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Aston Villa delivered an emphatic response to their defeat against Arsenal by dismantling relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest 3-1 at Villa Park, temporarily climbing to second in the Premier League.

Captain John McGinn’s first ever brace in England’s top flight combined with Ollie Watkins’ spectacular strike ensured Unai Emery’s side extended their remarkable home form to 11 consecutive victories across all competitions.

Villa dominated possession throughout the opening period, controlling 79 percent of the ball yet struggling to translate their superiority into meaningful opportunities.

The breakthrough arrived deep into first-half stoppage time when Watkins collected possession 25 yards from goal, executed a sharp turn and unleashed a thunderous right-footed drive into the top corner past John Victor.

The England international ended his Villa Park goal drought dating back to September’s victory over Fulham, with his previous five league strikes all arriving on the road.

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McGinn doubled the advantage just three minutes after the restart when Matty Cash delivered a low cross into the penalty area that the Scottish midfielder side-footed past Victor for his first goal in three months.

Morgan Gibbs-White briefly threatened a comeback in the 61st minute, advancing into the danger zone before delicately chipping the ball over Emiliano Martinez to reduce the deficit.

Any hopes of a Forest recovery were extinguished 12 minutes later through a catastrophic goalkeeping error.

Youri Tielemans lofted a long ball forward that prompted Victor to charge recklessly from his area, leaving McGinn to simply round the stranded Brazilian before rolling the ball into an unguarded net from thirty yards.

Victor immediately clutched his calf following the incident and departed the pitch visibly distressed, replaced by Matz Sels.

The victory establishes a 12-point cushion over fifth-placed Chelsea, while Forest’s fourth consecutive defeat leaves them precariously positioned just above the relegation zone ahead of Tuesday’s crucial showdown with fellow strugglers West Ham.

The result maintains Villa’s title charge, sitting three points behind leaders Arsenal ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Crystal Palace.

McGinn epitomises Villa’s transformation under Emery and put in another sublime showing today, with Stuart Pearce hailing the midfielder on talkSPORT commentary duty.

Stuart Pearce praises John McGinn after Aston Villa rout

Speaking on talkSPORT this afternoon, Pearce named McGinn as his Player of the Match against Forest.

Pearce said that you simply have to ‘fall in love with him’, also noting that McGinn is a player he would’ve loved to have worked with as a manager after what was yet another brilliant display.

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The 31-year-old is a quite simply indispensable member of Emery’s eleven, playing every single league game and starting all but one of those matches.

The £120,000-per-week club captain is set to play a decisive role in Villa’s quest to win a first ever Premier League title, with Emery praising McGinn as a role model for the team ever since he took charge.

Villa next take on Crystal Palace this Wednesday before travelling to Tottenham in the FA Cup, and Emery will need McGinn in full flow just as he was today.

