ball

Lahore Qalandars were penalised for ball tampering during their Pakistan Super League defeat by Karachi Kings.

Prior to the final over, Kings, who needed 14 to win, were awarded five penalty runs after the umpires deemed a Qalandars player had broken rules by “unfairly changing the condition of the ball”.

It is understood the offence was initially seen by the TV umpire before the on-field umpires gave the punishment. The ball was also changed at the request of the batting side.

Kings, now needing only nine from six balls, completed victory with three balls to spare.

Asked afterwards about incident, Qalandars captain and Pakistan international Shaheen Afridi said: “I don’t know about this.

“We will see if it is that in the camera. We will discuss.”

Cricket’s laws do not allow players to alter the condition of the ball, other than when shining it.

Law 41.3.2 states “it is an offence for any player to take any action which changes the condition of the ball”.

The PSL’s playing conditions say the umpires will then report the matter to match referee who will take “action as is considered appropriate against the players concerned”.

David Warner, who was banned by Cricket Australia for 12 months for his part in the Australia ball-tampering scandal in 2018, was captaining Karachi during the match.

The PSL and the Pakistan Cricket Board have been approached for comment.

Ulster head coach Richie Murphy said his side “were a bit wasteful at times” during their 28-12 United Rugby Championship victory over Zebre in Parma.

Despite the home side being reduced to 14 men after Simone Gesi’s straight red card just before the half-hour mark, it was a tight and tense match.

The bonus-point win moves Murphy’s side up to third position in the URC table as they return to winning ways ahead of their Challenge Cup fixture against Ospreys at the Affidea Stadium.

“We expected it to be really physical over here and that is what we got,” Murphy said.

“I suppose the red card early in the game gave us a bit more of an advantage and I thought from our point of view, we have to look after the ball better as we were a bit wasteful at times.

“But very happy to get four tries. Coming over here is always very difficult.”

Player of the Match Werner Kok, who scored the bonus-point try, believed that the turning point in the game was the start of the second half.

Ulster scored three tries after the restart with Rob Herring, Zac Ward and Kok all able to cross the line.

“We stopped playing when they went down to 14 and we tried to regroup again and the boys stuck together and played as a team,” Kok said.

“I think the energy from the kick-off [in the second half] was the turning point. The boys stuck in there and that was the turning point for me.”

You used to root for Bronny James to come into games ironically. Or because you just wanted to see history.

But now I bet you want to see Bronny come into the game to hoop.

That’s a pretty cool plot twist.

Especially because LeBron James’ son has had to develop his game with the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders, the only expectation being that he would fail to amount to anything resembling an NBA player.

But over the past couple seasons, Bronny has developed into an NBA reserve who is worth rostering, whether or not his dad is part of the program.

Shocker, right?

Lakers guard Bronny James blocks a shot by Spurs forward Kelly Olynyk at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 10.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

For the second consecutive game Friday, Lakers coach JJ Redick called the second-year guard’s number for important minutes.

Not to complete garbage time chores. Not as a gimmick to please the King. But because he needed a ball-handler he could trust after the regular rotation got wonky in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 116-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets at Crypto.com Arena.

For the second consecutive game, Bronny helped buoy the Lakers. In four minutes, he had a deflection and drained a three-pointer that not only keyed a much-needed 9-0 Lakers run but also was the first father-to-son assisted basket in NBA history, coming on a pass from LeBron.

Trailblazers, like at Sierra Canyon High. That’s where Bronny and the Nets’ Ziaire Williams were teammates before Bronny and his dad, “Big Bron,” were Williams’ opponents Friday.

His former teammate sees in Bronny what his current teammates do: A hard worker who needs only to nurture his confidence to be able to contribute in the NBA.

“He’ll be great,” Williams said. “Especially starting off on the defensive end. He can guard one through four, pick up full [court,] have good ball pressure. On the offensive end, he’s a gamer. He can make shots, he can drive the ball. He can get his teammates open. The biggest thing with him is just keeping that confidence.

