SPORTS DIGEST
BASEBALL
The Houston Astros reached the American League Championship Series for the first time in their history after seeing off the Boston Red Sox. A 5-4 win gave the Astros a 3-1 series win and will see them come up against either the Cleveland Indians or the New York Yankees. Carlos Beltran’s RBI double in the ninth inning clinched the win for the Astros as they claimed the series with a game to spare and advanced in the post-season play-offs for the first time. Their opponent in the ALCS will be determined by a final-game decider after the Yankees kept their hopes alive with a 7-3 win over the Cleveland Indians. Needing to win to avoid elimination, the Yankees got the job done thanks to a four-run second inning, tying the series at 2-2. The Los Angeles Dodgers are through to the National League Championship Series for a second year running after sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Chicago Cubs, defending World Series champions, are a game away from joining the Dodgers after a 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals gave them a 2-1 series lead. AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISIONAL SERIES: Boston Red Sox 4 Houston Astros 5 (Houston Astros win series 3-1), New York Yankees 7 Cleveland Indians 3 (Series tied 2-2) NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISIONAL SERIES: Chicago Cubs 2 Washington Nationals 1 (Chicago Cubs lead series 2-1), Arizona Diamondbacks 1 Los Angeles Dodgers 3 (Los Angeles Dodgers win series 3-0).
CRICKET
South Africa’s new domestic Twenty20 competition that was slated to feature English trio Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy and Kevin Pietersen has been postponed until November 2018. The inaugural T20 Global League was set to begin next month with England’s limited-overs captain Morgan as well as Roy and Pietersen among a number of top ‘marquee’ internationals. But a reported failure to sell the television rights has seen Cricket South Africa pull the plug on the venture for 12 months. INTERNATIONAL TWENTY20 SERIES, GUWAHATI: India 118 (J P Behrendorff 4-21) v Australia 122-2 (M C Henriques 62 no) Australia beat India by 8 wkts. SECOND TEST MATCH, DUBAI: Sri Lanka 482 (FD M Karunaratne 196, L D Chandimal 62, MD K Perera 58, DP D N Dickwella 52, Yasir Shah 6-184) & 96 (Wahab Riaz 4-41) v Pakistan 246 (Haris Sohail 56, Azhar Ali 51) & 248 (Asad Shafiq 112, Sarfraz Ahmed 68, MD K Perera 5-98)
Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by 68 runs.
TENNIS
ATP SHANGHAI ROLEX MASTERS, SHANGHAI, CHINA 1ST RD: Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukr) bt (14) Jack Sock (USA) 4-6 6-1 2-1 ret, Ryan Harrison (USA) bt Ze Zhang (Chn) 6-2 6-3, Aljaz Bedene (Gbr) bt Paolo Lorenzi (Ita) 6-1 6-4,(12) John Isner (USA) bt Dusan Lajovic (Ser) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (8-6),(11) Kevin Anderson (Rsa) bt Adrian Mannarino (Fra) 6-3 6-1, Jan-lennard Struff (Ger) bt Mischa Zverev (Ger) 3-6 6-5 ret, Diego Sebastian Schwartzman (Arg) bt Jordan Thompson (Aus) 6-4 7-6 (7-4), Steve Johnson (USA) bt (13) Nick Kyrgios (Aus) 7-6 (7-5) ret, Viktor Troicki (Ser) bt Denis Shapovalov (Can) 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-0, (10) Sam Querrey (USA) bt Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) 6-3 6-2 Rd 2: Albert Ramos-vinolas (Spa) bt (7) Pablo Carreno-busta (Spa) 7-5 7-5, Fabio Fognini (Ita) bt (15) Lucas Pouille (Fra) 7-6 (9-7) 6-3, (16) Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) bt Andrey Rublev (Rus) 6-3 6-4, Richard Gasquet (Fra) bt Hyeon Chung (Kor) 3-6 6-4 6-3, (4) Marin Cilic (Cro) bt Kyle Edmund (Gbr) 6-3 7-6 (7-5). WTA HONG KONG TENNIS OPEN, HONG KONG, HONG KONG RD 1: Naomi Osaka (Jpn) bt Alexa Guarachi (Chi) 7-5 6-4, (4) Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Ling Zhang (Hkg) 6-1 6-2, (7) Daria Gavrilova (Aus) bt Miyu Kato (Jpn) 6-1 7-6 (7-4), (2) Venus Williams (USA) bt Risa Ozaki (Jpn) 6-2 6-2, Luksika Kumkhum (Tha) bt (5) Elena Vesnina (Rus) 6-3 6-4, Jaqueline Cako (USA) bt Priscilla Hon (Aus) 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-5), (6) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) bt Timea Babos (Hun) 6-4 6-4, Jennifer Brady (USA) bt Misa Eguchi (Jpn) 6-3 6-0, (1) Elina Svitolina (Ukr) bt Zarina Diyas (Kaz) 6-4 7-6 (7-2), (3) Caroline Wozniacki (Den) bt Eugenie Bouchard (Can) 6-1 6-1.