hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: alastair cook and joe root both score centuries, as england hold the upper hand after the first day of the opening test against west indies. there was a shock defeat for ajax in the europa league play—offs, but first—leg wins for milan and everton. and victoria azarenka will miss the us open because she is not willing to leave her child at home in california. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the cricketing news that england are well on top after the opening day of the first test against west indies at edgbaston. the match is the first ever day—night test to be played in the uk, and the first involving england, and it saw alastair cook and skipperjoe root rescue their side after a slow start and two quick wickets, both scoring centuries in a partnership that yielded 248 runs. cook remained unbeaten on 153, after root had won the toss and elected to bat in birmingham, as the home side closed on 348—3. always nice to get 100. but you

know, where we are in the game, i think it has been a great day. that last partnership at the back end of the day was vital for us and the way they played, both alastair cook and david, gives us a great position going into the and tomorrow morning. a great position is 500 plus. yes, hopefully. we have done a lot of ha rd hopefully. we have done a lot of hard work and now it is about making it count. so hopefully decent scores to go into tomorrow morning, have a good first session and we can hopefully drive that forward. what have you learned from watching what the ball was doing tonight under the lights, when you are the fielding captain? i think they did offer a

little bit more. i think there were periods throughout the whole day, really, where randomly it started to move around and that it would go very quiet again. and i suppose trying to identify those quickly and play accordingly is going to be very important. but, you know, we have a very skilful bowling unit which will be champing at the bit to defend a very high series lead. now to football, where four—time european champions ajax are in danger of failing to qualify for the group stage of the europa league. they lost 1—0 at home to rosenborg in the first leg of their play—off, with samuel adegbenro scoring the winner, ahead of next week's second leg in norway. riccardo montolivo scored the sixth of the night, and his second for milan, as they thrashed macedonian‘s kf shkendija. while new signing michael keane scored his first goal for everton, as they won 2—0 at goodison park, against hajduk split of croatia. senegalese striker idrissa gueye with the second for ronald koeman‘s side, who look set to be in the main draw after next week's return leg, when new signing gylfi sigurdsson may be available. elsewhere, marseille hold the advantage heading back to france, after a 1—1 draw in slovenia against nk domzale,

while athletic bilbao were 3—2 winners in greece against panathinaikos. for all the results, head to bbc.com/sport. sonny bill williams has been named for new zealand, as they get their rugby championship defence under way on saturday. the all black centre will start in the opening game of this year's series against australia, in sydney, having not played since being sent off in the second match of the drawn series against the british and irish lions last month. his coach, steve hansen, is expecting big things from the dual—code international. here's a great headspace, in that he knows that he has dealt with this issue —— he is. and has done the things he needs to do around it. he is ready to play. so we are excited about him wanting to play. he is excited, and we are looking forward to seeing that. what has been the message to the group has been be ready, get yourself ready, prepare very well and know what you have to do so that when you go out on

saturday night you can dedicate everything to 100% commitment. to everything to 100% commitment. to every play throughout the game, whether it be the attacking or defensive. and chase all the lost causes. go as hard as you can, and then we will see what happens from there. holders england are through to the semi—finals of the women's rugby world cup in ireland. they ran in seven tries, including two from marlie packer and this from katy mclean, as they beat the united states by 47—26 to finish top of pool b. england will face france in the semi—finals after the french beat ireland in their pool c decider. france scored three tries, all in the first—half, as they won 21—5 to knock out the host nation. new zealand, who are bidding to win a fifth world cup, are also through to the semis. aldora itunu scored a hat—trick of tries as the black ferns beat the 2013 runners—up, canada, 48—5 to finish top of pool a. new zealand will now face the usa who, despite losing to england, go through as the best runners—up. there were also wins for wales, spain and australia. the welsh beat hong kong 39—15, and they were the first points that hong kong had managed to score in the competition.

they had 209 scored against them before that match, and zero for them. tennis, now, and the former world number one victoria azarenka has pulled out of the upcoming us open because of a custody battle over her baby son. azarenka, who has twice been the runner—up at flushing meadows, said on thursday that she is unwilling to be apart from her eight—month—old son during legal proceedings with his father, following their recent split. azarenka returned to action injune after the birth of leo last december. she hasn't ruled out reaching an agreement that would allow her to play, but said in a statement: staying with tennis: simona halep is through to the quarter—finals

of the cincinnati 0pen. the number—two seed from romania beat anastasija sevastova, from latvia, in straight sets, 6—4, 6—3. the win keeps alive her hopes of heading to the us open as the world number one. halep will move to the top of the rankings if she wins the title in cincinnati. and halep will next play the world number seven, johanna konta. the briton, who reached a grand slam semi—final for the first time when she made the last four at wimbledon, was a straight—sets 6—3, 6—4 winner over dominika cibulkova. garbine muguruza is also through to the quarter finals. she had to save three match points against american madison keys, though, in the final set. the spaniard converted herfirst chance, though, when it went to a tie—break, for a 6—4, 3—6, 7—6 win. and next, she plays svetlana kuznetsova for a place in the semi—finals. in the men's singles, grigor dimitrov is through to the quarter—finals, after beating his double partner