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Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan bowled India Under-19 to a 167-run victory in thefirst ‘Test’ at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Friday. He returned remarkable figures of eight for 38 in the second innings as the touristsfolded with five minutes to spare.In his last spell, the left-arm spinner bowled 18.3 overs, 15 of which were maidens, giving away six runs and picking up seven wickets from the Tata end.England Under-19 were bowled out for 183 in 98.3 overs after playing3.3 overs beyond the mandatory limit. Gary Pratt top-scored with 66.Skipper Ian Bell continued his good run with the bat scoring 48.The day very much belonged to the Indian spinners. During the firstsession, there were signs of a draw as Pratt, Nikki Peng and Bell batted withgrit and determination. The morning produced 106 runs for the loss of onewicket in 40 overs.Aftre lunch, however, the tourists lost three wickets inscoring 62 runs off 31 overs. It was the last session that spelt doom forthe tourists as they lost six wickets for just 12 runs in 26.3 overs.The tourists began the day needing 348 for victory with ten wickets inhand. Openers Pratt and Peng gave them a good start, putting on60 runs off 19.2 overs. Peng was dismissed for 28 when he edged toIshan Ganda in the slips.Pratt and Bell continued their good form, adding 100 for the second wicket off 38.2 overs. Bell was dismissed shortly after the drinks interval in the second session. A lapse in concentration cost the skipper his wicket and a well deserved half-century when he was adjudged leg before for 48. Bell departed with the score at 160. Six runs later, Pratt joined him in the dressing room, top-edging a sweep shot to leg slip.After their departure, none of the batsmen looked comfortable against the spin trio of Dharmichand, Khadkikar and Vidyuth.The tourists at one stage were cruising along at 160 for one but theyslumped sharply. They lost nine wickets for the addition of 23 runs in 40.4overs.Kadeer Ali failed to reach double figures as he was caught sweeping offVidyuth by the keeper. He struggled to counter the tweakers ofDharmichand and Sivaramakrishnan while facing 27 balls.Dharmichand foxed Ian Pattison with a flighted delivery. He fell forthe loop that Vidyuth imparted on the ball and played the ball into thehands of Vinayak Mane at silly point after scoring three.One run later, Robert Ferley edged Vidyuth to wicket-keeper AjayRatra for one. The runs began to dry up as Dharmichand and Vidyuth had the batsmen struggling with a judicious mixture of turn and flight.Wicket-keeper Mark Wallace and Kyle Hogg battled hard as they tried tosave the game. Both left-handers used their pads to paddle away mostdeliveries but the middle order simply cracked under pressure. Wallace was left stranded at one end as Vidyuth ran through the tail. Wallace remained unbeaten on five from 91 balls, figures that symbolised his struggle.The tourists never showed any signs of recovering after the two mainbatsmen departed. The spinning track at Wankhede was hard too hard tohandle for the tourists.The teams now meet in the second ‘Test’ in the three-match series in Chennai, which begins on January 20.

Greg Chappell: “Had it been one of the players who was attacked there would have been an outcry, but because it was me no-one seemed to care” © AFP

Greg Chappell believes he was the victim of a racist attack during his difficult two-year tenure as India’s coach, and in an ABC documentary to be screened next week, hits out at the Indian authorities who he feels attempted to play down a serious breach of security at Bhubaneswar Airport, in the eastern state of Orissa.The team had just arrived to play a one-day international against West Indies in January this year when a fan burst out of the crowd and threw a punch at Chappell. “I got hit on the side of the head and my immediate reaction was ‘he’s broken my jaw’,” Chappell told the documentary team.Although there was a suggestion at the time that the lack of local representation in the Indian team was the motive for the attack, Chappell was not so sure. “Indians are very quick to complain about racism,” he said. “There are plenty of Indian cricketers the guy could have attacked but he chose to attack me.”According to a report in the Chappell elaborated on the events that followed the incident, in particular the lack of action from the Indian board. “As I said to the BCCI in a letter, had it been one of the players who was attacked there would have been an outcry, but because it was me no-one seemed to care. The reply came back talking about my racist comments.”There was a cover-up,” he added. “Everyone went into cover-up mode. It was quite obvious it was a serious assault. It wasn’t just a push in the back as the media was led to believe. The whole thing was played down. The only phone call I got from the BCCI asked me whether it really happened.”As far as Chappell was concerned, there is no question what happened. “This bloke came in from behind and gave me a whack in the right ear,” he told the Australian. “Luckily he yelled out as he was leaping through the air to punch me and gave me enough warning to pull away a little bit.”It was still a fairly solid blow. My legs buckled, but I had a briefcase on wheels with a long handle and I was able to use it as support to stop me from going down.”Chappell quit as India’s coach four months later, following a disastrous World Cup campaign, but he claims that the incident cemented his decision to walk away as soon as his contract expired. In fact, he felt he should have gone sooner, after the BCCI reversed his attempts to inject new blood into the Indian squad by recalling older players such as Sourav Ganguly.”I probably had the chance to walk away at that stage but you can’t walk out halfway through something you’ve taken on,” said Chappell. “In hindsight it may have been the better thing to do but I had committed to be there for that period of time so I decided I’d see it out.”

