Pakistan batter Salman Ali Agha said Mehidy Hasan Miraz should have shown the sportsman spirit after the Bangladesh captain ended his innings with a controversial run-out in Friday’s One-Day International in Dhaka.

Short of his crease at the non-striker’s end, Agha bent down to pick up the ball to return it to the bowler after his teammate Mohammad Rizwan had driven it towards him.

However, Mehidy circled around behind Agha to collect the ball and threw down the stumps.

The dismissal immediately revived discussions about the spirit of cricket and had echoes of the 2023 Ashes controversy when Australia’s Alex Carey stumped England’s Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s.

“I think sportsman spirit has to be there,” Agha told reporters after Pakistan’s 128-run win.

“What he has done is in the law. I think if he thinks it’s right, it’s right, but if you ask me my perspective, I would have done differently.

“I would have gone for sportsman spirit.” Agha reacted angrily in the moment, throwing down his gloves and helmet, but later downplayed his outburst.

“I was just trying to give him the ball back. I was not looking for the run or anything like that, but he had already decided.”

“If you ask me what would I have done, I would have done things differently. But … whatever happened after that, it was in the moment.”

Pakistan and Bangladesh will play the third ODI on Sunday, with the three-match series level at 1-1.

SHANGHAI: Formula One championship leader George Russell put Mercedes on pole position for the first sprint race of the season in China on Friday in a front-row lockout with team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

Russell led every phase of the session at the Shanghai circuit to take his first career sprint pole in a time of one minute 31.520 seconds. Antonelli was 0.289 slower.

McLaren’s Lando Norris will start third after the reigning champion told stewards he had not been on a proper “push” lap when Antonelli, who had risked a grid drop, impeded him during the second phase.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who started the 100km race on pole in China last year, was fourth fastest ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Saturday’s race brings eight points to the winner with the top eight scoring. The main grand prix is on Sunday.

“The car has been feeling amazing,” said Russell, winner of the Australian season-opener last weekend. “We knew after Melbourne we had a really good car, the engine is performing really well, and today it was a real joy to drive.

“It felt really quick and that was pretty cool, very different to Melbourne.”

Russell was the third successive British sprint pole-sitter in Shanghai after Norris in 2024 and Hamilton in 2025. He had also been fastest in the day’s sole practice session, ahead of Antonelli, with Mercedes comfortably ahead of the rest.

The stewards said in a statement that Antonelli would have been guilty of unnecessarily impeding had Norris been on a quick lap but they took no action in light of the champion’s words.

Pierre Gasly was seventh fastest for Renault-owned Alpine, after also being cleared of impeding, with Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen eighth.

Haas’s Oliver Bearman took the ninth slot on the grid and Verstappen’s new teammate Isack Hadjar completed the top 10 but a massive 2.2 seconds off Russell’s pace.

Norris was happy with his lap.

“P3 is as good as we can do for the time being,” he said. “I’m actually pretty happy to beat both the Ferraris today because they seemed pretty good the whole day. So I’m satisfied. Good position for tomorrow.”

Leclerc said Mercedes were still a step ahead but Ferrari, who removed their so-called “Macarena” rear wing for the session due to reliability concerns, should have been stronger.

“In qualifying for some reason the Mercedes power unit finds a lot of lap time,” said the Monegasque. “We don’t quite find that amount of lap time just yet in qualifying but in the race we are closer so I’m hopeful we can come back tomorrow.”

Hamilton said the engineers had done a fantastic job to get the car ready after he spun off in a tricky practice session.

“The car generally felt great. I think it is on the straights, it’s a lot of time to be losing so we have a lot of work to do, we really have to push so hard to improve on power.”

Further back, Audi continued to perform well with Nico Hulkenberg qualifying 11th and Gabriel Bortoleto 14th. Newcomers Cadillac filled the bottom two positions, with Mexican Sergio Perez unable to take part in the session due to a fuel system issue.

Troubled Aston Martin, struggling with their new Honda power unit, had Fernando Alonso 19th and Lance Stroll 20th. Williams, whose car has been slowed by excess weight, had Carlos Sainz 17th and Alex Albon 18th.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2026

INDIAN WELLS: World number one Carlos Alcaraz charged past Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday to set up an Indian Wells semi-final with Daniil Medvedev after the Russian ended Jack Draper’s title defence with a 6-1, 7-5 win following a controversial umpiring call.

Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka also reached the last four in the women’s draw with a 7-6(0), 6-4 victory over 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko but Iga Swiatek was unable to find her way past Elina Svitolina and fell 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

Australian Open champion Alcaraz improved his record to 16-0 to start the year with a solid display against a tricky opponent in the final contest of the evening to remain on course for a third Indian Wells crown.

The Spaniard eased through the opening set and though he was briefly in trouble at 0-2 down in the second he quickly regained the momentum to see off Briton Norrie and set up a meeting with twice runner-up Medvedev.

“It was really difficult, I struggled with Cameron’s style,” Alcaraz said. “His forehand has super top-spin and his backhands are flat so it’s tricky to play against him and find the correct shots. I played solid and aggressive when I could and I’m happy to be at this level.”

Russian 11th seed Medvedev was also in impressive form against Briton Draper, who had little time to recover after his stunning three-set win over Novak Djokovic on Wednesday.

Draper raised his level in the second set and stayed with his opponent up to 5-5 but Medvedev secured a late break after a controversial hindrance call from chair umpire Aurelie Tourte.

Medvedev was awarded a point to go 30-0 up following a late video review request after the Russian said he was distracted by Draper’s raised arm during the rally when the Briton thought the ball went out.

Draper insisted he had not caused a major distraction but the umpire stuck with her decision to award Medvedev the point, prompting jeers from the crowd when the call was made.

“If you look at the first forehand I did after it happened, I think I could have done a better shot if there was no gesture from Jack,” Medvedev told reporters.

“Was I distracted big time? No. Do I feel good about it? Not really. But I also don’t feel like I cheated or something. I got a bit distracted. I let it go and I let the umpire decide.”

Fourth seed Alexander Zverev beat Frenchman Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-3 to make the semi-finals for the first time and become only the fifth man to complete the set of last-four appearances at all nine ATP Masters 1000 events.

The German faces a big challenge in the next round, however, as he takes on world number two Jannik Sinner after the Italian made light work of American Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2.

SVITOLINA UPSETS SWIATEK

World number two Swiatek struggled early against Svitolina, with the Ukrainian capitalising on five double faults to secure three breaks and take the opening set in 38 minutes.

She found her rhythm in the second to force a decider, but Svitolina regained the upper hand by securing the only break in a tight third set before confidently closing out the match to return to the semis for the first time in seven years.

Belarusian Sabalenka had a battle on her hands against Mboko and the top seed was taken to a first-set tiebreak which she won to love — a career first.

The second set followed a similar script with Mboko clawing her back to 5-4 and threatening another tiebreak but four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka held firm.

“She’s a future Grand Slam champion,” Sabalenka said. “It’s incredible to see how brave these young girls are these days.”

Sabalenka next plays Linda Noskova, who ended Australian qualifier Talia Gibson’s fairytale run 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, the Czech reaching her second WTA 1000 semi-final.

Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina advanced with a 6-1, 7-6(4) victory over Jessica Pegula to reach another Indian Wells semi-final where she will play Svitolina.

Victory ensured Rybakina will leapfrog Swiatek and reach a career-high world number two when the WTA rankings are updated on Monday.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2026