More in the first half, but, as once more in the first half, their defence was overwhelmed by a dizzying swirl of blue. For the majority at old trafford, this was difficult for watch. But this city defence will always give you a chance. And marcus rashford, captain for the first time, seized his. Another goal could change everything, but city held out. They may be getting left behind in the title race, but in the semifinal, theyve surged ahead and its only half time. Katie gornall, bbc news, manchester. Next to cricket, where south africa went into the final day of the second test against england needing to bat out the day to rescue a draw. England needed eight wickets. It went down to the last hour of the final session and guess who england turned to . Ben stokes, with three wickets, to help england win in cape town for the First Time Since 1957 and level the four test series at 1 1. South africa looked to be frustrating england for much of the day with pieter malan batting for almost six hours in the second innings before he fell for 8h. Quiton de kock resisted for 3h overs too before he clipped joe denlys part time leg spin to mid wicket. Zac crawleys juggling act gave ben stokes his second wicket in two balls and the allrounder kept running in bowling at nearly 90 mph, and he grabbed the last wicket in the final hour. A huge boost for us going forward. Test cricket has been a bit of a talking point recently in terms of how many days you can play for but today has shown what should be five days in the first two series is great for the game of cricket. We have a few days off to get our feet up and get our energy back up. Hopefully we can go into the next game with confidence. And to think much of the build up to this test was questioning if test cricket should be reduced
to four days. Wed have missed all of that for one. Earlier, Ryan Sidebottom joined me and doesnt think anything needs to change. Who says test cricket is dying . It would have not happened if it was four days, brilliant. The ebbs and flows, the drama, the tension, just what you want from test cricket, to go into the last hour of day five, the middle period session, you think, it will not happen. It is in the balance. But england stuck to their guns in the process, absolutely stunning, ben stokes change the momentum of the game with his 72 and the man himself, the last hour, when you want something from the special players ben stokes held his hand up, absolutely brilliant, took the last three wickets, what a victory by england and away soil. They have not won many in the last 20 odd games so brilliant performance, they will gain in confidence from that, and what a team effort. And the mental strength from englands point of you coming back from that first test defeat to level the series, it sets up fascinatingly. England are in a transitional stage. You have got some Young Players making their way into the side. They were gaining confidence. A brilliant performance by england especially after the first innings, it was all doom and gloom but we fought hard, showed them what we are capable of and well done to simply, to bat like that, the stubbornness and mental strength he has shown, to back the amount of time and set the tone for the england team has been nothing short of brilliant but what a test match. Talking of test cricket as a whole, there have been rumblings over the last week or so that four day test matches might become the new thing. At the start to play south africa said they were in favour of it, this one went down to the last hour
in the fifth and final day. Does test cricket need to change . I dont think so. The worlds greatest players have all come out and said, it is the purest form of cricket. If it goes to four day test matches, we will lose test cricket forever. It would be a draw. A little bit of spin, the drama, the tension, it has been a fantastic ad for test cricket. So for me definitely not, long it may continue, and where will spinners bowled . If you do not go today four or five, spinners will be nullified and were not even be involved in test cricket. Im really chuffed for test cricket, and well done, england lets quickly take you through some of the other stories catching our eye this tuesday. England batsman rory burns will miss the series in sri lanka in march. Hes flown from home from south africa after injuring his ankle whilst playing football in training. Hes had surgery on ruptured ligaments and will be out for up to four months. Great britain will play the hosts australia in the atp cup quarterfinals. Their 3 0 win over moldova, combined with belgium beating bulgaria means tim henmans team topped their group and will face the hosts in sydney about this time tomorrow night. Former Scotland InternationalJohnnie Beattie has retired from rugby union. The 34 year old earned 38 caps for his country, 13 more than fatherjohn, but 90 fewer than footballer sisterjen. Former wales and norwich striker iwan roberts is to undergo tests on his brian for the rest of his life as part of a study into the early signs of dementia. Research found footballers had a higher risk of dying from condition than the average person linked to heading the ball. In the united states, theyve taken measures to prevent children heading the ball
at a certain age and roberts says the more we can learn about the dangers, the better. I dont think twice about it, you know . Im 51. I played professional football for 21 years, over 50 games. Id rather know sooner than later if the impact of having all those footballs in 20 years of play has had an impact on my brain. You look at what happens in america, i think it is from 11 years of age or under, theyre banned from playing football. And i think it is something we can learn from. They havent got the right skill or techniques at that age, that is something they will learn in later life. And i think that would make them better players, because they would have to use other tools. So i think it is a fair case for children to be banned from heading a ball until a certain age, because i dont think the brain stops growing until
youre 24 25. So if youve got a 1011 youre 24 25. So if youve got a 10 11 year old child heading a football, we dont know what damage that will do. Archery and shooting could be included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games only not in birmingham but thousands of miles away in dehli. The sports had been dropped to make way for other events. India were unhappy and had threatened to boycott the games. They have proposed hosting the events four months earlier and pay for the cost of staging them. The medals would count for the final medal table and is to be considered by organisers following intervention from the british government. It is going to be decided upon next month. They will have to go to the membership to get their approval but i think it is seen in the one way that this very damaging boycott could be averted and some people say it is innovative and different and a good solution, why not . I think there will be others that will say it has gone too far, it is making an exception because of the political cloud