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Bandy smacked two sixes and seven fours in his 52 © Getty Images

A scorching fifty from David Bandy and three wickets from Brad Hogg left South Australia limping at the bottom of the Twenty20 table with a 55-run defeat against Western Australia at Perth.In pursuit of a challenging 194, South Australia’s innings was anchored by Cosgrove, who came to the wicket in the fourth over when Darren Lehmann was bowled by Ben Edmondson. He struck three fours and two sixes in his 50, from 42 balls, but received scant support from the middle-order, although Ken Skewes briefly threatened in his blistering 20. After smacking Hogg for successive sixes, he was bowled attempting a third and thereafter South Australia’s innings fell away.Unlike their opponents’, Western Australia’s middle-order did fire – but only after an early alarm at the top of the order. Ryan Harris (2 for 25) removed both openers with successive deliveries, leaving Western Australia struggling on 2 for 29. But Marcus North survived the hat-trick delivery and, together with Adam Voges (42) put on 97 thrilling runs for the third wicket to stabilise the home side’s innings.It wasn’t until Bandy came to the crease, though, that the fireworks really started; in just 21 balls, he crunched an unbeaten 52 , with seven fours, twice clearing the boundary, as Western Australia romped to the top of the table.South Australia now face New South Wales, and Western Australia take on Tasmania, on Sunday.

Graeme Smith and Justin Ontong have had X-rays after picking up hand injuries during South Africa’s final ODI in India last night.Both players were examined by orthopaedic surgeons soon after their arrival back from India. According to Shane Jabaar, South Africa’s physiotherapist, Smith’s X-ray did not show a fracture, but his finger will need protection for the next 10 to 12 days. “The clinical examination revealed that he had sustained a partial tear of the volar plate over the DIP joint of his fourth left-finger.”Jabaar said that he will continue to treat and monitor his progress ahead of the first Test against Australia at Perth starting on December 16. Smith is likely to miss the opening three-day match between the South Africans and Western Australia the WACA which begins a week on Thursday.There was less good news for Ontong, who was also injured fielding in the same match. “An X-ray revealed a displaced fracture of the first metacarpal of his left hand,” Jabaar said. “He will undergo an operation today to reduce the fracture and he will then have to wear a plaster for 4 to 6 weeks.”

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Iqbal Siddiqui shone with both bat and ball as Maharashtra romped home to a comprehensive innings victory in the bottom-of-the-table clash with Assam at Aurangabad. Siddiqui, who played the lone Test for India against England back in 2001, made a stroke-filled 59, which included six fours and three sixes, before snapping up three wickets and rocking he Assam top order. Kiran Adhav, the left-arm spinner, picked up three more and Assam capitulated for just 153 in their second innings. Earlier, Maharashtra had stretched their total to a round 400 with Dhruv Mohan completing his century and adding 62 crucial runs with Siddiqui.
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Rajamani Jesuraj’s seven-wicket haul on debut was followed by a crucial 99 from Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan as Tamil Nadu seized control against Punjab at Chennai. Jesuraj picked up four out of the five wickets this morning, and despite contributions from Ankur Kakkar and VRV Singh, Punjab fell 26 runs short of Tamil Nadu’s first-innings total. Tamil Nadu began shakily in the second innings with Sadagoppan Ramesh, the former Indian opener, falling in the first over – but Vidyut steered them to safety with help from Subramanium Badrinath (43 not out). After a string of easy victories, Punjab were staring at defeat for the first time this season.
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On a day when Venkatapathy Raju announced his retirement from first-class cricket, Uttar Pradesh had victory in their sight after their opening bowler, Salabh Srivastava, ripped through Hyderabad’s batting. Srivastava claimed three of the top five, including dismissing Ambati Rayudu for a second-ball duck, before returning to clean up two of the tailenders. Vinay Kumar defied UP for his 165-ball 75 but couldn’t muster any partnerships of sizeable proportions.
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Despite half-centuries from Robin Uthappa and Sudhindra Shinde, Karnataka struggled on the third day against Delhi. Most of the Karnataka batsmen got starts but, unlike the Delhi batsmen, none converted it into a big score. Uthappa made a patient 88, that spanned 210 balls, while Shinde, who has been in and out of the side, gave the innings some impetus with his 89-ball 52. But Shinde fell to Ajay Jadeja late in the day and Karnataka lost two more wickets before stumps were drawn, giving Delhi a whiff of their first win this season.
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Naman Ojha and Devendra Bundela led Madhya Pradesh’s fightback after they were asked to follow on against Railways at Indore. After being dismissed for 207 in their first innings, when they came unstuck against the offspin of Kulamani Parida, MP made a bold reply the second time around. Ojha, who had made 67 in the first innings, stitched together partnerships with Amay Khurasiya and Bundela and MP were just six runs adrift at the end of the day.
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Amol Muzumdar’s composed 131 guided Mumbai to a comfortable position against Gujarat at the end of the third day at the Wankhede Stadium. Muzumdar, who resumed with 56, and Nishit Shetty shared an important 132-run stand for the fourth wicket, and Mumbai cruised past Gujarat’s first-innings total of 232. Even after Muzumdar finally fell the Mumbai lower order collected 91 runs in quick time and managed to extend the lead to 235. Sairaj Bahutule claimed the openers in the final session, and Gujarat still need to score 133 more to avoid an innings defeat.

