Sydney - The Australian Rugby League players will wear black armbands at Sunday's World Cup match against New Zealand as a mark of respect for the uncle of Johnathan Thurston, who died after being assaulted in a Brisbane park on Saturday.

Rugby league player Thurston's uncle, 38-year-old Richard Saunders, was one of three persons attacked at Ewing Park in Brisbane's southern suburb of Woodridge on Saturday, reports Australian Associated Press news agency.

Cuttack: A brilliant century by Rohit Sharma helped India Red to score a much needed five-wicket victory over India Green in the NKP Salve Challengers Series match.

Though wickets kept on falling at the other end, Rohit Sharma kept his head cool. The Mumbai batsman scored 117 runs off just 120 balls (13 fours and 2 sixes). Opening batsman M Vijay also did well notching up 59-ball 45.

Earlier, batting first, India Green set a daunting target of 261 with Naman Ojha's scoring a well made 96 runs. Ojha and Dhawan (45) added 102 runs for the for the opening wicket and then Ojha and Suresh Raina (58) took India Green to a strong position. But the team lost its momentum in the last overs by losing seven wickets just for 63 runs.

After Adam Gilchrist's remarks over Sachin Tendulkar's honesty on the famous ''Monkeygate'' issue provoked angry reactions from Indian cricketing fraternity, the Indian batting maestro said the Australian called him up to clarify the whole issue and added that the matter was blown out of proportion.

Speaking with Times Now, Tendulkar said, “Gilchrist called me up and clarified the whole matter.”

“He said his comments have been taken out of context,” added Tendulkar. However, the master-blaster batsman refused to comment any further on the issue.

Los Angeles - New Jersey Nets coach Lawrence Frank continues to learn valuable lessons to take into the regular season.

Vince Carter scored 20 points, and the Nets nearly blew a 21-point fourth-quarter lead before holding off the New York Knicks, 111-110, on Friday night in the preseason finale for both teams.

"There are a lot of good things that happened tonight, a lot of good play to get the lead," said Frank, whose club opens the regular season at Washington on Wednesday.

"It's good lessons because you're on the road, (the) team's obviously going to make a run back and it's learning how to play through mistakes and not letting mistakes multiply, not letting momentum take over the game."

Gurgaon: An unbeaten 51 from Hemang Badani helped Chennai Superstars to defeat Delhi Giants by five runs in the ICL 20s Championship at Tau Devi Lal stadium.

Chasing a victory target of 167, the Delhi team got to a solid start as both their openers, Marvan Atapattu (25) and Monish Mishra added 60 runs in just seven overs for the first wicket. Mishra scored a quick fire 36 runs off just 20 balls with two sixes and three fours. However, after losing both their openers, no other batsman from Giants could stay at the wicket for long. For Chennai, Nantie Haywards was pick of the bowlers claiming two wickets for just 25 runs.

Scores in brief: Chennai Superstars: 166/6, H.Badani 51*, R Satish 41, Murtaza 1/11, S Bond 1/34.

Vishwanathan Anand has once again proved his might by taking a lead against Valdimir Kramnik in the world Chess Championships at the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn on Thursday. The Indian Champion won three games and drew four games. Now, with only five games remaining, the ace Indian player needs to draw just three games to win the title.