Sports Highlights: Liverpool Trump Tottenham 4-2 In EPL; NADA Suspends Bajrang Punia

Welcome to the highlights of our coverage of sports news and events on Sunday, May 5, 2024. Saturday evening was choc-a-bloc with big-ticket clashes across arenas, and Sunday was no different. China reigned supreme in the Uber and Thomas Cup badminton finals, beating Indonesia in the men's and women's events at Chengdu.

In football, the English Premier League featured an exciting match-up between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, with the Reds winning 4-2. Back home, the Indian Premier League had a double-header in store - Chennai Super Kings trounced Punjab Kings by 28 runs and Kolkata Knight Riders handed Lucknow Super Giants a 98-run thrashing. Catch the highlights from the sports world on Sunday right here.

Atletico Madrid defeat Mallorca 1-0

Champions Inter Milan suffered a shock 0-1 defeat at the hands of Sassuolo.

Messi scored a goal and had five assists as Inter Miami trounced the New York Red Bulls 6-2 on Saturday night — with the Argentine great and eight-time Ballon d'Or winner as the game's best player setting no fewer than three Major League Soccer records in the effort.

The six goal contributions, five assists and five assists in a half were all MLS records.

Messi has now scored and assisted in six consecutive league matches. (AP)

Taylor Pendrith has been here before — holding or sharing a lead after three rounds on the PGA Tour.

The Canadian was one of six among the top 10 on the leaderboard seeking a first tour victory at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

Pendrith chipped in twice for consecutive eagles to kick-start an 8-under 63 on Saturday for a one-shot lead over second-round leader Jake Knapp. (AP)

Canelo Alvarez held off a feisty challenger Saturday night, proving to be the stronger and more effective boxer to retain his undisputed super middleweight championship, winning by unanimous decision to hand Jaime Munguia his first loss.

Tim Cheatham scored the fight 117-110, David Sutherland had it 116-111 and Steve Weisfeld 115-112. (AP)

The change in Mohammed Siraj’s fortunes has played a critical role in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s late surge in this IPL, and the pacer’s good run might also have put the Indian thinktank at ease ahead of next month’s T20 World Cup.

In the latest show of his metamorphosis, Siraj wrecked Gujarat Titans with a two-wicket burst in the Power Play, grabbing the wickets of Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha.

Siraj’s figures at that stage was a superb 2-0-9-2, and as someone who is marked to share the new ball with Jasprit Bumrah in the ICC showpiece, it’s certainly a shot in the arm for the national team as well. (PTI)

The National Anti Doping Agency of India has provisionally suspended the two-time Commonwealth Games winner Bajrang Punia as he failed to submit the dope sample during the selection trials held at Sonipat in March. The Tokyo Olympics medalist wrestler is out of contention for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

India batter Cheteshwar Pujara’s unbeaten 104 helped Sussex extend their first innings lead to 111 runs in their County Championship Division Two match against Derbyshire.

Pujara's unbeaten 167-ball knock was studded with 10 fours as he notched up his first hundred of the County season in his third match, having scored 86 and 44 not out against Gloucestershire and 38 in his only outing against Leicestershire. (PTI)

China bagged Uber Cup trophy with a comprehensive 3-0 result over Indonesia. They secured a total of 24 straight wins through the tournament without a single loss and regained the title that they’d lost to Korea last year.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday, May 5, announced the groups and fixtures for the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 tournament that will be played in Bangladesh in October. India are placed alongside six-time winners Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand women and another finalist from the T20 WC qualifiers. Read More HERE

Punjab Kings stand-in skipper Sam Curran won the toss and opted to bowl in their IPL match against Chennai Super Kings in Dharamsala.

Playing XIs:

Punjab Kings: Sam Curran (c), Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh.

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk), Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Richard Gleeson and Tushar Deshpande.

Prior to the 2024 Indian Premier League playoffs, Chennai Super Kings have received a major setback in their bowling lineup as Matheesha Pathirana, the Sri Lankan pacer, is returning home to recover from a hamstring injury. The franchise confirmed this today via a press release.

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is furious that NADA kept "in dark" on the development of Bajrang Punia's doping case and is planning to write to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on the matter according to the report of PTI.

Even as the Punjab Kings vs Chennai Super Kings clash rages on, we are a couple of hours away from the start of today's evening game in IPL 2024. Lucknow Super Giants are hosting Kolkata Knight Riders at the Ekana Cricket Stadium. Before the match begins, check out three key player battles in our report HERE.

In the Thomas Cup final, China lead Indonesia 2-0 and Jonatan Christie is currently taking on Shi Feng Li in the must-win third rubber. Yu Qi Shi beat Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-17, 21-6 in the first singles match. Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang then made it 2-0 for China with a 21-18, 17-21, 21-17 win over Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.

PSV Eindhoven clinch their first Eridivisie (Dutch league) title in six years and 25th overall by beating Sparta Rotterdam 4-2. Peter Bosz's team has dominated the season, losing just one match, scoring 107 goals while conceding 19, with two matches still to play.

India's Anirban Lahiri finishes tied-30th in a 54-player field at LIV Golf Singapore. Lahiri, who had rounds of 70-69 on the first two days, ends with 4-under for 54 holes. Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka, who will defend his PGA Championship title later this month, wins the title for his fourth LIV golf success.

Jonatan Christie delivers in the crunch moments yet again, as Indonesia pull one back to stay alive in the Thomas Cup final. China still lead the tie 2-1, and the men's doubles match is now underway.

In the Scottish Premiership, Rangers come from behind to beat 10-man Kilmarnock 4-1 at Ibrox. With that, they keep the pressure on title rivals Celtic, who are three points ahead (84 points from 35 games).

China have followed up their Uber Cup victory with a Thomas Cup triumph, beating Indonesia 3-1 in the men's final at Chengdu.

Chelsea have claimed another big win at Stamford Bridge. They have dismissed West Ham 5-0 in the English Premier League to further boost their European hopes.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa miss the chance to close in on a UEFA Champions League place as they are beaten 1-0 at Brighton.

Members of Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad will get USD 100,000 each if the team wins the ICC event in June, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced.

The announcement has been made by PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi after spending close to two hours with the players in Lahore before their departure for the away T20I series against Ireland and England.

Star Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has quickly put last week’s altercation with manager Jurgen Klopp behind him. The Egyptian striker scores first in Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Tottenham in the English Premier League. The sight of Salah arguing with his departing manager late on in Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at West Ham last week had dominated debate in the following days. But Salah returns in the starting lineup and is right away on the score sheet to set up his team's victory against Spurs at Anfield.

Bayer Leverkusen extend their undefeated streak as they secure a 5-1 away win at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. The result leaves champions Leverkusen at the summit with 84 points, while Frankfurt sit sixth with 45. Leverkusen's record unbeaten run, meanwhile, now extends to 48 matches across all competitions.

The men's singles final at the Madrid Open is on level terms. Felix Auger-Aliassime and Andrey Rublev have won one set apiece and the third set is now underway. Iga Swiatek had earlier won the women's singles title, defeating Aryna Sabalenka.

That's all from us tonight. We will be back in the morning with all that's current in the world of sports. Until then, goodbye.