World Sports: Satwik-Chirag Win French Open; Liverpool Hold Man City 1-1 In EPL; Qatar MotoGP Race Night

Welcome to the highlights of our coverage of the sports news and events on Sunday, March 10, 2024. In cricket, the Ranji Trophy 2024 final between Mumbai and Vidarbha kicked off at the Wankhede Stadium. Vidarbha bundled Mumbai out for 224 and then got reduced to 31/3 themselves at the end of a riveting Day 1. Down Under, Day 3 of the New Zealand vs Australia 2nd Test ended with the match tantalisingly poised - Australia needed 202 more runs in their pursuit of a 279-run target, with six wickets in hand in Christchurch. In the evening, Delhi Capitals edged out Royal Challengers Bangalore by one run in a bonafide thriller in WPL 2024. Meanwhile, the ace duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the BWF French Open 2024 title in the men's doubles category to bring cheer to Indian badminton fans. Catch the highlights of world sports here. (Cricket News | Football News)

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the world number one doubles team, defeated South Korea's Seo Seung Jae and Kang Min Hyuk in the men's doubles semi-finals of the French Open Super 750 tournament in Paris.

In last night's EPL fixture, Arsenal defeated Brentford 2-1 to go top of the standings as they await the result of Manchester City and Liverpool. In Bundesliga, Harry Kane scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich thumped Mainz 8-1. In Serie A, Inter snatched 0-1 win away at Bologna to take a giant 18-point gap in the table.

As per reports from Pakistan, former Australia cricketer Shane Watson has been approached by their cricket body PCB to coach their national cricket team. Currently, Watson is in Pakistan and was appointed the coach of Quetta Gladiators in the PSL this year.

Four wickets from Pat Cummins and three from Nathan Lyon ensured the BlackCaps were all out for 372 with a lead of 278. Check the scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary right here.

Vidarbha have won the toss and elected to bowl first. Here are the two skippers speaking at the toss.

Ajinkya Rahane: I was actually confused, we are playing hwre after a long time as we played most of our games at BKC. We want to play well throughout the game and take it session by session. There is excitement and nervousness but we have to embrace the nervousness. We have to respect the opposition, Vidarbha have played really well throughout the tournament. One forced change, Mohit Avasthi misses out due to a niggle and Dhawal Kulkarni comes in.

Akshay Wadkar: We will be bowling first. Theres mositure on the wicket so we would be aiming to take early wickets. We have an opportunity as we have reached the final for the third time and we are playing Mumbai in Mumbai. We have one change as Harsh Dubey comes in place for Akshay Wakhare.

Teams:

Mumbai (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Bhupen Lalwani, Musheer Khan, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Tamore(w), Shams Mulani, Shardul Thakur, Tanush Kotian, Dhawal Kulkarni, Tushar Deshpande

Vidarbha (Playing XI): Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Aman Mokhade, Karun Nair, Yash Rathod, Akshay Wadkar(w/c), Aditya Sarwate, Umesh Yadav, Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare

"One day I will leave the club, but no [Klopp leaving doesn't affect my future]," Salah was quoted on Sky Sports. Liverpool welcome reigning champions Manchester City to Anfield in what promises to be an enticing clash.

At stumps, Australia are 77/4 and require another 202 runs to win the Test and seal the series 2-0. For the Kiwis, they require another six wickets to level things up.

A day after India crushed England in Dharamsala to win the five-match series 4-1, Rohit Sharma's side claimed the top spot in the ICC Test rankings, overtaking Australia in the latest pecking order released by the world governing body for cricket on Sunday. India, who are already heading the World Test Championship (WTC) standings, are now at the summit of the ICC rankings in all three formats of the game. (PTI)

Indian racer Kush Maini finished a creditable second in the F2 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix after starting the race from pole position on Sunday. Maini, who is appearing for Invicta Racing, had earlier become the first Indian to grab a pole in the Formula 2 race, which was won by Enzo Fittipaldi from Van Amersfoort Racing with MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger finishing third.

