Leicester continued their fairytale with a 3-0 victory over Club Brugge in their first ever Champions League match, on this day in 2016.

Claudio Ranieri’s Foxes were still riding high after their stunning Premier League title triumph the previous season when they headed to Belgium.

Marc Albrighton opened the scoring early in the first half, with Riyad Mahrez doubling their advantage from a free-kick before adding a third from the penalty spot in the second half.

Leicester would go on to reach the quarter-finals, eventually being knocked out by Atletico Madrid 2-1 on aggregate.

Ranieri was sacked the day after their 2-1 last-16 first-leg defeat in Seville, with Craig Shakespeare overseeing a 2-0 second-leg win before the defeat to Atletico.

The Foxes went on to secure FA Cup glory in 2021 under Brendan Rodgers but were relegated to the Championship last season, seven years after being crowned Premier League champions.

The Atlanta Braves continued their dominance of the NL East with their sixth straight division title, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 behind Spencer Strider’s major league-leading 17th win on Wednesday.

Atlanta leads the majors with 96 wins and locked up another NL East crown in its 146th game, the second-quickest clinch in the divisional era.

The division title was the Braves’ record 26th, two more than the Yankees or Dodgers.

Strider limited the Phillies to one run and four hits in seven innings, striking out nine to raise his MLB-best total to 259.

Brad Hand fanned two in the eighth and Kirby Yates pitched the ninth for his fifth save.

Austin Riley gave Strider all the support he needed with a two-run homer – his 35th - in the first inning off Christopher Sanchez.

Riley added a sacrifice fly in the third and Kevin Pillar had an RBI double in the fourth.

Sanchez pitched into the eighth inning and struck out a career-high 10.

Philadelphia remained 1 ½ games ahead of the Cubs in the race for the top wild-card spot in the NL.

Montgomery pitches surging Rangers past Blue Jays

Jordan Montgomery and two relievers combined to five-hit the Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers cruised to their fifth straight win with a 10-0 rout.

Montgomery allowed four hits over seven innings before Martin Perez and Ian Kennedy each worked one inning.

Nathaniel Lowe and Mitch Garver hit three-run homers and Robbie Grossman added a two-run shot to help Texas remain one game behind AL West-leading Houston.

The Rangers moved 1 ½ games ahead of the Blue Jays in the wild-card race, sending Toronto to its fourth consecutive loss.

Astros lose combined no-hitter in 9th inning

Hunter Brown and three relievers held the Oakland Athletics hitless for eight innings but the bid for history was broken up with one out in the ninth inning in the Houston Astros’ 6-2 win.

After Ryan Pressly retired Tony Kemp on a groundball to open the ninth, Zach Gelof walked before Ryan Noda grounded a changeup past Pressly and into center field.

Pressly allowed two runs before finishing up the two-hitter as Houston salvaged the series finale against the Athletics, who lost their 100th game.

Yordan Alvarez hit a three-run homer and Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker had solo shots as the Astros remained one game ahead of second-place Texas in the AL West.

Tadhg Beirne believes he and Ireland are still some way from hitting top form at the Rugby World Cup as they bid to avoid being scalped by Tonga.

The towering Munster forward is “gunning” to retain his starting spot for Saturday’s Pool B clash following a two-try turn in last weekend’s 82-8 thrashing of Romania.

Head coach Andy Farrell may opt to rotate his team in Nantes ahead of a crunch Paris showdown against reigning champions South Africa.

But British and Irish Lion Beirne – one of four players to claim a double in Ireland’s curtain raiser in Bordeaux – is eager to continue as he seeks to hit greater heights.

“Every player here wants to play,” said the 31-year-old.

“It comes around once every four years, you never know if you’re going to be fit for one, you never know if you’re going to be selected for one, and then if you get here all you want to do is put on the Irish jersey and go out and represent the country.

“I’m gunning to play again for sure. I still feel like I’ve a way to go to get to my best. I’m certainly trying to improve all the time.”