“When he’s confident and he’s in flow state, in rhythm, he’s a great, great player. … He’s just gotta keep working.”

Bronny’s been working in the G League the last two seasons, bouncing between the big leagues and the developmental circuit, where last season his averages were solid — including 21.9 points, per game — but nowhere near as efficient as they’ve been this season. In 13 games, he’s averaging 14.8 points on 54.7% shooting, including 41.7% from three-point range.

Lakers forward LeBron James greets his son, guard Bronny James, on the court during a game against the Clippers at Crypto.com Arena on Nov. 25.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s just getting back to where it was before the incident,” LeBron said Friday, referencing Bronny’s cardiac arrest caused by a congenital heart defect on July 24, 2023.

“He’s always been able to shoot the ball. He shot the ball at a high level pretty much throughout his years of playing ball. So I just think there’s the confidence in the rhythm and just getting the strength back and his wind and everything. Everything is just coming back.”

That’s carried over to the big club; Bronny is shooting 41.9% from three-point range in those instances when Redick has called on him — as he also did in a 137-130 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.

In that victory, Bronny had four points, two steals and a block in 13 minutes. Redick credited the 21-year-old with settling the team with a pull-up jumper with 3:55 to go in the game, which was the second this season LeBron and Bronny played together.

The first time it happened, in the season opener in 2024, the prevailing thought was that it wouldn’t happen again for a long time — and if it did, something had probably gone very wrong for the Lakers that game.

But that’s not the case. No, because Bronny has made a convincing case as an NBA player.

“I’ve been wanting to play basketball my whole life,” Bronny said. “It’s a dream come true. I’m so privileged to be able to play basketball for a job and I love every single second of it. My teammates embrace it. I’m best friends with all my teammates and my coaches. I’m just happy to be here.”

He’s become an effective plug-and-play piece — and not on a tanking Nets team that regularly runs out G League-caliber players, but on a playoff-bound Lakers team that has won 14 of its last 16 games.

The No. 55 draft pick in 2024, Bronny has surpassed Dalton Knecht, the 17th pick in that same draft, in the Lakers’ pecking order.

He’s become a player who can be counted on, and he’s especially valuable to a team that happens to badly need youth and athleticism, as the Lakers do.

You want to talk twists? How about whatever happens with LeBron — when, or if, he retires — the Lakers should seriously consider keeping Bronny in the fold. Seriously.

Andy Pages hasn’t forgotten about last postseason, though he’d like to. And he’d surely like you to forget about it, too — or, well, most of it.

Feel free to retain the mental image of his epic smash-and-grab catch over teammate Kiké Hernández.

That stunning play in the bottom of the ninth inning didn’t just save Game 7 of the World Series, it also spared Pages’ reputation. Covered for the ignominy of his historically woeful four-for-51 hitting performance.

You know what will help everyone totally flush those memories? To turn the proverbial page? Maybe keep us from mentioning it ever again?

A steady diet of games like Thursday’s.

In an 8-2 season-opening victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium, Pages stood out among his club’s standouts.

And, as the eighth man in the order, he also served up a reminder that there really will be no rest for weary opposing pitchers this season.

The buoyant bottom of the lineup has bite, too: Let the record show it was Pages who hit the Dodgers’ first home run and drove in the club’s first runs to kick off their pursuit of a third consecutive World Series championship.

That it was he who cracked the code against Diamondbacks righty Zac Gallen in the fifth inning, teeing off on a three-run, 400-foot home run to left-center field.

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And that it was his at-bat to lead off the eighth — a full-count single the other way, into right field — that Roberts had to mention postgame.

In spring training, Roberts anointed Pages as this season’s “pick-to-click” candidate, in part because of how hard the 25-year-old center fielder has been working on improving his plate discipline after swinging at 32% of pitches outside of the zone last year.

The pick-to-click distinction previously went to Teoscar Hernández in 2024, before he became an All-Star in his first season with the Dodgers. Last year, Michael Conforto was Roberts’ pick.

