Sports World: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden Lift Miami Open Doubles Title - As It Happened

Here are the highlights of the sports world where we have all the sporting news and events information from across the globe for March 30, 2024. In cricket, Sri Lanka dominated Bangladesh on the first day of the second Test match at Chattogram. Lucknow Super Giants beat Punjab Kings by 21 runs in the Indian Premier League 2024 match no. 11. In the English Premier League, Chelsea and Burnley played out a 2-2 draw. Indian star tennis player Rohan Bopanna, along with his partner Australia's Mathew Ebden clinched the Miami Open doubles titles. Catch the highlights of the sports world for 30 March 2024, here. (Cricket News | Football News)

After trouncing top seed Carlos Alcaraz the previous evening, Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov has defeated the fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4 to march into the Miami Open 2024 final. The 11th seed will meet 22-year-old Jannik Sinner in the title clash.

Sri Lanka have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Bangladesh in the second Test in Chattogram. The hosts have handed a debut to 24-year-old seamer Hasan Mahmud and he is one of only two pacers Bangladesh are playing, alongside Khaled Ahmed. Sri Lanka lead the two-match series 1-0.

Playing XIs

Bangladesh: Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Zakir Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mominul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Litton Das (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud.

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando.

Lionel Messi's hamstring injury will keep him sidelined for Inter Miami's home game against New York City FC, but he could return for the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-final first leg against Mexico's Monterrey on April 3, Associated Press reports.

"He is working with the physios," Miami coach Javier Morales said, "but he won't be available because we are doing all we can to get him ready for next Wednesday. There is a possibility he will play in that game — that is what we are working for."

The founder of Special Olympics Maine groomed a 9-year-old boy for sexual abuse that spanned two decades in which he encouraged the victim to accompany him on business trips and provided him with employment — and threatened him to keep it quiet, according to a lawsuit, Associated Press reports.

The plaintiff, who was not a Special Olympics athlete, says the organization knew about Melvin “Mickey” Boutilier's history of abuse after he helped create Special Olympics Maine and should have stopped him.

It was new coach, old problems for Granada, as the Andalusian side went down at Cadiz 0-1 and extended its winless run to 10 games in La Liga.

Jose Ramon Sandoval took charge of the relegation-threatened club for the first time since replacing Alexander Medina last week but there was no sign of any new manager bounce, Associated Press reports.

The goal came from Robert Navarro after 51 minutes on Friday. The midfielder deftly cushioned a pass from Ruben Alcaraz and let it bounce once before volleying past Augusto Batalla.

Edon Zhegrova netted a brace for Lille to beat Lens 2-1 in their derby and move up to third place in Ligue 1. The Kosovan winger got the opening goal after nine minutes when he superbly controlled a long ball from Nabil Bentaleb and fired a low shot into the corner from 15 meters out.

His second came on the hour mark. Gabriel Gudmundsson's strike was parried by goalkeeper Brice Samba and Zhegrova had the simplest of tasks converting the rebound.

Gary Neville was sacked by Valencia on this day in 2016 after spending only four months as the Spanish side’s head coach.

The former Manchester United and England defender, who at the time was part of Roy Hodgson’s England coaching staff, was dismissed just 28 games into what was his first management role.

That featured 10 wins, seven draws and 11 losses, including a 7-0 thrashing at Barcelona in the Copa del Rey.

Unhappy with not being involved in discussions pertaining to Pakistan cricket and his future as T20I captain, speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi is contemplating stepping down as captain, according to a PTI report.

A source close to Shaheen has said that the bowler was upset that not even once has the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi or the national selectors spoken to him about their future plans as far as the captaincy or appointment of coaches is concerned, the report states.

"Shaheen is rightly upset as being the national T20 captain he expected that even if the board/selectors wanted to remove him they have the decency to also inform him for the reasons behind this and keep him in the loop about everything," the source is quoted as saying.

Sri Lanka have gained the ascendancy early in the second Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram. The visitors are making merry with the bat and stand at 147/1 after 42.2 overs, at the time of writing.

Openers Nishan Madushka and Dimuth Karunaratne put together a 96-run stand before Madushka (57 off 105 balls) was run out. Kusal Mendis has since joined forces with Karunaratne (60 not out off 97 balls).

Erik ten Hag says he does not care about speculation regarding his future as Manchester United manager. “You know when you are working at Man United there will always be noise, rumours around the club, the manager, the players, whatever,” Ten Hag said.

“There will always be (an) issue – you like it, to talk about. Of course we have different interests, but we are not focusing on that.

“We are focusing on the process, we are focusing on the team to play better, to improve the way of play, so I don’t care about (it).”

New Zealand speedster Matt Henry has been named as Lucknow Super Giants' replacement for English bowling all-rounder David Willey, who has withdrawn from Indian Premier League 2024 owing to personal reasons. Henry has joined LSG at his base price of INR 1.25 crore.

