As India prepares for the four-match Test tour of the West Indies next month, Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane believes being mentally strong and focused is more important than being just technically correct in cricket.

Jason Roy was left with a bitter-sweet taste after his spectacular match-winning 162 clinched a one-day series win over Sri Lanka yesterday.

Brazilian football star Hulk signed for Chinese side Shanghai SIPG yesterday after passing a medical, the club said, as the cash-rich Chinese Super League embarks on a new round of spending.

Fresh from leaving England aching, Iceland’s joint-coach and part-time dentist Heimir Hallgrimsson senses a cavity to be filled in France’s Euro 2016 campaign.

Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has applied to world athletics governing body IAAF to compete at the Rio Olympics despite Russia’s ban, athletics authorities in Moscow said yesterday.

Determined to exit swimming on his own terms, Michael Phelps cleared a major hurdle on the road to Rio on Wednesday, qualifying for a fifth Olympics with a victory that has paved the way to more Games glory.

It was CC Sabathia on Tuesday, with the reasonable voice of an elder statesman, who said now was the time for the Yankees to play with urgency. Before that, it was Brian Cashman who said these were the days that would determine the Yankees’ identity at the trade deadline and beyond.

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone, a month on from a second Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in three years, has made it clear that his immediate future is with the Spanish club.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic said yesterday he is joining Manchester United, ending intense speculation about where the 34-year-old Swedish superstar forward will be playing next season.

Diego Maradona apparently boasted that his 1986 World Cup-winning Argentina team was better than the current squad now thrown into turmoil by Lionel Messi’s departure, in a recording published yesterday.

In attempting to unpick England’s Euro 2016 humiliation by Iceland, captain Wayne Rooney and outgoing manager Roy Hodgson touched upon a common theme: mental readiness.

Two of Europe’s most prolific marksmen go head-to-head as Robert Lewandowski aims to end Cristiano Ronaldo’s dreams of landing an international trophy when Poland meet Portugal in a Euro 2016 quarter-final clash today.