كشف عمرو أدهم، عضو مجلس إدارة نادي الزمالك، حقيقة ما تردد عن عدم قيام نادي الزمالك بتقديم شكوي في الاتحاد الدولي لكرة القدم “فيفا” ضد اللاعب الجابوني الراحل أرون بوبيندزا.

وكانت أزمة قد اندلعت بعد أن أنهى نادي الزمالك الاتفاق مع الجابوني بوبيندزا، حيث لم ينضم اللاعب إلى صفوف الأبيض وانضم إلى فريق رابيد بوخارسيت الروماني، وأعلن مسؤولو الفارس الأبيض في حينها أنه تقدم بشكوى رسمية لدى “فيفا”.

وكان اللاعب بوبيندزا، لقي مصرعه في 16 أبريل من العام الجاري، بعد سقوطه من الطابق الحادي عشر بأحد المباني السكنية في الصين.

طالع | ميدو يوجه رسالة نارية لـ عدلي القيعي: “عيب تصل لهذا السن وتكذب”.. لا أتمنى أن أكون مثلك

وقال أدهم عبر حسابه على موقع التواصل الاجتماعي “إكس”: “إلى كل من شكك في موقف نادي الزمالك في شكوي اللاعب إلى الفيفا، مرفق خطاب الفيفا بشأن إغلاق قضية اللاعب الجابوني أرون بوبيندزا”.

الي كل من شكك في موقف نادي الزمالك في شكوي اللاعب الي الفيفا

مرفق خطاب الفيفا بشأن اغلاق قضية اللاعب الجابوني أرون بوبيندزا pic.twitter.com/87j1VulcSq — Amr Adham (@AAdham62633) May 17, 2025

وكان نادي الزمالك قد أعلن عبر عمرو أدهم أمس في تصريحات تليفزيونية، أن النادي تلقى إخطارًا من فيفا بالأمس في قضية بوبيندزا، بأنه لن يتم النظر فيها بسبب وفاة اللاعب”.

Sunday's 2-1 loss to Leicester has left Tottenham precariously sitting above the Premier League drop zone on the precipice of crisis

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And so it has come to this. Little over five years ago, Tottenham Hotspur were 90 minutes away from being crowned champions of Europe for the first time in their history. Even in eventual and perhaps predictable defeat, they had the hope of a bright future to look forward to having just moved into their new billion-pound stadium designed to close the gap on the elite.

Half a decade on, it's now a very real possibility that Spurs will soon be playing in the Championship. The fall from grace has been painful for all involved. Think of Homer Simpson attempting to fly across Springfield Gorge on Bart's skateboard, only for gravity to hurl him down the cliff-face, hitting every jagged rock on his way to the bottom. He's airlifted to an ambulance, which promptly crashes into a tree and he topples out the wrecked vehicle back down the same cliff-face on a stretcher. That's the state of Tottenham right now.

At the time of writing, the Lilywhites sit 15th in the Premier League table having accrued a mere 24 points from 23 games – a tally which they cleared during the first 10 games of last season upon Ange Postecoglou's arrival. Ipswich Town are the only other club in the bottom five to have not changed their manager to this point, and that's down to the credit Kieran McKenna has stored in the bank following successive promotions.

The problems in N17 go beyond the man in the dugout, however. Postecoglou is not blameless, but he is definitely not the main reason why Tottenham are side-eyeing the second tier.

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  Constant failure

  The first sign of Tottenham's decline ironically came around 12 months before their trip to the Champions League final, with the club going a year-and-a-half without an incoming. This was despite then-manager Mauricio Pochettino's desperate plea to help rebuild a playing squad he felt had hit the glass ceiling, and it's a minor miracle he was able to lead them to the brink of continental glory.

  "When you talk about Tottenham, everyone says you have an amazing house but you need to put in the furniture," said the Argentine, half-referencing the stadium move. "If you want to have a lovely house maybe you need better furniture."

