Jordan Spieth hit the ball all over the place in Phoenix, but only needed 61 swings on Saturday and that caused a social media uproar. In this Golf Central Podcast, senior writers Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner dive into Spieth's play. Was it a resurgence? A one-off? What comes next? And they tackle big Brooks' win and the TPC Scottsdale fans.

Real Madrid are favourites to sign Bayern Munich's David Alaba with Chelsea unwilling to meet the defender's wage demands, sources have told ESPN.

The 28-year-old is out of contract this summer and rejected Bayern's offer of a new five-year deal worth around £250,000-a-week including bonuses.

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Madrid have been in talks with Alaba since last month and are thought to be close to securing Alaba's signature on a four-year contract worth almost £400,000-a-week.

Other interested clubs have been told they will need to match that figure to enter the running but Chelsea have so far proved reluctant to break their current wage structure.

N'Golo Kante is the club's top earner on £300,000-a-week. Liverpool were also thought to have expressed an interest but did not pursue an agreement for the same reason.

Chelsea are keen to strengthen their backline this summer having also scouted RB Leipzig's Dayot Upamecano, who has a £38 million release clause, with new boss Thomas Tuchel ready to overhaul his options at the back.

Chelsea are open to taking up an option to extend Thiago Silva's contract by a further year but sources have told ESPN that he is yet to determine whether he sees Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Fikayo Tomori, now on loan at AC Milan, as part of his plans for next season.

Alaba turns 29 in June and can command a huge contract after a glittering 11-year career at Bayern which includes over 350 first-team appearances, nine Bundesliga titles and two Champions League wins.

Former Uruguay international striker Sebastian "El Loco" Abreu has been unveiled at Brazilian outfit Athletic Club MG, the 30th club of his career.

Abreu, 44, made his senior debut with Uruguay's Defensor Sporting in 1994 and set a Guinness world record for the most professional clubs played for when he joined Chilean side Audax Italiano in 2017 to mark 26.

"How do I feel physically? Let the ball roll and see," Abreu said during his unveiling. "The commitment and will is there. If I am on the field it is because I have the conditions, but the most important thing was what the coach said when he did a scout evaluation, looking at the 90-minute tapes and seeing that I can help Athletic."

South America's football governing body, CONMEBOL, congratulated Abreu, on Twitter and wrote: "Sebastian "El Loco" Abreu definitely thinks big and breaks his own record, now at 44 signing for his 30th team Athletic Club de Minas Gerais."

Athletic Club MG were recently promoted to the First Division of the Mineiro Championship after a 51-year wait.

Abreu, who had not seen action since last year, when he was on the books of Uruguay outfit Boston River as a player-coach, decided to return to the pitch after Athletic firmly expressed their desire to sign him.

"They had already wanted me last year but it didn't work out," Abreu said. "When the club was promoted for the first time in 51 years to play in the first division of the state competition, they called me and said that they still had the same desire to want to bring me in. This is fundamental because I do not underestimate my conditions, but when I see people who believe as I believe [in myself], it was essential for me to be here today."

It is Abreu's fifth experience in Brazil following his previous spells at Botafogo, Figueirense, Bangu and Rio Branco.

Nicknamed "El Loco" ("The Madman"), Abreu has played in 11 different countries, including Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Greece, Paraguay, Ecuador, Chile and El Salvador.

Abreu has also represented Uruguay in two World Cups and helped his country to the 2011 Copa America title.

Hellas Verona youth player Andrea Gresele is in intensive care after coming into contact with train lines, the club confirmed to ESPN.

The incident happened on Saturday when the 18-year-old had been with friends.

Gresele climbed on top of a train at the Porta Vescovo station and was struck by a line from above and suffered an electric shock which made him fall from 13 ft. 1 in. (four metres.).

He suffered a fractured vertebrae and a cerebral oedema. He was operated on on Monday and remains in intensive care.

Verona tweeted a message of support which read: "We are all with you, with those close to you who, like us, care for you. Come on Andrea!"

Local rivals Chievo also posted their support on Twitter. Their tweet read: "Come on Andrea, we are with you in this very difficult moment. Win your biggest match!"