Tonga – ranked 15th in the world – are preparing for their opening match in France after the tournament schedule handed them a fixture-free opening weekend.

Beirne, who is normally deployed in Ireland’s second row but lined up at blindside flanker against Romania, is braced for a bruising encounter.

“I think physicality is going to be top of their agenda,” he said.

“They’re going to come and try and have a scalp off us for sure. They’re a serious side when you look at the team on paper. I’ve no doubt that they’re going to have a go at us.

“Physically, we certainly need to continue to step it up. From warm-up (matches) into Romania, we’ve slowly been building it but we’re nowhere near where we feel like we can be.”

Despite temperatures exceeding 20 degrees Celsius, Beirne turned up for media duties in Tours wearing a suit, shirt and tie as punishment for being slightly late to a team meeting.

He joked there may be a “French Revolution” in the Ireland squad due to the strict regime run by camp enforcers James Ryan, Jack Conan and Dave Kilcoyne.

“There’s a bit of a dictatorship going on at the moment,” Beirne explained. “We have three lads that call themselves the sheriffs, they’re in charge of any misdemeanours or any fines that need to be taking place.

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“Unfortunately, I turned up a couple of seconds late for a meeting and they decided to fine me.

“There’s a wheel of fortune back in the camp and they have all different punishments on it, so it could land on whatever.

“The reason it’s a dictatorship is because they’re claiming they’re above the law, so there could be a French Revolution yet.

“The power’s definitely going to their heads, particularly Dave Kilcoyne. He’s enjoying it a bit too much for people’s liking.”

Harry Maguire laughed off his Hampden Park hounding as a “little bit of banter” as the under-fire defender said he can cope with pressure from the stands and on his England place.

Little more than two years ago, the centre-back was an ever-present for Manchester United and earned a place in the Euros team of the tournament after helping Gareth Southgate’s side reach the final.

But a drop in form and club game time, including being replaced as United captain, has led pressure and criticism to ratchet up on Maguire to a point that his international manager snapped following Tuesday’s 3-1 friendly win against Scotland.

Furious Southgate said the treatment of Maguire is “ridiculous”, “a joke” and “beyond anything I’ve ever seen” – a narrative that he believes led to home fans goading him mercilessly in Glasgow.

Every pass Maguire made was met by an ironic cheer after being brought on as a half-time substitute at Hampden Park.

“Well, it pretty much takes the pressure away from my team-mates and puts it all on myself,” Maguire said. “It makes them play better, for sure.

“It is a little bit of banter and it is a hostile environment, coming away to Scotland.

“We wanted to put on a performance and we have dominated from start to finish. We have given them a goal, which is a bit unfortunate you could say.

“But, yes, it was a great reaction from us all. We stayed calm, we stayed composed. I think it was a hostile environment.

“We knew coming here, when you hear the national anthem and the way they disrespect that, we knew it would be hostile and in the second half I got most of it.

“I am happy to go with that, don’t worry about that.”

Maguire was touched by the away support’s backing in Glasgow as Scottish fans attempted to rattle him.

“No, I would not say I am a person who struggles with pressure mentally,” Maguire said. “I have been through a lot in the last couple of years and I have been Manchester United captain for nearly four years.

“You take a huge lot of responsibility and everything that comes with it and that is a lot of bad as well as good.

“But it was a huge honour and of course it is a hostile environment here, which is how I described it, and they piled pressure on myself. I would not say I am used to it but I can deal with it.”

Maguire is grateful for the backing of Southgate, whose faith he believes he repaid with his performances in Scotland and away to Ukraine when he made his first start of the season on Saturday.

The 30-year-old brushed aside suggestions he was rusty but wants the rhythm back of playing week in, week out, saying he is confident that “the luck will turn” if he keeps working hard.

Maguire now turns his attention to the fight for his place at United, where a lack of minutes could put his place at Euro 2024 in jeopardy – something he says is “too far away” to worry about.

West Ham did offer him a route to regular action in the summer but the defender said “we didn’t come to an agreement” and United were happy for him to stay.

