A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Belfast Star surprise Killester
Belfast Star’s wait for their second win of the season ended dramatically in the latest series of Nivea For Men’s SuperLeague fixtures, beating Northern Conference high-flyers 11890 Killester 112-109 in double overtime.
Their last win came away to Moycullen in November but the wait would have been almost worth it had their public known how their second three points was going to come about.
Killester looked certain to win after dominating the first quarter and even after they were pegged back the Dubliners held a slender lead as the game headed towards the end of the first period of overtime. However, a late basket from Scott Summersgill sent the game into double overtime and had the home crowd on their feet.
Star sensed it was finally going to be their day and it proved to be when Stephen Dawson sank a couple of free throws to send head coach Danny Fulton into raptures.
Dhoni helps India past Australia
A superb match-winning innings from captain MS Dhoni led India to a thrilling four-wicket victory over Australia in the fourth match of the triangular Commonwealth Bank Series at Adelaide Oval yesterday.
Needing 13 off the last over to win and then 12 off the final four balls, Dhoni (44 not out) belted a six high over long-on before a Clint McKay no-ball allowed the Indian skipper a second life after he was caught deep on the boundary.
India ran two from the no-ball and Dhoni then scored three from the ensuing ball to give his side only their second victory in all formats over Australia this summer.
Chasing 270, Gautam Gambhir’s 92 and partnerships with Virender Sehwag (20) and Rohit Sharma (33), put the Indian team on course for a comfortable victory. – (PA)
Egan to miss six weeks after operation on hand
KEN EGAN will have an operation on his injured hand today and expects to be out of action for about six weeks.
The Dublin southpaw fractured the ring finger on his right hand during his recent defeat by Joe Ward in the Elite 81Kg final at Dublin’s National Stadium.
The 10-time Irish champion had been taking part in the Irish squads training camp at the Curragh in Kildare.
The Irish squad are preparing for the final Olympic qualifiers in Turkey in April and will have further training camps in Germany and the Ukraine.
“I’ll be back training after the operation, running and all that, but I won’t be hitting anything with the hand for about six weeks,” Egan said. He will now miss the Leipzig Leopards final group match versus John Joe Nevin’s Paris United in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) on Friday.
St Michael's too strong for Castleknock
Late tries from St Michael’s openside Gavin Croke and number eight James Ryan made for an unfair reflection (28-10) of the challenge thrown down by Castleknock in the Leinster Schools Junior Cup first round at Donnybrook yesterday.
St Michael’s were just three points up at the break, after a late try from right wing Jack O’Hagan converted by full back Marc Boucher narrowed the gap for ’Knock. However, blindside flanker Barry Fitzpatrick pushed St Michael’s out to a six-point lead with his second penalty in the 34th minute.
There was still just one score in it until openside Croke twisted into the right corner and captain Ryan finished powerfully from near halfway to leave the final score 28-10 to St Michael’s
Breen second in Swedish rally
Craig Breen, the reigning World Rally Academy Champion, has continued his fantastic start to the 2012 Super S2000 World Rally Championship by finishing second on this weekends World Rally Sweden.
Breen, driving his Kel-Tech Engineering backed Ford Fiesta S2000 took victory on the opening round in Rallye Monte Carlo, and backed up that performance as the championship moved to the snow-covered stages in Scandinavia and now has a commanding 18-point lead at the top of the SWRC championship standings.
“Im delighted with result,” said Breen, as he crossed the finish line of the 24th and final stage.
“But first I want to congratulate PG Andersson on his win; he suffered horrible luck on the Monte when he retired with only two stages to go. For myself, Im very pleased with this result; PG is on home [ground] and has shown some incredible speed here over the three days. I managed to score a few fastest stage times myself and Im happy with my overall pace.”
Hungary defeat Ireland in Davis Cup
Hungary defeated Ireland in the Davis Cup over the weekend in Hungary, when Conor Niland went down in three sets in the reverse singles to Attila Balazs.
Niland had to call for Irish physiotherapist Nicky Green during the contest and struggled to match the 449th ranked player.
Hungary took the opening set 6-1 and Niland asked for an injury time out before falling 6-2 in the second. The third fell 6-1 leaving Ireland 3-1 down and unable to salvage anything from the third and final rubber. The team now faces Egypt away from home in the next round on April 6th in a must-win match in the European/African Group II.
Ireland celebrated its first ITF Seniors World Team Championship title in San Diego yesterday as Lesley O’Halloran, Philippa Palmer, Niamh Kennedy and Grace Reidy won the Margaret Court Cup, beating second seeds France.