Miffed at England's 4-1 shellacking by India, former captain Nasser Hussain has advised the team's misfiring batters to work on individual performances and eschew their obsession with bazball. Bazball, which is derived from England Test coach Brendon McCullum's nickname Baz, fell flat as the tourists capitulated in three days in the fifth and final Test here, helping India secure their 17th straight Test series triumph on home soil. "We just get lost with this term Bazball. The team, the management does not like the term Bazball. They need to look at their own individual performances," Hussain, who led England in 45 Test matches from 1999 to 2003, wrote in his column for Sky Sports. He added, "Look at the opposition. Like in anything in life, try and learn. Why did we collapse? Why Crawley keeps getting starts and keeps getting out? Ben Duckett, got a brilliant 150, gave a charge when the ball was too new." (PTI)

After a brilliant start by the home team, Mumbai fell away as Vidarbha bowlers stuck to their lines and lengths and had the 41-time champions floored on the mat. However, Shardul Thakur (75) led fightback with an unbeaten half-century. Mumbai were eventually bowled out for 224.

Mumbai - 224 all out (64.3 overs)

India's Mona Agarwal has clinched her second medal in the ongoing Para Shooting World Cup 2024, bagging a silver partnering Aadithya Giri in the mixed team air rifle standing (SH1) event in New Delhi. On a day when the hosts won two silver and two bronze medals, Tokyo Paralympic gold medallist Manish Narwal and his partner Rubina Francis lost to China's Li Min and Yang Chao 12-16 in the mixed team 10m air pistol (SH1) gold-medal match.

Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya -- the Tokyo Olympic Games medallists -- have been eliminated from the race for the Paris 2024 qualification after losing their respective bouts in the selection trials for the national team. Punia, who was a prominent face of protest against former Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, suffered a crushing 1-9 defeat in the men's freestyle 65kg semi-final against Rohit Kumar.

Lalromawia's first-half goal helped Sreenidi Deccan FC beat Delhi Football Club by a slender 1-0 margin in the I-League 2023-24 in Ludhiana. The win helped the Deccan Warriors collect all three points and kept them in second place in the league standings, five behind leaders Mohammedan SC.

The world's top-ranked men's doubles badminton duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take the court soon for their BWF French Open 2024 final against Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan. The Indian pair will look to be third time lucky after losing two BWF title clashes this season earlier.

Madhya Pradesh’s Ekta Pradeep Dey set the women’s 3,000m steeplechase national record while also breaching the Asian under-20 qualifying time en route winning the gold medal on the concluding day of the National Junior Federation Athletics Championships in Lucknow, PTI reports. Dey clocked 10:10.08 seconds to breach the Asian U20 Championships qualification time of 11:30.00 and she also bettered the earlier national record of 10:29.50 seconds.

India fell short of a title conquest, losing to Bangladesh 3-2 in the penalty shootout during the SAFF U16 Women's Championship final in Kathmandu. Both the teams were tied at 1-1 after the regulation time.

Paris better brace for Satwik and Chirag, for they are coming. The top-ranked men's doubles badminton pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has won the BWF 750 French Open title, at the very same venue that will host the Paris Olympic Games 2024 in July-August.

The ace Indian duo got the better of Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 21-11, 21-17 to clinch their first BWF Tour title this season. This was their third final appearance this year and after two failed attempts, they were third time lucky.

Liverpool have fought back to hold Manchester City to a 1-1 draw in the last English Premier League clash between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola before the German coach steps down at the end of the season. Alexis Mac Allister struck a 50th-minute penalty to cancel out John Stones’ first-half strike at Anfield. The draw kept second-place Liverpool one point ahead of defending champion City in third and behind leader Arsenal on goal difference. Arsenal moved top after a 2-1 win against Brentford on Saturday.

Delhi Capitals have defeated Royal Challengers by a slender margin of one run in a nail-biting Women's Premier League 2024 clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Richa Ghosh hit two monstrous sixes but was found her short of crease off the last ball as the hosts emerged victorious in a thriller.

Needing 17 runs off the last over to reach a target of 182, Richa, who blasted 51 off 29 balls, smote left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen for a 78-metre straight six and another maximum off the penultimate delivery to bring the equation down to two runs off the final delivery. But Richa wasn't fast enough to beat Jonassen, who whipped the bails off in a flash to restrict RCB to 180 for 7.

That's all from us tonight. We will be back tomorrow with all that is current in the world of sports. Until then, goodbye.