One hug spoke a thousand words.

With two balls to go, South Africa needed 38 runs to win the Women’s T20 World Cup. New Zealand’s hands were all-but on the trophy and their legendary captain Sophie Devine looked to the sky in a brave attempt to fight back tears.

And when the victory was confirmed, Suzie Bates, her international team-mate since 2006, leapt into her arms in an overload of emotions from joy, to disbelief, to pure ecstasy at a lifelong dream finally being achieved.

It was the crowning moment for 35-year-old Devine and Bates, 37, who have made a combined 624 appearances for their beloved White Ferns.

For a pair who have seen it all, who have lived and breathed every single moment of New Zealand cricket’s highs and lows – back-to-back final defeats in 2009 and 2010, to the 10 consecutive losses leading into this tournament, all culminating in the most unlikely victory in their 18th year of international sport.

Neither had particularly eye-catching tournaments in terms of statistics, and by their own high standards, but cricket goes beyond numbers.

Bates’ experience at the top of the order allowed her 20-year-old partner Georgia Plimmer to express herself freely, both finishing at the team’s joint-highest run-scorers with 150 each.

Devine’s calming influence as captain and unwavering trust in her players allowed Melie Kerr to take a record-breaking 15 wickets in the campaign.

With Bates’ and Devine’s glory comes an unforgettable moment for a country with a population of fewer than six million, where its best female athletes tend to opt for netball and rugby, where they are not blessed with a talent pool in the vein of Australia, India or England.

But the bigger picture for the women’s game goes beyond New Zealand’s story. Their victory offers hope for a sport that was becoming too predictable, such was Australia’s dominance in winning six of the past seven titles.

It has proven that the gap between Australia and the rest may not be as big as we once thought – but the game must not become complacent. It must be a turning point, not the endgame.

FOOTIE star Phil Foden nets again — reeling in a monster carp on a fishing trip.

The Man City and England ace, 24, was thrilled to catch the 28lb beast at a fishery near Lechlade, Gloucs.

4

4

Advertisement

In a TikTok video, he boasted to his fishing partner — ITV4’s Monster Carp host Neil Spooner, with Phil: “It’s a big one!”

The midfielder, who played in City’s win yesterday, is a keen angler and plans to swap football for fishing when he retires.

After the Euros, Foden went on a £14-a-day angling holiday on the edge of the Cotswolds.

The £200,000-a-week Man City star snubbed exotic destinations popular with his Three Lions team-mates to spend five days with his dad fishing for carp, catfish, tench, pike and perch.

An onlooker at Linear Fisheries in Witney, Oxfordshire, said: “Phil was happy as Larry camping out in a cheap tent,

“He was so down to earth and was just hell-bent on trying to land himself a carp as the lake has some absolutely enormous ones in it.

“While his England pals were living it up in posh hotels next to beaches, the most luxurious thing Phil had on his holiday was a Portaloo.”

Foden was winding down after the Euros ahead of rejoining the City squad preparing for the new season.

He is an avid angler and has boasted about his big catches on Instagram.

Foden started fishing with his dad, Phil Senior, as a boy and said previously: “It’s the perfect hobby to rest your legs and have some down time.

“Probably about 95 per cent of the football lads don’t enjoy it.

“The odd one likes fishing, so when people find out they say: ‘what a weird sport to enjoy’.

“They don’t understand why you enjoy it.

“Obviously, they need to go and try it.

“I think it’s the perfect hobby to rest your legs and have some down time.”

Foden has shared several of his top catches on social media from his trips to lakes across the UK and in Spain, which was the location of his biggest catch yet – a HUGE 130LB Catfish.

4

4

LAS VEGAS – Rob Font had his back against the wall entering UFC Fight Night 245, but the recent changes he’s made in his MMA career helped him get out of that situation.

Font (21-8 MMA, 11-7 UFC), 37, was coming off two consecutive losses and was 1-4 in his past five outings prior to Saturday’s co-main event bout at the UFC Apex. Defeating young, rising contender Kyler Phillips was a must, and that he did. Font’s unanimous decision win over Phillips (12-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) came at a much-needed time, and also a time of change.

“Yeah, losing two in a row, a new camp, you obviously hope you made the right decisions,” Font told reporters at the UFC Fight Night 245 post-fight press conference. “I put a lot of pressure on me. I want to win. I want to win, and I want to get as many wins as possible, and I want to look good doing it. I was to represent my family the right way. So yeah, there was a lot of pressure, but this is what we do, and this is what we want. We want those moments, and I’m not afraid of that.”

This was Font’s first fight under seasoned coach Firas Zahabi at Tristar, most notably the home of MMA legend Georges St-Pierre. Font believes the switch to Tristar was key to his career and will continue to train there for the foreseeable future.

“It was a whole new camp and a whole new scenario,” Font said. “I was in Montreal basically all summer. I trained with all the guys out there. Firas has been a huge help in my career, and they took me in, and they opened up the red carpet for me, and I just want to give a shout-out back to everybody in Montreal.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 245.

Ferrari will continue with an unchanged Hypercar class driver line-up in next year’s World Endurance Championship.

Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s head of sportscar racing, confirmed on Sunday that the #50 499P Le Mans Hypercar will be raced in 2025 by Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina and #51 by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi for a third consecutive season.

The announcement made at the Ferrari World Finals for its one-make challenge series at Imola followed news announced on Saturday that Fuoco and Molina had renewed their factory contracts for next year.

Calado and Pier Guidi were granted contract extensions this time last year.

Coletta explained that there was no reason to make changes to the driver roster for the third campaign by the factory AF Corse team in the WEC.

“It is confirmed: #50 and #51 will not change – we will have the same drivers,” he said. “The #50 and #51 will be exactly the same.

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“We are happy with the line-ups: we have won with both at the Le Mans 24 Hours [with #51 in 2023 and #50 in ’24].”

Coletta stressed the importance of “consistency and continuity” in terms of the drivers on its Hypercar squad.

“When we started with the 499P and chose our GT pilots some people were not happy,” he continued.

“But even the sceptics have had to change their minds. All six 499P drivers have won Le Mans, which I think validates our choices.”

There has been no confirmation of the drivers for the #83 satellite entry run by AF Corse on a customer basis and driven this year by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman

Coletta outlined a hope to “announce it just before the Bahrain race” [this year’s WEC final on 2 November.

He ruled out Arthur Leclerc, brother of Ferrari F1 driver Charles, racing the car next year, even though he is scheduled to test one of the 499Ps in the WEC rookie test at Bahrain the day after the season finale.

Coletta explained that the younger of the Leclerc brothers, who is listed as a development driver for the F1 team, still needed to learn about sportscar racing.

He was placed by Ferrari for this year in the endurance segment of the Italian GT Championship, which he is contesting alongside his LMP2 commitments in the European Le Mans Series with Panis Racing.

“Our goal is for Arthur to keep learning about endurance and then there might be the chance for him to catch an opportunity in one of our prototypes in the future,” said Coletta.

Davide Rigon, Alessio Rovera, Daniel Serra and Lilou Wadoux, who are all part of the Ferrari factory roster of GT3 drivers, have also had their contracts extended into next year.