Small wonder, perhaps, that Pages isn’t putting too much stock in his manager’s prediction: “It feels really nice for him to say that about me, or to pick me, but obviously I’m not really focused on that,” he said, through an interpreter.

What he’s focused on, he said, “is just trying to do everything I can, every day, to get a little bit better.”

That’s what’s got his manager so revved up.

“He’s a complete player,” Roberts gushed. “And I’m excited to see what he can do this year.”

Is an Andy Pages Breakout Season loading?

Andy Pages, center, celebrates with Teoscar Hernández, left, and Max Muncy after hitting a three-run home run in the fifth inning Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Were last season’s 27 home runs — second most on the Dodgers, behind Shohei Ohtani’s 55 — not a breakout?

I think … not?

Not when Pages so clearly has so much more to give.

Now when he does his homework like he did this spring, stationing himself in front of a pitching machine, calling out balls and strikes. (Watch out, Automated Balls and Strikes system?)

Not if the Dodgers can come to trust him at the plate like they now feel secure with him blanketing the outfield.

“Even last year when there were questions if he could play center field at a high level,” Roberts said. “And he’s worked his tail off, he really has. Every single day, he’s putting in work and he just keeps getting better — his jumps, his lines to the ball, and obviously the arm strength is there.”

On Thursday, Pages had another one of his sensational snags, taking an angle that would’ve made a defensive back proud in pursuit of Geraldo Perdomo’s fly ball to start the seventh. Stretched out, Pages slid beneath the ball to add to his opening-day highlight reel.

“I feel good,” Pages said, when I asked him afterward not about last postseason, but about his confidence heading into this season — though his mind went back there anyway.

“It’s something that happened earlier, the postseason is what the postseason was,” he said. “I’m not really focused on that, I’m focused on what I’m doing right now and my confidence is really high right now.”

Keep it up, and all anyone will remember is the heroics — including those to come.

PHOENIX — Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto went into his final start of the spring with a focus on throwing first-pitch strikes, while also hoping to test his composure with men on base.

He achieved both Friday, limiting the traveling half of the Padres’ split squad to three hits in five scoreless innings. The next time Yamamoto takes the mound for a game, it’ll be on opening day at Dodger Stadium against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.

“There were a few things I wanted to try,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter after his part of the Dodgers’ 4-3 win. “And [Friday] I was able to get into the game very nicely.”

The game featured a possible preview of the Dodger’s opening-day lineup — “I don’t know, we’ll see, it’s some good players,” manager Dave Roberts said with a smile.

Few roster decisions remained, after camp cuts Wednesday included right-handers Kyle Hurt and River Ryan, and infielder Ryan Fitzgerald.

“They’re always difficult with guys hoping, expecting to break with us,” Roberts said of his conversations with cut players. “There’s obviously some good ones where you tell a guy that he’s going to make the club. But I think the main thing that just shouldn’t get lost is, it’s not always just about starting. It’s where you finish.”

As of Friday, Hyeseong Kim and Alex Freeland were still locked in a second-base battle. And the Dodgers had to sort out roles at the back end of the rotation.

Roberts said he expected to carry a swingman who would likely pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen early in the season, when the Dodgers’ schedule includes frequent off days, and later serve as a sixth starter.

Yamamoto, however, had been the clear choice to lead the rotation, long before Roberts made it official Monday.

“It’ll be nice to hand the ball to him and it’s not an elimination game,” Roberts said, referencing Yamamoto’s World Series MVP performance. “That’ll be fun for me.”

Coming off pitching meaningful games in the World Baseball Classic, Yamamoto had one last chance Friday for a tuneup.

He struck out the first three batters he faced, with first-pitch strikes to each.

The next inning, Yamamoto gave up back-to-back one-out singles. He escaped the jam with two more strikeouts. Yamamoto tallied seven strikeouts in an overall smooth performance.

“He came out, really, with a purpose,” Roberts said. “And I thought everything looked good, the fastball — the life to it, the command of it — the cutter, slider, curve ball was good, the split, everything was good. And very efficient. And pretty effortlessly got through five innings, so that was really good to see.”