Willey had retired from international cricket after the 2023 ODI World Cup in India and did not play LSG's IPL 2024 opening game against Rajasthan Royals last week. The 34-year-old left-armer is the second player from England to leave LSG this season after Mark Wood was reportedly pulled out by the England and Wales Cricket Board to manage his workload ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in June 2024.

Soon-leaving manager Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool must give “absolutely everything every game” and ignore the surrounding talk heading into the season’s climax, with the matches ahead “all finals”.

Having already won the EFL Cup in what is their final campaign before Klopp steps down as boss, the Reds’ bid to add the English Premier League title sees them currently second in the table behind leaders Arsenal on goal difference and a point ahead of third-placed Manchester City with 10 rounds of games to go.

They are also through to the Europa League quarter-finals, playing Atalanta over two legs next month.

India’s husband-wife duo of N Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy will be in action in the evening for their mixed doubles semi-final against Indonesia's Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari at the Madrid Spain Masters.

Sikki and Sumeeth had notched up a 14-21, 21-11, 21-17 win over Indonesia’s fourth seeds Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto and Lisa Ayu Kusumawati in the quarter-finals yesterday, and will be targeting a berth in the final with a clinical display tonight.

We have back-to-back Indian Super League 2023-24 games coming our way soon. The first match pits Bengaluru FC against Odisha at 5pm, and the second one features Jamshedpur FC against Kerala Blasters at 7:30pm.

Barring Hyderabad FC, all teams are still in contention for making the playoffs, which is what makes the business end of the league well worth following.

Sri Lanka end the day with 314 runs on the board for the loss of four wickets. Dinesh Chandimal (34 not out off 58 balls) and captain Dhananjaya de Silva (15 not out off 27) will be the overnight unbeaten batters.

Kusal Mendis (93 off 150) and Dimuth Karunaratne (86 off 129) did most of the heavy lifting, though both fell short of centuries. For the hosts, Hasan Mahmud picked up two wickets for 64 runs.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Mohsin Naqvi has offered Babar Azam captaincy in the white ball formats. However, the star batter has not yet made his decision. As per the reports, Azam has shared interest in getting the captaincy back in all three formats which has created internal disputes in the cricket board.

The Houston Rockets defeated the Utah Jazz to earn 11 wins in a row, thanks to Jalen Green whose 30 of his 34 points in the second half, including a pair of late free throws, set the winning plot for the team. On the other hand, Fred VanVleet secured 22 points and Amen Thompson had 18 points and 14 rebounds for the team, who have won 12 of 13 games.

The 15-member squad of India for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies is likely to be selected in the last week of April. The cut-off date for submitting the names to ICC is May 1. However, every participating team will get a chance to change players in their initial squad till May 25.

Veteran spinner R Ashwin emerged in support of Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya who has been facing boos from fans across Ahmedabad and Hyderabad this IPL season."Fan wars should never go this ugly a route. One should remember which country these players represent - our country. So, then what warrants a cricketer getting booed?" said Ashwin.

India's campaign in the Madrid Spain Masters Super 300 tournament ended on Saturday after the mixed doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy bowed out in the semifinals. In the 29 minutes fight, the Indian pair faced a tough challenge posed by the Indonesian pair of Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari who prevailed 21-17, 21-12.

The Australian all-rounder Cameron Green's emerging journey in the T20 IPL has seen him appearing in 19 matches over two seasons for Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, but it has also given him a chance to work up close with two greats of the cricket world -- Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, to which he terms as an opportunity to learn.

“They are both greats in the game. Every time I think about it, I'm still pinching myself that I've been lucky enough to play with two of the greats of world cricket, if not Indian cricket,” said Green.

Substitute Harvey Barnes' came off the bench to secure a stunning 90th-minute strike that fired Newcastle to a remarkable Premier League victory over West Ham as the Magpies fought back from a two-goal deficit to win 4-3.

The Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen fought back hard to beat Hoffenheim 2-1 with two stunning late goals from Robert Andrich and Patrik Schick, keeping their unbeaten season intact.

Khadija Shaw scored the last two goals to earn Manchester City's 4-1 win over Liverpool surging three points clear at the top of the Women’s Super League. City will take on Arsenal in the League Cup final on Sunday.

Son Heung-min’s last-minute goal led Tottenham to a 2-1 home victory at Luton to get their Champions League qualification hopes back alive.

Lucknow Super Giants defeated Punjab Kings by 21 runs showcasing the brilliant bowling of young Mayank Yadav who grabbed three wickets while Mohsin Khan took two down. Chasing a tough target of 200 runs, opener Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow together amassed 102 but the team could only manage 178/5 in their 20 overs.

Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden finished off in style to secure the Miami Open 2024 men's doubles title fighting against the pair of Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek.

We will be taking your leave now. That's all from our side. Thank you for joining. Take care, Goodnight!