The right-back has been a stand out performer for Verona's youth team and was called up to the first team for the Coppa Italia match with Cagliari in November.

Two nurses and a psychologist have been added to the investigation into the death of Diego Maradona.

Maradona died at the age of 60 of a heart attack on Nov. 25, two weeks after being released from a hospital in Buenos Aires following successful brain surgery.

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A probe was opened by authorities in Argentina to establish if there was negligence in Maradona's treatment following the operation and if so, for those individuals to face a criminal case for manslaughter.

Leopoldo Luque, the neurosurgeon who performed Maradona's brain surgery, and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who had treated the former Napoli star, are under investigation and had their homes and offices searched shortly after his death.

Psychologist Carlos Diaz, who treated Maradona in the months prior to his passing, and nurses Dahiana Gisela Madrid and Ricardo Almiron, have now been placed under investigation, according to sources from San Isidro's Prosecutors' Office.

Shortly after Maradona's death, his lawyer, Matias Morla, had requested a full investigation of the circumstances of the footballing legend's death, criticising what he said was a slow response by emergency service.

Maradona's eldest daughters, Dalma and Giannina, hold Luque and Morla, who had hired Luque, responsible and demand that "justice is done."

Reports have emerged in the local media that Maradona did not receive the proper medical care he needed after the operation and that his entourage was providing him with alcohol and marijuana.

Maradona's autopsy revealed that he had no alcohol or narcotic drugs in his body at the time of his death.

Joe Root has hailed the work ethic of his England side while warning that they must continue to improve after taking a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series in Chennai. England enjoyed a "fantastic five days" to inflict India's first defeat at home since 2017, with Root leading from the front in his 100th Test, but he was keen to focus on maintaining the high standards after wrapping up victory with time to spare on the final afternoon.

Root's first-innings double-hundred set the tone, and there were contributions from Dom Sibley and Ben Stokes with the bat, and the bowlers then shared the wickets around in both innings to complete one of England's most memorable overseas victories. Criticism of England's indecisive approach with the bat after tea on day four melted away as they claimed five wickets in the morning session - led by an expert spell of reverse swing from James Anderson - on the way to their first win in India since 2012.

"Fantastic five days, the way we've got about things, we've executed the gameplan brilliantly, and to finish in the manner we have done today is really pleasing. But we know there's a huge amount of hard work ahead of us for the rest of the series," Root said. "[There's been] a lot of hard work from the guys, a willingness to learn and develop their games. We've said how we wanted to play our cricket, and we've managed to do consistently now. Can we turn up next week and do it again? Can we keep finding ways of getting better on surfaces and conditions we're not used to? We've got some very adaptable young players that have come in and very quickly had to learn on the job, in the hardest environments.

"Look at Dom Sibley, the last two games he's played fantastically well off the back of a couple low scores. He's figured out a way of playing in these conditions and that's the attitude and mindset of the whole dressing room. Really important we don't just stand still now, and be happy with what we've achieved, we try and go one more and find ways of being better in these conditions."

"To come here at the start of a very big series, and score big runs, more than anything setting the example for the rest of guys. It sets things up nicely for the rest of the tour, hopefully guys have seen that and it gives them confidence to go about how they're going to make big contributions"

Joe Root on the double-century in his 100th Test

Root shrugged off questions about England's approach in the second innings. Having taken a 241-run lead, they attempted to push for quick runs - Root himself scored 40 off 32 - before seeming to get stuck between mindsets after tea. Talk of a declaration was moot as they were eventually bowled out, leaving India a theoretical 107 overs in which to score 420.

"More than anything, it was to try to make sure there were only two outcomes possible in the game," Root said. "The idea was to get to 400 and try to speed things up a bit. It didn't quite materialise like that. We also wanted to make sure that the ball was nice and firm when we turned up this morning, so we could exploit those lengths. Having spent more time that anyone else on that wicket, batted on it at different points, I thought the progression of how it deteriorated was significant and there would be plenty happening for us.

