Los Angeles  - Paul Pierce stepped up, and the Boston Celtics tightened up the Eastern Conference race.

Pierce scored 21 of his 29 points in the second half, and the Celtics bounced the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers 105-94 on Friday night in a battle of the East's elite.

"For us to get this win is huge," Pierce said, "because we're both playing for first-place in the Eastern Conference and for home-court advantage."

Stockholm  - While tennis players from Israel and Sweden prepare for their upcoming three-day Davis Cup tie, organizers of a protest against the event said they hoped to gather more than 8,000 participants.

The umbrella group, Stop the Match, said Wednesday it was committed to a peaceful protest on Saturday - before the doubles match - near the arena in the southern Swedish city Malmo.

Barcelona - Toro Rosso will bec

Powered by a tidy bowling performance, India registered a comprehensive 23-run victory over South Africa in their women's World Cup warm-up fixture in Sydney on Tuesday.

Batting first, the star studded Indian team could only score 167 runs in 45.3 overs.

Opening batsman Anjum Chopra top scored with 53. In a 107 ball knock, Chopra scored 73 runs for the second wicket with former skipper Mithali Raj, who scored a crucial 29 runs.

For South Africa, pace bowler Shabnim Ismail took 4 wickets for 35 runs.
 

Former India skipper Kapil Dev has criticized the BCCI for not giving an official status to the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

The talks between the BCCI and ICL officials failed for the second time in Johannesburg last week.

The ICC would now discuss the ICL issue at the ICC Board meeting in April.

Due to this, an irritated Kapil Dev now plans to take a legal action against the BCCI officials. Dev, the ICL chairman said that the legal process would be initiated shortly against the Indian cricket board.

Johannesburg  - Football's controlling body FIFA on Tuesday expressed their disappointment at the lack of hype surrounding the Confederations Cup that is to be hosted in South Africa from June 14 to June 18.

The FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke told a press briefing that he did not see a single poster for the competition.

"There's nothing not even at the airport that shows you that this is a Confederations Cup host city. We appointed a signage company on Tuesday to promote it," he said.