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Glenn Maxwell produced one of the most astonishing Cricket World Cup innings by smashing 201 off 128 balls to lead Australia past Afghanistan with 19 deliveries to spare and into the semifinals.

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Sport Journal
November 07, 2023

G'day sports fans,

🗣️ "I was standing up and doing this (motions showing two fingers) across the post, I'm like, 'What are you doing you moron?'." - Mark Zahra, who became the first jockey to win consecutive Melbourne Cups since Glen Boss won three in a row on Makybe Diva between 2003 and 2005.

He is the 10th jockey to win the Cup in back-to-back years.

📧 P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

🏏 Glenn Maxwell produced one of the most astonishing Cricket World Cup innings by smashing 201 off 128 balls to lead Australia past Afghanistan with 19 deliveries to spare and into the semifinals.

Maxwell finished his highest ODI knock unable to run between the wickets because of cramp, just slashing the ball over the boundary without moving his legs as Australia chased down its target of 292.

The allrounder came to the rescue after Australia slumped to 91-7 in reply to Afghanistan's 291-5.

He hit 21 fours as well as 10 sixes, the last coming off the final ball of the match.

Probably the greatest ODI knock of all-time from Maxwell.

💰 The Socceroos and Matildas look set to be rewarded with a first-ever 50-50 split in prize money from World Cup performances as part of football's new collective bargaining agreement.

⚽️ Sydney FC parted ways with long-serving manager Steve Corica on Tuesday after the five-time A-League champions lost the first three games of the new season without scoring.

Corica, who has been at the club since their first season in 2005 as a player and then coach, led the Sky Blues to their last two Australian titles in 2018-19 and 2019-2020.

  •  5x A-League Men's Championships

  • 4x A-League Men's Premierships

  • 2x Australia Cups

  • Oceanic Club Championship

  • Youth League Championship

  • In-augural Hall of Fame Member

  • Sydney FC Team of the Decade Captain

  • Longest Serving Head Coach

The Melbourne Cup Wrap:

The 2023 Melbourne Cup won by the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Without A Fight completing the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double for the first time in 22 years.

There were a number of standout performances in the race that stops the nation, but just as many head-scratchers as well.

Chris Waller is Australia’s best trainer and he once again proved why, saddling up the second and third place-getters behind Without A Fight. 

The runner-up Soulcombe could be considered a hardluck story as he missed the start by three lengths, settled well back in the field before charging to the line to finish 2.25 lengths off first place. 

Soulcombe’s runner-up finish comes with a $1.1 million payday for his owners, The Punt End Syndicate, which includes Jack Riewoldt, Tom Lynch, Liam Baker, Nathan Broad and Jack Graham are also part of the syndicate. With Riewoldt conceding he was more nervous on Cup morning than on Grand Final day.

While one lucky punter saw their $2 bet turned into $100,763 on a first four mystery bet.

The Loser of the day was surely the favourite VAUBAN. He was hyped up as being one of the better international horses that has ever come to Australia to contest our great race, however he was pretty disappointing on face value despite enjoying a lovely run in transit. 

“Obviously a disappointing run from him. Maybe he didn’t fire today, the winner was very good, and we didn’t get home today unfortunately,” - Trainer Willie Mullins.

The entertainment?: Delta Goodrem performed at the Melbourne Cup for the first time in 16 years. 

Goodrem joined former Noiseworks frontman Jon Stevens and Natalie Imbruglia as part of a star-studded line-up at Flemington.

However it wasn’t received well by everybody: “Delta superglued to the piano as usual. Way to put everyone in the mood. If the mood was a solid 8 hours sleep,” - one fan wrote on Twitter.

⚽️ Kuwait has been confirmed as the host nation for the Socceroos’ 2026 World Cup qualifier against Palestine on November 21.

With Palestine unable to host the game due to the current situation in the region, the Asian Football Confederation requested the second-round qualifier be played at a neutral venue.

🏉 The Bulldogs have continued their coaching restructure, with former skipper Josh Jackson set to lead the Jersey Flegg side in 2024, while Steve Turner will be in charge of the SG Ball team. 

It’s all part of a policy to have “Bulldogs coaching young Bulldogs” as general manager of football, Phil Gould, posted on X, formerly Twitter.

⚽️ Manchester United and Newcastle United are both monitoring Lyon's 20-year-old French forward Rayan Cherki, who is out of contract in June 2025.

🏉 Salt in the wounds: New Zealand captain Sam Cane has been banned for three games for his red card in the World Cup final. Cane will turn out for Suntory Sungoliath in Japan this season.

👊🏻 UFC president Dana White has announced three UFC title bouts for 2024, including a middleweight clash between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis.

American Strickland, 32, who shocked Israel Adesanya in September, makes the first defence of his belt against South Africa's Du Plessis, 29, at UFC 297 on 20 January in Toronto, Canada.

Alexander Volkanovski puts his featherweight title on the line against Ilia Topuria in February, and Sean O'Malley defends his bantamweight belt against Marlon Vera in March.

The featherweight and bantamweight fights are yet to have timings and locations confirmed by the UFC.

Australia's Volkanovski, 35, who stepped in on short notice last month in the defeat by Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title, returns to featherweight to make the sixth defence of his belt against 26-year-old Georgian Topuria.

🥇 Throwback to: Austrian-German weightlifter Matthias Steiner is a one-of-a-kind fighter. Steiner was married in 2005 to his wife Susan.

Steiner then decided it was time to retire from weightlifting, but she pushed him to continue. Steiner promised to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but then tragedy struck.

Susan passed away in a car crash in 2007 before the games began. Instead of stopping, Matthias made the bold decision to honor his wife through competition.

He trained even harder, focused intently, and won the Gold by lifting more than he had ever lifted before. It's an incredible display of emotion, pride, and love.

🏒 A coroner has called for neck guards in ice hockey to be compulsory following the death of a player whose neck was cut during a match.

Nottingham Panthers player Adam Johnson suffered the injury from a skate worn by Sheffield Steelers player Matt Petgrave on 28 October. 

The coroner said she was concerned deaths may occur in the future if neck guards were not worn.

🏀 Bronny James is set to get a checkup at the end of the month after his cardiac arrest this summer and will start practicing with USC if he's cleared, according to his dad [LeBron James]

Draymond Green taking a shot in the unmentionables…

🎾 Iga Swiatek thrashed Jessica Pegula to win the season-ending WTA Finals and move back to the top of the women's rankings.

The Pole needed to beat the American in the final in Cancun to overtake Aryna Sabalenka as world number one and she did so with a dominant 6-1 6-0 win.

⛳️ Rory McIlroy will play for Boston Common Golf in the new TGL "high-tech league" but Jon Rahm has withdrawn.

Northern Ireland's McIlroy, who has launched the venture with Tiger Woods, is joined in a four-man squad by Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton.

The Golf League is getting a mixed reception with golf fans, saying that “playing simulator golf is boring enough, without having to watch other people do it.”

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