner and five-time All-Star Nolan Arenado from the Colorado Rockies.

As we await word of the Rockies' return -- left-handed swingman Austin Gomber is reportedly expected to be included in the trade, almost entirely erasing what limited fantasy value he had -- let's get to the impact on Arenado. Fantasy managers' snap judgment on the departure of a Rockies hitter from Coors typically leans towards "catastrophe," and for a player with Arenado's reputation and career accomplishments, there'll probably be an initial rush to panic. There's a danger in exaggerating the pitfalls of his leaving Coors, and a point at which he'd become a draft-day steal.

British middle-distance talent impresses in spectacular style with 1:59.03 in her first race of 2021 in Vienna

Almost one year to the day after setting a European under-20 indoor 800m record in Vienna, Keely Hodgkinson returned to the same track on Saturday (January 30) to slice more than two seconds off that time with a world under-20 indoor mark of 1:59.03.

The performance also lifts the 18-year-old to No.4 on the UK all-time indoor senior rankings behind Jemma Reekie, Jenny Meadows and Laura Muir – and ahead of the double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes, plus British internationals such as Shelayna Oskan-Clarke and Lynsey Sharp.

Hodgkinson, who does not turn 19 until March, sat just off the leaders as they passed 200m in 27 seconds and halfway in 57 seconds. But she surged into the lead during the third of four laps and ran away from her rivals to smash the two-minute barrier and world under-20 record, which was set by Ethiopian Meskerem Legesse in 2004, by exactly two seconds.

Behind Hodgkinson, Nadia Power ran an Irish record of 2:02.44 in second place.

“It was all about not panicking when they all went off so fast but to be honest it could not have gone better so I’m really happy,” said Hodgkinson, whose PB going into this weekend’s race was 2:01.16 set in Vienna last winter.

“It’s my first race of the season. I did this meet last year so I seem to run quite well here. I’m not sure what’s next but you take what you can in these uncertain times. I’m just really happy to be racing,” added Hodgkinson, who also endured travel problems en route to the Austrian capital. She had originally been due to race at the BMC elite meeting in Lee Valley but changed her plans last minute when that event was cancelled.

1:59.03!

Here’s @keelyhodgkinson on her way to her world U20 indoor record in Vienna ?

pic.twitter.com/WOtlUXV1l2

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) January 30, 2021

In a lengthy interview at the start of the winter Hodgkinson told AW about her various goals for 2021 but they did not include a world junior indoor record. To break the two-minute barrier indoors in her first race of the season must be beyond her expectations too.

READ MORE: Multiple targets for Keely Hodgkinson in 2021

Last year she won the British titles indoors and outdoors and then started studying in Leeds last autumn. But due to the pandemic she has spent stretches back at home near Leigh in Greater Manchester and, more recently, out in Dubai training.

Her next race is likely to be at the Bryggen Sports International on February 13 close to home in Manchester and all eyes will be on her to see if she can get close to Reekie’s UK senior record of 1:57.92, not to mention the 1:58.43 best of Meadows, who coaches her with her husband Trevor Painter.

Also in Vienna there were Dutch record-breaking performances by both Lieke Klaver and Femke Bol. First Klaver won her 400m heat in 51.48 to break the 23-year-old national indoor record but just a few minutes later Bol improved it further by running 50.96 in her own heat.

They both then raced the 200m, with Bol just outside the national indoor record with 23.52 but then Klaver took to the track and ran 23.17 to break the long-standing mark.

Britain’s Jamie Webb won the men’s 800m in an indoor PB of 1:46.95, while Istvan Szogi won the 1500m in a world-leading Hungarian indoor record of 3:37.55.

Leicester Tigers say Jordan Taufua's anticipated move to French Top 14 side Lyon has not yet been "resolved".

Lyon claimed on Tuesday that Tuafau had signed as an injury replacement.

But Borthwick told BBC Radio Leicester: "Until it is completely resolved, it's not one for me to comment on."

Borthwick was speaking on Friday night following the Tigers' 25-15 Premiership home defeat by Sale, in which New Zealander Taufua was not involved.

The back-row forward was reported to have been involved in the contract dispute after which five Tigers players left last summer, but he then signed a new deal in July.

Taufua, who joined Leicester from Crusaders following the 2019 Rugby World Cup, has made no comment since Lyon made their announcement and Leicester are yet to corroborate the French club's claim that he has made the move to the south of France.

But BBC Radio Leicester understands that he is in France and currently in quarantine ahead of joining up with Lyon's squad.

INDIANAPOLIS – Fifteen events are on deck for the USAC Wingless Sprints Oklahoma this season, with 12 points races and a trio of non-point special events across Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas.

The WSO season begins and concludes at the same venue – The New Tulsa Speedway in Tulsa, Okla. – where the tour will make a series-high four stops, including the season opener on April 9, a return visit on May 28 and the final two showdowns on Oct. 22-23.

A familiar visit on the tour – Red Dirt Raceway in Meeker, Okla. – welcomes the series twice, on April 23 and May 14, while fellow Oklahoma track Enid Speedway swings open the gates on April 24.