"If there was only the two opportunities for a result in the game then that would play into our hands. I thought our bowlers delivered brilliantly today and we ended up with so much time in the game that it worked out perfectly."

He also had praise for his spinners, Dom Bess and Jack Leach, who claimed 11 wickets between in the match them despite each experiencing tough spells when India's batsmen looked to get on top of them.

"I think they've done a really good job for us, between them over the course of the two innings in putting some valuable contributions, four wickets apiece in either innings," Root said. "A brilliant performance from the whole bowling group, that is going to be our key over here, not putting pressure on individuals to go and perform and deliver, or the spinners or the seamers, it's collectively how are we going to take 20 wickets. I think we did that really well this game, and that's going to be the challenge for the guys who get the responsibility in the next game as well."

England have talked up the possibility of rotating their bowlers in the subcontinent, and Root said that they would "take stock and see how everyone is" before considering the make-up of the XI for the second Chennai Test, starting on Saturday.

The victory was Root's 26th as Test captain, drawing him level with Michael Vaughan's record for England. Of the achievement of scoring a double-hundred in his 100th Test, Root said he hoped that it would help set the tone for the rest of the series.

"Certainly feels good, really special week for a number of different reasons," he said. "To come here at the start of a very big series, and score big runs, more than anything setting the example for the rest of guys. It sets things up nicely for the rest of the tour, hopefully guys have seen that and it gives them confidence to go about how they're going to make big contributions. We're going to have to score big runs if we're going to win again out here.

"We've still got room for improvement, which is really exciting but we know India are a really good side, they've got a fantastic record and are a very proud team off the back of a famous win in Australia, so we expect them to come back at us and we'll have to be at our best again. But what a position to be in already."

After lighting up the final day of the Chennai Test with another ageless display of reverse-swing bowling, James Anderson insists he will be ready to put his "name in the hat" for selection in Saturday's second Test, even though the team management may feel obliged to rest him given the intensity of their four-match series in India.

Anderson returned figures of 3 for 17 in 11 overs in India's second innings, including two in his first over of the final day, as he extracted prodigious late movement with a 26-over-old ball, to set England on their way to a comprehensive 227-run victory.

However, with the second Test set to begin at the same venue on Saturday, and with Stuart Broad waiting impatiently in the wings after being rotated out of the side after his own starring role in England's first Test of the winter against Sri Lanka, Anderson recognises the likelihood that he will need to be benched, even though he's desperate, at the age of 38, to play as frequently as he possibly can.

"Yes, of course [I want to play]," Anderson said at the end of the match. "When a batsman gets in rhythm and form they just want to keep batting and it's the same for a bowler - you want to keep that going as much as possible.

"But I'm very aware we've got four Test matches in quick succession here and there will be a need to rest and rotate. I'm not presuming anything. I'll try and rest and recover from this game as best I can in the next day or two and get back in the nets and try and put my name in the hat for Saturday."

Following on from his starring role in the first innings in Galle, where he wrecked Sri Lanka's match prospects with his best overseas figures of 6 for 40 in 29 overs, Anderson has now claimed 11 wickets at 9.90 in his back-to-back appearances, and after the match he was hailed by his captain, Joe Root, as "England's GOAT".

However, Broad will be hankering for another opportunity after a string of recent performances every bit as impressive as his team-mate's. He was England's outstanding bowler in the course of 2020, claiming 38 wickets at 14.76 all told, even after being rested in favour of Anderson for the opening Test of the summer - a decision that sparked an angry response during a Sky Sports interview. And after setting up England's first victory in Sri Lanka with match figures of 3 for 34 in 26 overs, his presence will add another wise head to England's attack.

"We have options, that's the beauty of how we have gone about things this winter," Joe Root, England's captain, said. "It is really important that we look after our players and everyone comes into the games fit and fresh and able to deliver their skills at 100 percent. We can look at selection when we know what the wicket looks like and how we think it will behave."

