United News of Bangladesh

New Zealand seized control of the third Test against the West Indies on the final day, claiming five wickets in the opening session on Monday to edge closer to victory and a 2-0 series triumph. West Indies openers Brandon King and John Campbell initially resisted the hosts, batting out the first hour of play. However, New Zealand turned the match decisively in their favor as four wickets fell within six overs, followed by another just before lunch. At the interval, West Indies were 99-5, still needing 363 runs after being set a daunting target of 462. New Zealand required five more wickets in the remaining two sessions. Shai Hope was unbeaten on 2, while captain Roston Chase was on 1. Fast bowler Kemar Roach remained doubtful to bat due to a hamstring injury. Resuming on 43 without loss, King and Campbell extended their stand by another 16 overs before both were dismissed within five deliveries. Jacob Duffy broke through by removing King, who resumed on 37 and went on to score 67, including a fluent half-century off 63 balls. King was caught at gully by Glenn Phillips after a short ball climbed sharply. Campbell followed soon after, scoring 16 from 105 balls, when he attempted to attack Ajaz Patel but was caught by Phillips at mid-on. Kavem Hodge fell for a duck, brilliantly caught by Rachin Ravindra at short leg off Patel, triggering a collapse that saw three wickets fall for just one run. Duffy then dismissed Alick Athanaze for 2, drawing an edge to wicketkeeper Tom Blundell after softening him up with short-pitched bowling. New Zealand openers set Test records against West Indies The sudden burst of wickets halted a run of record-setting opening partnerships. When the stand ended at 87, the teams were just three runs short of the record for the highest combined opening partnerships in a first-class match. The contest had also been close to becoming the first since 1960 in which all four opening partnerships passed 100. Source: AP

Goals from Raphinha and teenage sensation Lamine Yamal powered La Liga leaders Barcelona to a 2-0 victory over 10-man Villarreal on Sunday, extending their lead at the top of the table to four points over Real Madrid. Raphinha opened the scoring in the 12th minute after earning a penalty while cutting inside the box. The Brazilian forward calmly converted with a slow run-up, sending goalkeeper Luiz Junior the wrong way for his seventh league goal of the season and Barcelona’s 50th in La Liga. Yamal doubled the advantage in the 63rd minute, finishing from close range following a goalmouth scramble set up by Frenkie de Jong. It was also the 16-year-old’s seventh league goal this campaign. The win marked Barcelona’s seventh consecutive victory in all competitions under coach Hansi Flick. The Catalan club, however, was without defender Andreas Christensen, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during training on Saturday. Villarreal’s hopes faded late in the first half when defender Renato Veiga received a straight red card for a forceful challenge from behind on Yamal, who required brief treatment before continuing. The result allowed Atletico Madrid to climb into third place after a convincing 3-0 win away to Girona, having played two more matches than Villarreal. Thiago Silva parts ways with Fluminense, targets European return Atletico took the lead in the 13th minute through Koke, who struck a superb half-volley from outside the area. Jan Oblak later produced a brilliant one-handed save to deny Axel Witsel. Conor Gallagher doubled the lead in the 38th minute with a long-range effort that deflected past goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, while Antoine Griezmann wrapped up the win in stoppage time with a composed finish. Girona remain in the relegation zone. Elsewhere, Elche thrashed Rayo Vallecano 4-0 and Real Betis defeated Getafe by the same margin. On Saturday, Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé marked his 27th birthday by scoring his 59th goal of 2025, equalling Cristiano Ronaldo’s club record for most goals in a calendar year. Source: AP 

