G'day sports fans,

Classic quote: "He actually ended up pulling out with a rash on the bum." - Wests Tigers assistant coach Royce Simmons explains why captain Brett Hodgson missed the Melbourne Storm game.

In today's edition of Sport Journal:

🏏 Australia make it 5 from 7 in the T20

🏀 Aron Baynes breaks Aussie NBA record

🐴 Australian Cup winner withdrawn from All-Star Mile

Latest:

🥊 Tyson Fury's camp are in talks about a potential £15m fight against Australian Jai Opetaia. Likely venue would be the Bankwest Stadium in Sydney, in 2021. (Mirror)

⚽️ EPL: Chelsea thump Everton 4-0 & Man United beat Man City 2-0

🏎 Bahrain Grand Prix to take place behind closed doors (ESPN) - Just when you thought F1 couldn't get anymore boring

⛳️ S.Im (-4) currently leads the Arnold Palmer Invitational, can he go back-to-back? Australian, Marc Leishman is just one behind through 6 holes in the final round, looking for his second PGA title of the season.

🏏 Cricket

World Champions! Healy's knock of a lifetime sets up fairytale win as India crumble in WC meltdown.

Australia’s lackluster form during their tri-series contest with India and England had people querying how they could even be considered nearly unbackable favourites for the major tournament by the bookies.

Heck, Australia could’ve been bundled out without even firing a shot if Rachael Haynes and Meg Lanning hadn’t saved the day in Perth in just their second game of the tournament.

But when all eyes took centre stage as Katy Perry and 86,174 screaming fans headed to the MCG on International Women’s Day, it was only going to end with yet another Aussie title.

Australia posting 184/4, India collapse saw them finish up on 99. (Fox)

• 5 Number of T20 World Cup wins for Australia. They have won five of the seven editions that have been played so far.

• 30 Number of balls taken by Alyssa Healy to complete her half century.

• 184 Australia's score in the first innings, which is the highest in the finals of T20 World Cups for both men and women.

🇺🇸 USA

Aron Baynes of the Phoenix Suns breaks record for most points scored by an Australian in NBA game

Key points:

• Aron Baynes's 37 points beats Patty Mills and Ben Simmons's previous record of 34

• A career-high nine 3-pointers — five in the first quarter alone

• Baynes also had 16 rebounds and made two blocks to go with his scoring

🇦🇺 AFL

Carlton humiliated by horror 70-point turnaround in another pre-season flop

The Brisbane Lions have overcome a 25-point deficit to end their AFL season preparations in fine style with a comfortable practice match win against Carlton at Ikon Park.

After coughing up the first four goals of the game and trailing by 25 points, the Lions flexed their muscles, booting 13 of the game’s last 16 majors to run out 16.15 (111) to 10.6 (66) victors.

The 70-point turnaround could have been even bigger, with five of Brisbane’s shots on goal going out on the full compared to Carlton’s one. (Fox)

🏉 NRL

Predicted line-ups for round 1

As we count down to the start of a new campaign, here are NRL.com's predicted line-ups for each NRL club in the opening round of the Telstra Premiership season.

Predicted 17s have been updated throughout the pre-season based on injury and recruitment news plus trial form.

Now that the trials are officially done and dusted, the start of the new season is just days away. (Continue reading)

⚽️ Football

Brisbane Roar 3-1 Western Sydney Wanderers: (match report) Scott McDonald and Jay O'Shea both bagged their first goals in orange as Brisbane Roar notched an impressive 3-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday night.

Adelaide United 1-5 Western United: (match report) A Besart Berisha double has seen Western United leapfrog Adelaide United into the top six after they blitzed the Reds.

Central Coast Mariners 1-3 Wellington Phoenix: (match report) Wellington Phoenix’s rise continued unabated as they prevailed with a clinical 3-1 win over a hapless Central Coast Mariners on Sunday afternoon.

Melbourne Victory 1-4 Sydney FC: (match report) Sydney FC are Big Blue winners once again after their impressive come-from-behind 4-1 win.

Perth Glory 2-3 Melbourne City FC: (match report) Melbourne City weathered an almighty second half storm to beat Perth Glory in a gripping contest on Sunday night and consolidate second position on the ladder.

Transfer Talk

• Real Madrid are eyeing a new £70m effort to sign Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea. (The Sun On Sunday)

• Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta will step up his efforts to bring Manchester City's England defender John Stones, 25, to the Gunners this summer. (Team Talk)

• Manchester City will reportedly let Sergio Aguero leave if their two-year Champions League ban is upheld. (DailyMail)

🏉 Rugby

Sunwolves 14-47 Brumbies : The Brumbies demonstrated why they are up among the competition frontrunners with a powerful display of continuity in beating the Sunwolves. Former Chiefs wing Toni Pulu had a big day out scoring a try but also providing key set-up play.

