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Leeds United are now very interested in signing a Serie A forward for Daniel Farke in the January transfer window, according to recent reports.

Farke warns Leeds to stay "humble" in relegation fight

If those at Elland Road were offered the chance to be 10 points clear of the dropzone at the start of the season, they would have grabbed hold of that opportunity with everything they have. Now, as they welcome the new year, it could be their dream-like reality with victory over Manchester United this Sunday.

The Whites, fresh from six games without defeat, will play host to their rivals looking to take a major step towards survival. Farke is not getting carried away, however, and has instead warned his side to stay “awake” in their battle to avoid the drop.

The German told reporters earlier this week: “To have more than 20 points at this stage of the season as a promoted side is a really good sign.

“More encouraging is the performances as we have been competitive in each and every game more or less. This is quite good but we have to keep awake, we can’t stop winning points as it’s not enough to stay in this league.

“We are confident and also happy with how we are doing but there is no time for losing ground or not staying humble or getting complacent.”

Farke spoke of the type of complacency that the 49ers must also avoid this month. Whilst the Yorkshire side continue their impressive run, the owners must back their side in the transfer market.

On that front, reports have already suggested that Leeds could target the likes of Ruben Vargas and now Serie A striker Artem Dovbyk this month.

Leeds very interested in signing Artem Dovbyk

According to Tuttomercatoweb journalist Niccolo Ceccarini, as relayed by Sport Witness, Leeds are very interested in signing Dovbyk from AS Roma this month.

The forward is reportedly moving closer to the exit door in Rome and the likeliest destination in the January transfer window remains the Premier League.

Related Leeds now prioritising January deal to sign Bundesliga standout in £11m move

He’s a set-piece specialist.

Posts ByTom Cunningham

In terms of stature, it would be a statement move from Leeds, but they are not the only side interested. Battling alongside the Whites, Sunderland are also among the clubs hoping to land the 28-year-old in what could certainly throw a spanner in the works.

Subscribe to the newsletter for Leeds transfer intel Find deeper transfer context by subscribing to the newsletter: focused coverage of Leeds’ pursuit of Serie A forwards, what Dovbyk would contribute to the attack, wage impact and squad-fit analysis supporters value.

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Between the two newly-promoted sides, it may well come down to who’s more willing to pay Dovbyk’s hefty £94,000-a-week salary which would make him the second-highest earner at Elland Road behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

League stats 25/26

Dovbyk

Calvert-Lewin

Minutes

333

1,135

Goals

2

8

Assists

1

0

Expected Goals

2

6.8

Although Dovbyk has struggled for minutes at Roma this season, the numbers suggest that he could become a reliable goalscorer with a move to the Premier League.

The forward, in the equivalent of just over three games of action, has scored two league goals this season to match his expected numbers. Combine that with Calvert-Lewin and Leeds would have quite the strike force.

Bangladesh have drafted opening batsman Imrul Kayes into the squad for the Asia Cup in place of Tamim Iqbal, who has opted out due to the imminent birth of his first child. This is the only change from Bangladesh’s World T20 squad that was announced earlier this month.Imrul’s last international appearance for Bangladesh came at home against Zimbabwe last month in a four-match T20I series. He scored 1 and 18 in the third and fourth matches, which Zimbabwe won to level the series 2-2. He had made his comeback to the T20I squad against Zimbabwe in November after a gap of nearly four years. He had a successful run for Comilla Victorians in the Bangladesh Premier League 2015-16, finishing as the second-highest run-getter in the tournament with 312 runs in 12 matches at a strike rate of 114.70.The Asia Cup 2016 starts from February 19, with a qualifying round between Afghanistan, UAE, Hong Kong and Oman. The winner of the qualifying round will join the four Full Member teams in the region for the main draw which starts from February 24. Bangladesh play their first match of the tournament on February 24 against India.Bangladesh Asia Cup squad: Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Arafat Sunny, Abu Hider, Nurul Hasan

Mahela Jayawardene: ‘If you’ve had a bad period you have to make sure you learn from your mistakes’ © AFP

