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Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez was nearly perfect in his debut with the Ducati Lenovo Team, winning Saturdays Tissot Sprint during the Grand Prix of Thailand at Chang Intl Circuit.
Marquez launched from the pole and ran away from the field to get his championship chase off to a winning start.
He finished 1.185 seconds ahead of his brother Alex, who rode the BK8 Gresini Racing machine to a second-place finish.
Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) earned some valuable points after having to settle for P3 in the first Sprint of the campaign.
Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) finished fourth, with Franco Morbidelli (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) fifth.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick has revealed defender Andreas Christensen has picked up another injury just three days after being cleared to return to action against Real Sociedad this weekend.
Christensen, 28, came off the bench against Valencia in Barça's first game of the season in August but was then sidelined until January with Achilles problem.
Upon his return to training at the start of the year, the Denmark international injured his calf, ruling him out until the end of February.
Earlier this week, Barça confirmed Christensen had been given the green light to play competitively again, but he received another setback on Saturday.
"What I can say now is that Andreas got injured in this morning's training session," Flick told a news conference.
"He was an option for Real Sociedad on Sunday, but again he is injured. We are looking now how heavy is the injury. Hopefully it's not so much."
Christensen joined Barça on a free transfer from Chelsea in 2022 and made 32 appearances to help the club win LaLiga in his first season.
He followed his debut campaign up with another 42 appearances last term, being used as a defensive midfielder at times by previous coach Xavi Hernández, but he has been limited to just one outing this season.
In his absence, Pau Cubarsí and Iñigo Martínez have emerged as Barça's first choice centre-back pairing, with Ronald Araújo and Eric García providing backup.
"We want at least four players for this position," Flick added. "Normally we have five really good centre-backs, but without Andreas, it's four.
"Ronald also had a huge injury but he's doing really good now. He's a leader. He has everything to reach a very high level. I am really happy with all of them."
Squad depth may be needed in the coming weeks as the games come thick and fast for the LaLiga leaders.
After Tuesday's 4-4 draw against Atlético Madrid in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal, Barça welcome Real Sociedad in LaLiga this weekend before travelling to Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Flick aid the fact his side are still in the running to win all three competitions, after already winning the Spanish Supercopa in January, is proof they are exceeding expectations this season.
"We have to accept [the busy schedule] and manage it with the players, maybe by using some fresh legs," he said.
"It's good to have [the games]. We have three competitions and can fight for three titles. When we start this season, at this time now, March 1, no one expected that. The team is going great."
Forwards Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford are quickly adapting to Aston Villa's style and growing in confidence, manager Unai Emery said after they linked-up again to lead the club into the FA Cup quarterfinals with a 2-0 victory over Cardiff City.
Rashford set up fellow January singing Asensio for the opener against English second-tier side Cardiff at Villa Park on Friday, having also assisted the Spaniard for both his goals in their 2-1 last-gasp Premier League home win over Chelsea earlier this month.
England international Rashford is on loan from Manchester United while Asensio has joined from Paris Saint-Germain until the end of the season.
"They are adapting of the structure ...," Emery told reporters.
"They have a lot of skills to add in our structure, helping us like they are doing. They are scoring goals and getting assists for their teammates, playing in our structure and feeling comfortable.
"They're getting more confidence. It's important how every player is trying to support and to help in our structure, getting us as strong as possible."
Emery said it was important to enjoy the moment as Villa entered the FA Cup quarterfinals for the first time in 10 years, but he did not consider his side the outright favourites to win the title with Manchester City, Man United and Newcastle United still in the competition.
"We know this competition is a way for a trophy, a way for Wembley, a way for Europa League and prestige for the club and the supporters are excited and motivated to try and share this opportunity with us," Emery said.
Villa next take a trip to Belgian side Club Brugge for the Champions League round of 16 first leg tie on Tuesday.
Burnley players refused to shake hands with Preston North-End striker Milutin Osmajic during their FA Cup fifth-round clash on Saturday as a sign of solidarity with teammate Hannibal Mejbri.
The Burnley midfielder accused Osmajic of racially abusing him when the two sides met in the Championship earlier this month.
"I will not be silent about what happened today," Mejbri wrote on social media post-match.
"I will always call out racism whenever I hear or see it. That is the only way we change as a sport and a society. I am a strong person but nobody should have to experience this disgusting abuse on the pitch."