Host nation Morocco began the 35th Africa Cup of Nations in style on Sunday, defeating Comoros 2-0 as fans and members of the royal family watched from the stands. Ayoub El Kaabi produced the standout moment of the night with a stunning overhead kick in the 74th minute to secure the win, drawing loud applause from Moroccan Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, who attended the opening match and greeted both teams before kickoff. Despite being heavy favorites, Morocco faced stiff resistance from Comoros, ranked 108th globally. The visitors frustrated the home side for much of the match, with goalkeeper Yannick Pandor denying Soufiane Rahimi from the penalty spot early on. The breakthrough finally came in the 55th minute when Brahim Díaz found the net, easing the tension inside the stadium. El Kaabi later sealed the result with his acrobatic finish. Morocco suffered an early setback when captain Romain Saïss was forced off with an injury, leaving the pitch in tears. Coach Walid Regragui said the extent of the injury was still unclear. Regular captain Achraf Hakimi remained on the bench as a precaution after recovering from an ankle problem but appeared before kickoff to present his African Footballer of the Year award to supporters. Mbappé equals Ronaldo’s Real Madrid record with 59 goals in a year The opening ceremony featured performances by Angélique Kidjo, Jaylann and Lartiste amid a vibrant light show, with rain failing to dampen the festive atmosphere. Morocco, ranked 11th in the world and Africa’s top-ranked team, is chasing its second AFCON title since 1976. The final is scheduled for Jan 18. The tournament is being staged across nine venues in six cities, including the nearly 70,000-capacity Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat. Egypt begin their campaign against Zimbabwe on Monday, while defending champions Ivory Coast face Mozambique on Wednesday. The Confederation of African Football has also confirmed the tournament will shift to a four-year cycle in line with the FIFA calendar. Source: AP 

Ticket sales for the Sylhet phase of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will begin on Sunday, December 21. Fans are now able to purchase seats exclusively through an online platform, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has announced. The tickets, which go on sale from 4:00 pm, will be available only via the official website, www.gobcbticket.com.bd. No physical tickets will be sold at stadium booths, marking a fully digital approach to ticketing for the Sylhet leg of the tournament. Prices for matches at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium range from BDT 200 to BDT 2,000, depending on seating category. All grandstand seats—Upper East, Upper West, Lower East and Lower West—are priced at BDT 2,000. Tickets for the Club House (Upper) cost BDT 500, while the Shaheed Abu Sayed Stand is priced at BDT 250. The Shaheed Turab Stand and Green Gallery or Green Hill areas are set at BDT 200 each. A separate Club House “Zero Waste Zone” has been priced at BDT 600. The release of tickets comes as the BCB confirmed that the tournament’s opening ceremony will be held on a smaller scale in Sylhet, rather than in Dhaka as initially planned. The board revised its original plan due to security concerns. The 12th edition of the BPL will be played across three venues—Sylhet, Chattogram and Dhaka.

New Zealand openers Tom Latham and Devon Conway made history by becoming the first opening pair in Test cricket to score centuries in both innings, putting the Kiwis in a commanding position against the West Indies in the third and final Test. Latham scored 137 and 101, while Conway added a second-innings 100 to his first-innings 227. Their partnership of 323 runs in the first innings contributed to a record 515-run total for an opening pair in a single Test match. Conway also joined an elite group of just 10 batters in Test history to score a double hundred and a hundred in the same match. Previous achievers include Greg Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar, Graham Gooch, Brian Lara, and Kumar Sangakkara. Earlier, the West Indies were bowled out for 420, giving New Zealand a first-innings lead of 155 runs. Latham, Conway, Kane Williamson (40) and Rachin Ravindra (46) then guided the hosts to 306-2 before declaring, setting the visitors a daunting target of 462 for victory to level the series. At stumps, West Indies had reached 43 without loss, with John Campbell scoring two off 50 balls and Brandon King contributing 37.

Kylian Mbappé scored his 59th goal for Real Madrid in 2025, matching Cristiano Ronaldo’s club record for most goals in a single year. The milestone came in the 86th minute via a penalty in a 2-0 victory over 10-man Sevilla in Madrid’s final match of the year. The France striker, celebrating his 27th birthday, marked the achievement with a subdued version of Ronaldo’s iconic celebration, before blowing a kiss to the cameras. Since joining Real Madrid in summer 2024, Mbappé has scored 29 goals this season, including 18 in La Liga. “It’s incredible, in my first full year to do what Cristiano did. He’s my idol and the best player in Real Madrid’s history,” Mbappé said. Sevilla struggled after defender Marcao was sent off for a second yellow, and coach Matías Almeyda was expelled during halftime for protesting. Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois denied multiple scoring chances, keeping the clean sheet intact until Mbappé converted the penalty awarded after Juanlu Sánchez fouled Rodrygo. Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, under pressure following a string of poor results, avoided further criticism with the win. Club president Florentino Pérez now has two weeks to assess the team’s performance before facing Real Betis on Jan. 4. Alonso acknowledged that while the team could have played better, the victory was crucial. Elsewhere in La Liga, Levante and Real Sociedad drew 1-1 before announcing new coaches — Luís Castro for Levante and American Pellegrino Matarazzo for Sociedad. Osasuna beat Alaves 3-0, with Ante Budimir scoring twice, while Real Oviedo and Celta Vigo played a 0-0 draw, featuring a flock of pigeons on the pitch. With the win, Madrid remains second in the league, just one point behind leaders Barcelona.

The Ashes balance remained delicately poised at lunch on the final day of the third Test, with Australia needing just three more wickets to retain the urn, while England required 126 runs to keep the five-match series alive. Australia began Day 5 requiring four wickets, with England resuming on 207-6 and still facing an imposing target of 435 — a total that would demand a record-breaking fourth-innings chase. By lunch, England had battled to 309-7, adding 102 runs during the session but losing Jamie Smith for 60. Two sessions remained. Will Jacks led England’s resistance through a disrupted morning marked by rain delays and an injury to Australian spinner Nathan Lyon. Despite rolling his ankle early in the day and visibly struggling to run, Jacks remained unbeaten on 38 from 120 balls, sharing the crease with Brydon Carse, who was on 13 not out. Tension grew inside the ground as England supporters sang and chanted while their team edged closer to an unlikely escape. Rain briefly halted play when England was 241-6 and still needed 194 runs, but the match resumed and the session was extended by 30 minutes to compensate for lost time. Jacks and Smith added 91 for the seventh wicket, cutting the target to 150 before Smith attempted an aggressive shot and was caught off Mitchell Starc. Smith had earlier struck boundaries off consecutive deliveries from Starc and Pat Cummins to register his seventh Test fifty, finishing with 60 off 83 balls. Carse joined Jacks with the score at 285-7. Starc claimed his first wicket of the innings — his 20th of the series — continuing a strong Ashes campaign following standout performances in Perth and Brisbane. Australia suffered a setback when Lyon injured his right hamstring while fielding and was ruled out for the remainder of the match. The veteran spinner pulled up while chasing a ball to the boundary and left the field with assistance. England, having lost the first two Tests, must win in Adelaide to stay in contention. Australia needs only a draw to retain the Ashes. England has not won a Test in Australia since January 2011 — a drought spanning 5,462 days. Since then, Australia has dominated home Ashes series, and now stands on the brink of another triumph. The highest successful fourth-innings chase in Test history remains West Indies’ 418 against Australia in 2003, though England has chased targets above 370 twice against India in recent years. Source: AP 

Travis Head scored an unbeaten half-century to guide Australia to 119 for two in its second innings Friday, a lead of 204 at tea on Day 3 of the third Ashes cricket test against England. The Australians went in to bat after dismissing England for 286 just before lunch on Day 3. Ben Stokes inspired a revival in England’s Ashes campaign in the morning session with a record 106-run ninth-wicket stand alongside Jofra Archer. Their partnership helped cut Australia’s first-innings lead to 85. Stokes walked off the field yelling at himself and shaking his head after being bowled for 83 by Mitchell Starc, bringing an end to a defiant, 198-ball innings that dragged his team back ino the contest. Australia lost the wicket of Jake Weatherald, adjudged lbw to Brydon Carse in a decision he should have reviewed, to reach lunch on Day 3 at 17-1. Manus Labuschagne (13), well caught at ground level by Harry Brook in the slips off Josh Tongue's bowling, was the only wicket to fall in the middle session when Australia added 102 runs. Head scored 68 from 94 delivieres, including six boundaries and a six, and shared an unbroken 66-run stand with Usman Khawaja (27 not out). England's revivalAfter losing the first two tests in Perth and Brisbane by eight wickets and allowing Australia to post 371 in the first innings here, England's chances of keeping the series alive seemed remote when Stokes went to the crease on Day 2 with the total at 71-4. But he batted for almost two full sessions in the heat and was 45 not out from 151 deliveries by stumps Thursday, sharing a pivotal stand with No. 10 Archer after England was on the verge of collapsing at 168-8. He resumed Friday with England at 213 for eight, still 158 behind. Australia wanted to clean up the last two wickets quickly but Stokes and Archer, who took a five-wicket haul when England was bowling, dug in. Stokes stepped down the wicket to Scott Boland for a driven boundary to bring up the 50 partnership off 89 balls, then raised his half-century with a single off 159 deliveries. It was his slowest 50 in test cricket — his 37th — but vital for his team. Then the England pair started counterpunching against the old ball, with Archer lofting veteran spinner Nathan Lyon's half-volley for six over long-on. Stokes hits a perfect cover drive to the boundary off Boland in the 73rd over, trying to accumulate as many runs as possible before the new ball arrived. When it did, Archer was lucky to survive on 48 when Starc beat the edge and somehow missed the stumps. Archer took a single off Cummins to reach his first test half-century off 97 balls, bringing England's deficit under 100. But the innings ended relatively quickly after Starc bowled Stokes with a delivery from over the wicket that angled back. The Stokes-Archer partnership was the highest ever for the ninth wicket for England at Adelaide. England is capable of chasing a big target in the fourth innings, chasing 370-plus against India twice in the last three years, so Bazball won't be completely dispensed with despite Stokes' stoic first innings.  

Bangladesh pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman will return home for eight days during the Indian Premier League to play a limited-overs series against New Zealand.  Mustafizur was signed by Kolkata for 9.20 crore rupees at the IPL auction, the highest price ever paid for a Bangladeshi player. However, he will not be available for the full tournament, which runs from March 26 to May 31. New Zealand are scheduled to tour Bangladesh in April for three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 matches. Mustafizur becomes most expensive Bangladeshi at IPL auction BCB’s cricket operations chief Nazmul Abedin said Mustafizur would return to Bangladesh specifically to play the ODI series. Bangladesh’s decision is driven by qualification concerns for the 2027 ODI World Cup. Only the top nine teams in the ICC rankings by February 15, 2027, will earn direct entry. Bangladesh are currently ranked tenth. Nazmul dismissed concerns that switching from the T20 intensity of the IPL to ODIs could be difficult for Mustafizur, suggesting the opposite might be true.    

Sometimes, even legends need a moment to adjust. Nathan Lyon did not just take a wicket in Adelaide on Thursday morning against England. He crossed a line that had stood for nearly two decades — and did it with a delivery so perfect that it briefly unsettled one of Australia’s greatest fast bowlers in the commentary box. Lyon’s dismissal of Ben Duckett early on the second day of the Adelaide Test carried history with it. With that ball, the off-spinner moved past Glenn McGrath to become Australia’s second-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, behind only Shane Warne. For McGrath, who was on commentary duty for the BBC, the moment arrived with uncomfortable familiarity. Lyon had already drawn level with McGrath’s tally earlier in the over, when Ollie Pope fell cheaply. Two balls later, Duckett faced what many off-spinners spend a career chasing: a delivery that pitched on a teasing length, drew the front foot forward, spun sharply past the bat and clipped the off stump. Duckett stood still, briefly confused, before walking off. In the commentary box, Adam Gilchrist summed it up simply: Duckett looked “bewildered.” McGrath, momentarily, looked no less so. Cameras caught him lifting his hands to his head, then half-rising from his chair as if to throw it aside, before stopping himself. The reaction was theatrical, but the smile that followed told the fuller story. Records are meant to fall, and Lyon had earned this one properly. For context, McGrath had held that position since retiring in 2007, finishing with 563 wickets from just over one hundred Tests. Lyon surpassed him in his one hundred and forty-first match, having spent months stuck on the same tally amid selection frustrations and limited opportunities, especially in day-night Tests dominated by pace. His return in Adelaide was decisive. Two wickets in his first over, history rewritten, and a reminder that Test cricket has its own sense of timing.