However, an added factor in England's plans may come when the series shifts to Ahmedabad at the end of the month, for a day-night Test match, played with a pink ball. England have had three previous such Tests, and with 14 wickets at 17.85 - including a five-wicket haul at Adelaide in the 2017-18 Ashes - Anderson's prowess under lights may well be a crucial factor.

Certainly, the balance and deployment of England's attack at Chepauk proved to be spot-on, in the first innings as well as the second, with Anderson's versatility as a defensive and attacking option showcased with his different impact in each.

"We assessed conditions really well, set the right fields, we tried to keep the run-rate down to a reasonable level and I thought everyone stuck to their gameplan," Anderson said, after claiming two first-innings wickets at an economy of 2.73, the best of England's frontline options.

"For me in that first innings, I felt I was the bowler to keep the run-rate down, try and dry things up, and let the spinners and Jofra [Archer] attack a little bit more.

"In England it might be the other way around, the spinners have to do the drying-up job. I'm very aware that could be my job out here, and then you can attack more in the second innings if you do get reverse swing. It's just trying to manage that throughout the game and pick the right moment to attack and you know when to sit back and defend a little bit."

And when the time did come to attack, Anderson's introduction proved devastating with two wickets in his first over. However, he insisted, it hadn't simply been blind luck that he was thrown the ball at that moment of India's innings.

"We were assessing the ball all the time," he said. "Jofra started the day and he felt like it was reversing a little bit, but then we gave it a few more overs with the spinners to try and get a bit more wear into the ball to rough it up a little bit more.

"We knew it would reverse when I came on to bowl and it's just a case of trying to get into the right areas as much as possible. The pitch had deteriorated and there were little divots and chunks to aim at, but getting that extra bit of movement through the air makes it that little bit harder for the batsman, and it's very enjoyable when it happens as well."

Enjoyment, in fact, has been a key factor of England's recent resurgence as a Test team, which began with a fightback in South Africa last year - sparked by Anderson's first-innings five-for at Cape Town, even though he missed the rest of the match with injury - and carrying on through to four series wins in a row, prior to this contest.

"It really is [enjoyable]," Anderson said. "With the guys that we have got, we are creating something really special. We're led amazingly well by Joe Root both on and off the field. The way he has batted the last three games has been incredible to watch.

"We feel like we are building something, whether it is the fitness side of things, we are trying to push each other. For me, as I get older, I feel like I need to work harder at that and I am trying to keep up with the younger guys which helps me.

"We are trying to develop skills to win anywhere in the world which you need to do if you want to get to No.1, which is what our eventual goal is. It is a really fun time to be around this group and we are just trying to keep challenging each other and trying to keep performing on the field as well."

While acknowledging England's dominance during the game, Virat Kohli asserted after the first Test that there will be no impulsive reactions from his team after a big defeat to start off the series. Kohli pointed that out on several fronts - in response to whether England were better prepared than the home team, whether India's line-up needs any changing, and most pointedly at the suggestion that Ajinkya Rahane's performances haven't been up to standard.

In 14 innings since India's Australia tour began - including two warm-up matches before the Tests - Rahane has made two centuries, one of them a Player-of-the-Match effort in Melbourne that helped India bounce back from the lows of being bowled out for 36 in Adelaide. In the other other 12 innings during that phase, Rahane's highest score is 42, and he aggregated only a run during India's loss to England. But India's vice-captain remains, Kohli said, one of their most important batsmen.

"Look if you're trying to dig something out, you're not going to get anything because there's nothing," a visibly annoyed Kohli said in response to a question about Rahane's performance during the post-match press conference. "I've said this many times in the past as well - along with Pujara, he [Rahane] is our most important Test batsman and he is going to continue to be. We believe in his abilities, we have believed in his abilities for a long time now and he's an impact player.

"If you're talking about the MCG Test, he stood up and scored a hundred when the team wanted it the most. So you can look at a number of innings and what happens from thereon, but the reality of the situation is they've won the series in Australia. Here there's just one Test, two innings and both... today, yeah you can put that innings aside. But in the first innings, he wanted to score a boundary. It was a brilliant catch by Joe [Root] that got rid of him. So if that goes for a boundary, he gets runs in the first innings and we're not having this conversation. There's absolutely no issues, everyone's playing really well and we just need to be focused a lot more, understand that Test victories are earned in any conditions - whether they're your own or you're playing away. Nothing is a given in Test cricket and we need to be aware of that reality and work together as a team to keep putting a lot of pressure on the opposition. That's our focus."

