decider

Los Angeles Dodgers send the World Series to a decisive seventh game after defeating Toronto Blue Jays in Canada.

The Los Angeles Dodgers kept alive on Friday their hopes of becoming Major League Baseball’s (MLB) first repeat champion in 25 years, with a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays that pushed the World Series to a decisive seventh game.

With their backs against the wall and facing elimination for the first time this postseason, a Dodgers team that had no room for error got six solid innings from starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto while Mookie Betts and Will Smith provided the offence.

Toronto thought they tied the game on an inside-the-park homerun in the ninth on a bizarre play, when the ball was lodged at the bottom of the outfield fence where Dodgers outfielder Justin Dean immediately raised his hands to rule the play dead.

A video review went the Dodgers’ way and determined it was a ground rule double, which left Toronto with runners on second and third with not outs.

Ernie Clement then hit an infield pop and Andres Gimenez lined out to left before Kike Hernandez turned the double play when he fired the ball to second base to get Addison Barger out and end the game.

The Dodgers victory put on hold, for one day at least, a coast-to-coast party in Canada, where fans of the lone MLB club are desperate to celebrate the Blue Jays’ first World Series triumph in 32 years.

Dodgers’ season on the line in Game 6

As they were at the start of the season, the Dodgers came into the World Series as an overwhelming favourite and with few expecting the Blue Jays to produce much of a challenge and even fewer calling for it to go the distance.

With their season on the line, Los Angeles opened the scoring in the third on a run-scoring double by Smith, before Betts singled in a pair of runs to put Los Angeles ahead 3-0.

Barger led off the bottom half of the third with a double before scoring on a George Springer single to get the Blue Jays within two.

The Dodgers’ starting rotation had been the team’s strength this postseason, but the Blue Jays picked it apart en route to grabbing a 3-2 lead in the World Series before Yamamoto once again took matters into his own hands.

The Japanese ace, who threw complete-game gems in his previous two starts, struck out six batters and allowed one run on five hits across six innings before the Dodgers turned to a bullpen that has been their weak link all season.

The Blue Jays threatened in the eighth when they got runners on first and second with one out before Roki Sasaki retired Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho grounded out to end the inning, before once again getting close in the ninth.

Play was temporarily disrupted in the sixth inning when a spectator scaled the outfield wall and stormed the field with a United States flag before he was promptly taken down by security guards and escorted away.

Game 7 will be played on Saturday in Toronto.

The Blue Jays will feel aggrieved after a controversial umpiring call prevented them from levelling the score in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk was hit by a pitch from reliever Roki Sasaki and replaced by speedy pinch-runner Myles Straw, before Addison Barger’s line drive wedged under the wall in left centre field.

But instead of allowing Straw and Barger to score, the play was ruled to be a ground rule double,, external putting the runners on second and third.

A ground rule double is typically signalled when a ball hit fair is deemed to be impossible to field in the layout of a particular stadium, such as when it becomes trapped under a tarpaulin, and runners are allowed to advance by two bases.

The hosts challenged the call, arguing that a fielder could easily have retrieved the ball, but the on-field decision was upheld by video review.

And with the tying run in scoring position, Andres Gimenez drove into a double play to end the game.

Earlier, the Dodgers drew first blood on Halloween night as Tommy Edman doubled, Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked, and Smith’s double to left field sent Edman home.

Freddie Freeman drew a walk to load the bases, and Betts’ two-run single gave the visitors what proved to be a decisive lead to force a decider.

Game seven takes place on Saturday evening, again at the Rogers Centre.

Mark Allen survived a spirited comeback from China’s Zhou Yuelong to win the English Open in a final-frame decider and claim his first ranking title in 19 months.

Northern Ireland’s Allen led Sunday’s final in Brentwood 6-2 and 7-3 before Zhou roared back to win five consecutive frames and lead for the first time.

Former world number one Allen, however, showed his own powers of recovery to win the last two frames and win 9-8 in a final that lasted seven hours over two sessions.

It is Allen’s 12th ranking title and first since the Players Championship in February 2024.

With Sunday’s victory, 39-year-old Allen earned the £100,000 top prize and lifted the Steve Davis Trophy for the first time.

It was a fitting end to the week for the former UK Championship and Masters winner, who also edged out Stuart Bingham, Ding Junhui, Elliot Slessor and Jak Jones in final-frame deciders to reach the final.

“I thought Zhou battled really hard in that second session, he played some good stuff,” said Allen.

“He put me under pressure, I missed a few balls and I was nervous. I missed a few that I shouldn’t have but at 8-7 I suddenly switched on a bit.

“It’s a good trait to have. I don’t want to keep relying on it but I felt as good as any part of the match in those last two frames, but I feel for Zhou, he probably deserved that for the character he showed.”

India close day one of the fifth and final Test of their tour of England on 204-6 with skipper Shubman Gill was run out.

England gained the upper hand after a rain-hit first day of the final Test against India at The Oval as the tourists, needing victory to square the series, battled to 204-6, with all their big guns dismissed cheaply.

England had to work hard for their breakthroughs on Thursday and will be delighted to have got rid of KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Shubman Gill, the men who have tormented them recently, though captain Gill gifted his wicket with a suicidal run-out.

Even though there are four days remaining, India’s chances of fighting their way into a position where they could force a victory already look extremely slim.

The overcast morning conditions had looked ideal for England’s all-seam attack, even without injured captain Ben Stokes, but they lacked a cutting edge.

Recalled Gus Atkinson trapped Yashasvi Jaiswal lbw for two as stand-in captain Ollie Pope finally got on the right side of a DRS review after 14 unsuccessful appeals last year.

Rahul, with more than 500 runs to his name from the first four matches, looked relatively untroubled before playing on to Chris Woakes for 14 as India reached lunch on 72-2.

Gill, averaging more than 90 and with four centuries to his name in the series, then inexplicably set off for a non-existent single and was run out by four yards as bowler Atkinson had time to transfer the ball to his right hand before throwing down the stumps.

Gill had started the day with all sorts of records in his sights but, by adding only 21, he achieved only a couple as his tally of 743 took him beyond West Indies’ Garfield Sobers (722 in 1966) as the highest-scoring visiting captain and also moved him into the top nine for the most runs scored in a series in England – either for or against the hosts.

After a rain-delayed restart, a wayward Josh Tongue, whose first over lasted nine balls and went for 12 runs, finally found his line to nip the edge of Sai Sudharsan’s bat to dismiss him for 38.

Tongue repeated the feat soon afterwards to remove Jadeja – who scored a superb unbeaten century in his team’s rearguard action in the fourth test – for nine and India were reeling on 123-5 with their big-hitters all gone, or in the case of Rishabh Pant, absent through injury.

Dhruv Jurel, a ball after overturning an lbw decision against him, then got tucked up by Atkinson and was caught neatly at second slip by Harry Brook for 19.

Karun Nair batted calmly to finish on 52 not out, and Washington Sundar, another centurion last Sunday, was on 19 at the close as the impressive Atkinson finished the day with figures of two for 31 off 19 overs.

It was a less enjoyable day for Woakes, who suffered a serious-looking shoulder injury after falling heavily as he dived to try to prevent a boundary in the final overs.