  Chairman Daniel Levy has become notorious for shying away from the spotlight, particularly when Spurs seem to be in trouble. He did, at least, provide an explanation of this staggering lack of transfer activity at a meeting with the club's Supporters' Trust in October 2018. False presumptions that certain players would leave in order to free up funds and space was one reason cited, but concerningly, 'transfers were complicated with several variables' was another. This is the kind of remark that would leave Roy Keane flabbergasted and telling people to do their job.

  By the time Pochettino finally got some new faces through the door in 2019, it was too late. The cycle had ended with that team and he was the one who paid the price, with Levy hiring Jose Mourinho – a man he claimed to have been the second-best manager in the world at the time, despite that clearly not being the case.

  To the shock of no one, Mourinho didn't work out. He ought to have been sacked long before the 2021 Carabao Cup final, yet Levy chose until days before that showdown with Pep Guardiola's Manchester City to axe him. After roughly two months of searching for a successor, the job landed at the feet of Nuno Espirito Santo, who lasted about the same timespan into the 2021-22 season before he too was unceremoniously fired.

  Then came Antonio Conte, the only manager to lead Tottenham to a top-four finish since Pochettino left. To the Italian's credit, he figured out how to get the best out of the Harry Kane and Son Heung-min duo without compromising at the other end of the pitch. He wanted to bridge the gap to the title contenders and fight for more than Champions League qualification. Just one player was signed in his only summer window that immediately improved the starting XI – Ivan Perisic, at this point in his mid-thirties – and three-quarters of the way into a challenging season professionally and personally, Conte lost his job after an astonishing 10-minute rant at a press conference digging out his players and the board.

  In Pochettino's five full seasons, Spurs finished fifth, third, second, third and fourth. Since then, it's been sixth, seventh, fourth, eighth and fifth. They still haven't won a trophy since 2008.

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  Levy's lost credit

  It can't be forgotten that Levy did well to build Tottenham up as a contending club again after spending the nineties and early-noughties in the wilderness, but it is equally as impressive how he's lost a large proportion of the fanbase since his crowning moment of the stadium move.

  At the start of the first coronavirus lockdown, there was significant backlash to the furloughing of club staff, so much so that this was quickly reversed. One year later, Spurs decided to throw their hat into the short-lived European Super League ring. More recently, soaring ticket prices in spite of a lack of success have been protested, as has the decision to remove concession prices. The sentiment among regular match-goers is they are being priced out for tourists.

  During Sunday's 2-1 defeat at home to Leicester City, Tottenham supporters chanted against Levy, while a banner was unfurled in the single-tier south stand claiming it was 'time for change'. Levy has always been able to fall back on his prestige and expertise as a businessman, but as so many have pointed out, Tottenham are a club first and foremost, and that appears to have been forgotten.

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  Postecoglou's doomed reign

  Similarly to Nuno two years prior, Postecoglou was handed the head coach's job when other candidates, notably Arne Slot, decided against taking it. To make matters worse, the sale of Kane – a man whose quality was definitely taken for granted – to Bayern Munich was sanctioned on the opening week of the season. Had Tottenham plummeted into the no-man's-land of mid-table, it would have been understandable.

  Alas, Postecoglou managed to steer Spurs to a respectable fifth-place finish, only two points behind Aston Villa in the Champions League spots. There were signs of promise for this new era. Like Conte though, the Australian was afforded only one player to come straight into his starting XI, as well as three teenagers and an extended loan for Timo Werner.

  The squad needed surgery even prior to the injury crisis that has plagued their current campaign. Postecoglou's Tottenham are now on life support and he is hanging by a thread. After every defeat comes a new report that the board want to stick with the Australian and support him through this period, though all the while doing little to actually stand that sentiment up.

  Unlike his predecessors who weren't afraid to make their ill-feelings towards the board known, Postecoglou has dressed up his request for reinforcements in a dignified manner and more along the lines of a cry for 'help'.

  "I've said all along, the players need help and I've also said the club are working hard in that area to try to alleviate some of those problems," has been the constant message. "The players are going out there and giving everything they can because we can't call off games. We've got another game in three days' time that these players have to front up for. The injury situation will ease and I'm confident they will sort of help us. Even one more player coming in, just in the short term will give us an opportunity, at least to navigate these last 10 days, two weeks, of what's been a really hard slog for this group of players."

