Sports World: PAK Vs NZ 1st T20I Washed Out - As It Happened

Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to end their season in “beautiful” fashion after they were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Bayern Munich. “What we still have to play for is beautiful. I said before it’s time to be next to these players. It’s easy to be behind them and praise the players and talk nice things when we win 10 in a row and one draw.

“The moment is now to be behind them and be next to them,” Arteta said.

Soufiane Rahimi's hat-trick helped Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates to a 4-2 win over Al-Hilal in the first leg of their AFC Champions League semi-final, that also ended the Saudi Arabian team's 34-game world record winning streak for top tier teams.

The Moroccan international, now the tournament's leading scorer with 11 goals, struck three times before the break to put the hosts in control ahead of next Tuesday's second leg in Riyadh.

Miami Heat star guard Jimmy Butler says he will need an MRI on his right knee after he was injured in the first half of a play-in tournament loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Butler sustained the injury in the first quarter when he tried to fake out Kelly Oubre Jr. on a basket, only to have his knee buckle. He fell to the floor and Oubre appeared to land on top of him.

“I fell, he landed, and my knee just didn’t do well, I guess,” Butler said. “I don’t know. It’s not a good feeling, I can tell you that.”

Vinicius Junior was taken off injured in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, second leg between Manchester City and Real Madrid. The Brazil winger appeared to hurt his groin during a race to the ball with City defender Kyle Walker in extra time at Etihad Stadium.

He was holding the inside of his thigh and dropped to the ground in pain before being replaced by Lucas Vazquez in the 103rd minute.

Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh played out a creditable draw against top seed Fabiano Caruana, but slipped a rung to the joint second position on a day when two other Indians endured frustrating losses in the Candidates Chess Tournament's 11th round in Toronto. Nerves finally came into play as R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi lost their way against American Hikaru Nakamura and Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi respectively.

Rohit Sharma has made his stance clear on the 'Impact Player' rule of Indian Premier League. Expressing serious reservations about the rule, the India captain has implied that it could be detrimental to Indian cricket. “I am not a big fan of the Impact Substitute rule. It is going to hold all-rounders back; eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12 players. You are taking out so much from the game to make it entertaining for people around,” Rohit said on the podcast 'Club Prairie Fire'.

Meg Lanning, Australia's six-time World Cup-winning former women's cricket team captain, has said that her early retirement at the age of 31 was forced by bouts of depression and weight-loss due to "over-exercising and under-fuelling". "It sort of just spiralled and I was in denial, even though everyone kept telling me something wasn't quite right. I was not in a place to be able to go on tour and play cricket and give the commitment levels required for that Ashes series, mentally and physically," Lanning told 'The Howie Games' podcast.

Match 33 of Indian Premier League 2024 will be played today evening between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur. The pitches have mostly been batter-friendly at the venue, and one can expect the trend to continue tonight. Teams have opted to chase here, and won two out of three games this season. The one time the hosts lost, they fell just two runs short against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Barely 100 days before he was slated to take the field in Paris, ace Indian long jumper Murai Sreeshankar has been ruled out of the upcoming Olympic Games due to a knee injury he suffered during training.

Chennai Super Kings' injured opener Devon Conway has been ruled out of the remainder of Indian Premier League 2024. CSK have roped in English fast bowler Richard Gleeson as his replacement in the squad. Gleeson has represented England in 6 T20Is and has 9 wickets against his name. Additionally, Gleeson has played 90 T20s and picked 101 T20 wickets. He will join CSK for his reserve price of INR 50 lakh.

Juventus has been ordered to pay football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo more than USD 10 million by an arbitration board after a salary dispute. The dispute regarded a move by Juventus players to defer part of their salaries during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 9.8 million euros (USD 10.5 million) that Juventus was ordered to pay Ronaldo is half the amount that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner had been seeking from the Turin club in back wages.

Punjab Kings: Jonny Bairstow, Atharva Taide, Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada.

Impact player: Ashutosh Singh.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Tim David, Mohammad Nabi, Romario Shepherd, Shreyas Gopal, Gerald Coetzee, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Madhwal.

Impact player: Suryakumar Yadav.

Bayern Munich will host Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund will host Paris Saint-Germain in the first legs of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals. The Bayern vs Madrid game is on April 30, and Madrid will stage the return leg on May 8. The Dortmund vs PSG match is on May 1, and PSG have the second leg on May 7.

India captain Rohit Sharma says he wouldn't mind playing Tests against Pakistan at a neutral venue as it would be a "great contest" against the "superb bowling line-up" of the arch-rivals, according to PTI reports.

India and Pakistan have not played bilateral cricket ever since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which over 150 people were killed. The two countries, however, routinely face off in ICC events.

In a novel gesture by the Indian Cricket Board, BCCI has hosted 12,000 cancer and thalassemia patients as "special invitees" during the IPL match between Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals in Ahmedabad, according to PTI reports.

The Rishabh Pant-led side raced to a six-wicket win after bundling out the home team for their lowest-ever IPL total of 89 at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Wednesday.

Former Australia cricketer Stuart Law has been appointed as the head coach of the USA men's cricket team ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup to be held in the USA and the West Indies from June 2, according to PTI reports.

Law's first assignment will be next month's three-match T20I series against Bangladesh.

Calls for action against Israel in international football because of the conflict with Hamas will be stepped up by Palestinian officials at the annual FIFA congress next month, according to AP reports.

The Palestine Football Association proposal to 211 member federations in Thailand calls for “appropriate sanctions, with immediate effect, against Israeli teams,” according to FIFA documents released late Wednesday, one month before the May 17 meeting.

Squads:

New Zealand Squad: Tim Seifert(w), Tim Robinson, Michael Bracewell(c), Josh Clarkson, James Neesham, Mark Chapman, Jacob Duffy, Ish Sodhi, Ben Sears, William ORourke, Zakary Foulkes, Tom Blundell, Ben Lister, Dean Foxcroft, Cole McConchie.

Pakistan Squad: Babar Azam(c), Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan(w), Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Usama Mir, Zaman Khan, Azam Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abrar Ahmed, Abbas Afridi, Irfan Khan, Usman Khan.

Kiwi captain Michael Bracewell has won the toss and elected to bat in the 1st T20I at Rawalpindi.

Pakistan (Playing XI): Babar Azam(c), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan(w), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Irfan Khan, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Amir, Abrar Ahmed.

New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Seifert(w), Tim Robinson, Dean Foxcroft, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Michael Bracewell(c), Josh Clarkson, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy, Ben Sears, Ben Lister.

Rain interrupts play again between Pakistan and New Zealand 1st T20I at Rawalpindi.

Rain continues to pour down as we await more updates from the ground.

Revised Playing Conditions - Powerplay of 2 overs (1-2). Two bowlers can bowl a max of 2 overs each.

That is that! Rain has its final say as the game ends in 'No Result'.

Atalanta XI: Musso, Gjimshiti, Hien, Kolasinac, Zappacosta, De Roon, Ederson, Ruggeri, Koopmeiners, Al. Miranchuk, Scamacca.

Lille vs Aston Villa level in the tie after the visitors score late on to bring parity.

And with that, we bring to a close on what has been a fascinating day in the sporting world. Till then, good night!