Sports World: Man City, Arsenal Settle For Goalless Draw; Liverpool Go Top Of Table - As It Happened

Today, 31 March 2024, saw alot of action on the field. India's Rohan Bopanna won the Miami Open crown along with Australian partner Matthew Ebden in the men's doubles category. In football, Manchester City were held for a goalless draw against Arsenal in the English Premier League. Elsewhere, Sri Lanka batted long to get to 531 on day 2 of the second Test match against Bangladesh in Chattogram. In the Indian Premier League, the afternoon game saw Gujarat Titans beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in Ahmedabad, whereas in the evening match, Delhi Capitals registered their first win and gave Chennai Super Kings their first loss of the season in Visakhapatnam. Get all the highlights and updates on the sporting action right here. (Cricket News | Football News)

Manchester United were lucky to end with a 1-1 draw against Brentford in their English Premier League clash, earlier today. Totally against the run of the play, United took the lead in stoppage time through substitute Mason Mount’s effort past Mark Flekken. With victory in sight, United conceded three minutes later when Ivan Toney cut the ball back inside the area for the unmarked Kristoffer Ajer, who bagged his second goal in two matches to level.

Raphinha’s second-half goal helped Barcelona edge out 10-man Las Palmas 1-0 to close the gap on La Liga leaders Real Madrid to five points.

Barcelona saw two goals chalked off for offside and Robert Lewandowski hit the bar but Las Palmas had goalkeeper Alvaro Valles red carded for a crude challenge on Raphinha outside his box after 25 minutes.

Getafe's home game against Sevilla was paused when fans targeted Sevilla's Marcos Acuña with racial insults in La Liga. Sevilla coach Quique Sánchez Flores said he also was abused racially by supporters of his former club, Associated Press reports.

Referee Javier Iglesias halted the game in the 68th minute when Acuna, a world champion with Argentina, was insulted by fans, including calling him a “monkey," according to the match report.

The game was restarted after the spectators were informed by loudspeaker to refrain from racist or xenophobic language. Iglesias did not record any more incidents.

Danielle Collins conjured a dream ending to her first WTA 1000 final in her last year on tour by beating Elena Rybakina to win the Miami Open 2024 women's singles title.

The 30-year-old, who grew up in St Petersburg near Tampa, delighted the partisan home crowd as she produced a determined display to see off world number four Rybakina 7-5 6-3, before breaking down in tears.

Unseeded Collins, runner-up to Ashleigh Barty at the 2022 Australian Open, had won 12 straight sets after losing her first of the tournament, and continued to dig deep as she saw off Rybakina, who had reached a second straight Miami Open final.

Pep Guardiola has hit out at the scheduling of the March international break and his side’s FA Cup semi-final, but is resigned to fighting a losing battle.

Kyle Walker and John Stones picked up injuries on England duty which have ruled them out of Sunday’s vital clash with title rivals Arsenal and potentially further Premier League games against Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.

The first leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid will be City’s fourth game in 10 days and Guardiola is also exasperated at being forced to play an FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea just three days after the second leg at the Etihad Stadium.

Cristiano Ronaldo netted a second-half hat-trick as Al Nassr enjoyed a dominant 5-1 victory over Al-Tai in the Saudi Pro League.

Otavio and Abdulrahman Ghareeb had already put Luis Castro’s side on course for all three points before the break, with the 39-year-old putting the result beyond doubt after the interval.

Al-Tai had equalised in the 22nd minute but momentum swung in the hosts’ favour after goalscorer Virgil Misidjan was shown a red card.

AC Milan extended their winning run to six matches with a 2-1 victory over Fiorentina on an emotional night at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

There had been tributes before kick-off to Fiorentina general manager Joe Barone, who collapsed in the team hotel just as they were preparing to travel to the stadium for the match against Atalanta and later died in hospital.

The Rossoneri produced a clinical display with second-half goals from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Rafael Leao either side of Alfred Duncan’s equaliser to consolidate second place in the Serie A table.

Months after he stepped down as Pakistan captain from all three formats, Babar Azam has been re-appointed as the white-ball skipper of the team, two months prior to the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 in United States of America and West Indies.

Pakistan Cricket Board’s selection committee made a unanimous recommendation for Babar, after which the decision was taken.

After re-appointing Babar Azam as white-ball skipper, the Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to appoint separate foreign coaches for the red-ball and white-ball formats, narrowing down to former Australian pacer Jason Gillispie and ex-South African batter Gary Kirsten as probable candidates for the respective positions, according to a PTI report.