“Of course, my England career is a big priority,” he added. “And so is my club career.

“I considered everything and I know, at the moment, when I have not started a game in the first four games of the season, the story comes to me.

“I finished off last season with two very strong performances for England and I have played in all five matches to help put us where we are in qualifying, so I need to keep performing when I get chosen.

“Listen, at club football, I want to play games, I want to play football.

“The first four weeks were hard because it was one game a week and the manager didn’t select me but we have lots of games coming up now and I am sure I will play lots of games.”

The Texas Rangers' playoff push won't include Max Scherzer.

And should the Rangers make the postseason, it's unlikely the three-time Cy Young Award winner will be able to pitch then, either.

Scherzer is being shut down for the rest of the regular season because of a strained muscle in his pitching shoulder, the Rangers announced on Wednesday.

Texas general manager Chris Young added that should the Rangers make the playoffs, it's still unlikely he'd be able to pitch.

The 39-year-old Scherzer won't need surgery and will be evaluated in two weeks.

The MLB regular season ends in 2 1/2 weeks on October 1.

Scherzer exited Tuesday's 6-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays with one out in the sixth inning with what was then described as a right triceps spasm. The eight-time All-Star had not allowed a run while scattering three hits and striking out two.

With the win, the Rangers moved a half-game ahead of the Blue Jays for the second wild-card spot in the AL. Texas entered play Wednesday one game behind the Houston Astros for first place in the AL West.

Acquired at the trade deadline from the New York Mets, Scherzer went 4-2 with a 3.20 ERA and 53 strikeouts over 45 innings in eight starts for Texas. He finishes his 16th season in the majors with a 13-6 record to go with a 3.77 ERA in 27 starts, striking out 174 in 152 2/3 innings.

Scherzer is in the second year of a three-year, $130 million contract he signed with the Mets in November 2021. The contract includes an opt-out after the current season. If he declines to opt out, then he’ll be under contract for 2024 at a salary of $43.3 million.

Leon Smith hailed a “very good day” for Great Britain after wins for debutant Jack Draper and Dan Evans in Manchester secured victory over Australia.

Draper’s run to the fourth round of the US Open earned him not just a second Great Britain call-up but a first appearance, with Smith picking him ahead of his top-ranked player Cameron Norrie and former world number one Andy Murray for the opening tie of the group stage.

The 21-year-old fully justified his captain’s faith, thrilling a 9,000-strong crowd at the AO Arena by breaking Kokkinakis when he served for the match then coming from 4-2 down in the deciding tie-break to win 6-7 (6) 6-3 7-6 (4) after two hours and 52 minutes.

Evans then took to the court against world number 12 Alex De Minaur, the highest-ranked player in the four-team group.

Evans has struggled for long periods this season but found his form on the North American hard courts with a title in Washington and a strong performance against Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open.

And he extended his tour-level winning record against De Minaur to 3-0 with a 6-1 2-6 6-4 victory, staying strong after the Australian fought back from 4-1 in the decider.

That gave Britain an unassailable lead, with a top-two spot in the group needed to secure progress to the quarter-finals and matches against Switzerland and France still to come this week.

“It’s a really good day for us,” said Smith. “Extremely difficult Aussie team but we’re difficult too. Jack showed again what he’s capable of, both in quality but also the heart and competitiveness he’s got. To steal it at the end when Kokkinakis served for it shows a lot of character. It’s a really good win for him.

“I said to Dan I think it’s one of the best matches I’ve seen him play, I thought he was absolutely brilliant against one of the in-form players on the tour. I just think Dan was amazing but it doesn’t surprise me.”

Australia avoided a clean sweep, with former Wimbledon champions Matt Ebden and Max Purcell defeating Evans and Neal Skupski 7-6 (5) 6-4 in the doubles rubber to make the final score 2-1.

For most of his long tenure, Smith’s team, based around Murray, virtually picked itself. Greater options have left him with more difficult decisions and he was criticised for his selection at the same stage last year, when Britain made an early exit.

