BURIRAM, Thailand – Marc Marquez started the weekend at the Buriram Int’l Circuit with a violent crash, but ended the weekend with a victory and his sixth MotoGP championship.

Marquez, who was transported to the hospital after a crash on Friday only to return for practice later in the day, started Sunday’s race from the third position behind polesitter Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales.

Quartararo got a strong start aboard his Petronas Yamaha SRT, but Marquez was hot on his heels. By lap seven it was just Quartararo and Marquez at the front as the pair traded fast laps.

Marquez shadowed Quartararo for most of the race before making his move on lap 23, getting past Quartararo in turn three only to run wide and give the position right back.

On the final lap Marquez tried again in turn three and this time the move stuck, allowing him to take the race lead. Quartararo tried to keep pace and took one last shot at Marquez in turn 12, regaining the lead.

Marquez didn’t settle for second, slicing back past Quartararo to regain the lead on the run to the finish line to win the race. Quartararo was forced to settle for second, while Vinales finished a distant third.

The victory was more than enough for Marquez to claim his sixth MotoGP title and his eighth world championship overall.

I’m very happy. I’m so happy. When you have an advantage like I had you realise you are so close to the championship but you need to find something to keep you motivated,” Marquez said. “Today it was winning the race and it’s what I did. Fabio was so fast during the race but I never gave up, even during the middle of the race where it looked like he was escaping. It was a beautiful way to win the championship – even if I wasn’t thinking about it on the last lap.

“Arriving in parc ferme with the whole Repsol Honda Team there was fantastic. It’s a dream to do it with the whole fan club and the nice celebration. Every year is special, it’s not easy to keep everything perfect each year to fight for the title and I had a very hard winter with the injury but myself, the team and HRC managed it well. Now we’ll enjoy this feeling a little bit.”

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso finished fourth, with Suzuki’s Alex Rins completing the top-five riders at the checkered flag.

Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has come out in support of returning batsmen Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal after their loss to Sri Lanka in the first T20I. Shehzad and Umar have had a mercurial past with Pakistan, for various reasons, and the revival of their careers in Lahore at the expense of Fakhar Zaman and Haris Sohail drew surprise in some corners.

Umar last played a T20 for Pakistan three years ago, while Shehzad featured in T20Is last year before he was banned for a positive dope test. Both of them made their debuts 10 years ago and though they have made several comebacks, it seemed Pakistan had closed the door on them after they were dropped by not just one head coach (Waqar Younis) but two (Mickey Arthur)

On Saturday, in the T20 against Sri Lanka, Shehzad had a couple of close calls before he was bowled for 13 off 10. Umar bagged a golden duck, his ninth, and the most by a Pakistan cricketer.

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"If you talk about previous two [domestic] seasons, they were performers and they were again performers in the PSL," Sarfaraz said after Pakistan's 64-run defeat. "We are trying our fullest to give a complete chance to those who are brought back. There is nothing to worry. Both are experienced players and once they settle in, they will perform. So [I give] my full backing for them as a captain.

"Fakhar and Harris both have been part of the team for some time now," Sarfaraz added. "When we brought back Ahmed and Umar, we intended to make them play in their own positions. Had we played Fakhar, then Ahmed would have been made to play at one down. Me and [coach] Misbah bhai decided to try Ahmed as an opener. With our eyes on the World Cup, if Ahmed is able to settle himself at this [opening] number, we can never find a better player like him.

"Similar with Umar Akmal. We wanted to play him in his number and hence had to drop Harris, who we have seen and have no doubt about his ability. We played six new players in the side without thinking about winning or losing. We wanted to play them and give them confidence because for any player, making a comeback isn't really easy. You do come with performance in domestic but at the international level you take a few innings to get going."

In 2018, Pakistan had won 17 of the 19 T20s they played, including two massive winning streaks - nine matches between July and November and eight matches between January and July. The ICC rates them as the No. 1 side in the shortest format but they haven't quite shown it in 2019 with four losses in five games, including the latest to a second-string Sri Lankan side.

"No team in T20 format is considered weak and we knew on the day their team is strong and they have potential," Sarfaraz said. "They played better than us. They should be given credit but I still back my team. It was a bad day for us and we didn't play good cricket. We will come back and it's going to be more exciting for the spectators as they will get to see more tough cricket.

"Plus it isn't really easy to win all games but we did win 11 [9] games in a row. This is a different time. Some players are making a comeback and it is tough. And there are few who are in the team but trying to get settled. We have all players who are match winners and on their day they can win the game for the team single-handedly."

For a team that has lost a Test by a margin of more than 200 runs, South Africa seem unusually pleased with their performance against India in Vizag. Compare it to the way they played four years ago here, or even 15 months ago in Sri Lanka, and you will understand why.

Before Vizag, South Africa had lost four of their last five Tests in India, including a 3-0 defeat in 2015. Two of those three losses in that series came inside three days, with only the Delhi Test going the distance. South Africa's batting line-up was befuddled by the conditions and opposition spinners as they looked a shadow of the outfit that won in Sri Lanka in 2014 and drew in India in 2010.

