Sports News Highlights: Pakistan Win Ireland Series 2-1; Manika Reaches Career-High World No. 24

Tuesday, May 14, 2024 brought along another lot of exciting sports action. In cricket, the Delhi Capitals won their last Indian Premier League game of the season, beating Lucknow Super Giants by 19 runs. But the win is unlikely to take them to the play-offs. Meanwhile, in Dublin, Pakistan defeated Ireland by six wickets in the third and final T20I to clinch the series 2-1. In tennis, Iga Swiatek entered the women's singles semi-finals at the Italian Open. Catch the highlights of our coverage of sports news from India and the rest of the world right here.

With ardent fan and Hollywood star Tom Hanks watching on from the stands, Aston Villa put up a memorable comeback against Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool in their EPL fixture on Monday night.

Barcelona defeated Real Sociedad 2-0 to go second in the La Liga table ahead of Girona FC.

Top-ranked Iga Swiatek remained on course for an uncommon Madrid-Rome double after beating Angelique Kerber to reach the Italian Open quarterfinals on Monday.

It was a ninth straight win for Swiatek, and the two-time Rome champion will next face Madison Keys after the American player eased past Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-1 in a match that was interrupted by an environmental protest.

Swiatek needed eight set points to secure the opener but had no such problems at the end of the second, sealing a 7-5, 6-3 victory on the first match point when Kerber’s return went wide. (AP)

American Jesse Marsch was hired Monday as coach of Canada's men's national football team and signed to a contract through the 2026 World Cup.

The 50-year-old takes over Canada ahead of the Copa América, where Canada plays defending champion Argentina in the tournament opener on June 20. Marsch replaced John Herdman, who left last year to become coach of Toronto in Major League Soccer. Assistant Mauro Biello had served as interim coach. (AP)

Chinese table tennis ace Ma Long will be raring to for a sixth Olympic gold medal in Paris in August despite having been denied the chance to claim a third straight singles title at his fourth Summer Games.

Bangladesh squad: Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Taskin Ahmed, Litton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Shakib Al Hasan, Tawhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah Riyad, Jaker Ali Anik, Tanvir Islam, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib. Travelling reserves: Afif Hossain, Hasan Mahmud

Ace women's table tennis player Manika Batra rose to a career-best singles ranking of 24 following her success in the Saudi Smash, becoming the first Indian woman paddler to break into the top-25 in world rankings. The 28-year-old Khel Ratna awardee, who was in 39th spot before the tournament, jumped 15 spots following her run in Jeddah, where she reached the quarterfinals. (PTI)

In a rematch of Australian Open Final, 2nd seed Rohan Bopanna & Matthew Ebden bowed out of the tournament. They lost to Bolelli/Vavassori 2-6, 4-6 in Round of 16. The second seed faced back-to-back early exits from Clay tournaments this year.

Before today's IPL game between Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants begins, check out three key battles from the encounter in our report below.

India's Gaurav Chauhan has entered the men’s 92+kg semi-finals, thus confirming a medal after a hard-fought 3-2 win over Danial Saparbay of Kazakhstan on Day 2 of the Elorda Cup 2024 boxing tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, six-time Asian Championships medallist Shiva Thapa has gone down fighting 1-4 against Kazakhstan’s Abduali Almat in the 63.5kg bout.

India's Meiraba Luwang Maisnam has advanced to the main draw of the men's singles competition at the Thailand Open Super 500 tournament in Bangkok. The 21-year-old from Manipur, who trains at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, defeats compatriot Shashwat Dalal 15-21, 21-14, 21-16 and then registers a 21-19, 21-9 victory over Malaysia's Kok Jing Hong to enter the main draw.

The BCCI has unveiled the schedule for the upcoming South Africa Women’s tour of India. India will host South Africa for three ODIs, one Test and three T20Is starting June 16. The tour will begin for SA with a warm-up one-day game against Board's President XI, followed by the ODI leg (June 16 to 23), the only Test (June 28 to July 1) and then the T20Is (July 5 to 9).

Pakistan have won the toss and opted to bowl first in the third T20I against Ireland in Dublin.

Playing XIs

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Hassan Ali, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir.

Ireland: Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Andrew Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Neil Rock, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (c & wk), Ben White, Craig Young.

Pakistan have hired New Zealand's David Reid as their mental and skill conditioning coach. Reid has been working with Indian Premier League franchise Chennai Super Kings since 2021, and will join the Pakistan team for the T20I series in England and the ICC T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies in June.

Ireland have kept the run-scoring tempo up against Pakistan, piling on 125 runs for the loss of two wickets after 12.5 overs at the time of writing in the third T20I. Lorcan Tucker is batting on 72 off just 39 balls, and alongside him is Harry Tector (10 not out off five balls).

Rosy Meena Paulraj has won the gold in the women’s pole vault event, with an effort of 4.05m on the third day of the National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar. The 26-year-old national record holder's effort, however, is well short of her personal best of 4.21m from last year.

World number 1 Iga Swiatek has made it to the Italian Open semi-finals, brushing aside former finalist Madison Keys 6-1, 6-3. It is the same result and scoreline that Swiatek had achieved against Keys in the Madrid semi-finals, two weeks ago.

If they qualify, India will play the second semi-final of the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in Guyana on June 27. According to ICC's playing conditions for the tournament in the USA and West Indies, a reserve day is only kept for the final in Barbados on June 29. "If India qualifies for the semi-finals, they will play in the second semi-final scheduled for Guyana on the 27 June 2024," the playing conditions state.

Pakistan need 23 more runs off five overs, with eight wickets still in hand against Ireland in the third T20I. The Babar Azam-led visitors appear well on course to win the match as well as the series.

Pakistan win with ease. The visiting team chase down Ireland's target of 179 runs with six wickets and 18 balls to spare, clinching the series by a 2-1 margin.

Babar Azam and Co will now head to England to embark on a four-match T20I series, starting May 22.

Over in the Indian Premier League, the Delhi Capitals have restricted Lucknow Super Giants to 189/9 in the latter's pursuit of their 209-run target. DC win by 19 runs and end the league stage with 14 points from as many games. They will now have to wait and hope for Sunrisers Hyderabad to lose their last two games by humongous margins, if the Delhi franchise are to qualify for the play-offs.

Meanwhile, the result means Rajasthan Royals are now officially through to the last-four stage.

That concludes our coverage tonight. We will be back on Wednesday (May 15) morning with all that is current in the world of sport, as it happens. Until then, goodbye.