On a pitch that was widely acknowledged as a benign one during the first few days, India lost the toss and England batted into the seventh session of the match to take control. Kohli said India's response to that 578, is where the match was lost, particularly due to a lack of any prolonged partnerships. He played down the suggestion that England were better prepared for this Test, given the recent series win in Sri Lanka in comparable conditions, and the fact that India last played Tests at home in November 2019.

"That's something that was said when Australia won the first Test as well in 2017," he said, in reference to India's last Test defeat at home in Pune. "So look, we don't jump the gun, we don't come to conclusions too early.

"You could say they are well prepared but to say they're better prepared than us in our own conditions is not an accurate assessment. If you look at the second innings, when the ball was really turning and bouncing, both the sides were pretty much similar in terms of how they went about their second innings. Maybe you can analyse then [after more games] whether we're better prepared or they're better prepared and whether this is our toughest challenge - we're not jumping any guns yet and we're just focused on playing good cricket and winning Test matches."

"I've said this many times in the past as well - along with Pujara, he [Rahane] is our most important Test batsman and he is going to continue to be."

VIRAT KOHLI

A template that's emerged with India's batting - and was the bedrock of their famous recent wins - is that they have needed help from their lower-middle order to either rescue innings or finish things off. This was the case in the first innings of this Test, and to some degree in the second innings as well with Kohli himself playing the anchor. Kohli said that the difference was about 80 runs missed with the bat in the first innings, and about that much extra conceded with the ball during England's first innings.

He put those down to their processes not going entirely right, while adding that not a lot of it would change either. There was no need to overthink their performances, he said, and that the reliance on the lower order was something India were looking at with a positive lens.

"There's two ways to look at this. As top order batsmen, we have to take more responsibility and pride in the fact that we have to do most of the work," he said. "But, if your lower order stands up on such a regular basis, it should give confidence to us as a team and as a whole batting unit that once we have big partnerships up front, then these guys will do their extra job at the back as well. Which makes our positions even stronger.

"We choose to look at the positives, regardless of what situation we're in, and we will continue to do that moving forward. Not putting away the things that we need to improve on. We're not a side that denies anything. We're not a side that hides our faults or gives excuses. We accept defeat, things that have gone wrong, and we continuously strive to improve them and come back stronger and put in those performances that we as a side should be putting in every time we step onto the field."

Heinrich Klaasen will play competitive cricket for the first time after a two-month recovery from Covid-19, when he captains South Africa in the T20I series against Pakistan. Klaasen, who is leading the team in the absence of Quinton de Kock, tested positive for the virus on December 3, during South Africa's white-ball series against England.

At the time of the positive result, Klaasen was part of a bio-secure team environment and had played in the first two T20Is. He was withdrawn from the third T20I and required to isolate. And so began a long and solitary period of rehabilitation.

"The first 16 or 17 days I couldn't really do much. I was very ill," Klaasen, who did not require hospitalisation, said in Lahore on Tuesday, two days ahead of the first of three T20Is. "The problem came with the fact that I could not start exercising. Or I could start exercising again, but I could not run 20-30 metres, or do anything for two or three minutes without my heart rate going up too high."

As a result, Klaasen was unable to follow CSA's return-to-play plan and had to proceed at a slower pace. "There are protocols that one has to follow to be able to rebuild your workload but I could not stick to that programme," he explained. "It is a very simple programme where you exercise for 10-15 minutes a day and (do exercises) like walking 200 metres. It took me a long time to just get my heart rate under control so that I could exercise at least a little bit without getting past the phase where it is too dangerous."

The physical challenge was not the only hurdle Klaasen had to overcome. In an Instagram post he shared three weeks ago, Klaasen cautioned his followers to understand that Covid-19 "is real" and that "the mind takes you to deep and dark places in times like this".