There will have been great satisfaction for the Scot, therefore, in the performance of Draper, who has been kept off court for much of the season by a string of frustrating injuries but carried the confidence of his run in New York into this clash against another 6ft 4in heavyweight in Kokkinakis.

It was a match of a few crucial moments, with Draper missing a set point at 4-5 in the opening set and then unable to take advantage of momentum at the start of the decider. He looked in big trouble when he dropped serve at 4-4 before staging a rousing comeback.

Of his selection, Draper said: “Leon told me a couple of days ago. He said he wanted me to be out there and that he believed in me.

“I knew I’d played some tough matches at the US Open and I felt really good about my tennis. That helped the nerves a lot. I haven’t played too many great matches this season but I think that was one of them.

Evans admitted to nerves, too, but was proud of his performance, saying: “It means a lot. I played good tennis, I executed what we spoke about and I did it to pretty much as good as I’ve got. It was still a battle, no part of the match was easy, and that was for me the impressive thing that I pulled through.”

Australia, who made the final of the competition last year, must bounce back quickly for a must-win clash against France on Thursday, when the crowd is likely to be a fraction of what it was for this tie.

Captain and former world number one Lleyton Hewitt is a long-standing critic of the move away from the traditional home-and-away format, and he said: “We’ve just taken the great things away from what made this competition so special. It doesn’t feel the same.”

Joe Marler has carved out a niche as rugby’s ultimate maverick so it comes as a surprise to the England prop when Danny Cipriani claims there is no room for individuals in the game.

A theme of the now-retired Cipriani’s career was that of an unfulfilled talent on the international stage whose outrageous natural ability was never truly trusted by a succession of England coaches.

In the 35-year-old former fly-half’s autobiography, he suggests his face did not fit in the sport.

“Rugby has so many amazing qualities like camaraderie and teamwork. But it needs to allow people to be themselves,” said Cipriani in his recently released autobiography ‘Who Am I?’.

But as one of rugby’s most colourful figures and the source of several disciplinary storms, Marler disagrees with Cipriani.

“That is his experience. That is his story. That is not my story,” said Marler, who is expected to be on the bench for England’s World Cup clash with Japan on Sunday.

“Is Cips’ book fiction or non fiction? Do we know what section of the bookshop it will be in? I tried asking him the other night but he’s not answering.

“That is Danny’s view on it and I can’t deny his view on it. But that is not how I see it. That is his experience and he is more than entitled to share that.

“Martin Johnson was in charge for my first camp 13 years ago. I had a mohawk – think it might have been red or stars and a rat’s tail at the back. I looked horrific, actually.

“I remember Martin Johnson coming down the steps and he went: ‘Are you ready for training?’ I said ‘yeah, definitely’.

“He said ‘are you going to have a haircut before you get to training?’ I was like ‘Umm’. Then he just walked off.

“Now some people might interpret that as him being serious and it might be a case that actually you don’t fit the bill, you need to go and shave your hair off. But I took it as ‘he’s just joking’.

“Funnily enough I was sent home the next day! But I think it had more to do with the fact Andrew Sheridan’s back recovered. I’d like to think that!

“It’s up to the individual. You’ve got a choice in how you react to being told something.

“The perfect position would be everyone working towards what’s best for the team whilst still being able to show who they are, what they’re about, how they want to do it and how they can add to it.”

Marler is taking part in his third World Cup and has seen his Test career reborn since Steve Borthwick replaced Eddie Jones at the end of last year.

“Having been out of the previous environment for 18 months and then coming back into Steve’s environment and experiencing it for the first time in a World Cup camp and now here, there has been a huge difference in terms of how a lot of the group have felt, who they can be and how they can behave,” Marler said.

“It’s that’s had a massive effect on how the players are approaching training and how they are enjoying themselves both on and off the pitch.

“For me, I just try my hardest to encourage that environment to keep that consistent because it does need work. It does not just happen.”

Ireland sealed victory in the Racing League on a dramatic final night at Southwell.

Wales & The West went into the last of six fixtures with a two-point lead, but a treble for Ireland on Wednesday night saw the team snatch the crown from the defending champions.

Tosen Wish (6-1) opened Ireland’s account in the 38th race of the William Hill-backed competition, with Danny Sheehy doing the steering on Ado McGuinness’ charge.

Ben Curtis then secured a double aboard the David O’Meara-trained Gulliver and Thunder Moor for George Boughey in the Ireland silks, with Half Nutz and Faster Bee further bolstering their position with seconds on the card.

Ireland went into the final contest with a 48-point advantage, but Wales & The West manager Jamie Osborne opted to play his joker card, which doubled any points won.

Valsad, ridden by Osborne’s daughter Saffie and trained by Harry and Roger Charlton, duly obliged as the 4-1 favourite, but Star Harbour finished fourth for Ireland to give them a hard-fought victory, with seven points splitting the teams after 42 races.

Ireland team manager Kevin Blake was delighted to secure top honours, with his sides having previously failed to figure in the shake up, although he admitted he felt victory was unlikely three meetings in.

He said: “I think we were down 120 points at the halfway mark and two out of the first three weeks didn’t go well, but in fairness to the lads, they really started to get behind us.

“I just can’t believe it, but it is set up to be competitive and I genuinely feel for Jamie because he really thinks about this and is a genuinely one of the really good managers. It’s sweet to beat one of the good fellas.

“You could be Sir Alex Ferguson, but you are going to finish last if you don’t have trainers entering horses and running them, so we just lacked that in the first two years.

“Those first two years were hard, I’m competitive and it’s not easy turning up every week and getting a hiding, so this has turned out particularly sweet.

“I’m a difficult fella to get excited, but I’ve been jibby about this for the last couple of weeks and I’ve put a lot of hours into it.”

Jim Goldie and Paul Mulrennan made sure Scotland finished the competition in style, recording a double with Yaaser (5-1) and Sir Chauvelin (22-1).

Mulrennan said: “This is a really good competition and we’re racing around for really good money and every race is ultra-competitive. You can see the crowd that is here tonight, everyone is enjoying it.”

The Richard Hannon-trained Commander Crouch landed the opening contest for the London & The South team, with Sean Levey steering the 5-1 shot to a neck success.

“It was impressive, but I thought he could have done a little bit better,” said Levey, with the winning team having deployed a joker card to good effect.

“He’s still inexperienced and through greenness he hung all the way up the straight there and I was touch or go whether he was going to give it away, but he kept his head in-front.

“We were happy to come here today because albeit we had good weather last week, the ground has been coming up all ways. At the moment it is coming up more soft when he’s wanting it good and this is the first time he has got a consistent surface.

“We’re good with two-year-olds and hopefully he will keep improving”

Ben Stokes admitted his first reaction to hitting England’s highest one-day score was an apology to the man whose record he broke, Jason Roy.

Stokes smashed 182 as England romped to victory in the third ODI against New Zealand, with the entire touring side mustering just five more runs between them chasing 369.

For the 32-year-old Test captain the explosive innings was an thrilling vindication of his decision to come out of retirement and return to the fold ahead of next month’s World Cup defence in India.

As he smashed nine sixes and 15 fours over the course of 124 deliveries it was almost hard to imagine England going into battle without him.

But while head coach Matthew Mott and captain Jos Buttler must have been thanking their lucky stars the middle-order match-winner was back in business, Stokes himself made a beeline for Roy.

The opening batter missed out on a planned comeback after a being laid low by back spasms, confining him to a watching brief as Stokes leapfrogged the 180 Roy made in Melbourne in 2018.

After more than five years in top spot, Roy was passing over the crown and smiled broadly as he clapped his team-mate’s achievement.

“I just apologised to Jase upstairs,” Stokes said.