from last week, juan martin del potro. the bulgarian took the first set 6—3, before del potro started to struggle in the hot conditions. a doctor was called towards the end of second set, but del potro insisted on finishing the match. dimitrov closed out the contest by taking the second set 7—5, to claim his first victory over the argentine in six attempts. the solheim cup tees off in iowa on friday, at des moines golf and country club. the usa are defending champions, with europe already losing suzann pettersen to injury this week. so what do the players think of what may happen over the course of three days? being able to represent my country, being able to represent my team, it is so amazing. i feel extremely lucky, and i think this year more so than any other year, it is just more special to me, just because of what

i had to do to get here. you know, my approach is reallyjust do what i normally do, the way i would approach anything in life. and i am very analytic. i take my time making decisions, but once i make my decisions, but once i make my decision i stick to it. you know, i try to be thorough, i try to have good communication with the team. and you know, i think you just have to be yourself. many people tell me to be yourself. many people tell me tojust to be yourself. many people tell me to just write that excitement, and just be in the moment, and have fun. and the last two months, honestly, i knew i had to make major is coming up, buti knew i had to make major is coming up, but i was excited as well. sol am honoured him, i up, but i was excited as well. sol am honoured him, lam here, i'm excited to play and ijust love representing the united states. excited to play and ijust love representing the united statesm is the most special event i am ever going to play in women's golf. you never really play team events, and just all the history, and playing the solheim cup, it is just so great to be here. it is a dream come true, andi to be here. it is a dream come true, and i am super excited. everybody is

and i am super excited. everybody is a rocky ones. everybody goes through it differently. everybody that embraces it or is nervous or anxious. they are going to have to figure that out for themselves. we never figure that out for themselves. we never experience figure that out for themselves. we never experience that kind of stuff in women's golf. and we are probably going to go out there and feel a little bit like a rock star or soccer player, and just really soak it all in, and just enjoy that atmosphere. and you know, obviously it is going to be a lot of american fans, and just trying to turn that into a positive and just feed off of that. at greeensboro, in north carolina, matt every leads the wymondham championship, after carding a nine—under—parfirst round of 61. the 33—year—old, twice a winner of the arnold palmer invitational, started his round in the most perfect way, when he holed out on the first for an eagle—two, having struggled over the past two years. the only player in the world's top ten competing here is henrik stenson, who is only one shot behind every. the swede, with this long putt for birdie, deciding to use this as a warm—up event before the fedex cup play—offs start.

you can get all the latest sports news at our website. that is bbc.com/sport. but, from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello there. friday is looking a bit cooler across the board, and there'll plenty of showers around, too, some of them merging together to produce longer spells of rain, particularly across the north and the west of the uk. we start the morning off with sunshine and dry in the south and eastern areas. there will be plenty of showers from the word go, particularly across scotland. some merging together to bring longer spells of rain in the north—west and eastern areas as well. a little bit of

sunshine to the south. some sunshine and one or two showers for northern ireland. temperatures around 12 degrees in belfast to start the day. england and wales, most of the showers in northern and western areas. whereas for the midlands eastwards, it should be a largely dry start. temperatures around 15—17 degrees, but quite breezy, especially close to the irish sea. in fact, irish sea coasts will be windy through the day. wet in the northern half of scotland. and this feature across ireland will push towards wales and western parts of england later in the day, to bring more prolonged rain here, too. the south—east, plenty of dry weather. top temperatures — 21 or 22 degrees, so cooler than what we saw on thursday. certainly across northern and western areas. during friday night, it stays blustery, further pulses of rain, showers moving through. but it does tend to turn a little bit dryer by the end of the night. and a few cooler spots, as well, in rural places, central and northern parts.

saturday starts off fine and dry. in fact, we're in between weather systems. looking good through the country. still quite a windy day, but far fewer showers, and they'll be much lighter, as well. staying dry, especially in northern and western areas. 20 or 22 the high, around the mid—to—upper teens celsius across the north. this area of low pressure hurtling across the atlantic towards our shores will contain the remnants of what was hurricane gert. so it's going to bring a surge of rain, strengthening winds to south—western areas on sunday. northern and eastern areas actually starting off dry, with some sunshine. a bit of uncertainty as to how far and heavy this rain will spread north and east. but what it will do is also introduce a brief surge of warmer and more humid air to southern parts of britain as we head on in towards the start of next week. but, again, a bit of uncertainty depending on how much sunshine there will be. we could be looking at temperatures reaching the mid—20s. but cool air lurks behind that

weather front, where we could see rain as it slowly starts to spread southwards. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: terror on one of barcelona best—known streets, as a van ploughs into a crowd, killing 13, injuring more than 100. i saw people falling to the ground, and that struck my eyes, rather than the car. i immediately sensed it was a nice—like event and people around were running away, fled away, in panic. police believe they have stopped a second attack in the last hour. the shop several people in the town of cambrils. president trump says american history and culture are being "ripped apart" by the removal of confederate monuments.