Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Covid-19 has made its way into another Super Rugby Pacific squad.

Hurricanes assistant coach Chris Gibbes confirmed an undisclosed number of their players have tested positive for the virus.

The Hurricanes were scheduled to play Moana Pasifika in Wellington on Saturday.

"I'm just not at liberty to tell you who and how many players we've got, but it's in the environment and we're working really hard to manage it," Gibbes said on Monday.

"We're preparing to take on these guys this weekend, and that's what we're focussed on.

"What we can control is making sure we stay healthy and we're doing everything we can in that space.

"We kind of knew it was coming and we prepared really well for it so from a whole organisation perspective we just need to make sure we can get a team out and get our performance going again this weekend."

Gibbes said the team would not train on Monday.

Rain cancels Phoenix game again

The Australian Professional Leagues postponed the men's A-League tie between Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne City on Sunday due to heavy rain in the state of New South Wales.

A wild weather system that dumped more than a year's worth of rainfall over a week in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales brought widespread destruction, leaving thousands of people in the states displaced and sweeping away property, livestock and roads.

"The Leichhardt Oval pitch has been deemed unplayable after heavy rain fell shortly before the kick-off," Phoenix said in a statement.

"The playing surface was already sodden as a result of the extreme wet weather that has hit New South Wales in the past week."

The men's and women's league matches between Phoenix and the Western Sydney Wanderers due to be played last week were also postponed because of inclement weather, along with Brisbane Roar's women's match against Canberra United.

Phoenix's men's side have had five league games and one FFA Cup tie delayed this season due to rainfall and Covid-19.

-Reuters

India keep winning record against Pakistan

India overcame a top order wobble to beat Pakistan by 107 runs to maintain their perfect record against the neighbours in the women's cricket World Cup in Mt Maunganui.

India had prevailed in all 10 previous one-day matches between the two, but Bismah Maroof's team threatened to pull off an upset when they reduced Mithali Raj's side to 114-6 in the 34th over.

Opener Smriti Mandhana made 52 but it was counter-attacking knocks from lower-order batters Pooja Vastrakar (67) and Sneh Rana, who made unbeaten 53, that helped India to a decent total of 244-7.

Indian seamers kept it tight upfront and spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad (4-31) wrecked the middle order as Pakistan were bundled out for 137 with seven overs remaining in their innings.

India's teenaged wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh effected five dismissals.

"Relieved to have won the first game but there are a lot of things we have to work on," Mithali said of India's patchy batting in Mount Maunganui.

"When you lose wickets like that, it puts pressure. The partnership between Pooja and Sneh got us back. It's important the top order scores runs, we'll want to address that."

New Zealand, who lost to the West Indies in their opening game, play Bangladesh in Dunedin today.

-Reuters

Jadeja's all round performance boosts India

Ravindra Jadeja's brilliance with bat and ball powered India to a victory by an innings and 222 runs over Sri Lanka inside three days of the opening test at Mohali.

After a swashbuckling unbeaten 175 in India's massive total of 574-8 declared, Jadeja tied Sri Lanka's batters in a knot with his left-arm spin to pick up a match haul of nine wickets.

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin provided able support by taking six to boost his tally to 436 wickets in tests, climbing past former India all-rounder Kapil Dev to second spot in the list of the country's most successful bowlers in the format.

The duo also shared a stand of 130 in a very useful contribution with the bat.

India will take a 1-0 lead to the second and final match in Bengaluru, to be played under lights from Saturday, brimming with confidence that they can extend their winning streak at home to 15 series.

Having secured a first-innings lead of 400 by bundling out their opponents for 174, India enforced the follow-on and bowled out Sri Lanka for 178.

-Reuters

Australia's top order fires against Pakistan

Usman Khawaja fell agonisingly short of a hundred but Australia's top order powered them to 271 for two in reply to Pakistan's total of 476 for four declared on day three of the opening test in Rawalpindi.

David Warner made 68 and Marnus Labuschagne was on 69 when bad light followed by rain stopped play with Australia's top three posting half-centuries in the bat-dominated contest.

Steve Smith will also be hopeful of converting the start he got into a big knock when he resumes on 24.

Australia, on their first tour of Pakistan in 24 years, finished day three 205 behind but scored freely after resuming on five for no loss.

Khawaja, who made 97, could have been dismissed on 22 when Shaheen Afridi got the opener to drive away from his body but Fawad Alam spilled a straightforward catch at gully.

It was a costly mistake on a flat track on which bowlers have struggled and only four wickets fell in the first two days.

-Reuters

Bastianini wins first race

Italy's Enea Bastianini won the opening race of the MotoGP season in Qatar to claim his first victory in motorcycling's premier class.

The 24-year-old Gresini rider trailed Pol Espargaro on a Honda for much of the race before surging past the Spaniard.

Espargaro went wide after being overtaken and finished third, with South Africa's Brad Binder on a KTM second.

France's reigning champion Fabio Quartararo on a Yamaha endured a disappointing start to the season, finishing ninth.

-BBC

Paddon cuts time off hillclimb

New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon raced to his second Ben Nevis Station Golden 1200 Hillclimb title.

Driving the Paddon Rallysport-run Hyundai i20 AP4 car, Paddon delivered a final run of 2m 6.1s, taking four seconds off his best time over the same stretch of road at the inaugural Golden 1200 in 2020. When added to his first day's final run time, Paddon's combined time of 4m 14.3s earned him the hillclimb victory.

Taking the other two top podium positions for the weekend were two competitors driving nimble, high-powered Semog Crosscars - Christchurch's Matt Penrose and Cromwell's Ari Pettigrew.

"I had six clean runs across the two days and was able to take quite a bit of time off our best time from two years ago. I was pleased to put together a nice, clean run on the last one. I'm really happy for the team and big thanks to them for a car that ran faultlessly all weekend," Paddon said.

This year, the hillclimb course has been shortened to 3.6km, rather than the original 6km course first run in 2020. The shortened course starts at the same place on Ben Nevis Station and includes 22 challenging corners as the road rises from the Nevis Valley towards Bannockburn.

Mostert to top of Supercars Championship

Chaz Mostert has claimed the Supercars Championship lead with victory in a wet-dry Sydney SuperNight thriller.

The Bathurst winner was able to hold off two rising stars of the sport in a strategic 300km epic, with pole man Brodie Kostecki and Anton De Pasquale filling the podium.

The 77-lap race featured three safety car deployments, with scattered showers wreaking havoc through the field.

It marked Mostert's first win in Sydney since 2015, and the first at Sydney Motorsport Park for a Walkinshaw car in 14 years.

It also helped Mostert into the championship lead for the first time in his career.

Olympic champion wins Tokyo Marathon

Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, the two-times Olympic marathon champion and world record holder, won the Tokyo Marathon in Japan with a time of two hours two minutes and 40 seconds.

Kipchoge, who defended his marathon title at Sapporo at the Tokyo Games last year, fell short of his world record mark by just over a minute in his debut Tokyo Marathon.

Kipchoge's compatriot Amos Kipruto was second with a time of 2:03.13 while Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia came in third with 2:04.14.

In the women's race, Kenyan world record holder Brigid Kosgei prevailed with a time of 2:16.02, ahead of the Ethiopian duo of Ashete Bekere (2:17.58) and Gotytom Gebreslase (2:18.18).

The 37-year-old holds the world record with a time of 2:01:39 set in Berlin in 2018 and became the only man to break the two-hour barrier at an unofficial race in 2019.

-Reuters