The PCB on Saturday officially issued advertisements for the red ball and white ball coaches' positions. A PCB source, however, told PTI that though the advertisement has invited applications, the Board has held talks with Kirsten and Gillispie and is keen on them applying so that they can be appointed on a long-term basis.

Sri Lanka continue to pile on the runs against Bangladesh on Day 2 of the second Test in Chattogram. The visitors are batting at 444/6 after 132.1 overs at the time of writing, with Kamindu Mendis and Prabath Jayasuriya at the crease.

Dinesh Chandimal (59) and skipper Dhananjaya de Silva (70) are the ones to have been dismissed, but not before scoring half-centuries. SL appear to be in pole position to sweep the series, unless the hosts pull off something special or rain intervenes.

Erik Ten Hag admitted Brentford’s late equaliser is likely to prove costly in Manchester United’s already dwindling bid for a place in the UEFA Champions League.

“There are still many games to go. Of course the points could be more expensive by the end. It should have been three points. By the end we will know. It could be an important point.

“Don’t lower the performance from Brentford, I’ve seen them against Man City, against Liverpool. But we should have done this better.

“I’m not happy with the performance, there is no misunderstanding. We should be consistent in the way we take a game and perform,” he said after the match.

Pep Guardiola is the best manager of all time, according to former Manchester City goalkeeper David James.

Guardiola claimed a historic treble with City last season, taking his tally to 11 league titles and three Champions League trophies across his time at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and the Citizens over a glittering managerial career.

Guardiola has led City to the Premier League title in five of the last six campaigns, and his team is deeply entrenched in yet another battle at the top of the division this season, too, sitting third but just a point behind leaders Arsenal, who they face on Sunday in a huge clash.

Australia Women have kickstarted the T20 leg of their Bangladesh tour with a thumping win. Chasing a target of 127 runs, the Aussies romped home in 13 overs with all 10 wickets remaining. With that, they take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first in their Indian Premier League 2024 match against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad. GT have made two changes, bringing in Noor Ahmad and Darshan Nalkande for Spencer Johnson and Sai Kishore. SRH are playing an unchanged XI from the previous game against Mumbai Indians.

Playing XIs

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Mayank Agarwal, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Jaydev Unadkat.

Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha (w), Shubman Gill (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, David Miller, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Umesh Yadav, Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma, Darshan Nalkande.

Kusal Mendis and Kamindu Mendis both scored 90s while four other batters scored half-centuries to take Sri Lanka to this mammoth total. For Bangladesh, Shakib Al Hasan picked three wickets.

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist lifter Mirabai Chanu will return to competitive action after a six-month injury layoff when she participates at the IWF World Cup to confirm her Paris Games berth here on Monday.

The World Cup is not only the final Olympic qualifying event but also a mandatory qualifier for the Paris Games. (PTI)

Bangladesh were at 55 for 1 at the end of day 2 after Sri Lanka piled up 531 in the first inning.

Star Indian midfielders Hardik Singh and Salima Tete were on Sunday conferred with the Player of the Year awards in men and women categories respectively during the sixth Hockey India Annual Awards

This win will help Sreenidi Deccan delay the coronation of Mohammedan Sporting as I-League champions

Danny Welbeck has put Brighton ahead in just the second minute.

SRH gave a 163-run target to GT which the Shubman Gill-led side chased down in the 19th over winning by 7 wickets.

Playing XIs

DC: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed

CSK: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi , MS Dhoni (wk), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman

Forward Romain Del Castillo scored a late goal on Sunday as Brest moved back into second place in the French league standings with a 1-0 win at Lorient. (AP)

"It was an absolute honour to captain the Pakistan National Cricket Team. I will always cherish the memories and the opportunity. As a team player, it is my duty to back our captain, Babar Azam,” Afridi said in a statement issued by the PCB.

The left-arm fast bowler said he will work closely with Babar to make Pakistan the best team around. (PTI)

Due to this draw, Liverpool become the new table toppers in the Premier League

The comeback man Rishabh Pant finally did what was expected, hitting a half-century to clinch a victory for Delhi Capitals over a giant team like Chennai Super Kings. With his fifty and David Warner's well-constructed 52 the Capitals won their third match of IPL 2024 by 20 runs against the five-time champions.

As we bring an end to today's coverage, we hope you have enjoyed our live updates. Till then, good night!