Alton avoided an unlucky 13 to beat Portsmouth II by 39 runs and clinch the Southern Electric Premier League, Division 3 championship.Despite being dismissed for 165 (Michael Heffernan 45), Alton got the ten points they needed to be certain of the title after spin duo Julian Ballinger (3-25) and Ben Jansen (3-26) bowled relegation-threatened Portsmouth out for 126.Ventnor are firm favourites to finish runners-up after Neil Westhorpe (83) and Lee Brown (52) guided them to 225-7 at Leckford, who were dismissed for 97 by three-wicket trio Andy Whyte, Orascio Santalucia and Fred Smith.Jamie Donaldson, with 4-34 and an undefeated 56, played a key role in Trojans’ eight-wicket win over Havant II – a result which keeps an outside promotion chance alive.Paul Douglas (3-34) weighed in as Havant made 144, while Erasmus Hendrikse (61 not out) partnered Donaldson in Trojans’ winning romp.Paul Marks produced a virtuoso performance, taking 6-56 and scoring 103 for ten-man Winchester KS against New Milton at River Park.But Steve Watts (55), Dean Miller (49) and Ben Clarke (47) scored enough runs to secure a 62-run win for New Milton.Simon Sargent (56), Duncan Park (47) and Tony Richman (45) helped weakened Paultons to 229-6 at Bashley, who suffered two batting collapses either side of a 170-partnership between Graham Pardey (83) and Brian Vibert (70).Waterlooville need to beat Alton on Saturday to avoid joining Flamingo in the Hampshire League next season.

New South Wales has snatched away the advantage from Queensland in this year’s National Under-19 Championship Final in Newcastle, inspiring a middle order collapse to leave the visitors at 7/152 at tea as they chase a victory target of 243 on the concluding day of the tournament.The Queenslanders looked to be wresting away favouritism from the hosts when they moved swiftly to a mark of 2/93 in the hour after lunch. But the loss of two wickets in the space of three deliveries to guileful medium pacer Brad Roworth (3/31) caused their best-laid victory plans to unravel.Roworth landed arguably the most important blow of the match when he lured opener Aaron Maynard (42) into a mistimed drive. Having snared a series of slips catches himself in the match, Julian Nielsen (0) then fell to one, edging a delivery of good length from Roworth to Brett Eriksson at first slip.It was suddenly 4/93, and worse was to come for Queensland as Greg Moller (35) was disastrously run out after a ball had been turned off the line of the hip to backward square leg.Murray Bragg (19) and Chris McCabe (16) stabilised the cause with a gritty stand of 28 runs for the sixth wicket but it wasn’t really enough to shift the momentum back their side’s way. And New South Wales’ position of strength was soon reinforced when Roworth came around the wicket to find the edge of McCabe’s bat and when captain Jarrad Burke eased a delivery straight through Bragg’s defences.Queensland’s tail is by no means the worst in the competition and there’s still a full session of play available to them as they mount one last effort to score the 91 runs still required for triumph. But genuine aspirations of victory are dwindling quickly, and a major reversal would now be required for such an ambition to reach fruition.Elsewhere in Newcastle, Tasmania and Victoria have enjoyed great days to fill third and fourth placings respectively. The Tasmanians earned their place in Section A next season when they scored a tough five wicket win in a low-scoring contest with Western Australia. Victoria, meanwhile, relied on an innings of 99 from Adam Crosthwaite to amass a score of 6/252 in response to South Australia’s total of 175 from yesterday.At last report, Northern Territory is placed at a total of 4/109 as it chases 234 for victory over the Australian Capital Territory in the duel for seventh place.

