Weekly digest (Mar 5 to 11): Minerva's maiden I-League title win to Wallace's Indian Open triumph
A round-up of all that happened in the world of sports over the last seven days.
Published : Mar 11, 2018 23:56 IST
From Minerva Punjab securing its maiden I-League title to Matt Wallace winning Indian Open Golf 2018, here's Sportstar 's weekly digest of all the major sporting events from the week gone by.
Cricket
The week began with Australia winning the Durban Test match against South Africa by 118 runs and taking a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series. (
David Warner and Quinton de Kock were embroiled in an ugly verbal exchange in the stairwell at the Kingsmead Stadium as the players were on their way to the dressing room for the tea break on day four. Both these players were fined for their act of misconduct but not suspended from playing the second Test in Port Elizabeth. ( REPORT )
India began its Nidahas Trophy campaign with a five-wicket defeat to host Sri Lanka but redeemed itself a couple of evenings later to get on board in the tournament, beating Bangladesh by six wickets . Bangladesh, led by Mushfiqur Rahim, successfully chased down a record 215 runs at the R. Premadasa Stadium to get on board and leave the T20 tri-series evenly poised. ( REPORT )
Elsewhere, New Zealand suffered a seven-wicket defeat in the final ODI of a five-match series against England and lost the same 2-3. ( REPORT )
Zimbabwe, Scotland and West Indies sealed their places in the Super Sixes of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers by winning their first three matches in the group stage. Afghanistan, one of the favourites to qualify for next year's quadrennial event, managed to win only one of its four Group A fixtures, leaving itself in danger of being knocked at the first stage of the qualifiers.
India B was the winner of the Deodhar Trophy 2018, beating Vijay Hazare Trophy winner Karnataka by six wickets. ( REPORT )
Football
The top-most story from Indian football was Minerva Punjab winning its maiden I-League title by securing a 1-0 victory against Churchill Brothers in its final league match. ( REPORT ) That it did so with a vast majority of players from its academy added further lustre to this achievement.
Bengaluru FC sealed its spot in the ISL final 2017-18 by beating FC Pune City 3-1 in the second leg and on agreegate. Sunil Chhetri's hat-trick was pivotal to this season's debutant reaching the final at the expense of Ranko Popovic's side. ( REPORT )
The Manchester United of old was on view on Monday at Selhurst Park, where it came back from being 2-0 down to win the match 3-2 and regain second spot on the Premier League table. ( REPORT )
Real Madrid , Liverpool , Juventus , and Manchester City sealed their spots in the Champions League quarterfinals, by beating Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), FC Porto, Tottenham Hotspur, and FC Basel over two legs.
Manchester United's week only got better with it, courtesy a Marcus Rashford brace, beating Liverpool 2-1 at Old Trafford, in the headline fixture of the past Premier League weekend. ( REPORT )
Chelsea , Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were the other winners from the Premier League top six.
European heavyweights Real Madrid , Barcelona and Bayern Munich posted comfortable wins in the LaLiga and Bundesliga, while Robert Lewandowski brought up 100 Bundesliga goals for the Bavarian giant by scoring a hat-trick against Hamburg.
Paulo Dybala's brace against Udinese propelled Juventus to the top of Serie A. ( REPORT )
Tennis
Leander Paes earned a recall to the Indian Davis Cup team for Asia-Oceania tie against China in April. ( STORY )
Yuki Bhambri beat Nicolas Mahut in straight sets in the opening round at the Indian Wells, setting up a second-round clash with another Frenchman, Lucas Pouille.
Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki posted wins at the Indian Wells. ( REPORT )
Grigor Dimitrov lost to Fernando Verdasco , while Roger Federer's match against Federico Delbonis had to be suspended due to rain.
Rohan Bopanna, along with his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin, lost in the first round, to a Luxembourg-US pairing of Giles Muller and Sam Querrey. ( REPORT )
OTHER SPORTS NEWS
The Indian men's hockey team finished fifth in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup by beating Ireland in its final match. ( REPORT )
The Indian women's hockey team, on the other hand, won its five-match series against South Korea 3-1. ( REPORT )
The AFI announced a 31-member India squad for Commonwealth Games 2018, the team featuring 18 men and 13 women. ( REPORT )
Indian chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand won the Tal Memorial Rapid Chess Tournament by accruing six points out a possible nine. ( REPORT )
Anjum Moudgil won silver medal at the Shooting World Cup in Mexico. ( REPORT )
Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan lost in the pre-quarterfinals of the Qatar Open Table Tennis tournament. ( REPORT )
Matt Wallace of England won the Indian Open Golf tournament, beating Andrew Johnston in a playoff. ( REPORT )