After Vizag, South Africa have lost six of their last seven Tests in the subcontinent but they went down fighting. They scored over 400 in the first innings, taking the match well into the fifth day. Two of their batsmen scored centuries and even though they teetered on 70 for 8 in the second innings, they did not crash and burn until the penultimate session of the match. The overall assessment was to take "a lot of confidence" from their efforts and to pat themselves on the back for showing they had learnt lessons and improved from previous trips.

"I'm really proud of the first innings, the way that we batted. That was a real line in the sand for us as a team," Faf du Plessis said. "We've got a lot of confidence in our dressing room because of what happened in the first innings. Dean scored a great 160 and Quinny as well - a great combination of attack and defence. Certainly from the last time we were here, it was tough but we grew as a batting unit and the experience that we got from that tour. I am hoping that the lessons we learnt there will show us we can score runs and compete."

While there is still ample to work to be done among the less experienced players, such as Aiden Markram and Thenis de Bruyn, and questions continue to lurk over when Temba Bavuma will add to his lone Test century, runs are not the only thing South Africa need to challenge their hosts. They were unable to bowl India out in either innings and the composition and quality of their attack will come under scrutiny ahead of the next Test.

South Africa made the bold call of using all three frontline spinners in their squad, though two of them - Dane Piedt and debutant Senuran Muthusamy - appeared to be more useful as batsmen. They chose their senior seamers Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada but Philander's lack of pace reduced him to a containing role and Rabada was unable to make anything happen even when variable bounce came into play. While hindsight may have called on Lungi Ngidi or Anrich Nortje for extra pace, du Plessis is unsure they would have made a difference.

"It was difficult to try and slow the game down. We were bowling a lot of spin so the pace of play was really fast. And when you've got momentum, which they had at that stage, it just felt like it was really difficult to stop. From a combination point of view, it's difficult to say.

"Apart from today, seamers didn't play that much of a role in this Test match. They played a holding role in the first four days. Whether an extra seamer would have made a difference, I am not sure. But definitely day five, we saw that there was huge value in the seam, the up and down, but it is something for us to consider moving into the next Test match."

Du Plessis expects surfaces to turn more in Pune and Ranchi which will leave South Africa with the same conundrum. He has faith his premier slower bowler, Keshav Maharaj, is due something special as the series goes on.

"On wickets that offer a little bit more spin he is just as good as any of the spinners in the Indian team."

Du Plessis was also impressed by Muthusamy's resolve in scoring an unbeaten 33 and 49 in the match.

"You can see technically he is very sound against spin which is something he has worked really hard on. Obviously he bowls a bit as well so that helps. Batting in that No.7 or No.8 position is always something we are looking for as a team. He batted with real maturity in both innings and is making it hard for us to leave him out of the second Test. He is putting the numbers on the scoreboard which is what we want."

All that suggests that Piedt may be the man to miss out as South Africa look to pick a player who can bolster their ability to take wickets without compromising the length of the line-up.

Neither Ngidi nor Nortje fits that role exactly, which will place extra responsibility on Philander, Muthusamy and Maharaj with the bat, but that is the price South Africa have to pay for not having a steady supply of seam-bowling allrounders anymore.

"If we leave out an allrounder then our batting becomes weaker, If we play an extra batter when we don't have enough bowling resources. Someone like Keshav can bowl a lot of overs so he can block up an end the whole day, similar to what Ashwin does with India," du Plessis explained.

"It's about finding the balance, which is our best wicket-taking options. But also, you definitely need to have one element of control in the subcontinent. You can't just have guys running and bowl in fast but not hitting the stumps consistently. Those are the conversation that we will have."

Before South Africa look that far ahead, du Plessis wants the team to concentrate on something entirely different: heads pace. Rather than obsess over technique or team-combination, he wants his men to take the positives from their first innings and put a poor day five at Vizag behind them as they attempt to win a Test on the subcontinent for the first time in five years.

"That will be a big thing for us a team - that we focus on our strong our heads can be. There's not much that you can do in the nets over the next two days to be strong in that next Test match. It's about mentally how we are able to put away the last day that we didn't play well and make sure we are ready to come back for the next, hungry to put in a big performance.

World number one Novak Djokovic beat John Millman to mark his return from injury by winning the Japan Open.

The 31-year-old won 6-3 6-2 in the final in Tokyo to claim a fourth title of the year and a 76th of his career.

It was the Serb's first tournament since he withdrew from the US Open in September with a shoulder injury.

Djokovic needed just 70 minutes to see off 30-year-old Australian world number 80 Millman and did not drop a set throughout the tournament.

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has said Christian Pulisic's ongoing omission from the team is part of a "harsh" decision-making process.

United States international Pulisic hasn't played in four of his club's last five matches and has spoken of his frustration at not featuring as much as he wants to. He was left out of Chelsea's squad completely for the Champions League win away at Lille.