Mahela Jayawardene is already looking forward to Sri Lanka’s next challenge, a Test series in Australia, after their 107-run victory in the final one-day international against England in Colombo offered a timely boost. Despite going down 3-2 in a contest they had been expected to win, Jayawardene said the way his side bounced back in the final match bodes well for the future.”We knew we had this in ourselves and we know we are a very good side so it’s good that we’re off to Australia in 10 days’ time and it was a very good boost for us to go with a win,” he said. “It was a good start [to the series] and we finished well but we played some really ordinary cricket in between – it was well below par, especially for our standards at home.”That’s something we really want to work at, but I was quite happy with a lot of individual performances. Batsmen should have taken more responsibility in this tournament with the way we played.”Sri Lanka have a poor record in Australia having struggled with the extra pace and bounce in the wickets on previous tours. But the home side will take the field in a Test for the first time since the retirements of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, while Jayawardene feels there is time to adjust to conditions before the opening encounter at Brisbane on November 8.”What we’re going to get in Australia will be totally different,” he said. “We’ve got two warm-up games before the first Test and that’s something for us to work on. We’ve got two or three weeks before the first Test match so we’ve got ample time to get back into things.”This is what cricket is all about. If you’ve had a bad period you have to make sure you learn from your mistakes – that’s what being a professional cricketer is all about these days. You don’t have that much time to think about what went wrong, we have to get back into things straight away.”

Ricky Ponting wants to bat for longer than in Sunday’s one-day match when he made 10 © Getty Images

Tasmania have the chance to leap further ahead of the field in their Pura Cup match against Victoria starting on Tuesday with Ricky Ponting to make a rare four-day appearance for his state. The Tigers are already on top of the Pura Cup table with wins from their only two games.But with rain expected at the MCG this week a result – and the out-of-form Ponting’s desire to spend time at the crease facing, among others, Shane Warne – could be difficult to achieve. Tasmania coach Tim Coyle said Ponting would be a great boost to a young squad of 12 that featured seven players aged under 25.”Having Ricky playing is a rare event for us,” Coyle told . “He’s really keen to spend some time in the middle in this game so hopefully we can look forward to a few hours of sitting back and watching Ricky Ponting bat. And it’s really good to have him around our group. Being as young as we are, it’s great to have the Australian captain here.”Coyle said Tasmania’s flying start to the Pura Cup season was the result of rigorous training. “We’ve really put some work into our preparation,” he said. “We were fortunate to have really good weather in September in Tassie so we played quite a bit of cricket. The preparation has been ideal because often we suffer with the wickets early in the season.”I think everyone was just really ready to play in October this year, more so than ever before. Then there’s the emergence of some of our young players with some match-winning performances, plus an attack that has taken 20 wickets twice. The four quicks are really doing the job for us at the moment.”Ponting replaces the injured Michael Bevan in Tasmania’s side, while Victoria have named an unchanged squad. The Bushrangers, who beat the Tigers in their one-day match on Sunday, are third on the Pura Cup table behind Tasmania and New South Wales.Victoria squad Nick Jewell, Lloyd Mash, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Cameron White (capt), Andrew McDonald, Jonathan Moss, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Shane Warne, Clinton McKay, Mick Lewis, Gerard Denton.Tasmania squad Michael Di Venuto, Tim Paine, Ricky Ponting (capt), Travis Birt, George Bailey, Daniel Marsh, Luke Butterworth, Sean Clingeleffer (wk), Brett Geeves, Brendan Drew, Ben Hilfenhaus, Adam Griffith.

Allan Border: ‘It’s a slap in the face’ © Getty Images

Alan Border, the former Australian great, has questioned the decision to award official Test and ODI status to the Super Series matches and considers it a “slap in the face” of all former cricketers.Border wrote in his column in : “I firmly believe that this status should be restricted to matches between national sides. Test cricket is an institution that has been built up over a period of 128 years, and it should not be tampered with. In my view, the elevation of the six-day game to `Test match’ status is like a slap in the face of all the former cricketers who have contributed to making Test cricket the ultimate form of the game since 1877. Granting `first-class’ status is fine, as was done in the case of the Bicentenary game in 1987. But anything more than that is simply not on.”He also raised doubts about the possible commitment levels of the World XI players in the Super Series matches. Acknowledging that the players from different countries have “gelled very well” during practice, he nevertheless remained sceptical: “The Australians will be passionate as they will be representing their country. The talent of the World XI players cannot be doubted, but will they be able to feel as much for their team as they do for their respective countries on the field of play?”

Newcastle will host New South Wales’s first ING Cup match of the season on October 24, an encounter that will see Michael Bevan return to face his old team-mates wearing Tasmanian colours. Newcastle started hosting first-class matches in 1981-82, but this is the first time that it has been given an ING Cup game.Over the past two seasons, Newcastle has hosted Pura Cup games against Western Australia and Victoria. And with Steve Waugh in the New South Wales line-up, the thrilling encounter against Victoria drew 17,654 to the No. 1 Sports Ground last January.