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  On-field problems

  Through the autumn, Spurs' main issue was their wild inconsistency. They were a team capable of winning away at both Manchester clubs with a combined score of 7-0, yet would be too easily undone when a game wasn't going their way – 12 of their 13 defeats in the Premier League have been by a single goal in matches where the opposition simply shut up shop.

  Those would be understandable teething issues for a project team at or close to full strength, but Postecoglou has not been afforded that luxury. A detailed report from into their spate of injuries this season did not necessarily blame the head coach, though did suggest his high-energy style in training as well as matches hasn't done much to relieve the strain.

  'Ange-ball' in full flight is breathtaking. It has made Tottenham one of the best watches in all of Europe and they have a clear identity again. But it's a style that often requires perfection in order to succeed, and at the moment, Spurs aren't even good enough to get lucky. There's been an absence of scrappy wins and draws, their penchant for late goals and comebacks from last season evaporating into thin air.

  Tottenham, under Pochettino or anyone else, have been unable to win major honours because when you scratch beneath the surface of the first XI, there has always appeared a serious lack of quality and options. Only now has that truly been exposed with Postecoglou's makeshift lineups which are coming potentially at the detriment of his players' careers, with several soldiering on through injury just to help the cause.

Hampshire 410 (Brown 83, Dawson 61, Gubbins 58) and 198 for 8 (Dawson 67, Gubbins 42) beat Yorkshire 428 (Hill 131, Brook 76, Bess 51*, Wheal 4-59) and 178 (Wheal 3-32, Barker 3-48, Abbott 3-50) by two wicketsFor Yorkshire’s Championship challenge to have lasted so long in this troubled season is something of an achievement, but realistically it ended at the Ageas Bowl, shortly before six o’clock on the final day, when Hampshire took a two-wicket win from a gripping final day.Hampshire are a resilient bunch, and deserve better than the dismal Championship crowds often seen at the ground. Their pursuit of 198 in 59 overs was wracked with uncertainty, but Nick Gubbins and Liam Dawson summoned the enterprising innings required to secure their fifth win in seven with more than 18 overs still to bowl.Yorkshire can be forgiven for feeling disorientated this season. A new management team, defined by its necessary commitment to diversity as well as the need to promote cricketing success, must now defend the county against ECB charges of breaching anti-racism rules. They must do so even though they are uncomfortable with defending the indefensible and, in any case, those involved at the time under scrutiny probably won’t want to talk to them anyway. Yorkshire are likely to just point to their plans for a better future and otherwise take the hit.Add to that, David Willey has had a pop about the politics on the day it was confirmed he will return to Northants next season on a four-year contract, quite a gesture of faith at 32. For him to suggest that Yorkshire are putting cricket second to repairing their reputation sounded unfair to the coaching staff who have done much to rebuild morale in difficult times and who entrusted him with the T20 captaincy, even though he didn’t get back to England from the IPL until May 30. Nevertheless, it will find favour in much of the dressing room among many young pros whose priority is simply to play cricket and who prefer others to consider the bigger picture and resolve differences as fast as possible.Somehow, amid all the noises off, Yorkshire have been mounting a Championship challenge that few expected. At least they think they have been, because if they are docked points after the end of the season, once the ECB disciplinary commission determines its verdict, they might actually be fighting against relegation.The Championship contenders are now realistically reduced to three – all of them winners in this round. Hampshire remain within three points of the leaders, Surrey, with Lancashire a further 16 points back in third. Yorkshire drop to fourth.After victory in their opening match of the season, and five successive draws that have revealed the limitations of their bowling attack, Yorkshire finally experienced defeat. Their faith that they could force victory appeared to waver once the off-spinner, Dom Bess, who briefly appeared to be a potential matchwinner, was driven from the attack by Dawson, whose 67 from 68 balls rescued Hampshire from 103 for 6.Dawson might have played on against Steve Patterson on 14, but he took the target below 50 when he drove Bess for six over long-on and, one bounce, into the hotel, then swept him for four next ball. In Bess’ defence, nobody knew better than Dawson that this final-day pitch, as scruffy as it looked, would not easily bestow its favours upon slow bowlers: Dawson himself had been wicketless in Yorkshire’s second innings. This surface produced an excellent match but, just for once, it would be nice to see a surface, somehow, somewhere, break up for the spinners.”I feel like I’ve been in decent form all year without big scores and I’m really happy with that innings,” Dawson said. “I was in a bit of a daze, just watching the ball and reacting to it and luckily it paid off. It’s a brilliant comeback and it shows the character in the group. It is probably one of the best wins I’ve been involved in with Hampshire in four-day cricket.”Yorkshire’s spirit was equally evident as, five-down overnight with a vulnerable lead of 128, they survived the loss of three wickets in the first 20 minutes to stretch their second innings into the afternoon thanks to the defiance of Matthew Revis and Dominic Drakes which burned overs and added runs. A target of 198 left the match perfectly balanced.Considering that Hampshire are pushing so strongly for the Championship, their opening partnership of Felix Organ and Ian Holland fails to convince. Whether you consider their Championship averages this season, or over their career, the mid-20s is as high as it gets. In some ways, they might be representative of the shortage of quality opening batters across the entire professional circuit.In the first innings, they were two-down for 12; on this occasion, two down for 23. Jordan Thompson, who did not set the tone with his first two balls, stiff-limbed efforts which Organ cut to the boundary, perked up to remove them both. Organ edged to third slip and Holland played around his front pad to be lbw.Gubbins, though, has been at a more elevated level since his move from Middlesex. His run-a-ball 42 promised to ease Hampshire’s chase. Revis’ introduction as first change backfired as two overs leaked 18, Gubbins pulling him for six and four in successive balls.Patterson restored order. That’s what Patterson does. You could imagine him calling Give Order like an MC at an old-style working men’s club, his common-sense cutting through the stale cigarette smoke. This season of all seasons, with players understandably unsettled over what the future holds, his attributes have been invaluable.He had Gubbins lbw, striking him low on the thigh as he tried to sweep. James Vince then feathered Bess behind six balls later. Hampshire still 117 runs away from the target. When Lyth plucked out a slip catch above his head as Ben Brown lay back to cut Bess, and Patterson bowled Aneurin Donald through the gate, Yorkshire were favourites.Dawson then cut loose, supported by Keith Barker who looked solid enough apart from on the pull. Two lobbed tauntingly over slips, Patterson and Thompson despairing, before a third pull, against Drakes, gave Harry Duke a catch down the leg side as Barker tried to move his hefty frame inside the line of the ball.With seven down and 27 needed, Dawson was grateful for a couple of Thompson half-volleys. Revis had him caught, hooking, at long leg with the runs required down to eight, but a driven boundary by Kyle Abbott and, lo and behold, a ramp over the slips by James Fuller took Hampshire home.”The difference in the end is the experience in their team,” said Ottis Gibson, Yorkshire’s coach, who is squeezing everything he can out of this Yorkshire attack.Yorkshire were left with a long journey north. A quick update on the politics and then headphones in, trying to block out the noise, the only sensible way to survive the season.

Liverpool reached a critical juncture at the end of the 2023/24 season, with Jurgen Klopp stepping down and arguably the club’s three most powerful players—Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Mohamed Salah—approaching the conclusive year of their contracts.

Klopp’s gone and the esteemed triumvirate’s futures still stretch into foggy uncertainty. But Arne Slot is proving himself to be quite the successor – with Michael Edwards back in the boardroom, was there ever any doubt?

The squad have gone from strength to strength this season, winning nine from ten across all competitions and perching atop the Premier League table after seven fixtures, albeit with a horrible run of fixtures coming up.

20/10/24

Chelsea (H)

Premier League

23/10/24

RB Leipzig (A)

Champions League

27/10/24

Arsenal (A)

Premier League

30/10/24

Brighton (A)

Carabao Cup

02/11/24

Brighton (H)

Premier League

05/11/24

Bayer Leverkusen (H)

Champions League

09/11/24

Aston Villa (H)

Premier League

The one stain on the record came immediately after the September international break, with Nottingham Forest shocking Anfield and coming away with a 1-0 victory. Slot will hope that his players have kept their fluency intact this time.