Osmajic "strongly refuted" the claims per a statement released by Preston and the incident is being investigated by the English Football Association.
The rancor stemming from the incident carried into their FA Cup meeting on Saturday, where none of the Burnley players put their hands forward to Osmajic during the pre-match handshakes. Mejbri was fit to play at Deepdale but Burnley boss Scott Parker said he left him out of the squad to "protect" his wellbeing.
After realising he was going to be shunned by the Burnley squad, Osmajic walked past the line without any interaction.
The forward went on to score Preston's second goal in their 3-0 win and celebrated by cupping his hands around his ears to mock the away fans.
Spanish footballer Nico Hidalgo has died aged 32 following a lengthy battle with lung cancer, his former clubs said on Saturday.
Hidalgo, a midfielder, began his career at Motril, making his senior debut in 2010, before moving to Granada B in 2012.
He then joined Serie A giants Juventus in 2014, although he did not make a first-team appearance and would be immediately loaned back to Granada.
He was later loaned to Cadiz, who he joined permanently in 2017. He also played for Racing Santander and Extremadura.
Hidalgo was diagnosed with cancer in 2021 and retired the following year.
"With Nico's departure, not only is an excellent footballer gone, but also a great person. But the affection of his teammates, coaches, workers, directors and fans will always be present," Granada said in a statement.
"We will never forget your smile and your joy. Your fight is our inspiration. Rest in peace." Cadiz said in a statement posted to X.
Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta is "conscious" after being taken to hospital following a wildly reckless challenge from Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts just eight minutes into Saturday's FA Cup fifth-round clash.
Palace chairman Steve Parish confirmed to the BBC at half-time that Mateta had a gash behind his ear and was at a local hospital receiving further treatment as he expressed his anger at the tackle, which saw Roberts sent off.
After the match, Palace manager Oliver Glasner said that Mateta is "conscious."
"He's conscious and he's in hospital, but his ear obviously looks terrible. [It's a] very serious injury, so of course we hope all the best for him and let's see," Glasner said.
Roberts rushed outside the 18-yard box and leaped to clear a long ball but his high left-footed follow-through struck Mateta in the side of the face.
Mateta remained on the ground for several minutes and needed lengthy medical treatment before he was fitted with a neck brace and carried off the field toward an ambulance.
"In all the time I've been watching football I don't think I've ever seen a worse challenge. If you're kicking someone in the head then you don't know what damage may have been done," Parish said.
Referee Michael Oliver initially did not even show Roberts a yellow card despite being only a few yards away from the incident but then brandished a straight red after being called over by VAR to review the incident on a pitchside monitor.
"They're professionals and they have to treat each other like professionals and have a duty of care for your fellow professionals," Parish said.
"That keeper has not had one [duty of care]. Credit to the players carrying on and it is difficult for me to think about anything else with JP [Mateta] in hospital.
"In all the time I've watched football, someone mentioned there was one like it in the World Cup in 1982.
"Why the referee [Michael Oliver] needed to go to the screen I have got no idea."
Mateta is Palace's leading scorer with 12 Premier League goals this season. Despite his lack of firepower up front for the remainder of the match, Palace still earned a 3-1 victory over the 10-man Millwall side.
"Maybe we are not really happy today. We can't be really happy," Glasner added.
"Of course, it's a great win in going into the quarterfinals, but when you lose a player, especially with a foul like this, you have two different feelings in your stomach."
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
McSweeney, Scott and Thornton end South Australia's 13-year trophy wait
South Australia 268 for 7 (Nielsen 68, Lehmann 67, Scott 54*, Siddle 3-40, Sutherland 3-67) beat Victoria 204 (Sutherland 50, Thornton 4-27, McAndrew 3-47) by 64 runs
Victoria were bowled out for 204 in 43.3 overs in reply at Adelaide Oval as SA captured their first 50-over trophy since 2011/12.
Victoria's run chase, with Marcus Harris flying on 41 from 42 balls, was well on track at 74 for 1 in the 14th over. But McSweeney, who hadn't taken a wicket all tournament with his gentle offspin, then provided an unlikely - and decisive - turn.