Crusaders 24-20 Reds: The Reds created an outstanding try for wing Henry Speight and could claim four tries to the Crusaders' three. Richie Mo'unga's return to goal-kicking duties proved timely.

Waratahs 14 Chiefs 51: The Waratahs led at halftime. However, The Chiefs demonstrated just how efficient they could be when scoring 38 unanswered second half points in a try-scoring deluge in Wollongong.

Rebels 37 Lions 17: The Rebels used the Lions to entertain their home fans with a dominating victory where the undoubted emerging talents of flying wing Andrew Kellaway were shown yet again.

Other scores: Hurricanes 15 Blues 24, Sharks 33 Jaguares 19

A farcical jersey clash grabbed the headlines from the Bulls 38-13 win over the Highlanders.

6 Nations

England 33-30 Wales - England survived a late red card for Manu Tuilagi to secure a first Triple Crown in four years and inflict a third successive defeat on new Wales head coach Wayne Pivac.

England held an 11 point lead at half time, and were good for it. The second half saw Wales try and open the game up, but England were relatively comfortable throughout.

Scotland 28-17 France - Grand Slam bid ends at Murrayfield

France's hopes of a Six Nations Grand Slam are over after revitalised Scotland inflicted their fourth consecutive Murrayfield defeat.

Fabien Galthie's side had won their first three games of the Six Nations but a first-half red card for Mohamed Haouas let Scotland seize control.

🐴 Racing

ALL STAR MILE

Australian Cup winner withdrawn from All-Star Mile, Regal Power gets start

Australian Cup winner Fifty Stars won't be running on three consecutive Saturdays - he has officially been withdrawn from next Saturday's $5m All-Star Mile at Caulfield.

Lindsay Park is putting the welfare of the horse first and Fifty Stars, who qualified for the All-Star Mile by winning the Blamey Stakes a week before his Australian Cup triumph, is set to continue his autumn campaign in Sydney.

It means officials will have to delve deep into the list of provisional emergencies for the rich race next Saturday.

Godolphin filly Flit, number two on the emergency list, seems poised to get a start ahead of stablemate Avilius (the No.1 emergency) after Kiwi Catalyst pulled out injured. (Racenet)

🤒 Breaking: (Cheltenham Festival U.K - Starts through the night Wednesday morning) Two-time champion chaser Altior is facing an "uphill battle" to defend his title at the Cheltenham Festival after being reported lame three days before the race. "We're working away and we'll either get lucky or we won't," said Henderson. (BBC) Altior has drifted from ($2.75) to ($4.0) on the back of the news.

Any readers getting involved in the Cheltenham Festival...any fancies? Is it worth us covering for Sport Journal? Just hit reply to this mail and let us know.

We'll be back on Wednesday!

📺 Live sport

Monday

🎯 06:00 - PDC UK Open Finals, Night 3 (Fox Sports)

🏈 06:00 - XFL - DC Defenders v St. Louis BattleHawks (ESPN 2)

🏀 06:30 - NBA - Los Angeles Clippers v Los Angeles Lakers (ESPN 1)

⚽️ 06:45 - Italian Serie A - Juventus v Inter Milan (BeIN Sports 1)

⚽️ 07:00 - France Ligue 1 - Lille OSC v Olympique Lyonnais (BeIN Sports 3)

⚽️ 07:00 - Spanish La Liga - Real Betis v Real Madrid (BeIN Sports 1)

⛳️ 09:00 - PGA Tour Champions, Hoag Classic, Round 3 (Fox Sports)

🎾 09:30 - WTA Monterrey Open, Final, Day 7 (BeIN Sports 3)

🏀 10:00 - NBA - Houston Rockets v Orlando Magic (Sky Sports 2)

🤼‍♂️ 10:00 - WWE Elimination Chamber (Main Event)

⚽️ 10:00 - MLS - Portland Timbers v Nashville SC (ESPN 1)

🏈 12:00 - XFL - Los Angeles Wildcats v Tampa Bay Vipers (ESPN 1)

⚽️ 13:30 - MLS - Los Angeles FC v Philadelphia Union (BeIN Sports 3)

🇦🇺 13:40 - Marsh Community Series - North Melbourne Kangaroos v Sydney Swans (Fox Footy)

🇦🇺 16:40 - Marsh Community Series - Geelong Cats v Essendon Bombers (Fox Footy)

🐴 16:45 - Group 2, Adelaide Cup (Racing.com or Sky Racing 1)

Tuesday

🚴🏼‍♂️ 00:40 - UCI Men's World Tour, Paris-Nice, Stage 2 (SBS)

⚽️ 04:30 - Italian Serie A - Sassuolo v Brescia Calcio (BeIN Sports 1)

⚽️ 07:00 - Premier League - Leicester City v Aston Villa (Optus Sport 1)

🏀 12:00 - NBA - Utah Jazz v Toronto Raptors (Sky Sports 2)