Liverpool's international break

Liverpool have had a whole host of players performing for their nations over the past week and while Slot is back on the training ground preparing for the looming fixture against Chelsea, the squad will filter through bit by bit.

Salah is among those to have returned early, having been granted leave from Egypt’s camp last weekend after scoring during a 2-0 victory over Mauritania. Virgil van Dijk also played just one match after being sent off against Dominik Szoboszlai’s Hungary on Friday evening.

Fresh legs from two of the club’s most important stars could be crucial ahead of the Chelsea game – Van Dijk in particular will shoulder the tough task of subduing Cole Palmer and co.

With Van Dijk absent, the Netherlands were defeated by Germany on Monday evening, with Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo both flattering to deceive in their worst displays of the 2024/25 campaign, by a stretch.

For the Three Lions, Alexander-Arnold picked up yet another Man of the Match award in his post-Gareth Southgate world, with Curtis Jones also receiving a call-up but not earning his first senior cap, returning early due to the birth of his daughter.

Ibrahima Konate also showcased his defensive acumen for France, winning matches against Israel and Belgium and even being awarded the armband in the latter in a significant act of support from Didier Deschamps.

Ibrahima Konate's performance vs Belgium

Van Dijk has earned all the plaudits for his performances in defence this season – and rightly so. But let’s spare a moment to hail the quality of Konate, who has raised his game several degrees after tapering off under Klopp last year.

Long acknowledged for his high-level skillset but also a propensity for mistakes and an injury-ridden record, Konate has proved the doubters wrong and is now an intrinsic part of Slot’s table-topping Liverpool, who have conceded twice from seven Premier League fixtures.

His performances at club level have translated over to Les Bleus, for Konate has been a pillar over the past few matches, making a series of crucial clearances against Belgium in a storming display that saw him trump his central defensive partner William Saliba by some distance.

In their post-match ratings, Get French Football News handed him a 6/10 match rating. Nothing special, but a number bettered only by Randal Kolo Muani, who bagged a brace in the 2-1 victory. Saliba, conversely, was slapped with a 3/10 score after a torrid outing.

The Arsenal centre-back – who has previously been described as the “best defender in the world” by compatriot Frank LeBoeuf – lost both of his ground duels, conceded the penalty which Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans blazed over, while also making a direct error which led to a glorious Belgium opportunity.

He was overshadowed by Konate’s composed and imposing presence, who will be heading back to Merseyside full of confidence that he can indeed keep the Blues at bay on Sunday – before testing his metal against Arsenal and Saliba at the Emirates Stadium just one week later.

Ibrahima Konate's importance for Arne Slot

The 6 foot 4 Konate has started eight of Liverpool’s nine combined Premier League and Champions League fixtures this season, scoring twice and registering an assist.

He was introduced at half-time for Jarell Quansah on the opening day against Ipswich Town and has not been dislodged since, with his younger positional peer limited to Carabao Cup opportunities to showcase his skills.

This is interesting, for the 25-year-old played from the outset across six of the Reds’ first 16 top-flight games last year. In fact, Konate has never completed more than 17 league starts in a single year since joining from RB Leipzig in a £36m deal in 2021, something that he looks likely to eclipse under Slot’s wing.

As per FBref, the French titan ranks among the top 12% of Premier League centre-backs this season for goals scored and assists claimed (0.16), as well as the top 5% for aerial battles won per 90 (3.95).

Moreover, those aerial battles have been won at an absurd success rate of 86.5%, which surpasses even that of the renowned headed phenomenon Van Dijk, whose success rate is marked at ‘just’ 73% this season.

There’s so much football yet to play – who knows how Konate will fare as the forthcoming period ramps up and the gruelling run of games buffet Liverpool like hail.

But the signs are there that he’s reached a different level this year, and alongside Van Dijk, anything is possible. After all, given that he’s outstripped Saliba for France, he’s clearly got the tools for the occasion.