SACRAMENTO — Heartbreaking loss.

That’s the only way to describe what San Juan Hills players, coaches and fans were feeling on Saturday at Golden 1 Center when Alex Osterloh made two of three free throws with 0.3 seconds left to give Atherton Sacred Heart Prep a 47-45 victory in the Division IV state boys’ basketball championship game.

Osterloh was fouled at the top of the key by Kellen Owens with the scored tied.

“I’m pretty sure I was fouled,” Osterloh said.

San Juan Hills had earlier lost the ball on a turnover, its 19th of the game, surrendering its chance to take the lead.

“It was a tough ending,” San Juan Hills coach Jason Efstathiou said. “We turned over the ball too much. Nineteen is insane. Ultimately we didn’t do a good enough job handling pressure.”

San Juan Hills (22-14) came back from a 12-point deficit in the second quarter to take a four-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Garrett Brehmer finished with 17 points while Rocco Jensen had 10 points and eight rebounds for San Juan Hills. Osterloh scored 15 points and Pat Bala had 13.

“There’s a little distaste,” Efstathiou said, “but at the same time we got to be here.”

Makai Lemon got another chance Thursday to demonstrate his skills for NFL scouts.

About 50 of them — representatives from each of the 32 teams — gathered at USC to spend a few hours evaluating the school’s latest class of draft prospects. Lemon, who won the Biletnikoff Award last fall as college football’s top receiver, had everyone’s attention.

“Running good routes, catching the ball, running fast,” he said of his objectives for the day. “Whatever I showcase, let them know I can do it at a high level.”

It was a more comfortable setting than Indianapolis. At the scouting combine, Lemon’s performance at the podium drew scrutiny — not for anything he said, but for how he said it. He swayed. He was measured, unhurried, visibly unbothered. Some read it as detached. Others saw something else entirely.

“We don’t want a guy who’s phony and coached up,” said one team executive, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We want a guy to be his authentic self. As long as he’s not a jerk, we love it.”

Rams general manager Les Snead, who attended Thursday’s workout of 17 USC players, put it another way. “At the combine you’re usually getting some version of a personality,” he said. “A lot of times it’s, ‘This is my interview personality,’ and that’s not necessarily who they are 365 days a year.”

USC receiver Makai Lemon catches pass during a drill at the NFL combine in Indianapolis last month.

(Julio Cortez / Associated Press)

The other USC prospects who participated in Thursday’s workouts were receivers Ja’Kobi Lane, Jaden Richardson and Jay Fair; running back Eli Sanders; tight end Lake McRee; offensive linemen J’Onre Reed and DJ Wingfield; defensive linemen Anthony Lucas and Keeshawn Silver; linebacker Eric Gentry; cornerbacks DJ Harvey and DeCarlos Nicholson; safeties Bishop Fitzgerald and Kamari Ramsey; punter Sam Johnson; and long snapper Hank Pepper.

Former Trojan linebacker Mason Cobb, who was on the team in 2024, also participated.

Lemon’s credentials are not in dispute. He finished last season with 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns. At 5-foot-11 and 192 pounds he’s not big for the position, and according to a school release ran the 40 in 4.46 seconds, which is fast but not blistering. But those aren’t his main strengths.

“One of the underrated aspects when you’re watching wide receivers is toughness, and he kind of oozes toughness,” said Daniel Jeremiah, lead draft analyst for NFL Network. “He catches everything. He’s super strong physically and super strong to the ball.”

The technical detail that stands out for Jeremiah: Lemon doesn’t leave his feet to catch unless he has to. He stays grounded, keeps himself in position to do something after the ball arrives. Receivers who lunge and cradle in the air have nowhere to go. Receivers who catch with their feet under them turn completions into more yards.

“He’s got a really good feel for the game,” Jeremiah said. “I think he’s going to be a high-volume guy. I think he’ll catch 90-plus balls every year and be the quarterback’s best friend.”

Snead, who has a history of finding productive receivers that others miss — among them Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua — is skeptical of the 40 as a measuring stick.

