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Francesco Bagnaia closes title gap with win in rain-soaked Thailand MotoGP

  • Ducati rider makes most of treacherous conditions
  • Title race tightens with two races of season to go

Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia put in a sure-footed display at a rain-drenched Buriram International Circuit as he romped to victory in the Thailand Grand Prix on Sunday and slashed his gap to Jorge Martín, the championship leader, down to 17 points.

Bagnaia, the defending MotoGP champion, took advantage of errors by Pramac Racing’s Martín and Marc Márquez of Gresini Racing to take the chequered flag and clinch his ninth win of the season. Martín finished second while the GasGas Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta was third.

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High-stakes season switch goes from Premiership grit to Twickenham glitz | Michael Aylwin

International stage gears up to keep sport financially afloat but future plans will come at the cost of players and fans

Fans of English rugby – the real ones who follow the Premiership – could be forgiven for outrage at the suspension of the domestic game for the next few weeks. Such have been the remarkable matches coming at us from all angles in the first six rounds of the season, any resentment at November’s narrowing of focus on Twickenham, where tickets tend to be reserved for certain types, would be only natural.

As exhilarating as it may be, domestic rugby pretty much everywhere, but certainly in England, does not wash its face financially. So, over to the international game to try to keep everything afloat.

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Victor Radley: ‘I love coming to England. Every year gets better’

NRL and England forward on World Cup heartache, the challenge of Samoa and loving life in South Yorkshire

There are not many who would be willing to swap Bondi beach for the outskirts of Barnsley in mid-October but for Victor Radley, his annual month-long excursion to England is not so much a chore but rather than the highlight of his year.

The 26-year-old NRL regular raised eyebrows two years ago when he decided to represent his Sheffield-born father and pledge his allegiance to England instead of push for an Australia call-up. Some wondered if it would be a mere one-off, with the chance to play in a World Cup too good to refuse. But for the third straight year, Radley is back in England colours.

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Wasteful Australia hold off New Zealand to banish their Pacific Cup demons

  • Kangaroos run in four tries to the Kiwis’ two in 22-10 victory
  • Zac Lomax double lifts visitors into final after heartbreak last year

Australia have exacted revenge on New Zealand for last year’s heartbreaking Pacific Cup final with a 22-10 win that propels the Kangaroos into the decider of this year’s tournament. Nearly a year after the Kiwis handed Australia their biggest loss, a try-scoring double to Zac Lomax saw off the chance of another defeat before a hostile Christchurch crowd on Sunday.

The Kangaroos still appeared below their best, with Angus Crichton notably bombing an early try and new halfback Mitch Moses spraying a kick and then putting a line dropout out on the full. Regardless, the win over an admittedly understrength New Zealand helps vindicate a raft of changes made to the Australian team following last year’s 30-0 debacle in Hamilton.

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Australia make history with New Zealand shutout to seal spot in Pacific Cup final

  • Kiwi Ferns held scoreless for first time as Jillaroos claim 14-0 victory
  • Tamika Upton stars and captain Ali Brigginshaw returns in style

Australia have booked their spot in the Pacific Cup final after fullback Tamika Upton starred in a 14-0 defeat of titleholders New Zealand in Christchurch.

Already under pressure from their loss to the Kiwi Ferns in last year’s Pacific Cup final and a handful of controversial selection choices since then, the Jillaroos were made to overcome second-half injuries to Kezie Apps and Olivia Higgins on Sunday. But Upton’s attacking brilliance proved the difference between the sides, despite New Zealand being the better starters and holding firm on their goal line for long stretches.

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European football: Leverkusen rocked by Bremen as Napoli stretch Serie A lead

  • Xabi Alonso blames ‘soft defending’ for last-gasp draw
  • Napoli extend unbeaten run and go five points clear

Bayer Leverkusen’s sloppy performance in their 2-2 draw at Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga on Saturday that included conceding a 90th-minute equaliser was down to the German champions’ weak defending, Xabi Alonso said.

