Sports world daily: Cummins gives Australia the advantage in Ashes; Spain win Nations League

Pat Cummins shone with the bat before striking with the ball in a rain-marred third day of the first Ashes Test in Birmingham to give Australia the advantage.

Australia finished for 386, seven runs behind England’s first innings total, before Cummins and Scott Boland got rid of both English openers to leave the home side at 28/2 at stumps.

Spain broke Croatian hearts after winning the Uefa Nations League title on penalties on Sunday.

Max Verstappen equalled Formula One legend Ayrton Senna’s record of 41 race wins after winning the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday. Verstappen’s win was also Red Bull Racing’s 100th win overall.

Here’s a look at the key stories from international sporting events through the day for June 19, 2023:

Australia rock England on day three

Australia captain Pat Cummins starred with both bat and ball as the Ashes-holders had the better of a rain-marred third day in the first Test against England in Birmingham on Sunday.

The lower-order batsman made a useful 38 in a total of 386 that left Australia just seven runs behind on first innings.

And the fast bowler then dismissed Ben Duckett before England also lost their other opener, Zak Crawley, in a dramatic 20-minutes’ play between the showers.

England were 28-2 in their second innings, a lead of just 35 runs, at stumps after a huge downpour at 1450 GMT had sent the players from the field.

They had made steady progress when an initial rain delay stopped play for an hour-and-a-quarter.

But after the match resumed in overcast skies, with the Edgbaston floodlights piercing the gloom, conditions were now hugely in favour of World Test champions Australia’s pace attack.

And they made the most of a brief 22-ball session by taking two wickets for no runs as England slumped from 27-0 to 27-2.

Cummins led the way, with Duckett edging the 30-year-old low to all-rounder Cameron Green, who dived forward to hold his latest excellent catch in the gully.

Three balls later, Scott Boland had Crawley caught behind off a superb full-length delivery that angled in and straightened to take the edge.

Ollie Pope and star batsman Joe Root, whose unbeaten 118 was the cornerstone of England’s first-innings 393-8 declared, were both yet to get off the mark when the umpires finally abandoned play for the day at 1713 GMT.

England seamer Ollie Robinson, who took 3-55, insisted the hosts had no complaints about a tough batting stint.

Earlier, England finally saw the back of Usman Khawaja but only after his painstaking 141 had effectively turned the first of a five-match series into a one-innings showdown.

Australia, bidding for a first Ashes series win in England in 22 years, resumed on 311-5.

Khawaja was then 126 not out, having ended his decade-long wait for an Ashes hundred in England, with Alex Carey on 52 after Australia had recovered from 67-3.

Both batsmen should have already been out, with Khawaja bowled off a Stuart Broad no-ball on 112 and Carey dropped by opposing wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow on 26.

Bairstow had made a run-a-ball 78 in England’s first innings, but his bad time behind the stumps continued with just the fourth ball of Sunday’s play as he gave Carey another reprieve by dropping a one-handed chance off James Anderson.

But Anderson, the most successful fast bowler in Test history, took matters into his own hands as the 40-year-old bowled Carey between bat and pad for his first wicket of the series.

New batsman Cummins launched off-spinner Moeen Ali for two sixes and later hoisted Broad high over the rope as Australia moved closer to drawing level.

Broad had labelled the pitch “soulless’ on Saturday, but the innovative tactics that have characterised the leadership of England captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum helped wrap up the Australia innings quickly.

Khawaja was finally bowled by Ollie Robinson trying to pierce an unusual “umbrella field” as an impressive 321-ball innings, including 14 fours and three sixes, finally came to an end.

The final four Australian wickets fell for just 14 runs in 23 balls, Robinson ending the innings when he had Cummins caught in the deep by Stokes.

Spain win Nations League

Dani Carvajal chipped home a Panenka penalty to win Spain the Nations League on Sunday, with a 5-4 shoot-out victory over Croatia, after a tense match finished 0-0 following extra-time.

Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon denied Lovro Mayer and Bruno Petkovic from the spot, before Carvajal cheekily chipped home to earn La Roja their first trophy since Euro 2012 and break Croatian hearts.

Zlatko Dalic’s side, runners-up at the World Cup in 2018 and third in 2022, have never won a major trophy and were hoping Nations League success would cap a glittering international career for captain Luka Modric, who played his 166th international game.

The victory is a confidence boost for new Spain coach Luis de la Fuente after heavy criticism in March after a defeat by Scotland in Euro 2024 qualifying. It also avenged their 2021 final defeat by France.

Despite 14 goals in the three preceeding games, the first half finished goalless, just as in the prior two Nations League finals, won by Portugal and France in 2019 and 2021 respectively.

La Roja were unable to muster a shot on target in the first 80 minutes of an extremely tense battle.

With the sides inseperable, the match was decided on penalties.

After Simon denied Mayer, Aymeric Laporte had the chance to earn victory but hit the bar.

Athletic Bilbao stopper Simon flung himself to his right at full stretch to save from Petkovic and set the scene for Carvajal to spark Spanish celebrations.

They became the second country to have won the World Cup, Euros and Nations League, after France in 2021.

Verstappen wins in Montreal

World champion Max Verstappen drew alongside Ayrton Senna in the Formula One record books with his 41st victory on Sunday when he drove his Red Bull to a flawless triumph at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old defending double champion and series leader led from lights to flag as he came home 9.570 seconds ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso with Lewis Hamilton finishing third for Mercedes for his team’s 100th F1 win.

It was Verstappen’s second win at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, his sixth in eight races this year and his 41st overall, leaving him behind only four-time champions Alain Prost (51) and Sebatian Vettel (53), seven-time champions Michael Schumacher (91) and Hamilton (103).

For Red Bull, this comprehensive victory was their eighth this year and 10th in succession – statistics that make the prospect of an invincible season appear ever more likely.

Alonso’s podium was his sixth of the season as he continued to deliver competitive and revived form, aged 41.

Charles Leclerc came home fourth ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull with Alex Albon taking an excellent seventh in his revamped Williams.

Esteban Ocon was eighth for Alpine ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who dropped to 13th with a five-second time penalty, and local hero Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin.

Perez recorded the fastest lap of the race to take a bonus point, but is now 69 points behind his team-mate in the drivers title race.

Griekspoor, Alexandrova win ‘s-Hertogenbosch titles

Tallon Griekspoor claimed his second title of the season when he came from a set down to defeat Jordan Thompson in the ‘s-Hertogenbosch grass court final on Sunday.

The 38th-ranked Dutchman came through 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 after two hours and 37 minutes against number 103 Thompson of Australia.

Griekspoor, 26, had also won the Pune hard court title in India at the start of the year.

He is the second successive homegrown champion at the Wimbledon warm-up event after Tim van Rijthoven upset Daniil Medvedev in the 2022 final.

In the women’s event, Ekaterina Alexandrova came from behind to defend her title, battling past fellow Russian Veronika Kudermetova in three sets.

Alexandrova, seeded fourth, dropped the first set and conceded her first service game in the second before her fightback saw her win 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).

Top seed Kudermetova also lost last year in the semi-finals to Alexandrova who lifted the fourth title of her career after two hours 52 minutes of play.

With text inputs from AFP

Updated through the day