“You rarely see a route in football where the receiver runs straight for 40 yards and then makes his break,” he said. “Even on a go route you’re usually trying to get an edge on the defender, so you’re not running straight. The 40 might tell you how many gears you have in your body. But sometimes you need to run a route in third gear and then shift into fourth or fifth, or decelerate.”

Jeremiah ranks Lemon among the two best receivers in this draft, giving a slight edge to Ohio State’s Carnell Tate, who projects as more of a down-the-field, big-play threat. Comparisons to Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown (also a former USC player) and Tampa Bay’s Emeka Egbuka have circulated. Jeremiah sees those, but also reaches back to Jarvis Landry, the former Louisiana State standout who made five Pro Bowl appearances.

“I actually think Lemon is a better player than Jarvis Landry coming out,” Jeremiah said. “When you’re instinctive, you’re tough and you catch everything, that’s a pretty high floor. Absolute worst case, you’re going to have a steady, dependable, reliable player.”

Watching from the sideline Thursday was Marqise Lee, who won the Biletnikoff in 2012 — the only other USC player to do so — and was a second-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2014. He has spent much of the past several months as a mentor to Lemon, and when the combine criticism arrived Lee wasn’t surprised by any of it.

“My biggest thing to him was just enjoy it,” Lee said. “I know he got a lot of backlash about the media stuff and things like that, but when you know the guy, he’s not a big talker. He’s calm, he’s all about business.”

Lee believes Lemon has the skills to thrive at the next level, but knows how much context matters once a player gets there.

“The league is different until you actually get there and get the opportunity to practice and go through it,” Lee said. “Some people have a hard time adapting. Once he gets on a team I’ll be texting him: ‘How’s the comfort level? How’s the offense?’ Because that stuff matters. Offensive coordinator, people loving you — all that matters.”

Lemon, for his part, already sounds like someone who has thought about this.

“I want to go in there and be myself,” he said. “Don’t want to try to be anybody else.”

There was some excitement this week at El Camino Real High during batting practice.

JJ Saffie, the best power hitter on the baseball team, hit a ball down the line and over the left-field fence. When a teammate went to retrieve the ball, he discovered that the rear windshield of a car driven by pitcher Jackson Sellz was shattered. He took a photo and showed it to Sellz, who worried what his parents would say.

“We had a good laugh,” father Stu Sellz said.

It turns out the Sellz family has been on the opposite side of breaking windows by hitting home runs since the 1990s. Stu and brothers Scott and Brandon played at Chatsworth. Scott was the family’s best window breaker. Stu’s other son, Braden, also has broken windows.

Now Jackson and the insurance company are paying for him parking too close to the foul pole off Burbank Boulevard.

“This is the baseball god getting back at us,” Stu said.

Jackson usually parks closer to center field, but his preferred parking spot was taken before school began in the morning.

What lesson was learned?

“He now knows to get to school earlier,” Stu said.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

When 32 freshman football players filed excitedly into the meeting room at John McKay Center in January for their first official meeting at USC, each new Trojan from the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class in 2026 was asked to stand up, share their name, number, position and an interesting fact about them.

This was pretty standard fare, as far as ice-breakers go. Albeit with one notable difference from past years.

“It was abnormally long [this year,] for sure,” senior offensive lineman Tobias Raymond said, with a laugh.

As USC opened spring practice on Tuesday, a cursory glance through its spring roster would tell you just how much the Trojans will need those freshmen to find their footing — and fast — in a season likely to be defined by their development. Nearly half of the players in attendance for Tuesday’s first day (46 of 103) were either freshmen or redshirt freshmen. That’s almost triple the current size of USC’s junior or senior classes (16).

If the Trojans have any hope of making the College Football Playoff for the first time in five tries under Lincoln Riley, an influx of 18- and 19-year-olds will play a major part.

“There’s a lot of new guys,” Riley said Tuesday. “Getting a look at these people, seeing where they’re at in terms of their development and where they’ve gotta go, I think the evaluation process is going to be really important.”