Werder twice came from a goal down to snatch a point and leave Leverkusen with a third draw in their last four league games. “The fact that Werder could come back was down to both sides,” Alonso, who led his team to an unbeaten domestic league and cup double last season, said. “We were too soft in defending and they used their chances.

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Championship roundup: Sunderland beat Oxford to go five points clear

  • Burnley in second and Leeds in third drop points
  • Drama as Plymouth fight back to draw 3-3 with Preston

Sunderland cemented their position at the top of the Championship with a dominant 2-0 win over Oxford. After back-to-back away victories over Hull and Luton, they made it three wins in six days thanks to Jobe Bellingham’s 16th-minute header and Wilson Isidor’s first-time volley.

Burnley in second and Leeds in third dropped points, allowing Sheffield United to gain ground as they moved on from back-to-back defeats with a 2-0 victory over Stoke. Goals either side of the break from Kieffer Moore and Tyrese Campbell ended Stoke’s four-match unbeaten run. A minute’s silence was observed before kick-off in memory of the former Sheffield United player George Baldock, who died this month at the age of 31.

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England need to reset after Pakistan’s dynamic spin duo offer reality check | Andy Bull

Ben Stokes’s side may need to go back to basics after spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan exposed a lack of focus

The sun was only just coming up in England when the last wicket went down in Pakistan. Jack Leach was deftly stumped by Mohammad Rizwan as he came galumphing down the pitch to swing and miss at a wide, of all things. Noman Ali had bowled the ball out there deliberately, fast and flat after he saw Leach coming.

It was a simple trick, like an uncle bewitching his nephew by pretending to tug off his thumb. England had a pyrrhic lead of 35 at the time, and on television Ramiz Raja lost the run of himself and prematurely called a famous victory for Pakistan.

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Irresistible Mitchell Santner spins New Zealand to historic victory in India

  • New Zealand win Test series in India for the first time
  • Santner takes 13 wickets in career-defining performance

India collapsed to a humiliating series defeat at home, their first for 12 years, when New Zealand beat them by 113 runs in Pune to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.

Mitchell Santner took six for 104, finishing with 13 wickets in the match, to set up an historic win that was sealed when his senior spin partner Ajaz Patel claimed the last two Indian wickets.

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Mitchell Santner blitzes India to give New Zealand sniff of historic series win

  • New Zealand in front by 301 after Santner takes 7-53
  • Tom Latham hits 86 to extend tourists’ lead

A spectacular seven-wicket haul by Mitchell Santner helped New Zealand dismiss India for 156 before the tourists reached 198 for five at stumps on day two of the second test in Pune on Friday to tighten their grip on the three-match series.

Tom Blundell was unbeaten on 30 and Glenn Phillips on nine as the Black Caps, who won the series opener by eight wickets, extended their lead to 301 runs at the close after scoring 259 in the first innings.

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Fenerbahce 1-1 Manchester United: Europa League – live

Former United manager José Mourinho was sent to the stands during a topsy-turvy game that ended fairly with honours even

1 min: There is some proper bedlam going on at the Şükrü Saracoğlu. What a noise! Good luck thinking.

The hosts get the ball rolling. It’s exactly one year to the day since United’s last win in European competition, that 1-0 Champions League victory over Copenhagen at Old Trafford.

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Europa League roundup: Rangers rout FCSB, Roma get up and running

  • Rangers win 4-0 at Ibrox; Roma beat Dynamo Kyiv 1-0
  • Lazio go top of table; Ajax beat Qarabag 3-0

Philippe Clement insists Rangers’ desire and hunger in their convincing 4-0 Europa League win over FCSB at Ibrox was fuelled by being “sick of losing”. The manager came under enormous pressure after the 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock on Sunday left the club six points off the top of the Scottish Premiership and the previous European game at Ibrox ended in a 4-1 win for Lyon.

There was an early reprieve when the Romanian side – formerly known as Steaua Bucharest – had the ball in the net only for a foul to be called. But Tom Lawrence opened the scoring in the 10th minute and the winger Vaclav Cerny fired in a double, one either side of half-time, before the second-half substitute Hamza Igamane scored his first goal for the club to wrap the game up.

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