Sports News Roundup: Cricket-Thorpe says Ashes shock can spur young England batters on; Report: NBA reducing COVID return time for some players and more

Bangladesh claimed three wickets in the final session but world test champions New Zealand will be confident of a 300-plus score when Henry Nicholls resumes on 32 with Rachin Ravindra joining him on Sunday. Tennis-Raducanu pulls out of Australian Open warm-up event in Melbourne U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from this week's Australian Open warm-up tournament in Melbourne having just come out of isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, she said on Saturday.

Following is a summary of current sports news briefs.

Cricket-Thorpe says Ashes shock can spur young England batters on

England's young batters have been given a "wake-up call" by Australia in the Ashes series and must use it to kick-start their careers, assistant coach Graham Thorpe said. England find themselves down 3-0 in the five-match series, with none of their batters scoring a century amid struggles against Australia's superb pace attack.

Report: NBA reducing COVID return time for some players

Some NBA players could face a shorter waiting period to return to action following a positive COVID-19 test. ESPN reported Friday that the league and the National Basketball Players Association have agreed on a new health and safety protocol for vaccinated and asymptomatic players who have tested positive.

Cricket-Australia's Khawaja looks beyond stop-gap Sydney role

While Usman Khawaja is ready to fill in for Travis Head in the fourth Ashes test against England, the veteran Australia batsman hopes his would not be a stop-gap role this year. Head will miss the Sydney contest, which begins on Wednesday, after testing positive for COVID-19, and Khawaja is set to play his first test in more than two years.

Tennis-Spain, Argentina early winners as ATP Cup opens new season

Spain and Argentina both won their ATP Cup ties with some ease as men's professional tennis returned for the 2022 season in the lucrative team tournament at Sydney's Olympic Park on Saturday. Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta made light of the absence of Rafa Nadal with contrasting victories over Chileans Cristian Garín and Alejandro Tabilo.

NHL roundup: Devils nab wild OT win over Oilers

Jack Hughes scored with 2:05 left in overtime Friday for the New Jersey Devils, who edged the Edmonton Oilers 6-5 in a wild back-and-forth affair in Newark, N.J. Hughes, who also scored the Devils' first goal 1:38 into the first period, fired a shot that Mike Smith partially squeezed but could not entirely stop as the puck trickled behind him.

Report: Liberty to hire Sandy Brondello as new coach

The New York Liberty will hire former Phoenix Mercury coach Sandy Brondello to the same position, ESPN reported Friday night. Brondello coached Phoenix for eight years, but the two sides agreed to mutually part ways in early December despite the Mercury reaching the WNBA Finals.

NHL postpones more games in Canada due to fan limits

Even as teams return to the ice following their extended break due to coronavirus outbreaks around the league, the NHL continued Friday to postpone games due to attendance restrictions in Canada, extending the list of postponements to 16 games in the next two weeks. The league announced Tuesday it would move games in five of its seven Canadian cities to "dates later in the season when such restrictions may be eased or lifted." With the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, capacity at indoor sporting events is currently limited in Canada, depending on the province.

NBA roundup: DeMar DeRozan, Bulls sink Pacers at buzzer

DeMar DeRozan drilled a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to cap a 28-point effort, as the Chicago Bulls topped the Indiana Pacers 108-106 on Friday in Indianapolis to extend their winning streak to six games.

Cricket-Conway hits century on return to put New Zealand ahead

Devon Conway celebrated his return from injury with a sparkling 122 on Saturday to propel New Zealand to 258-5 against Bangladesh on the opening day of the first test in Mount Maunganui. Bangladesh claimed three wickets in the final session but world test champions New Zealand will be confident of a 300-plus score when Henry Nicholls resumes on 32 with Rachin Ravindra joining him on Sunday.

Tennis-Raducanu pulls out of Australian Open warm-up event in Melbourne

U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from this week's Australian Open warm-up tournament in Melbourne having just come out of isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, she said on Saturday. Raducanu, who became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam when she triumphed at Flushing Meadows in September, had pulled out of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event in Abu Dhabi last month after contracting the virus.