Ben Stokes reported for training on Wednesday with Alastair Cook hopeful he will be fit after a suffering a stomach illness in the build-up to the second Test in Dubai. However, Cook added that Stokes would need to be 100% fit given the oppressive conditions.Stokes was laid low on Tuesday and missed a function at the British Consulate in Dubai. A decision on whether he will play is not expected to be taken until the morning of the match.Stokes’ absence would be a significant blow for England. He took four wickets, scored a half-century, and produced a brilliant run-out of Mohammad Hafeez that helped set up England’s unlikely victory push on the final afternoon in Abu Dhabi.If he unable to play, then the spin-bowling allrounder Samit Patel is the likeliest replacement, with Cook in favour of a variety of bowling options. There is an outside chance that Patel will come into consideration anyway if the pitch looks heavily in favour of spin, but Cook indicated that this was an unlikely route.”Ben’s a concern, but everyone else has pulled up pretty well,” Cook said. “He’s had a 24-hour bug, he didn’t look very well yesterday apparently but he’s here now and we’ll see.”He should be fine, but we have to be careful – it depends how badly he has been knocked about – because five days in this heat you need to be 100% before you start. We’ll play it by ear and make a decision tomorrow morning.”If Stokes recovers England are set to name an unchanged XI after coming within 25 runs of victory in the first Test in Abu Dhabi.”I haven’t seen the pitch yet, whether it’s a three-spinner wicket here,” Cook said. “We have to have a look at that option but my gut is we’ll stay the same.”Fielding six bowlers – four quicks and two spinners, even before Joe Root is factored in – has given Cook a host of options and meant that none of the fast bowlers had to be over-bowled in the heat.Pakistan, meanwhile, will welcome back legspinner Yasir Shah who went through a full session of batting, bowling and fielding after suffering a back spasm on the eve of the first Test. However, they will again be without Azhar Ali who has returned to Pakistan after the death of his mother-in-law. It means that Shan Masood, who failed twice in Abu Dhabi, is likely to be retained.

Karun Nair’s 52-ball 111 helped Karnataka flatten Tamil Nadu by 78 runs in Vizianagaram to hand them their first loss in the South Zone group. Nair’s maiden T20 hundred came a day after his 42-ball 77 powered Karnataka to a controversial two-run win over Hyderabad.After Tamil Nadu elected to bowl, Karnataka lost opener Mayank Agarwal and No. 3 K Gowtham with only 14 runs on the board. But, Nair raised 83 runs in 47 balls in the company of R Samarth (19) and revved up the innings. Nair was the one-man hit machine for Karnataka, with only two of his team-mates reaching double figures. Seamer Athisayaraj Davidson ran through the lower order to finish with 5 for 30 even as Karnataka finished with 179 for 9.Tamil Nadu’s innings never took off as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Only Washington Sundar, opening the batting, made a handy contribution with a 26-ball 34 that included three fours and a six. Legspinner Praveen Dubey finished with an economical 4 for 19 from 3.3 overs.An all-round bowling effort helped Delhi restrict Jammu & Kashmir to 100 for 9 and complete an eight-wicket win with 8.3 overs to spare at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Opting to bowl, Delhi’s seamers removed openers Ahmed Bandy and Jatin Wadhwan with the score on 0. While captain Parvez Rasool struck a 26-ball 37 and tried to stem the rot, his dismissal in the 15th over led to slide for J&K. Delhi captain Pradeep Sangwan (2 for 16) and Navdeep Saini (2 for 14) chipped away at the top order, before left-arm spinner Pawan Negi picked up three wickets in the middle order.There was hardly any hiccup in Delhi’s chase as openers Rishabh Pant and Sarthak Ranjan raised a 77-run stand in only 8.3 overs. While Pant smashed a 33-ball 51 with seven fours and two sixes, Ranjan, a controversial selection, struck 31 off 20 balls.