Briefs

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Pujara defies England's attack despite Panesar's best efforts

CRICKET:Monty Panesar marked his Test return with four wickets but could find no way past Cheteshwar Pujara as the tireless India number three once again confounded England.

Without Pujara (114no), augmenting the unbeaten double-century he made in India’s nine-wicket first Test victory, England would surely have bowled their hosts out cheaply on day one of the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium.

He survived while the rest of the top six faltered against Panesar (four for 91) on a spinners’ pitch, and then shared consecutive 50 stands with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin (60no) to turn a vulnerable 119 for five into 266 for six by stumps.

The exact merit of that total will not be clear until England’s batsmen have tried their hand on a surface sure to provide plenty of assistance for India’s three specialist spinners.

Pujara appeared in control throughout on the way to a near five-and-a-half hour century completed with a hook for his ninth four in James Anderson’s first over with the second new ball.

Denton drives Leinster over the line in drab friendly in Galway

RUGBY:Tom Denton continued his recovery after injury as Leinster eased their way to a 28-9 A Interprovincial victory at the Sportsground in Galway last night. Denton helped his skipper Conor Gilsenan maul over for Leinster's second try on the hour. They had led 13-6 at the interval, with outhalf Cathal Marsh converting Tadhg Beirne's 10th minute try and then kicking two penalties.

Connacht replied with two penalties from Matthew Jarvis. Marsh extended Leinster's lead two minutes after the restart with a penalty but while Jarvis responded with one that proved to be their final score. Andrew Boyle got Leinster's third try 14 minutes from time after Connacht tried to run the ball from deep. Connacht's Paul O'Donohoe also had his first game time since suffering a hamstring injury.

McMahon records fifth Irish senior record in two days in qualifying for 100m medley final

SWIMMING:Teenager Sycerika McMahon posted her fifth Irish senior record in just two days at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Chartres, France yesterday as she qualified for the final of the 100m individual medley.

The 17-year-old from Portaferry, Co Down, claimed a bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke final on Thursday, setting a new Irish mark of 30.34, and continued her fine run of performances by qualifying in seventh position for today's final. Her semi-final time of 1:01.24 was almost a second faster than her heat swim of 1:02.13, which qualified her in 14th position.

Tallaght and NAC high-performance centre swimmer Brendan Hyland was also in record-breaking form yesterday as he set a junior standard in the men's 400m individual medley.

London Olympian Barry Murphy is back in action today, swimming in the 50m breaststroke.

Murphy, who holds the Irish record, is ranked 14th going into the heats. All 10 Irish swimmers will be in action today.

EMMET RIORDAN