🏏 Meg's Mega Milestone

You're halfway there, it's Wednesday, 23 March

🔊 Sport Today Podcast

This morning, Martin Gabor and Lucy Watkin are at the mic. 

Today's listen time: 9.30 minutes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

📺  What we're watching 

🏀 1.00pm - NBA - Nuggets v Clippers - Ball Arena, Denver - Foxtel, Kayo

🏏 4.00pm - Cricket - Pakistan v Australia - Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore - Foxtel, Kayo

🥊 6.00pm - Boxing - Sonny Bill Williams v Barry Hall - ICC Sydney, Sydney - Stan Event

All times are in AEDT

🏏 The chase is on 

Aussie skipper Meg Lanning has a future on The Chase once her cricket career is over. We don’t know what her trivia knowledge is like, but here’s a fun fact - she’s scored more centuries chasing totals in 50-over cricket than any other Australian, and she did it again yesterday to get the Aussies home. 

The score: Australia 5/272 defeated South Africa 5/271

Golden points: Lanning smashed an unbeaten 135 to help the Aussies go 6/6 at the Women’s 50-over World Cup in New Zealand.

• That was her 10th century in a one-day run chase. Fair effort that. In fact, it’s more than any other Aussie man or woman.

• There was one concern to come out of the game. Ellyse Perry has a sore back and is in some doubt for the next game on Friday.

• Lanning wasn’t the only star yesterday. Ash Gardner took a contender for catch of the tournament with this one-handed effort.

Watch it: The men’s team could do with some spectacular catches or just any kind of wickets in their match against Pakistan. Pakistan are 1/90 at stumps on day 2 of the 3rd Test after the Aussies were bowled out for 391. Check out Foxtel or Kayo from 4.00pm (AEDT) to see what happens on day 3.

🏏 Melbourne says goodbye to the King 

The King of Spin will be farewelled in a week, and we now know all the key info for Shane Warne’s state funeral.

Golden points: The funeral will start at 7.00pm and last about 2 hours in front of a huge crowd at the MCG.

• Tickets are free and they were made available yesterday. If you can’t get one or you don’t live in Melbourne, don’t stress. The event will be live-streamed on the Vic government website.

• Heaps of Warne’s mates will be there, but you can also expect some musical tributes from stars like Chris Martin and Ed Sheeran. 

• Some of Warne’s greatest moments happened at the MCG. He took an Ashes hat-trick and his 700th Test wicket there - time for YouTube. 

Key click: Here’s all the info you need for next Wednesday. 

🏉 Panthers can see Cleary now the pain has gone 

If you love your rugby league then 4.00pm on Tuesday is a fairly sacred time. That’s when you drop everything to see who has been named to play. This week there was great news for Penrith, but it wasn’t so good for the Storm. 

Golden points: Nathan Cleary has been picked on an extended bench to make his return from injury for the Panthers. There’s no guarantee that he’ll play, but this is a good sign.

• Cleary hasn’t played since last year’s Grand Final when he was the best player on the field. He had shoulder surgery in the off-season and wasn’t expected back until Round 4. 

• Things looked rosy for Storm fans when they saw hooker Harry Grant in the team. But an update a few minutes later was never gonna be good, and it wasn’t. He’s got COVID and will miss Saturday’s game against Parramatta. 

Key click: Here are all the ins and outs for Round 3.

🏀 Willie freed as the public wails  

You’ll be cheering if you’re a West Coast Eagles supporter after Willie Rioli had a win at the AFL tribunal last night. But it seems like everyone else was a little bit surprised with the decision.

Golden points: Rioli had been charged with making careless conduct on Gold Coast’s Matt Rowell on the weekend. It was a heavy collision and everyone thought he’d get a week.

• But his legal team earned their pay packet and argued that he was simply going for the ball and that a ban would discourage other players from attempting spectacular marks.

• The jury agreed, but the public did not. 

