Rugby Union: South Africa will give a first test start to loose-forward Teboho ‘Oupa’ Mohoje, one of two changes to their line-up, in the Rugby Championship test against Australia at Newlands on Saturday. Blindside flank Mohoje, who made his debut off the bench against Scotland in June, was preferred to the experienced Schalk Burger as a replacement for Francois Louw who misses out through injury.

Asian Games: The Qatar women’s basketball team refused to play in their Asian Games group match against Mongolia yesterday after being refused permission to wear the hijab. A spokesperson for the Incheon Asian Games said the players had been asked to remove the Islamic scarf before the game at Hwaseong Sports Complex but had refused. “As far as I know it’s an issue of the international basketball federation,” the official told Reuters. According to FIBA regulations, among the items that are prohibited on court are: “Headgear, hair accessories and jewellery”.

Tennis: Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky continued to swipe past the seeds at the Wuhan Open yesterday by dumping world number four Maria Sharapova from the hard court tournament with a 7-6(3) 7-5 victory. The world number 61, who knocked out US Open semi-finalist and 13th seed Ekaterina Makarova in the second round, prevailed again in the battle of baseliners to notch arguably the biggest win of her career.

Cricket: Pakistan have axed senior batsman Younis Khan for next month’s one-day series against Australia in the United Arab Emirates as they announced their ODI and Twenty20 squads yesterday. After a one-off T20 match on October 5, Pakistan will play Australia in three one-dayers over the following week before the first test starts on October 22 in Dubai. Younis, 36, was recalled to the side for the August ODI series in Sri Lanka and played in the first game before returning home due to the death of his nephew.