“He said ‘well done’ and I said ‘sorry’. I don’t think there was too much to it. He’ll be pretty happy he’s seen one of his team-mates, who he’s played a lot of cricket with, take that off him.

“But individual stuff like that I’m not too fussed about. I didn’t really know I’d done it until the bloke on the tannoy started announcing it and then I got out next ball. It was his fault!”

While Stokes was not inclined to talk up his own efforts, he did admit to a sense of satisfaction at spending an extended period in the middle and setting his side on the path to a handsome victory.

The winning margin of 181, one run less than his own personal score, said the rest.

“It’s good to come back in after a while out and put a big contribution into us winning the game,” he said.

“I think today was good for me, to get familiarity again with how 50-over cricket goes. To get that game awareness, game smartness.

“There was a couple of times I had to check myself – I looked up and there was still 23, 24 overs left. That’s how one-day cricket goes, you can find yourself going pretty well and you want to keep going but you look up at the scoreboard and have to drag yourself back.”

Buttler was happy with the way England responded to an early double from Trent Boult, who dismissed Jonny Bairstow with the opening ball of the day and followed up by dismissing Joe Root cheaply.

“We were tested losing two early wickets but it’s exactly what I wanted us to do, take more risks, be more on the front foot,” he told BBC’s Test Match Special.

“Ben’s played a few good ones, but to make the highest one-day score for England, that was amazing.”

The game was over as a contest long before the end came, Chris Woakes taking three for 31 in a clinical new-ball burst alongside Reece Topley. The pair made up amply for the continued absence of Mark Wood and Adil Rashid from the bowling ranks, shutting down the Kiwis response early on.

“I was absolutely delighted with that, I haven’t seen as good new-ball bowling in white-ball cricket for a while,” said Buttler.

“It was a fantastic opening spell.”

The series concludes at Lord’s on Friday before the rivals meet again in the World Cup curtain-raiser in Ahmedabad just over two weeks later.

With that contest in mind, Kiwi coach Gary Stead noted drily: “I don’t mind watching Ben Stokes. I’d rather he scored his runs now than on October 5.”

Saffie Osborne was once again crowned queen of the Racing League, successfully defending the leading rider award she won 12 months ago.

The 21-year-old stole the show on the final night of action in 2022, registering a phenomenal Newcastle treble as her father Jamie’s West & The Wales region snatched the top spot and Osborne stormed to the top of the jockeys’ standings.

However, things have been much more straightforward this time around and the ante-post favourite’s charge to the title began in the very first race of the competition as she lit up the opening night at Yarmouth with a fabulous three-timer.

She was on the mark in the final race of the competition aboard Valsad at Southwell, with her total of 342 points seeing her finish 121 points clear of her nearest pursuer Dylan Browne McMonagle to once again bag the £20,000 prize.

“It’s been a good Racing League for me this year, I’ve been lucky to get some good rides,” said the jockey.

“Dad has done a phenomenal job of organising everyone and keeping everyone enthused and on top of that keeping everyone in the team happy.

“Obviously you have a lot of trainers who want to run their horses and getting to the last night and still having everyone relatively happy about the whole thing is a hard task, but he’s done a brilliant job of it.

“Of course I’m also grateful for all the owners who put their horses in and they are obviously not in their own colours.”

Osborne has been at the top of the charts since the very first race and it has been very much one-way traffic in the standings ever since and the momentum gained on that first week at Yarmouth is something she has fed off throughout the contest.

“I’ve been lucky that it came round at the right time. I made a good start at Yarmouth and have had a good run since then,” Osborne added.

“I think the two years before I had an awful first evening, so it was great to get a treble on the first evening and the ball has kept rolling really.

“It’s been brilliant and gets a lot of coverage and it’s been great for me to ride for other trainers.”

Frankie Dettori will make a late decision on whether Gregory or Arrest will be his final ride in Saturday’s Betfred St Leger at Doncaster.

Both horses are trained by John and Thady Gosden, with Dettori having partnered ante-post favourite Gregory to win the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot and finish third under a penalty in the Great Voltigeur Stakes at York last time.

Dettori, who is planning to retire at the end of the year, was also aboard Arrest when he won the Chester Vase on his seasonal bow, with the Juddmonte-owned colt providing his last Derby ride when coming home a disappointing 10th at Epsom.

The pair then regained the winning thread when stepped up to just shy of the St Leger trip in the Geoffrey Freer at Newbury on his latest run.

Conditions at Doncaster could be key to Dettori’s pick, with Arrest at his best with cut in the ground while Gregory has yet to run on any worse than good going.

The ground on Town Moor is currently described as soft, with Dettori planning to make his call in the morning ahead of final declarations at 10am.

He said: “I’m looking forward to it and it’s a race that has been good to me in the past, hopefully long may it continue.

“I’ll decide who I ride in the morning, let me sleep on it.”

Dettori will be bidding for a seventh St Leger success, having last struck aboard Logician in 2019.

Ben Stokes sent out a World Cup warning to England’s rivals with a record-breaking 182 against New Zealand less than a month after reversing his ODI retirement.

Stokes, playing just his third 50-over match a year after walking away from the format, was in brutal form as he unloaded nine sixes and 15 fours on his way to the biggest score by an English batter.

The Test captain was England’s key man in 2019 and looks ready to reprise the role in India next month after blowing the one-day cobwebs away with a match-winning 124-ball innings that fired the hosts to 368.

New Zealand never got close, rounded up for 187 as the hosts closed out a 181-run thrashing to go 2-1 up with one game to play. The Black Caps managed just five more runs between them than Stokes thrashed on his own.

Jason Roy, the man who held the England record for more than five years since his 180 against Australia in Melbourne, was watching from the balcony as Stokes nudged him out of the history books.

The moment came in typically emphatic fashion, Stokes clobbering Ben Lister high over long-on, with Roy joining the crowd’s ovation with a smile on his face.

Roy had been pencilled in to make his comeback in the match but another bout of back spasms in the morning meant he was once again confined to the sidelines. With Harry Brook still angling to break into the 15-man World Cup squad, the timing could hardly be worse for an unpredictable niggle to emerge.

If there was one down side to Stokes’ first limited-overs century in six years it was the now familiar sight of him grimacing in pain as his chronic knee problems continued to hinder his movements.

Stokes has taken a calculated gamble that he can manage the condition in the weeks ahead but, even after a six-week post-Ashes lay-off, it was apparent that will not be an easy job.

Dawid Malan had a better time of it than Roy, scrubbing any lingering question marks next to his name with an accomplished 96 at opener. He shared a stand of 199 with Stokes after the pair were brought together in the third over at 13 for two and would have been good value for a century of his own.

His innings was less muscular than Stokes and he could not keep up with his partner’s furious strike-rate of 146.77 but Malan was a calm, authoritative presence at the top order despite dashing back from the birth of his second child to reclaim his spot. England are lucky to have him and any accommodation for Brook would surely have to come at somebody else’s expense.

The Yorkshireman was only edged out of the team in the first place by Stokes’ change of heart and the value of having him around was proved over and over again as he imposed himself on a side who will provide England’s first World Cup opponents in Ahmedabad.

Stokes’ timing was not perfect during his first 50 runs, throwing himself into powerful shots that relied more on will-power and brute force than touch and technique.

But he warmed to his task, taking just 32 balls to convert his half-century and 30 more to go from 100 to 150. His adaptability was on show throughout, with Lockie Ferguson cranking it up to 94mph at one stage only to be despatched repeatedly to the ropes as he strove for speed. At one stage he nonchalantly stepped inside the line of a short ball and helped it over his right shoulder for a one-bounce four.

When New Zealand took pace off, it got even uglier as Stokes hit Rachin Ravindra out of the attack with three sixes in two chastening overs. Once Malan was strangled down leg off a Trent Boult delivery so wayward it was initially called as a wide, New Zealand picked up wickets with enough regularity to bowl England out with 11 balls unused.

