World Sports: Satwik-Chirag Duo Enters French Open Final; India Top WTC Ranking Table - As It Happened

Welcome to our live blog coverage of today's sports news and events. There are enough and more key fixtures across arenas to keep you hooked. The Indian men's cricket team will look to pile on the misery for England on Day 3 of the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala. Bangladesh will be eager to follow up their win in the second T20I with a series-clinching victory in Sylhet against Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan will be up against Ireland in the second ODI of their three-match series in Sharjah. In badminton, Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty will take the court for their respective French Open semi-finals. Follow the live scores and updates of world sports on Saturday, March 9, 2024 here. (Cricket News | Football News)

Former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua stopped Francis Ngannou in the second round on Saturday, dominating his matchup with the ex-UFC heavyweight champ. Joshua floored Ngannou in the first round and again in the second with right hands at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. He finished the fight with one punch immediately after the second 10-count, apparently knocking Ngannou out cold with an unblocked right hand.

Well, the weekend is here and so are the football fixtures. Arsenal take on Brentford and knowing that a win tonight could take them to the top spot temporarily before Manchester City's visit to Anfield against Liverpool on Sunday. A deflated Manchester United welcome relegation threatened Everton at Old Trafford with Red Devils' boss Erik ten Hag under-pressure.

UWW, the global governing body for wrestling, on Friday came out in support of Indian federation, saying it will accept entries for international competitions only from the Wrestling Federation of India and no other entity can perform that role on behalf of WFI. The UWW stand has come a day after Delhi High Court asked IOA-appointed ad-hoc panel to organise trials for the upcoming Asian Championships and Continental Olympic Qualifiers as WFI told court that it will withdraw its circular related to the trials in Delhi on March 10-11. The court ruling came while responding to a plea from elite wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik, who contended that WFI can't conduct trials since it remains suspended by the Sports Ministry. (PTI)

James Anderson claimed his 700th Test wicket as India were all out for 477, handing a lead of 259 against England on day 3 of the fifth and final Test match in Dharamsala.

World no.1 Iga Swiatek has advanced to the third round at the BNP Paribas Open 2024 with a convincing 6-3, 6-0 victory over America's power-hitting Danielle Collins. This marks the fifth win in a row for Iga against the 30-year-old who is playing her last season before retiring.

Ruthless India thrashed England by an innings and 64 runs in Dharamsala to end the five-match series 4-1.

Brief Scores: England: 218 and 195 all out in 48.1overs (Joe Root 84, Jonny Bairstow 39; Ravichandran Ashwin 5/77). India: 477 all out in 124.1 overs (Subman Gill 110, Rohit Sharma 103, Devdutt Padikkal 65; Shoaib Bashir 5/173).

Living up to its promise of giving the highest priority to Test cricket, the BCCI has decided to give an incentive of Rs 45 lakh per game to all those who would play 75 per cent or more of the scheduled red-ball games in a particular season, Board secretary Jay Shah said on Saturday.

A Test player, who appears in a possible 10 Tests in a season will be richer by a whopping Rs 4.50 crore as an incentive apart from a possible Rs 1.5 crore (15 lakh per game) in the usual match fee.

India will target 30 medals in the upcoming Paris Paralympics, 11 more than the country won in the last Games in Tokyo, new Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) president Devendra Jhajharia said on Saturday, just after he was elected to the top post.

India had won 19 medals (5 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze) in the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, including a javelin silver from Jhajharia himself.

According to PTI reports, the National Games gold medallist Parvej Khan on Saturday became the first Indian to qualify for the final of a track event in the NCAA Championships of the United States, one of the most competitive collegiate competitions in the world, as he made the grade in men's one-mile event in Boston.

Khan clocked 3 minutes 57.126 seconds to finish third in the one-mile preliminary run and make it to the final in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.

According to PTI reports, the star Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar finished a creditable fourth in the women's vault event at the ongoing Baku Apparatus World Cup in the capital city of Azerbaijan.

Dipa, who finished fourth in the vault event at the 2016 Rio Olympics, scored 13.716 points in the event which concludes on Sunday.

India's Mona Agarwal, competing in only her fourth international competition, won the gold medal in the women's 10m air rifle SH1 category at the WSPS Para Shooting World Cup to clinch a 2024 Paris Paralympic quota place for the country in New Delhi on Saturday, according to PTI reports.

Avani Lekhara, the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist, won the bronze medal in the event.

Monchengladbach police made more than 200 arrests in clashes with rival football fans the night before the Bundesliga's Rhine derby between Borussia Monchengladbach and Cologne, according to AP reports.

Police said Saturday they arrested a total of 205 “problem fans” — 131 Cologne supporters and 74 of the home team — following violent clashes outside the stadium where Gladbach supporters had been preparing the choreography for Saturday's match.