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Mason Mount, Ross Barkley, Willian and Pedro have all usurped the £58 million signing from Borussia Dortmund, with Callum Hudson-Odoi also preferred following his return from a long term injury.

Lampard said: "Sometimes I have to make harsh decisions and say something that I see can help their game but might not sound that nice because I want them to be the best, all of them. That's what I want them to be. That's part of the process.

"Christian Pulisic has a price tag. Ross Barkley is an international player. Mason Mount is an international player, Callum Hudson-Odoi just signed a new contract, Bayern Munich wanted to buy him last summer. He's an international player.

"We can all focus on Pulisic from the other day but Callum's the same and I have to speak in the real world when I speak to them and sometimes as a manager you want more.

"You have to be honest and the players have to react to that and Callum has now come on with two assists in the games that he's come on and that's what you want to keep pushing. I love the young players. I particularly love the young players because I want them to improve daily."

Pulisic, 21, signed for Chelsea in January and was immediately loaned back to Borussia Dortmund for the remainder of last season. He did not feature for Lampard in the Premier League at all in September, with his last appearance coming in the League Cup against Grimsby.

He has been named in United States national team manager Gregg Berhalter's squad for the Nations League matches against Cuba and Canada.

On the player's difficulties since moving to England, Berhalter said: "This is what happens when you transition into a new team, to new leagues, and it's a common issues that we see. He's going to be just fine. For us, his status is the same as it's always been."

India shot through South Africa on the final day, taking seven wickets in the first session before going on to win by 203 runs, their third consecutive Test win by a margin of greater than 200 runs. Mohammed Shami was central to the collapse, accounting for Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock - Nos. 4, 5 and 6 - to open up the lower order, who were softened by Ravindra Jadeja before Shami returned to take the last two wickets.

A 91-run stand between Senuran Muthusamy and Dane Piedt kept India out longer than they would have expected when they reduced South Africa to 70 for 8, but the pair's efforts were not enough to undo the damage caused by the top-order collapse.

South Africa began the day with a potential 98 overs to play out, through which they'd have to score at nearly four an over if they harboured thoughts of a win. In the spirit of positivity that helped them put up 431 in the first innings, they got seven off the first over the day, with Theunis de Bruyn picking up a boundary against Shami. In the next over, that approach - and a similar waft outside off to his first-innings dismissal - turned a relatively innocuous R Ashwin delivery into a wicket-taking one. It stayed low and this time the inside edge went onto the stumps. It was Ashwin's 350th Test wicket, and came shortly after Aiden Markram had been put down by the wicketkeeper.

The third wicket also came from a ball that stayed low, off the very next over, Shami sneaking a length ball under Bavuma's defences and having him tumbling on the floor. Markram delighted with stylish boundaries through the off side and straight down the ground, and captain du Plessis looked comfortable once again. That was until he shouldered arms to an incoming delivery from Shami. To be fair to du Plessis, the ball had started well outside off stump. But Shami got the ball to dip back a long way and, with marginal help from a crack in the pitch, hit the top off of an exposed off stump.

India barely had to break a sweat or rely on cunning strategy for the next few wickets. Shami got another one to come back in, this time to Quinton de Kock, who was rooted to the crease as he looked to push through the off side on angle.

With only the allrounders and lower order to come, at 60 for 5, Markram let loose, using his feet nicely and looking deliberately more compact in defence, having been bowled through the gate in the first innings. His preferred route was to loft the spinners, and that brought him two boundaries and a six over long-on. He was left open-mouthed soon enough, however, trying to drive Jadeja over his head only for the bowler to stick his left-hand up and time his jump to perfection to hold on to it. By the end of that over, Jadeja spun the ball past two batsmen's leading edge, trapped them lbw in front of middle, nearly took a hat-trick and left the visitors on 70 for 8.

Then came the stand between Muthusamy and Piedt, which kept India on the field well past the 15-minute extension to the first session. In fact, they lasted well past the opening of the second session too, as Piedt's crisp, clean driving down the ground put India on the defensive. At many points, as Piedt and Muthusamy casually drove India's spinners through the line, Kohli had two or three fielders out on the boundary. Muthusamy was as resolute as Piedt was free-flowing, scoring at a strike rate in the 30s while Piedt used the extra pace of Jadeja to notch up some goodness in an otherwise difficult Test for him. His six, a swat over midwicket, was the 36th of the match, a new record for Test cricket.

Driving through the line did end up costing him in the end, when Shami returned and found some late swing in the corridor to take the inside edge onto the stumps. There was some more frustration for India - Rabada had a few successful swings against Jadeja too, and Muthusamy's outside edge drew him closer to the fifty on debut that he eventually did not reach, having run out of partners.

That said, India's frustration perhaps couldn't compare to that felt by South Africa's frontline batsmen, who had to sit through yet another period where batting suddenly seemed to become easier once they had left.