Somerset ended the second day of their opening first class fixture of the season against Loughborough UCCE at Taunton in a commanding position.By close of play the Cidermen had moved onto 160 without loss in their second innings, with Rob Turner unbeaten on 84 and Peter Bowler on 73, a lead of 228 over the visitors.Earlier the students had declared at teatime on 345 for 8, after a good batting performance with Jimmy Adams top scoring on 107.Ian Blackwell was the pick of the Somerset bowlers, coming on just before lunch he bowled until the close of the innings by which time he had the impressive figures of 27.4 overs,11 maidens, 5 wickets for 65 runs.After play new skipper Mike Burns told me: "It’s been a good day for us. It was good to see Ian Blackwell getting wickets in his first bowl here this season, and Simon Francis and Richard Johnson also bowled well for us on a very flat wicket. Rob Turner and Peter Bowler then batted well for us at the end.”Looking forward to tomorrow he said: ” We will have to see what happens with the weather before deciding what to do tomorrow but I hope that we can put our bowlers under a bit of pressure later on."

Derek Kenway savaged the Derbyshire bowling to hammer an unbeaten 93 from 87 balls as Hampshire skated to a nine wicket win with more than eight overs to spare at Derby.Kenway and Jason Laney, who ended on 62, shared an unbroken second wicket stand of 144 in 24 overs to take their side past Derbyshire’s 184-5 in the 36th over of a game reduced to 44 overs by rain.It was brilliant batting by Kenway who struck two sixes and 10 fours to turn what promised to be a close contest into a romp in the evening sunshine for the visitors.Laney played a supporting role but also batted fluently after Graeme Welch had started with two maidens to suggest Derbyshire had a chance of defending their total on a grassy pitch.The home sides’ batting had struggled as the ball moved around and although Michael Di Venuto made 42, they were struggling at 100-5 in the 31st over.Shaun Udal bowled superbly to concede only 14 runs from nine overs but Karl Krikken and Luke Sutton added 84 to lift Derbyshire to a competitive score although Kenway turned the game when he came in after Neil Johnson was lbw in the 12th over.Alex Edwards was withdrawn after his four overs cost 29 and one over from Rob Bailey went for 15 as Kenway dispatched the first three balls to the boundary.He survived two stumping chances on 43 and 78, both off left-arm spinner Lian Wharton, but by then, Hampshire were well on course to a victory that takes them a step closer to promotion to Division One.

Mediumpacer Gagandeep Singh inspired a dismal second innings collapse byHaryana to give Punjab a crushing innings and 123 run victory in theirNorth Zone Ranji Trophy match at the Gandhi Ground in Amritsar. Gagandeep’s6/14 in 13.5 overs saw Haryana plummet to 82 all out as the hosts completedtheir third successive innings victory and bolstered their position at thetop of the zonal table with 24 points.Earlier, resuming at 247/7 in their first innings, Haryana were dismissedfor 281 in the 128th over. Gagandeep took both wickets that fell to thebowlers this morning, finishing with 3/55 although Harbhajan Singh stillretained the best figures of the innings with 4/77.The collapse that followed was dramatic. Gagandeep breached the Haryanacitadel by bowling Jasvir Singh in his first over and the second of theinnings. Haryana were soon staring down the barrel at 18/6, with Gagandeepfiguring in five of those dismissals. One more wicket fell at 31 beforeRajesh Puri and Pankaj Thakur added 37 for the eighth wicket to spare thevisitors further embarrassment. Puri’s 33 (84 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) wasthe topscore in an innings that saw only one other person reach doublefigures, No.10 Vineet Jain who made 11.

