It took 34 penalty kicks before Modern Future finally beat Pyramids 14-13 in a nerve-shredding shootout in the Egyptian Super Cup semi-final on Monday after the contest had ended in a 0-0 draw.

Modern Future, who will face either Al Ahly or Ceramica Cleopatra in the final, squandered three spot kicks while Pyramids lost the match after missing a fourth penalty kick at Abu Dhabi's Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Reuters reported.

Pyramids defender Osama Galal wasted two penalty shots, including the decisive one that sealed victory for Future.

Even though at times it felt that the shootout was never ending, it was well short of the 54 penalties taken when Washington FC beat Bedlington Terriers 25-24 in a local cup match in England last year.

A 2005 Namibian Cup match between KK Palace and Civics featured 48 penalties.

India were surprised how helpful the Wanderers pitch was for their seamers in their eight-wicket victory in the first One-Day International against South Africa on Sunday, as captain KL Rahul said he thought it was his spinners who would win the day.

India bowled their hosts out for 116, a record low score for South Africa on home soil, and then easily chased down the runs with exactly 200 balls to spare.

The tourists won the final Twenty20 International on the same wicket on Thursday, and Rahul says he believed it would be a game for his spinners, Reuters reported.

Instead seamers Arshdeep Singh (5-37) and Avesh Khan (4-27) both recorded career-best figures.

"It was completely different to what we expected," Rahul said at the post-match presentation. "We had planned to bring the spinners into the game early after what we saw in the T20 match.

"But there was a lot of help in the wicket and the boys did really well to put the ball into the right areas.

"It is my first ODI win here (South Africa) as a captain. When I was here last time (January 2022) we lost all three, so it is good to get that victory under your belt."

Both sides have rested players ahead of a two-match Test series starting on Dec. 26. There were several new faces in the Indian team, including debutant opening batter Sai Sudharsan, who took his chance with an unbeaten 55 from 43 balls.

"There is a lot of cricket being played these days. You have to prioritise formats and at the moment it is Test cricket and T20s a little bit," Rahul said.

"That is the modern-day game, but we believe whoever is here will perform for their country."

South Africa never got going in the game with bat or ball and have much to think about ahead of the second match in the three-game series in Gqeberha on Tuesday.

"Credit to their bowling attack with the lateral movement," home captain Aiden Markram said. "We weren't able to settle and build partnerships. It was a problem right from the start and we couldn't pull things back.

"We expected it to go around (seam) a little bit. Generally in the day games it does do something for five to seven overs. But today it went on for longer and we couldn't get in."

Max Verstappen and Red Bull have just finished Formula One's most dominant season but the triple world champion said on Friday they could still improve.

Runaway champions Red Bull won 21 of 22 races in 2023 while their Dutch 26-year-old took a record 19 victories -- including an unprecedented 10 in a row -- and set a string of other firsts, Reuters reported.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the FIA prize giving gala in Baku, Verstappen said it had been a really enjoyable season and looked forward to keeping the momentum going in 2024 and reaching new milestones.

"Realistically of course it can't be much better than what we have achieved but I think it's not always about trying to win 20 (races)," he added.

"It's also about just trying to find improvements within yourself, within the car, and if that means we have improved the car and can fight for the championship again but only win 10 races, that's also fine.

"There are always things that we can do better, we know that," he added.

"Of course the car has been very, very dominant but we've also seen a few things that we can do better and that's what we are of course working on for next year."

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the team were always in pursuit of perfection but expected rivals to be closer next season.

"I doubt we will be able to achieve again, statistically, what we’ve done this year," said the Briton, who hailed Verstappen's consistency in an astonishing year.

"You're always learning in this business." said Horner. "We know the field will converge, we've seen that at different points during the course of the past year.

"We have to improve, we have to keep evolving."