Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Wanaka skier Adam Hall has won bronze in the standing slalom at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing for the fifth Paralympic medal of his career.

The 34-year-old came in as the defending champion after winning in PyeongChang four years ago. Earlier this week in Beijing, he won bronze in the super combined.

The Paralympic Games closing ceremony will be held tonight with skier Corey Peters to carry the flag for New Zealand after a medal haul of silver and gold.

- RNZ

Steel and Magic claim wins in first round of the national netball league

The Southern Steel enjoyed the luxury of giving all players court-time after delivering an emphatic season-opening 71-54 win over the Tactix in Christchurch on Sunday.

The Steel stunned their neighbours with a comprehensive outing, turning the screws in the second half, when leading by five, to completely shut the Tactix out of the game.

That meant the unusual sight of internationals Shannon Saunders and George Fisher alongside the experienced Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit watching from the bench for the second half of the final stanza, and allowing the lesser experienced Sarahpheinna Woulf and Ali Wilshier to see out the match.

The Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic coach Mary-Jane Araroa has her first win at the helm of the Waikato side.

Delivering a decisive start and finish, the Magic heralded the start of the season in perfect fashion with an impressive 46-43 win over the defending champion Mystics in Hamilton on Sunday.

Magic led from start to finish after a stunning opening handed them an eight-goal advantage but along the way they were forced to dig deep as the Mystics staged several productive comebacks. Closing to within one down the home straight, the Mystics could not break the Magic's tenacious resolve.

New signings Claire Kersten and Bailey Mes had their first outing for the Magic, while Ameliaranne Ekenasio was sidelined. The Mystics were without their key shooter Grace Nweke.

Michael Venus and Tim Puetz progress in Indian Wells

New Zealand tennis player Michael Venus and his German doubles partner Tim Puetz will meet the wild card pairing of Greece's Stefanos Tsisipas and Spain's Feliciano Lopez at the ATP Tournament in Indian Wells.

Earlier today, Venus and Puetz had a straight sets win over the Polish duo of Hubert Hurkacz and Lukasz Kubot, 6-2 6-2.

In the men's singles, Rafael Nadal roared back from 5-2 down in the third set to defeat American Sebastian Korda. Nadal remains unbeaten in 2022.

The Breakers have broken their four-game losing streak in the NBL.

With their full line-up available for the first time this season, a fast start helped the New Zealand club to a 84-75 win over Adelaide in Adelaide on Saturday night.

The Breakers led 30-16 after the first quarter and while that lead was trimmed to just six points at halftime, they were able to hold on down the stretch for a morale boosting win.

Import guards Hugo Besson (17 points, four assists) and Peyton Siva (16 points, five assists) were standouts in the victory, while NBL Next Star Ousmane Dieng continued his good form with 13 points and four rebounds.

Hard-working big man Yanni Wetzel also mader a good contribution, racking up 11 points and nine rebounds.

The Breakers were set to play Perth on Monday.

Phoenix men's unbeaten streak snapped

The Phoenix men have had their seven-match unbeaten streak broken in football's A-League.

Wellington suffered a 2-1 to Brisbane on Saturday night.

Brisbane opened the scoring in just the eighth minute when Rahmat Akbari headed the ball in from a Ryo Wada cross.

The Phoenix equalised after 72 minutes substitute Gary Hooped found the back of the net, but just a few minutes later the Roar restored their lead through Henry Hore.

The defeat was made worse by an injury to captain Alex Rufer, who left the field late in the first half after a collision of legs with Akbari.

The Phoenix would now prepare for their next match, against Newcastle on Friday.

Ko can't defend Saudi title

Defending champion Lydia Ko has tested positive for Covid-19 and withdrawn from next week's Saudi Ladies International.

Ranked No 3 in the world, the New Zealander was in isolation after testing positive following the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore last week, where she finished tied for 23rd.

Prior to that, Ko had won her 17th LPGA title when taking out the Gainbridge LPGA event in Florida.

The 24-year-old became the first woman to claim multiple Olympic golf medals with her bronze at the Tokyo Games last year.

Next week would be the third edition of the Saudi Ladies International, which is part of the Ladies European Tour.