Harris gave himself room to hit McSweeney through the offside, but smacked the ball straight to Jason Sangha at cover. In his next over, McSweeney dismissed dangerman Peter Handscomb for 1. The SA captain instinctively flung his right hand at a lofted straight drive, parried the ball, and completed a stunning catch on the second grab.
In SA's innings, Nielsen top-scored with 68 from 93 balls, Lehmann made 67 from 75 and allrounder Scott, the player of the tournament, finished with a flourish with an unbeaten 54 from 37 deliveries.
Victorian captain Sutherland took three of the initial four wickets and veteran Peter Siddle claimed 3 for 40.
SA made a solid start with openers Nielsen and Mackenzie Harvey putting on 44 runs before Sutherland struck in the eighth over. Harvey, who hit two fours and a six in his 23 from 23 balls, chopped on to his stumps when attempting to force through the off-side.
Sutherland claimed Daniel Drew in the 14th over and McSweeney soon followed. When Sangha fell to Sutherland, SA were wobbling 118 for 4 in the 26th over, before Nielsen and Lehmann steadied with a 56-run partnership.
Lehmann later combined with Scott for a brisk 67-run stand, with the latter reaching his half-century from 36 balls in a flurry featuring seven fours and a six.
Vidarbha's one hand on the Ranji Trophy after Nair's 132*
Vidarbha 379 and 249 for 4 (Nair 132*, Malewar 73) lead Kerala 342 (Baby 98, Sarwate 79, Nalkande 3-52, Rekhade 3-65, Dubey 3-88) by 286 runs
Two seasons on, Nair is at the forefront of Vidarbha's charge to a third Ranji Trophy title, having batted all day to construct an unbeaten 132, his 23rd first-class century and fourth first-class century of the season. It helped stretch Vidarbha's lead to 286 at stumps, but crucially they still have six wickets remaining. If Nair does lift the trophy, it'll be his third - his first two were with Karnataka in his first two seasons, 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Malewar and Nair put on 182 for the third wicket - Malewar making 73 to go with his superb 153 in the first innings - to defuse any tension there might have been in the Vidarbha camp after they lost Parth Rekhade and Dhruv Shorey inside the first three overs. Rekhade was bowled through the gate by Jalaj Saxena's in-drift, and Shorey was out to Mohammed Azharuddeen's brilliance as he dived full stretch to pluck a healthy edge in front of first slip to give MD Nidheesh an early wicket.
Kerala could have had a third very quickly, but Malewar was aided by luck when DRS deemed a not-out lbw decision off Saxena to be umpire's call. It was the start of a frustrating few hours for Kerala, where they dropped a sitter of a big-match player, two of their frontline seamers - Nidheesh and N Basil - received warnings twice for running onto the danger area of the pitch and then saw two healthy nicks off Saxena, their most prolific and in-form spinner, go through a vacant slip cordon when the need of the hour was to attack, not defend. All these factors combined to give Vidarbha the push they needed.
In the seventh over of the day, Malewar survived again, this time overturning an lbw call on DRS after being given out to Nidheesh, with replays showing the ball swung in late and would have missed leg stump. Things were happening quickly, and Kerala should have remained on the offensive. They didn't and paid the price.
Nair was good enough to pick gaps through the cover as Kerala left the off side open to have him drive against the turn. His ability to mix that up by playing a superb reverse sweep all along the ground made him a tough prospect to bowl at. Malewar's temperament stood out as he absorbed the pressure from Saxena and played largely within himself until he got to his half-century and then stepped out to play a glorious drive over mid-off.
As the partnership grew, Kerala resorted to a leg-stump line briefly to try to unsettle the batters. But given Vidarbha were sitting pretty with a lead, realisation dawned for Kerala that they needed to be a little more on the offensive, by which time the pair had already put on 100 runs.
Nair survived on 65 when a leading edge off Saxena didn't carry to the bowler, and he responded by offsetting any pressure by playing the reverse sweep. En route, he went past the 800-run mark for the season and charged into the 80s by hitting Aditya Sarwate for two back-to-back sixes - one over long-on and long-off. As he brought up his century, Nair dropped his bat, removed his gloves and showed two palms towards the dressing room - a symbolic gesture to signal his nine hundreds across the season - before taking guard and continuing to blunt the bowling.