• In other tribunal news, Adelaide’s Rory Sloane won’t miss any footy after he was fined for an eye gouge, but Brisbane’s Mitch Robinson was banned for a week. 

They said it: “If he gets off, that would be one of the worst decisions we’ve seen this year.” - AFL journo Mark Robinson was stunned.

⛳ Mickelson to miss the Masters 

Only 3 players have won the Masters more than 3 times. Phil Mickelson is stuck on 3 but he won’t add to it this year because he’s not playing at golf’s most prestigious event. 

Golden points: Mickelson is taking a break from golf after his controversial comments about the Saudi Arabian breakaway league were made public.

• Those comments got him in trouble with the Saudis, the PGA tour, other players and his sponsors.

• Mickelson will miss the Masters for the first time since 1994. That’s when The Lion King came out. 

• His last win in Augusta was in 2010.

What are the chances… we see an Aussie pull on the famous green jacket? Get around Cameron Smith because he’s one of the favourites for next month’s Major. He’s had a couple of wins already this year and was runner-up at the 2020 Masters.

👀 Quick singles

🎾 Things are about to heat up in Miami because Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis have been given a wildcard to play doubles at the Miami Open. They’ve already scored more points than any other doubles team in 2022.

⚽ The Socceroos cannot take a trick at the moment after star midfielder Tom Rogic was ruled out of Thursday’s World Cup Qualifier against Japan through injury. The Aussies have lost a number of players to COVID and coach Graham Arnold is still isolating. 

🏀 The Brooklyn Nets have revealed a herniated disc is the reason why Ben Simmons hasn't played a game for his new NBA team this season. The Aussie star hasn't played at all this year after he was traded by the Philadelphia 76ers, but his coach hopes he can return at some point. 

🏉 The Swans have locked in Lance Franklin's replacement on a new deal that will keep him in Sydney until the end of the 2024 season. The news comes after reports emerged that another club had offered Logan McDonald a 10-year contract. 

🥊 Aussie boxer George Kambosos is looking for a new opponent after his Ukrainian rival decided to stay at home to fight in the war. American fighter Devin Haney could step in as his new opponent. 

⚽ It looks like the UK and Ireland will host the European Championships in 2028. There doesn’t appear to be any competition after Russia and Turkey dropped out of the race to host the massive football event.

🎾 Rafael Nadal will miss up to 6 weeks with injury. Nadal suffered a fractured rib in his semi-final win at Indian Wells, and the injury hampered him in the final loss to Taylor Fritz. 

🏉 The Queensland Reds will fight Taniela Tupou's 2-game suspension at the judiciary tonight. He was suspended for his shoulder charge in Friday's Super Rugby Pacific loss to the Brumbies, but the Reds think he was hard done by. 

🙃 Left of field…

Let’s get ready to rumble! Former AFL player Barry Hall must’ve missed the memo or maybe he just got his dates mixed up. Either way, the fireworks went off early at Tuesday’s weigh-in for his fight against Sonny Bill Williams.

Golden points: Hall got all up in his rival’s grill and then decided to headbutt Williams on stage. Ouch.

• Not much had been said in the build-up to the fight, but this has got everyone a little bit excited.

• Hall is the underdog because Williams has an 8-0 record, is 9 years younger and about 12 kilos heavier. Big Bad Barry only has one pro fight under his belt.

Watch it: You’ll need to have Stan Sport downloaded, and then you’ll have to pay a bit to watch the fight on Stan Event. The undercard starts at around 6.00pm (AEDT) but the big fight will be on later in the night.

📽 The highlight reel

You don't have to be an NBA expert to know that this didn't end well for Kevin Love. It's best to just get out of the way when LeBron James decides to dunk. 

📸 Photo finish

The only person who has won more titles than the Roosters lately is boxer George Kambosos. Here he is cheering on his beloved Chooks last Friday. 

🏃‍♀️ The finish line

🏆 Today's trivia answer

Cleary has played 120 NRL games. He's won 80 of those.