Man City to open against West Ham

LONDON: Manchester City will begin the defence of their Premier League title against West Ham at London Stadium on August 7 while Liverpool travel to Fulham on the opening weekend of the season.

The 2022/23 fixtures, published on Thursday, give new Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag an opening test at Old Trafford against Brighton, who hammered United 4-0 last month. Nottingham Forest’s first match in the top flight for 23 years will be at Newcastle.

Prannoy storms into quarters in Indonesia

JAKARTA: One of the heroes of India’s epic Thomas Cup triumph, HS Prannoy continued his rich vein of form as he stormed into the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open with a straight-game win over Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus on Thursday.

The 29-year-old from Kerala, who is desperately looking to break his five-year title drought, dished out another impressive performance to outwit Ng Long 21-11, 21-18 in a second round match that lasted 41 minutes.

Among other Indians in the fray, Sameer Verma’s campaign ended with a 10-21, 13-21 loss to world No 5 Lee Zii Jia of Malay

sia in the second round. Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also bowed out after losing 16-21, 13-21 to top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China in women’s doubles.

Bowlers help Sri Lanka beat Australia by 26 runs

PALLEKELE: Chamika Karunaratne led an inspired Sri Lankan attack to pull off a thrilling 26-run win over Australia in the second ODI on Thursday.

Chasing a revised target of 216 in 43 overs, Australia lost wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for 189 as Sri Lanka bounced back from their opening loss in the five-match series. Brief scores: Sri Lanka 220/9 in 47.4 overs (Kusal Mendis 36, Dhananjaya de Silva 34, Dasun Shanaka 34; Pat Cummins 4/35) beat 189 in 31.1 overs (David Warner 37, Glenn Maxwell 30; Chamika Karunaratne 3/47)