- Reuters/RNZ

West Indies hang on in first test

England fell short of victory as West Indies survived for a tense draw despite a top-order collapse on the final day of the first test in North Sound.

The home team were reeling after losing four wickets for eight runs in their second innings - including those of John Campbell (22) and Jermaine Blackwood (2) - who inexplicably fell making aggressive Twenty20-style shots.

West Indies still had to survive another 36 overs at that stage, but experienced allrounder Jason Holder and first-innings century-maker Nkrumah Bonner steadied the ship, surviving until the end at Viv Richards Stadium on the island of Antigua.

Playing nearly every ball defensively with the utmost of caution, the pair hunkered down, especially Bonner who took 34 balls to get off the mark.

The match finished with West Indies 147 for four, Holder on 37 and Bonner 38.

England's cause was not helped by the absence of fast bowler Mark Wood, sidelined by a right elbow injury, though it was always likely that the result would come down to the success of the team's spinners.

Earlier, England set West Indies a victory target of 286 runs, declaring in time to give their attack 71 overs to get through the West Indies.

- Reuters

Irish storm home at Twickenham

Ireland took full advantage of a red card for England lock Charlie Ewels after less than two minutes of their Six Nations encounter at Twickenham to claim a bonus-point 32-15 victory that keeps them in the hunt for the title.

Ewels was sent off for a head-on-head tackle on Ireland second row James Ryan and Ireland led 15-9 at halftime after tries for James Lowe and Hugo Keenan.

England hit back superbly to level the match via Marcus Smith's boot in an amazing atmosphere but Ireland finished strongly as tries by Jack Conan and Finlay Bealham earned a potentially key bonus point.

France top the standings on 18 points after winning their first four games and will take the grand slam with victory over England next week.

Ireland have 16 and could still take their first title since 2018 with victory or possibly even a draw against Scotland in Dublin if England can upset France in the final game of the championship.

A French draw could also be enough for Ireland to top the standings with a win.

- Reuters

Scotland bounce back in Rome

Centre Chris Harris scored a brace of tries as Scotland edged to a 33-22 bonus-point victory over Italy in their Six Nations encounter in Rome, inflicting a 36th successive defeat in the competition on their hosts.

Centre Sam Johnson, wing Darcy Graham and fullback Stuart Hogg also crossed for tries as Scotland came out on top in a game that was more of a street fight than an arm wrestle, with both teams playing some loose rugby compounded by errors.

Italy had managed only a single try in the Six Nations coming into the game, but got three in Rome as scrumhalf Callum Braley and debutant Ange Capuozzo (two) crossed to score, the latter's opening effort giving the home side their first second-half points in this year's competition.

Scotland move into fourth in the table with 10 points from their four games, while Italy remain marooned at the foot of the standings, having yet to break their duck and with a game to come in Wales next weekend.

- Reuters

Australia, India establish control

Usman Khawaja smashed his 11th test hundred and forged a 159-run partnership with Steve Smith to power Australia to 251 for three on the opening day of the second test against Pakistan.

Islamabad-born Khawaja had fallen agonisingly short of a hundred in the opening test in Rawalpindi where he top-scored for his side with a breezy 97.

The elegant left-hander made amends in Karachi where he shelved the reverse sweep and made an unbeaten 127, which included 13 fours and a six.

Smith made 72 before falling to Hasan Ali in the penultimate over of the day.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka were reduced to 86-6 in response to India's 252 on day one of the second test in Bangalore, leaving the hosts 166 runs ahead so far in the day-night game played in front of a near-capacity crowd.

Sri Lanka's spinners thrived in the first two sessions, but Shreyas Iyer was unperturbed and top-scored with 92 after India won the toss and opted to bat first.

While Lasith Embuldeniya (3-94) and Praveen Jayawickrama (3-81) constantly troubled the Indian batsmen, Iyer smashed 10 fours and four sixes before he became the last wicket to fall, stumped eight runs short of a second test century.

In response, Sri Lanka's top order collapsed to 28-4 as India's Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami proved there was enough life in the pitch to assist the quicks as well.

India's spinners finally got into the act when Axar Patel got Charith Asalanka to sky a delivery to Ravichandran Ashwin, but Bumrah came back towards the end of the session to pick up his third, ending Angelo Mathews' resistance.

- Reuters