MEN’S CRICKET: Durham meet Hampshire at Chester-le-Street tomorrow evening for the second semi final of the Twenty20 Blast. The winners will face Northamptonshire in the semis after they edged out Surrey by seven runs in Wednesday’s rain-shortened game. Saturday’s other last four ties see 2024 runners up Somerset taking on the Birmingham Bears and Lancashire up against Kent. Finals day is at Edgbaston next Saturday.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL: The new NFL season kicks off at the home of defending champions Philadelphia Eagles late on Thursday night when they take on the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys failed to reach the play-offs last season and have not lifted the Lombardi Trophy for 30 years. Kansas City Chiefs, who won the Super Bowl in 2023 and 2024 before losing to Philadelphia in 2025 begin on Saturday with a match at the Los Angeles Chargers.

MEN’S BASKETBALL: Birmingham-born Myles Hesson top-scored with 25 points and Akwasi Yeboah weighed in with another 23 as Britain beat Macedonia 89-83 in Tampere, Finland for their first win at the Eurobasket competition since 2013. Neither team qualified for the last 16 as undefeated Group B winners Germany stormed through with a 91-61 thumping of fellow qualifiers Finland and Lithuania squeezed past Sweden 74-71.

MEN’S FOOTBALL: Scotland begin their World Cup qualifying campaign with a trip to Denmark tomorrow evening. Despite reaching the last two Euros the Scots haven’t made the World Cup finals since 1998. Greece host Belarus in the other Group C game. England take their three game winning start in Group K to Villa Park where they face Andorra before Ireland play their opening qualifier against Hungary in Dublin.