Despite their overall mediocre performance, United are currently leading by two goals, thanks to the impressive footwork of Garnacho and some reckless defending from Everton. Meanwhile, Everton have played well but have been struggling to create clear opportunities in the attacking third. Dyche will likely be extremely frustrated with the way the game has unfolded so far.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) will hold its Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) in Itanagar on Sunday, amid an administrative "mess" in the national body in the aftermath of the sacking of its secretary general and its legal head, according to PTI reports.

The AGM is being held a day after the final match of the National Football Championships for the Santosh Trophy, being organised by Arunachal Pradesh Football Association.

Opener Kusal Mendis hit a brilliant 86 and pacer Nuwan Thushara added a career-best 5-20 including a hat trick as Sri Lanka cruised to a 28-run victory over Bangladesh in the final T20 International to win the series 2-1 on Saturday, according to AP reports.

Sri Lanka won the first match by three runs, but Bangladesh levelled with an eight-wicket victory.

Mendis' 55-ball knock that included six fours and as many sixes single-handedly drove the side to 174-6 and then Thushara, playing his first game in the series, ripped through top-order in a swing bowling display.

Manchester United kept their Champions League qualification hopes alive with a hard-fought victory over a wasteful Everton. Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford both scored penalties, awarded thanks to the impressive Alejandro Garnacho's efforts in the first half, securing a 2-0 win at Old Trafford. The win brought United to within eight points of fourth-placed Aston Villa.

According to PTI reports, the ad-hoc committee for wrestling on Saturday said it will go ahead with the trials to select the teams for the upcoming Asian Championships and Continental Olympic Qualifiers and the entries will be sent to UWW, the global body, through the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).

Antonio Morillo of Spain and compatriot Esperanza Barreras bagged the top honours in the men's and women's sections respectively in the Open Long Distance Technical SUP race on the second day of the inaugural India Paddle Festival in Mangaluru on Saturday, according to PTI reports. Morillo finished first with a time of 56:59 minutes while second-placed Christian Andersen of Denmark fell short by just a second and a half (57:00.151 minutes).

Matteo Manassero, once a prodigy in European golf, stayed on course for a first win in more than a decade after retaining his one-stroke lead following the third round of the Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa on Saturday, according to AP reports.

The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team consolidated its top position in the World Test Championship rankings following its 4-1 series win over England, according to PTI reports. India, following their innings and 64-run victory in Dharamsala on Saturday, improved their percentage points from 64.58 to 68.51 after nine matches. India have won six, lost two and drawn one match in the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.

Jorge Martin wore his Speedy Gonzales outfit when the Pramac Ducati racer set a lap record at Qatar's Lusail International Circuit. Martin took pole position for the season opener and produced a lap time of 1 minute 50.789 seconds, putting him 0.083 seconds ahead of Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro. Ducati's Enea Bastianini finished third. It was an ideal smash-and-grab session for Martin, who qualified fifth last year but ended ninth on race day.

Indian racer Kush Maini on Saturday grabbed the pole position in the F2 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah to become the first Indian to achieve the feat, according to PTI reports. Maini, who drives for Invicta Racing, has thus remained in contention for a historic F2 title.

According to AP reports, the French government will offer bonuses to civil servants deployed across the capital during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in a bid to avoid strikes during the events this summer, the country's Minister for Transformation and Public Administration, Stanislas Guerini, said Saturday.

PP Shafeel netted the winner as Services edged out Goa to clinch their seventh Santosh Trophy title at the Golden Jubilee Stadium in Itanagar on Saturday, according to PTI reports. Shakeel made the winning strike in the 67th minute after both the sides battled hard to find a goal. There were no final-day nerves from either side as the game started with end-to-end action, with both goalkeepers making some early saves.

Harry Kane scored a hat trick and set up two goals as Bayern Munich reduced Bayer Leverkusen's Bundesliga lead to seven points with an 8-1 rout of Mainz on Saturday, according to AP reports.

It was the third straight game that Kane scored two goals or more, and the second successive game in which Bayern looked like its old self after a 3-0 win over Lazio in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen's mentor Helmut Marko said Saturday he is staying with Red Bull, after Verstappen indicated their futures at the team were linked amid the fallout from Red Bull's investigation into team principal Christian Horner, according to AP reports.

“I am continuing, yes,” Marko told German broadcaster Sky Sport. Marko said a conversation with Oliver Mintzlaff, the Red Bull CEO who oversees the drinks company's sports operations, had gone well.

DY Patil Red defeated Income Tax by 48 runs in a one-sided final to lift the DY Patil T20 Cup in Navi Mumbai on Saturday, according to PTI reports. After being asked to bat first, Red posted 221 for nine in their 20 overs to which Income Tax replied with 173 for nine. Red’s openers Siddharth Patidar (43) and Aman Khan (43) added 70 runs to set the tone as regular partnerships throughout the innings spruced up their total.

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.

A very interesting day ended with an exciting finish in the semi-final match of the Satwik-Chirag duo in the BWF French Open 2024. Harmanpreet Kaur played a brilliant knock in WPL match no. 16 to win the game for Mumbai Indians and also help them qualify for the playoffs. We will be taking your leave now. That's all from our side. Goodnight!