Sold for £40m: Liverpool hit gold with star who's now worth millions less

This sale has had an impactful knock-on effect at Liverpool.

ByAngus Sinclair Oct 15, 2024

Bangladesh’s collapse on the first day highlighted an ingrained problem in their Test batting, where they have failed to get to 100 without the loss of four wickets in 91 instances out of 161 Test innings

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur27-Jan-2014Bangladesh have a top-order collapse roughly once every two innings. When Mominul Haque was dismissed, Bangladesh were 59 for 4 in the 18th over, and it became the 91st time out of 161 Test innings that Bangladesh’s first four wickets fell before the score had reached hundred.The easy assumption after the latest collapse would be to call it complacency, particularly after having a decent 2013 batting-wise and an even better previous Test series against New Zealand three months ago. The worst batting performance last year was in the first Test in Zimbabwe last April, when everyone surrendered to seam and the threat of a shorter length.The same theme followed in this first innings as Shaminda Eranga and Suranga Lakmal bowled a shorter length and produced bounce from the Mirpur wicket with more wrist-action on the ball. All of the batsmen tried to play shots, but weren’t manufacturing them, to their credit.But the day’s scorecard is dismissive enough of their batting approach. Monday’s collapse was the result of bad habits, proper planning from the opposition and impetuous strokeplay, though the current top-order contains batsmen with more ability than it did in the past. Tamim Iqbal’s hook shot didn’t connect well, Marshall Ayub missed a ball that moved in just a bit, Shamsur Rahman played away from the body – his natural reaction to anything pitched up – and Mominul pulled the ball when he shouldn’t have.Bangladesh weren’t too troubled by the bounce till they started pulling and hooking. Tamim is a naturally aggressive batsman, and could have taken the tougher route of hanging back and waiting for the bad ball. But as an opener who likes to go after the bowling, he thought the best way to answer Sri Lanka’s stifling length would be attack the short ball. The result was a catch at long leg, but he would have tried it on most occasions.Marshall is in need of runs at No. 3, Bangladesh’s newest entry into that crucial spot. He is a natural middle-order batsman, but due to his technique and domestic runs, he was selected to plug this gap. He has the second innings left in this Test to prove his credentials, and that innings will be pivotal for his future.Shamsur started off with edges, timed the ball for a while before he edged once more. For a debutant opener, he deserves more time to showcase his attacking approach at the crease.These four wickets were followed by the routine recovery act. Shakib Al Hasan and captain Mushfiqur Rahim added 86 for the fifth wicket stand but when you start from 59, ending on 145 doesn’t offer much help. The pair’s approach should be followed however as they only went after short and wide ones, and batted within themselves during the partnership. This was the sort of discipline that Mushfiqur would have expected from the top four. Shakib started off quickly before reining in his strokes for the rest of the afternoon, until missing a sweep shot off Rangana Herath.Mushfiqur got a borderline call when the ball appeared to take an inside edge, but replays proved inconclusive. His exit confirmed that Bangladesh would not have a lower-order resurrection, and when they were bowled out for 232, the blame laid squarely on the misfiring top-order.Luckily, none of the Bangladesh top-order batsmen give excuses. Tamim is in a quest to achieve greater heights as a batsman while his new partner Shamsur has made 267 earlier this month, and is a heavily experienced domestic batsman. So is Marshall, while Mominul’s recent record gives some assurance that he has the knack for a big score.Most importantly, they have to make sure a second collapse is not repeated, and ensure that the short ball is handled a lot better the next time around.

Peter Crouch has hilariously taken credit for Kylian Mbappe's shinned volley, with the ex-England international saying you "can't teach" that skill.

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French forward on target at the EtihadShinned volley into the top cornerEx-England star used to do likewiseFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Real Madrid superstar Mbappe was back among the goals during his latest Champions League appearance. The World Cup winner netted Los Blancos’ first of the night as they claimed a dramatic 3-2 win at the Etihad Stadium.