and it is may an example of politics meddling with sport but it is going to get people talking certainly. And well go back to cricket, where the big bash took on a whole new meaning for one englishman down under. Where would we be without stump mics, eh . Thats lancashire and england batsman liam livingstone taking one where no man ever wants to take one. Brings a tear to your eye. Youre up to date from sportsday. More in about an hour. Following us, its the papers. Hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are broadcaster and authorjohn kampfner, and the deputy Political Editor at the sunday times, caroline wheeler. Welcome to you both. Many of tomorrows front pages are already in. The Financial Times front page features an interview with the outgoing governor of the bank of england, mark carney, in which he says Central Banks lack the fire power to combat future slow downs. The telegraph turns to brexit, as it reveals the eus chief negotiator has warned Boris Johnson not to water down protections for its citizens living in the uk after brexit. The independent focusses of the continuing fallout following the assasination of irans
most senior general Qasem Soleimani as an ex sas chief warns his killing risks a new war. The guardian too looks at the escalation of the situation in iran, saying british warships, helicopters and several hundred military personnel have been put on standby for deployment in or near iraq. While the metro looks at accusations that borisjohnson has been hiding and avoiding questions on the iran crisis. And the daily mail looks at the Football Association selling its rights to fa cup matches to the betting firm, bet365. Soa so a range of stories on the front page, i guess, a mixed bag. Lets start with the guardian, because the us start with the guardian, because the us iran situation does feature on most of the front pages, doesnt it . John, hundreds of british troops on standby in iran crisis. Does the guardian tell us what they would be used for . It is as much for protecting the british troops in terms of the most likely backlash is going to be targeted strikes, whether it is in the green zone, where the brits are working alongside the americans. We were just positing the thought that iran will feel obliged that it has to strike in some way, it has to do something, otherwise it would lose face with its effective number two having been a subject to a targeted assassination by the americans. So the iranians must do something, but what can they do, and the iranian backed militias do that wont trigger an even further retaliation
from donald trump, who seems to be chomping at the bit . And the fear is that third country troops, the brits, the canadians, the germans, various countries that still have troops doing specific expert work in iraq and iran, that they are particularly vulnerable. It is worth remembering that there are about 400 british troops in the region . Yes, and that is the point of this piece, really, that you have 400 troops in iraq, and the focus on protecting them in the aftermath of the strike. I think one of the things that has happened today that perhaps hasnt made the papers yet is donald trump has sort of responded for the First Time Since this, and has doubled down on the fact that he thinks it was a justifiable strike against soleimani. But he seems to have backtracked a little bit. Beforehand he was talking about retaliating
further on the cultural sites in iran, if there was any further escalation of tensions there. So he is still using quite inflammatory language in talking about this general as a monster, which will obviously heighten some of that drama around us. But why this is again back on our front pages given this has been going on for a number of days is of course that parliament is back. And this has been the very first time that weve had a member of government called to the dispatch box to respond and talk about what will happen next, and how we will deal with those troops, our troops that are actually not very far away in the event that this escalates further. So that is why we are now seeing this back on our front pages and back in the news of. It is interesting you should say we heard a from a member of the government, the defence minister addressed the house of commons, but we did not
hear from the house of commons, but we did not hearfrom the Prime Minister, the boat show no show, according to the metro. The elusive Prime Minister mrs commons 0 a on iran crisis. We havent seen the Prime Minister for 11 days, have we . Why do you think he didnt go . I think this is the precursor to a much bigger dilemma for borisjohnson. Precursor to a much bigger dilemma for Boris Johnson. In precursor to a much bigger dilemma for borisjohnson. In my view, there has always been this pretence about the special relationship. The americans do it to humour us, and there have been problems every which way. Viewers might recall more than ten yea rs way. Viewers might recall more than ten years ago, gordon brown almost chasing barack ten years ago, gordon brown almost chasing ba rack 0bama ten years ago, gordon brown almost chasing barack 0bama from a meeting where they eventually engineered in the basement kitchen of a hotel in new york, just to keep the brits sweet. Theres always been a supplicant relationship. Sweet. Theres always been a supplica nt relationship. The sweet. Theres always been a supplicant relationship. The brits alongside, less surprisingly, the french and the germans were not informed, because trump is furious with the three countries for
continuing to hold out hope for the iranian anti nuclear deal. Continuing to hold out hope for the iranian antinuclear deal. Although in fairness, he didnt inform a lot of people in america as well secular he informed the salaries and israelis, so it is interesting. The first among equals is clearly not the case. At the same time, Boris Johnson was usually showered by praise from donald trump all the well through, while donald trump was incredibly consistently rude about theresa may and other politicians, like Angela Merkel and others. So we are in this awful situation now, at the same time slobbering to a trade deal with the america in which the assumption is that the brits, no matter want trump does, will feel unable to criticise anything he says ever. So would you agree that Boris Johnson is on a bit of a dilemma . And we will hear from him tomorrow at Prime Ministers questions of. |j
think it is quite clear that he