Oklahoma Sports Park in Ada will host two races, first on May 8 then again on July 31.

Three trips to Kansas are slated for the series’ championship run. Park City’s 81 Speedway is the place to be on June 26, while Hutchinson Raceway Park makes its debut on the WSO schedule on July 16. Salina Speedway is on the docket for Aug. 28.

Three WSO special events that do not count toward the championship are on the schedule as well, all in co-sanctioned fashion. The first of those will occur on April 17 alongside the USAC Wholesale Batteries Midwest Wingless Racing Ass’n at Jefferson County Speedway in Fairbury, Neb.

Both WSO and MWRA will then head for two nights of non-point special events that take the series to Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., on May 21-22, which will mark both series’ maiden pairing with the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series.

2021 USAC Wingless Sprints Oklahoma Schedule

April 9 – The New Tulsa Speedway – Tulsa, Okla.
April 17 – Jefferson County Speedway – Fairbury, Neb. (M) **
April 23 – Red Dirt Raceway – Meeker, Okla.
April 24 – Enid Speedway – Enid, Okla.
May 8 – Oklahoma Sports Park – Ada, Okla.
May 14 – Red Dirt Raceway – Meeker, Okla.
May 21 – Lakeside Speedway – Kansas City, Kan. (N/M) **
May 22 – Lakeside Speedway – Kansas City, Kan. (N/M) **
May 28 – The New Tulsa Speedway – Tulsa, Okla.
June 26 – 81 Speedway – Park City, Kan.
July 16 – Hutchinson Raceway Park – Hutchinson, Kan.
July 31 – Oklahoma Sports Park – Ada, Okla.
Aug. 28 – Salina Speedway – Salina, Kan.
Oct. 22 – The New Tulsa Speedway – Tulsa, Okla.
Oct. 23 – The New Tulsa Speedway – Tulsa, Okla.

** represents a non-points special event

(M) co-sanctioned with the USAC Midwest Wingless Racing Ass’n

(N) co-sanctioned with the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Martins Motorsports will once again compete full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year with Tommy Joe Martins serving as the team’s primary driver of the No. 44 Chevrolet Camaro.

AAN Adjusters, Gilreath Farms Red Angus and Market Rebellion will all return as multi-race sponsors.

Veteran Crew Chief Buddy Sisco will continue with the team in the same role, while Martins has moved to Mooresville, N.C., to take on a full-time position as the team’s general manager. Martins has previously worked as a racing instructor at Ron Fellows Performance Driving School at Spring Mountain in Las Vegas, Nev.

“It was a tough decision,” Martins said of the decision to move to North Carolina. “I’ve loved my time at Spring Mountain – and I still plan on working there some when I can. But MMS is the focus this year. Growing and strengthening this team for the future, & helping Buddy however I can.”

Martins completed the full Xfinity Series schedule last year, earning nine top-15 finishes and his first top-10 finish at Texas Motor Speedway last fall.

Despite the strong finish to the season, the 2020 season got off to a rocky start for Martins and company.

“Going into last year we weren’t totally sure what the expectations would be,” Martins said. “We struggled to get going – I think we were as low as 35th in the standings mid-season. It was so amazing to see it all come together & a lot of that has to do with the effort of Buddy [Sisco] and the rest of our guys.”

Martins’ No. 44 will carry the black and white colors of AAN Adjusters at the season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway. The Knoxville, Tenn., based insurance adjusting firm has been a sponsor of Martins since 2018.

“Having Ken Gilreath and AAN back on the car was critical to all this. 2020 was a tough year for everyone. Knowing they’re sticking by us & wanting to do more with MMS – that just means so much to me and the team,” Martins said.

Martins says he is being realistic in terms of his expectations for the team heading into the new season.

“At the end of last year we showed up every race expecting to finish top-15,” Martins said. “But the series is tougher than ever this year. I think there’s gonna be something like 43 full time entries. That’s wild. I mean we only start 36 cars every week. Top 20’s and top 15’s are still the goal but we know it’s going to be a challenging year with the depth of the field. We’re ready to take it on.”

Some Marseille fans stormed into the team's training ground hours before a Ligue 1 game against Rennes as they protested against the club's officials, French multimedia outlet RMC Sport reported on Saturday.

RMC Sport reported some 150-200 supporters tried to break into the Robert Louis Dreyfus centre. Footage on RMC Sport's twitter feed showed some of the fans forcing their way in. Some were seen throwing flares and lighting firecrackers.

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The outlet published footage of fans marching in the streets and carrying banners reading "[Club] directors, out", as well as others directly targeting OM president Jacques-Henri Eyraud.

The entrance of the training ground was also tagged with messages against Eyraud.

It then reported the situation had calmed down, without elaborating.

OM were not immediately available for comment.

Marseille are sixth in the Ligue 1 standings, 16 points adrift of leaders Lyon, with coach Andre Villas Boas hinting he will leave the club when his contract expires in June.

Marseille were knocked out in the first round of the Champions League.

Information from Reuters and ESPN correspondent Julien Laurens was used in this report.