Boult, who began by dismissing Jonny Bairstow off the first ball of the match and had Joe Root playing on in his next over, finished in credit at five for 51 amid some messy figures.

Stokes finally departed in the 45th over, mis-hitting a low full toss from Lister two balls after beating Roy’s record.

The Kiwi chase never got off the ground, an excellent new ball spell from Chris Woakes reducing them to 37 for four. He took care of Will Young, Henry Nicholls and Daryl Mitchell to suck the heat out of the contest.

The ground began to empty despite the best efforts of Glenn Phillips (72), with Liam Livingstone helping himself to three cheap wickets at the close.

Dan Evans claimed his best Davis Cup victory to add to a debut success for Jack Draper as Great Britain began their campaign in Manchester with an excellent win over Australia.

Draper’s run to the fourth round of the US Open earned him not just a second Great Britain call-up but a first appearance, with Smith picking him ahead of his top-ranked player Cameron Norrie and former world number one Andy Murray.

The 21-year-old fully justified his captain’s faith, thrilling a 9,000-strong crowd at the AO Arena by breaking Kokkinakis when he served for the match then coming from 4-2 down in the deciding tie-break to win 6-7 (6) 6-3 7-6 (4) after two hours and 52 minutes.

Evans then took to the court against world number 12 Alex De Minaur, the highest-ranked player in the four-team group.

De Minaur has had a brilliant summer but Evans is also in form having won the biggest title of his career in Washington and then reaching the third round of the US Open where he took a set off Carlos Alcaraz.

And he extended his tour-level winning record against De Minaur to 3-0, catching the Australian cold and then recovering from losing the second set to lead 4-1 in the decider.

There were some late nerves as De Minaur responded with two games in a row but Evans got his tactics spot on to complete a 6-1 2-6 6-4 victory.

That gave Britain an unassailable lead against last year’s runners-up, with a top-two spot in the group needed to secure progress to the quarter-finals and with matches against Switzerland and France still to come this week.

After drilling a final backhand winner down the line, Draper pretended to hit the bullseye, a reference to the competitive games of darts that have been keeping the team busy away from the court.

Speaking on court, he said: “There’s nothing better. It was a real battle, massive crowd in here. It’s amazing to play my first Davis Cup tie in the UK in this sort of arena. I’m just so happy to be here and grateful Leon trusted me and put me out here today.”

For most of his long tenure, Smith’s team, based around Murray, virtually picked itself. Greater options have left him with more difficult decisions and he was criticised for his selection at the same stage last year, when Britain made an early exit.

There will have been great satisfaction for the Scot, therefore, in the performance of Draper, who has been kept off court for much of the season by a string of frustrating injuries but carried the confidence of his run in New York into this clash against another 6ft 4in heavyweight in Kokkinakis.

There was very little to choose between them in the tightest of first sets, with Kokkinakis saving a set point at 4-5 and then clinching his second set point in the tie-break.

Draper came up with the perfect response, breaking Kokkinakis immediately to start the second set and looked to be in ascendancy at the start of the decider.

He could not get the break, though, and was in big trouble when he dropped serve at 4-4 before staging a rousing comeback.

Of his selection, Draper said: “Leon told me a couple of days ago. He said he wanted me to be out there and that he believed in me. I prepared well, trained well and only really started thinking about it an hour before I played, when the nerves started coming in.

“I knew I’d played some tough matches at the US Open and I felt really good about my tennis. That helped the nerves a lot. When I got out there with the home crowd and all those people supporting me, it felt amazing. I haven’t played too many great matches this season but I think that was one of them.”

Like Draper, 27-year-old Kokkinakis has been badly affected by injuries through his career, while he has had trouble closing out matches, including in a near six-hour epic against Murray at the Australian Open in January that finished after 4am.

He was left cursing a similar pattern here, saying: “I let my nerves get to me a little bit. Hats off to him, he played some good tennis when he needed to but it’s definitely a tough one, it stings for sure.”