SPORTS DIGEST

BASKETBALL

Karl-anthony Towns led the way as the Minnesota Timberwolves downed the Phoenix Suns 119-108. Towns found his range with 32 points, adding 12 rebounds, and was backed up by Jimmy Butler’s 25 points and 21 from Andrew Wiggins. The Miami Heat overcame a recordbreaking slow start to beat the Chicago Bulls 100-93. The Heat scored just seven points in the first quarter – a franchise low – but recovered thanks to 38 secondquarter points and a 36-point haul in the final quarter, with Goran Dragic registering 24 points. The Memphis Grizzlies lost an eighth game in a row, going down 98-88 to the Brooklyn Nets. NBA: Chicago Bulls 93 Miami Heat 100, Memphis Grizzlies 88 Brooklyn Nets 98, Minnesota Timberwolves 119 Phoenix Suns 108.

CRICKET

1st TEST (Brisbane) England 302 (J M Vince 83, D J Malan 56, M D Stoneman 53) & 195 (J E Root 51) v Australia 328 (S P D Smith 141 no, S E Marsh 51) & 173-0 (D A Warner 87 no, C T Bancroft 82 no). Australia beat England by 10 wkts. 2nd TEST (Nagpur) Sri Lanka 205 (L D Chandimal 57, F D M Karunaratne 51, R Ashwin 4-67) & 166 (L D Chandimal 61, R Ashwin 4-63) v India 6106 dec (V Kohli 213, C A Pujara 143, M Vijay 128, R G Sharma 102 no). India beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 239 runs.

GRIDIRON

The indomitable Philadelphia Eagles grabbed their ninth-straight win with a devastating 31-3 rout of the Chicago Bears that saw three touchdown passes for Carson Wentz. Philadelphia now need to win just one game – and the Dallas Cowboys to lose to the Washington Redskins on Thursday night – to take the NFC East title. Wentz passed for 227 yards, Legarrette Blount rushed for 97, while Zach Ertz caught 10 over 103 yards. Meanwhile the Eagles’ defence made light work of Bears rookie QB Mitchell Trubisky and kicker Cairo Santos missed a 54 yard field goal. The Denver Broncos suffered a bruising 14-21 defeat to the Oakland Raiders in a game marred by a mass brawl. Seemingly triggered by an altercation between Oakland receiver Michael Crabtree and Denver cornerback Aqib Talib, the fracas led to the pair being sent off, along with Raiders guard Gabe Jackson who pushed an official. A last-gasp, personal record breaking 57-yard field goal by Phil Dawson lifted the Arizona Cardinals over the Jaguars 27-24 with one second to spare, ending Jacksonville’s four-game streak. NFL: Atlanta Falcons 34 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20, Cincinnati Bengals 30 Cleveland Browns 16, Indianapolis Colts 16 Tennessee Titans 20, Kansas City Chiefs 10 Buffalo Bills 16, New England Patriots 35 Miami Dolphins 17, New York Jets 27 Carolina Panthers 35, Philadelphia Eagles 31 Chicago Bears 3, 27 Jacksonville Jaguars 24, Los Angeles Rams 26 New Orleans Saints 20, Oakland Raiders 21 Denver Broncos 14, San Francisco 49ers 13 Seattle Seahawks 24, Pittsburgh Steelers 31 Green Bay Packers 28.

ICE HOCKEY

Not satisfied with just scoring the tying goal in the third period, Jimmy Vesey decided the shootout in the seventh round to lift the New York Rangers over the Vancouver Canucks 4-3. New York’s fourth consecutive win required Henrik Lundqvist to block 29 attempts by Vancouver, whose Loui Eriksson opened the scoring in the first period. Assisted by Rick Nash just over five minutes into the third period, Vesey’s forehand-backhand helped Rangers along to their eighth straight win at Madison Square Garden. In North Carolina, the Hurricanes edged the Predators 4-3 in a shootout, bringing Nashville’s four-game streak to an end. Justin Williams, Josh Jooris and Victor Rask scored in regulation time for the hosts, while Craig Smith, Mattias Ekholm and Viktor Arvidsson scored for the Predators. NHL: Boston Bruins 2 Edmonton Oilers 4, Carolina Hurricanes 4 Nashville Predators 3, New York Rangers 4 Vancouver Canucks 3.

