Why the needless mystery from Australia over Cummins and Khawaja for second Test? | Geoff Lemon

You could speculate about whether Cricket Australia deliberately prefers to be opaque regarding player availability and team plans, or whether it just has a deficiency in communications, but once again the fitness of players and the makeup of the XI is left to be inferred from the selection in the larger squad of 14 players for the second Ashes Test in Brisbane.Normally, a board naming an unchanged squad would not be much news. This time it is, thanks to the possible movement in either direction of Pat Cummins and Usman Khawaja, neither of which has now eventuated.Cummins is the surprise for not being included, with the regular captain and fast-bowling leader deep into his recovery from the early signs of a stress fracture in his back. The only public acknowledgment of the situation was a cursory line with the squad release saying that “Pat Cummins will travel to Brisbane to continue his preparations”

Oscar Piastri boosts F1 title hopes with pole for Qatar Grand Prix sprint race

Oscar Piastri took pole position for the sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix. The McLaren driver beat the Mercedes of George Russell into second and, with Lando Norris in third, it was the result the Australian required for his world championship ambitions and allows a chance to narrow the gap to the leader Norris. The other title contender, Max Verstappen, was furious with his Red Bull’s erratic performance and will start in sixth. Drivers' championship standings1 Lando Norris (McLaren) 390pts2 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 3663 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 366Despite being level on points, Piastri (7 wins) holds second place due to more GP victories than Verstappen (6 wins) this seasonPoints still availableGP 1st 25pts, 2nd 18, 3rd 15, 4th 12, 5th 10, 6th 8, 7th 6, 8th 4, 9th 2, 10th 1Sprint race 1st 8pt, 2nd 7, 3rd 6, 4th 5, 5th 4, 6th 3, 7th 2, 8th 1Remaining race weekends 29-30 Nov Qatar (sprint race and GP)6-7 Dec Abu Dhabi (GP only)What Norris needs• He needs to emerge from the weekend having scored two points more than Piastri and Verstappen to be sure. • There are a maximum of 58 points left for each driver to win: eight in today’s sprint, 25 in tomorrow’s race and 25 in Abu Dhabi next Sunday

Lando Norris calm in the maelstrom as three-way title race enters final straight

British driver with world championship within his grasp is showing no sign of nerves despite Verstappen mind games and pressure from PiastriStanding outside the McLaren motorhome in the paddock for the Qatar Grand Prix as a warm desert breeze stirs the air, Lando Norris cuts a figure entirely at ease even in the maelstrom of an increasingly tense fight to claim his first Formula One world championship.While dozens of photographers jostle for space, the mic boom of the Netflix Drive to Survive series swaying over them, Norris has an air of assuredness as he speaks to the clacking of shutters that have increasingly become the backing track to the 26-year-old’s march towards the title.He is fiercely self-critical, but the British driver exudes only a steely determination allied to an almost disconcerting quiet confidence, even after the disappointment of being disqualified from second place at the last round in Las Vegas.“People can believe whatever they want but deep down I know I’ve just been doing a very good job,” he said. “I’ve been doing a better job than everyone else

Your Guardian sport weekend: a pivotal Qatar GP, Lionesses in action, and the big Chelsea-Arsenal clash

Yara El-Shaboury is at the controls of our essential gateway to the day’s football action. There’ll be team news and breaking stories from around the grounds as well as looking ahead to Saturday’s five Premier League fixtures. There are also 10 Championship matches, including Coventry, the runaway leaders, against Charlton plus lunchtime kick-offs in Stoke v Hull and Leicester v Sheffield United. Plus a nod to the Libertadores final as Flamengo play Palmeiras at 9pm. In the Scottish Premiership, top dogs Hearts travel to Motherwell

Derek Evered obituary

My fencing coach Derek Evered, who has died aged 100, began his working life as a lab assistant at 14 and rose to become reader in biochemistry, and deputy to the professor, at Chelsea College of Science and Technology, now part of King’s College London.His career included visiting posts in Zurich and Cambridge, and he authored more than 125 papers, published in journals including the Lancet and the BMJ, as well as founding the master’s course in biochemistry at Chelsea, and supervising more than 500 dissertations. He specialised in amino acids and inborn errors of metabolism, a group of genetic disorders that includes Hartnup syndrome.Derek’s great passion beyond biochemistry was fencing. He competed actively from the late 1950s onwards and in 1976, with his friend Derek Freeborn, founded Egham Fencing Club, in Surrey, not far from his home in Ashford

Will Constitution Hill rediscover electrifying best after startling dip in form?

The venerable Timeform organisation used a well-chosen four-letter word to describe Constitution Hill’s performance in the Boodles Champion Hurdle at Punchestown in early May, when the top-rated hurdler of recent decades started as the odds-on favourite but finished fifth of the six runners. It was, the firm’s post-race analysis said, a “disconcertingly tame display”.Tame. Ouch. It is not a word that could ever have been applied to the first dozen races of Constitution Hill’s career, which ranged from the electrifying, effortless brilliance of his first two seasons to the high drama of falls at Cheltenham and Aintree this year