21 Mar 2022

Today's sports news: What you need to know

11:31 am on 21 March 2022

Latest - New Zealand driver Scott McLaughlin has been pipped for a second consecutive win in IndyCars.

Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden overtook McLaughlin on the last turn of the final lap to win the round two race in Texas.

McLaughlin, who started second on the grid, led for most of the race before Newgarden passed him in Turn 4 and beat him to the finish line by .0669 seconds, a photo finish.

McLaughlin, who won last month's season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., nearly made it two for two in the No. 3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet.

"If you're going to lose it to anyone, your teammate's the guy you want to lose it to," he said. "Congrats to Josef and his PPG team."

Marcus Ericsson of Sweden finished third.

Six-time series champion and five-time Texas winner Scott Dixon finished fifth.

McLaughlin leads the championship by 28 points from Australian Will Power.

The next round is in Long Beach next month.

-Reuters

Liverpool to play City in FA Cup last four.

Diogo Jota's late winner earned Liverpool a 1-0 victory at a spirited Nottingham Forest to book an FA Cup semi-final clash with Premier League title rivals Manchester City.

Jordan Henderson of Liverpool celebrates.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Second-tier Forest, who had already knocked out Premier League Arsenal and Leicester City en route to the quarter-finals, were competitive for the whole game, but their Cup run ended having gone toe-to-toe with the Premier League giants, who will now face the team they are tussling with for the top-flight crown.

Manchester City produced a decisive late surge to crush Southampton 4-1 and stay in the hunt for a treble.

In the other semi-final Crystal Palace will play Chelsea.

Crystal Palace cruised to a handsome 4-0 victory over Everton at Selhurst Park, while Chelsea beat Middlesborough 2-0 over the weekend.

Meanwhile in the Premier League Tottenham are up to fifth after beating West Ham 3-1, with the hammers staying seventh.

Leicester City beat Brentford 2-1 to move 10th in the standings, while Brentford stay 15th.

-Reuters

Manawa win title

Chiefs Manawau are the winners of the inaugual Super Rugby Aupiki competition.

Stacey Fluhler celebrates..

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The Chiefs hammered the Blues 35-0 in their last game in Hamilton to go through the competition unbeaten.

The Blues had two players sin-binned at the same time while defending in the second half.

Luka Connor, Runy Tui, Hazel Tubic, Portia Woodman and Langi Veainu scored tries for the Chiefs.

Hurricanes Poua beat Matatū 18-6 in Sunday's other game.

As the teams managed their way through Covid the competition was drawn back to three rounds with the Chiefs-Blues game truning into a title decider.

Lawson on podium again

New Zealand driver Liam Lawson has steped onto the podium again on the opening weekend of the F2 season in Bahrain.

Liam Lawson in the 2021 DTM

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Lawson followed up his third place finish in the sprint race with a second in the feature race.

The Carlin driver started sixth but improved under a couple of safety car restarts to finish behind Theo Pourchaire of France.

Lawson was third in the sprint race yesterday

Fellow New Zealand Marcus Armstrong improved from his 13th starting position to finish fifth.

Lawson is second in the overall standings, a point behind Pourchaire, with the next round in Saudi Arabia next weekend.

Breakers beaten again

The New Zealand Breakers have suffered their 15th loss of the Australian NBL season going down 95-85 to the Wildcats in Perth.

Yanni Wetzell of the Breakers.

Yanni Wetzell Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The Breakers were at full strenght for just the third time this season and got off to a great start to lead at half time.

However Perth fought back to go in front in the third quarter and never gave up that lead.

Yanni Wetzell produced 15 points and six rebounds for the Breakers, Finn Delany 14 points, Peyton Siva 13 points and nine assists, Tom Abercrombie 12 points, and Will McDowell-White 11 points and five assists.

The Breakers did a lot to like, but as coach Dan Shamir was quick to point out, it wasn't enough to win.

"We weren't good enough and internally it kind of feels like we're in the beginning of the season," Shamir said.

"For the last few games we've had the players that we were missing and it feels like we are playing better, and we've got more options on all aspects.

"If somebody doesn't play well then we can go to somebody else, and I thought last game was a very high level game and in some moments this one was also a good one, but unfortunately not good enough."

The 5 and 15 Breakers are next up on Thursday against the Brisbane Bullets in Cairns.

Oliveira wins in Indonesia

KTM rider Miguel Oliveira put on a wet-weather masterclass and held off world champion Fabio Quartararo in an intense battle to win the Indonesia Grand Prix in Mandalika as MotoGP returned to the country after a 25-year absence.

Yamaha's Quartararo qualified in pole position but dropped to fifth before producing a late charge as Oliveira kept his composure to clinch his fourth MotoGP career win in the rain-delayed and shortened second race of the season.

Oliveira made a strong start and moved from seventh to second, passing early leaders Quartararo and Jack Miller before building what proved to be an unassailable lead.

Quartararo was joined by fellow Frenchman Johann Zarco on the podium after the race was reduced to 20 laps from 27 due to safety concerns caused by extreme track temperatures and the start was delayed by over an hour because of torrential rain.

Six-times MotoGP champion Marc Marquez missed the race, Indonesia's first grand prix since 1997, after suffering a concussion following a crash in the warm-up session.

-Reuters

LeBron goes number two

LeBron James moved up to second on the NBA's all-time scoring list on a bittersweet night after dropping 38 points on the Washington Wizards in a 127-119 loss for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Los Angeles Lakers Forward LeBron James.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

James, who started his NBA career in 2003, needed 21 points to pass Karl Malone (36,928 points). The 37-year-old now has 36,947 points in the regular season having played 113 games fewer than Malone.

James reached the milestone with a lay-up in the second quarter and acknowledged the crowd who gave him a standing ovation.

But his night was spoilt by the Wizards who bounced back from a 16-point deficit to beat the Lakers, who are ninth in the Western Conference.

Former Milwaukee Bucks and Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a six-times NBA champion, tops the scoring list with 38,387 points -- a record that has stood for 33 years since he retired in 1989.

James, a four-times NBA champion and 18-times All-Star, is under contract with the Lakers for next season, which will be his fifth with Los Angeles and 20th overall.

-Reuters

Proteas win game two

Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada took 5-39 as South Africa cruised to a seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the second one-day International at The Wanderers to square the three-match series.

Bangladesh chose to bat, but after a poor start could only manage 194 for nine in their 50 overs. The home side had no trouble chasing down the target, which they reached with 76 balls to spare.

They earned 10 points on the ICC's World Cup Super League table, where South Africa are battling to break into the top eight to automatically qualify for the tournament in India next year.

Bangladesh collapsed to 34 for five as the home seamers got exaggerated bounce out of the surface and caught the edge with regularity.

Bangladesh were victorious in the first game by 38 runs on Friday. The series decider will be played at Centurion Park in Pretoria on Wednesday.

-Reuters

Browns pick up Watson

The Cleveland Browns have acquired quarterback Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans, saying they had done their due diligence in signing the 26-year-old who has been accused of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct.

Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

More than 20 women had come forward last year and filed lawsuits against Watson, who was also investigated by the NFL for allegations they described as "deeply disturbing".

A Texas grand jury declined to indict the quarterback this month.

Watson had signed a four-year, $226 million contract extension with the Texans in 2020 but requested a trade last January and did not play last season.

Watson still faces civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct. He has denied the allegations.

ESPN reported Watson would sign a five-year, $333 million contract. Watson posted an image of himself wearing the Browns uniform on Instagram, saying: "Let's go, ready to work!".

-Reuters