TENNIS

ATP CHAMPIONS RANKINGS 2017: 1 Rafael Nadal (Spa) 10645.00 pts, 2 Roger Federer (Swi) 9605 pts, 3 Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) 5150 pts, 4 Alexander Zverev (Ger) 4610 pts, 5 Dominic Thiem (Aut) 4015 pts, 6 Marin Cilic (Cro) 3805 pts, 7 David Goffin (Bel) 3775 pts, 8 Jack Sock (USA) 3165 pts, 9 Stan Wawrinka (Swi) 3150 pts, 10 Pablo Carreno-busta (Spa) 2615 pts, 11 Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) 2595 pts, 12 Novak Djokovic (Ser) 2585 pts, 13 Sam Querrey (USA) 2535 pts, 14 Kevin Anderson (Rsa) 2480 pts, 15 Jo-wilfried Tsonga (Fra) 2320 pts, 16 Andy Murray (Gbr) 2290 pts, 17 John Isner (USA) 2265.00 pts, 18 Lucas Pouille (Fra) 2235 pts, 19 Tomas Berdych (Cze) 2095 pts, 20 Roberto Bautista Agut (Spa) 2015 pts, 21 Nick Kyrgios (Aus) 2010 pts, 22 Kei Nishikori (Jpn) 1885 pts, 23 Albert Ramos-vinolas (Spa) 1845 pts, 24 Milos Raonic (Can) 1795 pts, 25 Gilles Muller (Lux) 1695 pts, 26 Diego Sebastian Schwartzman (Arg) 1675 pts, 27 Fabio Fognini (Ita) 1670 pts, 28 Adrian Mannarino (Fra) 1635 pts, 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) 1440 pts, 30 Damir Dzumhur (Bih) 1391 pts, 31 Richard Gasquet (Fra) 1375 pts, 32 Pablo Cuevas (Uru) 1370 pts, 33 Mischa Zverev (Ger) 1302 pts, 34 Filip Krajinovic (Ser) 1298 pts, 35 Fernando Verdasco (Spa) 1295 pts, 36 Feliciano Lopez (Spa) 1295 pts, 37 David Ferrer (Spa) 1290 pts, 38 Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukr) 1231 pts, 39 Andrey Rublev (Rus) 1229 pts, 40 Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) 1219 pts, 41 Benoit Paire (Fra) 1155 pts, 42 Robin Haase (Ned) 1130 pts, 43 Paolo Lorenzi (Ita) 1095 pts, 44 Steve Johnson (USA) 1055 pts, 45 Karen Khachanov (Rus) 1030 pts, 46 Gael Monfils (Fra) 1015 pts, 47 Ryan Harrison (USA) 1010 pts, 48 Borna Coric (Cro) 1001 pts, 49 Aljaz Bedene (Gbr) 993 pts, 50 Kyle Edmund (Gbr) 992 pts. WTA RANKINGS: 1 Simona Halep (Rom) 6175 pts, 2 Garbine Muguruza (Spa) 6135 pts, 3 Caroline Wozniacki (Den) 6015 pts, 4 Karolina Pliskova (Cze) 5730 pts, 5 Venus Williams (USA) 5597 pts, 6 Elina Svitolina (Ukr) 5500 pts, 7 Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) 5010 pts, 8 Caroline Garcia (Fra) 4385 pts, 9 Johanna Konta (Gbr) 3610 pts, 10 Coco Vandeweghe (USA) 3258 pts, 11 Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) 2935 pts, 12 Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 2856 pts, 13 Sloane Stephens (USA) 2802 pts, 14 Julia Goerges (Ger) 2655 pts, 15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 2485 pts, 16 Anastasija Sevastova (Lat) 2475 pts, 17 Ashleigh Barty (Aus) 2236 pts, 18 Elena Vesnina (Rus) 2220 pts, 19 Madison Keys (USA) 2213 pts, 20 Magdalena Rybarikova (Svk) 2141 pts, 21 Angelique Kerber (Ger) 2121 pts, 22 Serena Williams (USA) 2030 pts, 23 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Cze) 2025 pts, 24 Daria Kasatkina (Rus) 1950 pts, 25 Daria Gavrilova (Aus) 1865 pts, 26 Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) 1860 pts, 27 Shuai Peng (Chn) 1765 pts, 28 Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) 1715 pts, 29 Petra Kvitova (Cze) 1653 pts, 30 Lucie Safarova (Cze) 1650 pts, 31 Kiki Bertens (Ned) 1610 pts, 32 Mirjana Lucic-baroni (Cro) 1605 pts, 33 Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) 1580 pts, 34 Anett Kontaveit (Est) 1535 pts, 35 Shuai Zhang (Chn) 1535 pts, 36 Elise Mertens (Bel) 1483 pts, 37 Sorana Cirstea (Rom) 1455 pts, 38 Alize Cornet (Fra) 1420 pts, 39 Timea Bacsinszky (Swi) 1362 pts, 40 Carla Suarez Navarro (Spa) 1341 pts, 41 Samantha Stosur (Aus) 1211 pts, 42 Lesia Tsurenko (Ukr) 1200 pts, 43 Irina-camelia Begu (Rom) 1194 pts, 44 Ana Konjuh (Cro) 1176 pts, 45 Qiang Wang (Chn) 1165 pts, 46 Tatjana Maria (Ger) 1125 pts, 47 Mona Barthel (Ger) 1103 pts, 48 Katerina Siniakova (Cze) 1100 pts, 49 Lauren Davis (USA) 1093 pts, 50 Carina Witthoeft (Ger) 1093 pts. Selected other: 74 Heather Watson (Gbr) 811 pts.