Every number 10 batsman dreams of pulling off a shock win, of hitting up a storm in the latter stages of a run chase to elevate his team from the depths of despair to the dizzying heights of victory. On Thursday, Douglas Anthony Marillier lived out that dream in full-blooded glory.With Zimbabwe chasing 275, Marillier played one of the most incredible one-day innings ever seen. They would have been rejoicing in Harare, Bulawayo and all over Zimbabwe as Marillier scripted one of the most remarkable one-day wins of all time. He brazenly stole the thunder from a marauding Indian side at Faridabad on a pleasant Thursday evening, pulling off the unthinkable with two balls to spare and winning by just one wicket.Walking in to bat with Zimbabwe well and truly on the mat at 210/8 in the 45th over, Marillier made merry with some memorable shots to stand tall and strong on an unbeaten 56 off just 24 balls. What made his heroics all the more incredible was the fact that he ruthlessly punished the best of the bowlers on the day – Zaheer Khan. For a country that has had little to celebrate of late, this amazing win will be something to cherish for a long time to come.Beating India on their home soil is not an easy task, although admittedly the fickle nature of one-day cricket makes the job somewhat easier. But after the dismissals of Andy Flower and Alistair Campbell, Zimbabwe never looked like winning until Marillier took over with his unique style of strokeplay, scooping the ball over the wicket-keeper’s head numerous times for four. The 23-year-old right-hander surely added a new term to the cricket vocabulary – “The Dougie shot.”Earlier in the day, Sourav Ganguly won the toss and decided to bat first on a track that promised runs by the ton. Dinesh Mongia (25 off 24 balls) and Ganguly gave India a brisk start before the former was caught off an inside edge by Tatenda Taibu off Heath Streak. Ganguly and VVS Laxman then added 77 runs in 14.3 overs, the partnership being broken only when Ganguly (57 off 70 balls) was brilliantly stumped by Taibu off Marillier. The Indian skipper, no doubt full of confidence after his Test century, smashed two sixes and half-a-dozen boundaries in his commanding knock.Rahul Dravid (23) was trapped in front of the wicket by Grant Flower (10-0-31-1), easily the pick of Zimbabwe’s bowlers. Laxman played his patented silken drives through cover and the wristy whips through mid-wicket, signs that India will interpret hopefully as a return to form. The stylish Hyderabadi batsman made 75 off 99 balls with five boundaries before Mohammad Kaif mis-called during a run. Laxman ended up at Kaif’s end, tragically run out.India further lost their way as Sanjay Bangar (0) and Ajay Ratra (6) departed in quick succession. It took a whirlwind knock from Ajit Agarkar (40 off 19 balls) to propel India to a score of 274 in 50 overs. Agarkar played some rousing shots, punishing some wayward Zimbabwe bowling and carting the ball to all parts of the ground. He hit one mighty six off Streak over mid-wicket and also struck six fours in his quick-fire knock. Kaif too played a good hand, scoring 39 off 45 deliveries. The two batsmen put together an unbeaten stand of 63 runs in just 6.2 overs.Zimbabwe could not have gotten off to a worse start during their chase of 275. Zaheer Khan picked up the wickets of Craig Wishart (1) and pinch-hitter Travis Friend (7) early to send Zimbabwe reeling at 21/2. It was the old firm of Campbell and Flower that defied the Indian attack, the two senior batsmen adding 111 runs for the third wicket and putting the run chase back on track.Flower was at his usual best, playing the smart sweep shots, the orthodox and the reverse. The senior Flower struck two huge sixes and eight boundaries to score 71 off just 72 balls before dragging a ball from Anil Kumble back on to his stumps. Zaheer was brought back into the attack, and he duly sent back skipper Stuart Carlisle (23) and Campbell (84 off 113 balls). Campbell was looking particularly dangerous, striking seven fours before being trapped lbw by Zaheer.Zimbabwe found themselves in something of a quagmire when Harbhajan Singh removed Grant Flower (2) and Heath Streak (1) in the space of four balls. The visitors were in a hopeless position in the 45th over on 210/8 before Marillier decided to come to the party. He proceeded to take 20 runs off Zaheer Khan’s ninth over, improvising in stunning manner and using the scoop “Dougie” shot over the wicket-keeper’s head to great effect. He also hit one huge six over square leg in the same over, easing the pressure considerably.Marillier and Taibu put on 42 runs in just 3.2 overs, but a shocking decision by the umpire sent back Taibu, supposedly caught behind. Ajay Ratra’s appeal aimed only to distract the umpire from calling an obvious wide, but it succeeded in getting rid of the batsman.With 23 runs required off the last two overs, Marillier was at his best against Zaheer in the 49th over, playing repeatedly over the keeper’s head for easy runs and making a mockery of the field placements. Zaheer’s bowling figures stood completely wrecked, going from 8-2-15-4 to 10-2-47-4.Marillier struck two more boundaries in the 50th over, bowled by Kumble (9.4-0-70-1), to register the most astonishing of one-day wins. Marillier remained unbeaten after an explosive innings punctuated with 10 boundaries and the huge six. Gary Brent remained unbeaten on one, an admiring first-row spectator to the whirlwind that held centre-stage at the other end.