Then a sharp tuner from Sarwate spun back in to trap him lbw, a decision that Kerala got overturned in their favour through the DRS. But moments like those were far and few amid a largely frustrating day for Kerala, whose hopes of a maiden title seem all but gone, with them needing a miracle to make a match of this on the final day.
Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
DC eye playoff spot as they opt to bowl against RCB
Toss Delhi Capitals chose to bowl vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to bowl against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final game of the Bengaluru leg of WPL 2025. If DC win tonight, they will confirm their place in the playoffs.
Smriti Mandhana wanted to bowl as well and hoped to get their "first win at home" this season. RCB made one change to the XI that lost against Gujarat Giants, with left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht replacing legspinner Prema Rawat.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 Danni Wyatt-Hodge, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Raghvi Bist, 5 Richa Ghosh (wk), 6 Kanika Ahuja, 7 Georgia Wareham, 8 Sneh Rana, 9 Kim Garth, 10 Ekta Bisht, 11 Renuka Singh
Delhi Capitals: 1 Meg Lanning (capt), 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Jemimah Rodrigues, 4 Annabel Sutherland, 5 Marizanne Kapp, 6 Jess Jonassen, 7 Sarah Bryce (wk), 8 Niki Prasad, 9 Minnu Mani, 10 Shikha Pandey, 11 Shree Charani
In-form India and New Zealand face off to see who they will meet in the semis
Big picture: Kohli joins 300 club
Scroll down to the form guide section. Actually, no need, because, spoiler warning, both teams have WWWWW next to them going into this match. These are two exceptional ODI outfits in potentially title-winning form, deep and balanced thanks to the allrounders they possess. They're particularly well-suited to conditions at this Champions Trophy - particularly, perhaps, to those in Dubai where this contest will take place - thanks to their spin options and the variety of batting gears in their top orders.
There has also been, especially over the last five years and a bit, a lot of history between these two teams.
This should, for all those reasons, be a main-course kind of contest, but it's an appetiser in the context of where this Champions Trophy stands. India and New Zealand are both through to the semi-finals, and know exactly where and when their respective semi-finals will be played. All that remains to be decided is whom they'll face there, and it's unlikely there's a "preferred" opponent for either team, given it's a choice between South Africa and Australia.
Form guide
India WWWWW (last five ODIs, most recent first)
New Zealand WWWWW
In the spotlight: Shreyas Iyer and Kyle Jamieson
Team news: Daryl Mitchell fit, but where does he fit in?
India didn't train on Saturday, but Rishabh Pant had an extended session in the nets on Friday, which suggests he could get a game - he has only played one ODI, back in July 2024, since his return from injuries suffered during his car crash. Given that as many as five left-hand batters could feature in New Zealand's top eight, there's a chance India may replace one of their two left-arm fingerspinners with the offspinner Washington Sundar. If Pant plays and adds his left-handedness to India's top five, it relieves them of the need for Axar Patel as a floater.
India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Kuldeep Yadav/Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Mohammed Shami/Arshdeep Singh.
New Zealand (probable): 1 Devon Conway, 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Kyle Jamieson, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Will O'Rourke.
Pitch and conditions: spin to win?
This, of course, may also have something do to with the quality of India's spinners. In any case, the pitches in Dubai, far from being square turners, have tended to be merely slow, with the large outfield also serving as an ally to the slower bowlers.
Bangladesh and Pakistan both won the toss against India and chose to bat, reflecting the trend for dew not to be much of a factor at this time of the year. It's possible that bat-first may still be the way to go, given the tendency for the pitches here to slow down over 100 overs.
A clear, pleasant day is expected on Sunday, with a maximum temperature of 24 degrees Celsius.
Stats and trivia
- India and New Zealand have only met once before in the Champions Trophy: the final in 2000 when an unbeaten Chris Cairns century led New Zealand to a four-wicket win.
- India have won each of their last five completed ODIs against New Zealand; New Zealand won five in a row before that stretch.
- Tom Latham's unbeaten 118 made all the headlines, but he also enjoyed a big moment on the field during New Zealand's tournament-opener against Pakistan: the catch of Shaheen Shah Afridi, off Matt Henry, was his 100th as wicketkeeper in ODIs.
Quotes
"That's a lot of ODI games and a lot of international games and yeah, he's been I mean, words fall short to express how good a player he's been, and what a great servant of Indian cricket he's been."
KL Rahul on Virat Kohli's impending milestone
Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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