AdvertisementTHE BIGGER PICTURE

Mbappe’s strike, which came on the hour mark and cancelled out Erling Haaland’s opener for the hosts, had more than a touch of good fortune about it. The Frenchman did not make the cleanest of contacts as he lined up a spectacular scissor kick.

WHAT PETER CROUCH SAID

The ball was, however, to end up in the top corner as it skewed off Mbappe’s shin and looped beyond Ederson. Former Liverpool and Tottenham striker Crouch hit a few like that himself during his playing days and has posted on social media alongside images of Mbappe emulating his efforts: "Can’t teach it."

WHAT NEXT?

Jude Bellingham went on to grab a 92nd-minute winner for Real against City, as they took control of a heavyweight Champions League knockout phase play-off. Mbappe, meanwhile, has taken his goal tally for the season to 24 through 36 appearances in all competitions.

Four half-centuries ensure comfortable day for tourists as Robinson sends down 18 overs

Alan Gardner21-May-2022After the frustrations of a washed-out first day, Hove was back to its tranquil self for the start of New Zealand’s touring commitments proper. Spectators basked, seagulls swooped and runs were picked off in leisurely fashion by the visiting batters. The number of ball replacements (two) almost equalled the wickets taken by Sussex’s attack (three), which included England seamer Ollie Robinson, who sent down 18 overs in his bid to prove himself worthy of a return to the Test fold.There were half-centuries for four members of New Zealand’s top five – Tom Latham, Will Young, Michael Bracewell and Tom Blundell – each of whom then retired to let a team-mate have a bat. As far as leg-stretchers go, this was a useful introduction for the New Zealanders, who only had 12 men to call on here due to a combination of injuries, Covid and late arrivals.”To get out there, on a nice surface, for all the guys to get a good hit and some time under their belts is always nice,” Luke Ronchi, New Zealand’s being coach, said afterwards.”It’s those challenges you want to face when you first arrive. Not just him [Robinson], but all the guys got it to nibble around a bit and use that Dukes ball the way they can. For our guys to come from home to here, to face that and get through that challenge is what we’re after. It’s nice to bat through the day and a few guys get some runs.”Alongside Robinson, Sussex fielded three 20-year-old seamers and one aged 23 – although this wasn’t a case of chucking in the kids for a friendly fixture, rather a reflection of the strategy at Hove where they have leaned heavily on their academy in recent seasons. The focus was understandably on Robinson, left out of England’s squad for the first two Tests over concerns about his match fitness, and he emerged unscathed – albeit wicketless – despite spending around an hour off the field either side of the tea break.He began with an exacting new-ball spell of 6-3-6-0, bowling down the hill from the Cromwell Road End with four slips watching on. Young took a blow on the glove and both openers were made to look uncertain against Robinson’s nagging line and length.He picked up again after lunch, delivering another five overs and coming close to a breakthrough, the rejection of his expectant lbw appeal from Hamish Rutherford’s third ball bringing a withering glance back at the umpire. Having returned to the field 20 minutes into the evening session, he delivered two more overs before the arrival of the second new ball, with a fourth spell extending his day’s work to 18-5-42-0.New Zealand will have tougher examinations ahead, but there is benefit to be gained from spending time in the middle – and surviving a few overs from Robinson, in particular. Latham was typically unobtrusive, cracking a back cut off the left-armer Sean Hunt for the first of his six boundaries, and later producing a dismissive pull down the ground off Henry Crocombe. Young found the leg-side boundary three times in four balls from Crocombe, but was content to slipstream his captain as the pair raised 100 before lunch.Latham was the first to reach his half-century, soon followed by his partner – who then headed from the field to be replaced by Rutherford half an hour after lunch. Young made 331 runs at 55.16 from four matches with Northamptonshire before the start of the tour and is expected to keep his place at opener for the Tests, despite scores of 8, 3 and 0 in New Zealand’s most-recent series against South Africa, with Devon Conway – who scored a double-century on debut opening the batting at Lord’s last year – likely to move down to No. 4 below the returning Kane Williamson.

WHAT. A. CATCH.

Is there anything @iMRizwanPak can't do? pic.twitter.com/aa4XkvF8Af

— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) May 21, 2022