He was unable to take any part in domestic cricket, including the four-day and one-day competitions, and the frustration of working his way back took its toll. "It was mentally very difficult to just have to sit at home for two months. I could do nothing. Later I had a weekend in the bush where I could get away from it all and get a fresh head before we had to come here."

At the end of January, Klaasen visited the Lions Sands Game Reserve in the Kruger National Park at the same time as the tropical storm Eloise struck. The game reserve was battered by heavy rainfall and high winds and parts of it were flooded and forced to close to visitors but Klaasen's stay was unaffected. He even managed to get in his exercise while on the trip, determined to be ready for the Pakistan series. "For the last three weeks, I have been able to train really hard with Mandla (Mashimbyi, the Titans coach) at the Titans. I'm on course, I'm fit and I'm safe and I can play cricket again."

Of course, Klaasen cannot say for sure what he expects his form to be like after last playing a match in December, but he was confident from sessions in the nets that he has been striking the ball well. "It's been a different kind of season for me. I've played four games which has been frustrating so it's difficult to tell you what my form is like. We'll see after these games," he said. "I am hitting the ball really nicely at the Titans just to get some rhythm."

The squad for the T20Is is without the likes of de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen and Lungi Ngidi. All of them returned home with the Test side as part of South Africa's plan to prepare for the three-Test series against Australia, which has now been indefinitely postponed - it was too late to change their plans and keep some of the Test squad in Pakistan. They have retained head coach Mark Boucher and assistant coach Enoch Nkwe, who have been joined by South Africa A coach Malibongwe Maketa and Dolphins franchise coach Imran Khan. Charl Langeveldt and Justin Ontong, the bowling and fielding coach respectively, have also gone home.

While the T20I squad is quite clearly not made up entirely of first-choice players, Klaasen was bullish about their status and their intentions for the three-match series. "We are by no means a second-string T20 squad and we are looking to win," he said. "South Africa has got loads of talent, which people sometimes don't see because we only have six franchises."

That will change as of next summer, when domestic cricket in South Africa is revamped to a 15-team provincial structure.

England's 227-run win against India in the first Test in Chennai has made the race to the World Test Championship final that much more interesting, and now there is plenty at stake for both the teams, as well as for Australia. New Zealand are already there. Who will join them? Australia's points percentage is 69.17, and that's what India and England would be hoping to top.

What do India need to do to qualify for the final?

The defeat has made the path to the final tricky for India. They need 70 points to go past Australia's points percentage. This is a four-Test series, so each win is worth 30 points. That means India need at least two wins and a draw (worth ten points) from the remaining three Tests. If they lose any of the next two games, their qualification hopes are gone.

Have England's qualification chances gone up?

England's chances have improved, but they still have work to do. At the start of the series, they needed 87 points, which means at least three wins. While they have made a great start to the series, they will still need to win two of the remaining three Tests to go past Australia. History is against them there - the last time a touring team won three Tests in a series in India was West Indies, in 1983-84.

So is England's first Test win a good result for Australia?

Yes, this is one of the rare instances when Australia would have been rooting for an England win, because for Australia to go through, they need both India and England to stay below their 69.17. That can only happen if:

• the series is drawn (by any margin), or
• if England win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1

Now that England have won the first Test, Australia will hope England win no more than one more Test, and also prevent India from winning the series by any margin.

Australia are still in it, but they could have avoided all this uncertainty had they not dropped four points because of a slow over-rate against India in the Boxing Day Test. Had that not happened, Australia would have been level with New Zealand on 70, which would then have brought the runs-per-wicket ratio into play (that is the ratio of the runs scored per wicket lost, and the runs conceded per wicket taken). Australia's ratio is 1.39 while New Zealand's is 1.28.

This means Australia would have stayed ahead of New Zealand if they hadn't been docked those four points, and would have been certain of qualification. Now, they will need India and England to help them out.

Of course, the over-rate lesson is one that both India and England will do well to heed: any points docked due to slow over-rates could affect the qualification hopes of these two teams as well.