At no position will that be more critical than pass catcher, where USC must replace its top two wide receivers, Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane, and top two tight ends, Lake McRee and Walker Lyons. In their place steps a deep crop of young talented options, all hoping to emerge this spring.

There will certainly be no shortage of opportunity for USC’s four incoming freshmen receivers (Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, Trent Mosley, Luc Weaver and Tron Baker) and two incoming tight ends (freshman Mark Bowman and junior college transfer Josiah Jefferson) to make that impression. In addition to the void left by Lemon and Lane’s departures, the Trojans will also be without their top returning wideout this spring, as Tanook Hines will sit out the entire session following an offseason procedure.

Hines, who’s only a sophomore, could probably use the next five weeks of spring to develop, considering how much of the Trojans passing attack is likely to rest on his shoulders this fall. But Riley said he thought Hines’ absence could actually be “a blessing in disguise” for the rest of the room.

“All these guys, they’re going to get a ton of reps and they all need them,” Riley said. “What a phenomenal opportunity for all those other guys to develop and to take advantage of those reps. We’re going to need that.”

That directive has been clear enough to USC starting quarterback Jayden Maiava since the Trojans’ fleet of freshmen arrived on campus. Maiava has spent much of the past two months trying to build a connection with young players on both sides of the ball, taking them out to dinners, watching film with them, walking through the playbook and even conducting players-only sessions on the practice field.

“It’s a big impact for the guys I’m going out there with,” Maiava said Tuesday. “Just letting them know I care about them and I care about their success. I want the best for them, and I want them to know that.”

In his third season as starter, Maiava won’t have the benefit of one of college football’s best pass-catching pairs at his disposal. He’ll also enter 2026 on the shortlist for the Heisman Trophy — and all the pressure that comes with that.

Offensive coordinator Luke Huard said last month that Maiava has had “a tremendous sense of urgency” since the end of last season.

Raymond, who will snap to Maiava as a center this spring, said the quarterback’s communication has improved “exponentially.”

“Seeing when someone is down or seeing when someone has a good play and picking them up or congratulating them, but also getting on people when they do something wrong,” Raymond said. “If he sees something, he calls it out. If he sees something good, he calls it out.”

Receiver isn’t the only spot where freshmen will get a serious chance to compete next season. On the offensive line, five-star offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe — at 6-foot-7, 330 pounds — already looks quite capable of contributing on a Big Ten front. The same could be said of edge rusher Luke Wafle — 6-foot-6, 265 pounds — and defensive tackles Jameion Winfield — 6-foot-3, 325 pounds — all of whom were five-star prospects.

Still, it may take some time for that young talent to show through, with USC also breaking in both a new defense and special teams concepts. But for what the Trojans will likely lack in experience this spring, they’ll make up for, in some part, with depth.

“We’ve never had a spring practice, none of us in all of our years, that we’ve had this high of a percentage of your full roster already here for spring,” Riley said. “Which is a huge advantage.”

There’s still the small matter of getting all those newcomers to gel. But on that note, Riley thinks talk of USC’s youth movement overlooks how many talented players are returning.

“We’ve kind of gotten painted on the outside as just this crazy young team,” Riley said. “Like, we do have some really good youth, and I know that class has gotten some attention in terms of how that recruiting process played out, but we’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball here. … You like the talent that we have, you like the returners. I love the guys we brought in. But like one of the best sports franchises of all time said, ‘You’re not collecting talent, you’re building a team.’

“We’ve got talent. Now we’ve got to build a team.”

Injury report

In addition to being down its No. 1 receiver, USC will be without two of its returning starters on the offensive line this spring. Center Kilian O’Connor and right tackle Justin Tauanuu will sit out while recovering from surgical procedures. Left tackle Elijah Paige didn’t practice on Day 1 of spring ball, either.

Cornerbacks Jontez Williams and Chasen Johnson and safety Christian Pierce won’t participate this spring, either, Riley said Tuesday.

Running back Waymond Jordan was limited to start spring ball, as was defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart.