A little more than two months after leaving East Lake with the FedExCup, Rory McIlroy is once again atop the season-long standings.

And eyeing another No. 1 ranking.

With his playoff win over Xander Schauffele on Sunday in Shanghai, McIlroy picked up his fourth PGA Tour win since March, adding to a list of 2019 triumphs that already includes The Players Championship, the RBC Canadian Open, the Tour Championship, the aforementioned FedExCup and the Player of the Year Award.

And while the win wasn't enough to erase the sizable gap between himself and  world No. 1 Brooks Koepka, McIlroy is closing the gap, pulling almost within one point in the Official World Golf Ranking.

"I'm trying to [chase down Koepka]," McIlroy said Sunday. "I'm still a little behind, I think, but I'm getting there. This win definitely helps, and if I can get another win by the end of the year, I'll be feeling pretty good heading into 2020."

McIlroy will next have an opportunity to do so at the European Tour's season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, an event he won in 2012 and 2015, before a two-month, offseason break.

"I'm looking forward to that break, but I've still got one more tournament left this year at a place where I've had some success, so I want to try to finish the year on a high note."

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Defending champion Nelly Korda birdied the first hole of a three-way playoff on Sunday to win the LPGA Swinging Skirts.

Korda and Minjee Lee both birdied the final hole of regulation to finish at 18-under 270 and force a playoff with Caroline Masson, who shot a 68.

Korda, who started the final round with a three-stroke lead over Lee (69), looked set to win in regulation after a birdie on the par-5 No. 12. But she bogeyed three of her final five holes to fall one stroke back of Masson before a birdie on 18 gave her even-par 72.

Masson took the lead after back-to-back birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 but closed with par on the final two holes.

In the playoff on the par-5 18th, Korda sank her birdie putt while Masson and Lee made par.

Brooke Henderson shot a 68 to finish regulation tied for fourth, four strokes back with South Koreans Sei Young Kim and Mi Jung Hur.

Xander Schauffele nearly coughed and sneezed his way to a successful title defense at the WGC-HSBC Champions.

Schauffele has been battling flu-like symptoms all week in China, eschewing the pro-am and any practice rounds to focus on resting up for the tournament itself. Those factors didn't slow him down as he played his way into contention through 54 holes, nor during the final round when five front-nine birdies drew him within reach of Rory McIlroy.

While last year Schauffele birdied the final two holes of regulation and the first of a playoff to edge Tony Finau, this year overtime didn't go his way as it was McIlroy who made birdie on the first playoff hole to take the trophy from the defending champ.

"Unfortunately a good attitude doesn't make you hit it 350," Schauffele told reporters. "But I tried, I tried my best. I played great, I did. I beat him on the day just to get in a playoff, and a little bit of deja vu unfortunately and I couldn't pull it off."

While Schauffele outlasted one of the game's longest hitters last year in Finau, this time he didn't quite have enough firepower to take down McIlroy who easily reached the par-5 18th in two during the playoff and secured the win with a two-putt birdie.

"I would have much rather played a par-3 for a playoff or something," Schauffele said. "He's the best driver in our game. So if I was a betting man, I probably would have bet on him if we had to play the hole over and over again."

Schauffele will now have some time to recuperate, with a start scheduled next month at the Hero World Challenge ahead of his first Presidents Cup appearance. He won't have to face McIlroy in either one, and he's looking forward to taking both on with a clean bill of health.

"My time will come. Looking forward to getting healthy," he said. "Not coughing. Sleeping. More important things than trying to win a golf tournament. But no, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I tried to put on a show for everyone out here."

While Phil Mickelson was playing this weekend in China, a result in Japan brought his remarkable streak to an end.

Mickelson entered the WGC-HSBC Champions ranked No. 50 in the world, and he finished T-28 after a final-round 68. But Shugo Imahira's runner-up result at the Mynavi ABC Championship on the Japan Tour will be enough to jump from No. 53 to No. 50 when the rankings are updated Monday morning, knocking Mickelson down to 51st.

It will mark the first time since November 1993 that Mickelson is outside the top 50 in the world, ending a streak of 1,353 straight weeks.

Mickelson reached 17th in the rankings following his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, but he's been in the midst of a pronounced slide ever since. He hasn't cracked the top 25 since the Masters and told reporters this week in China that at age 49 his issues were as much mental as physical.

"I just haven't played well. Just had a lot of stuff going on, and I just haven't been really focused and into the mental side," Mickelson said. "I haven't seen good, clear pictures. I haven't been as committed and as connected to the target. I just haven't been mentally as sharp the last six, eight months."

Mickelson first entered the top 50 in the world with a runner-up finish behind Tom Lehman at the Casio World Open on Nov. 28, 1993. He had remained there ever since, notably never reaching the No. 1 spot, and his top-50 streak is more than seven years longer than the next best mark of 965 weeks from Ernie Els. The best current top-50 streak belongs to Rory McIlroy (598 weeks), who would need nearly 15 more years of top-50 golf to match Mickelson's mark.

Three players currently ranked inside the top 50 were not alive when Mickelson began his top-50 streak: Jon Rahm, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Sungjae Im.

Despite McIlroy's victory in Shanghai, he remains world No. 2 behind Brooks Koepka for another week. Dustin Johnson remains world No. 3, followed by Justin Thomas, Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau.

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has accused Liverpool's Sadio Mane of diving, ahead of next week's clash between the Premier League's top two.

Mane was booked for simulation before scoring an injury-time winner in Liverpool's 2-1 victory at Aston Villa on Saturday.

City left it late themselves to edge past Southampton 2-1 and Guardiola told the BBC after the game: "It has happened many times, what Liverpool have done, in the last few years, it's because [Mane] is a special talent.

"Sometimes he's diving, sometimes he has this talent to score incredible goals in the last minute. He's a talent."

City travel to Anfield next Sunday trailing Jurgen Klopp's men by six points in the Premier League title race.

Discussing Liverpool's ability to win matches late on, Guardiola added: "If it's one time, two times, 'we were lucky, we were lucky,' but it happened in the last two seasons many, many times -- they have a special character to do that.

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"We look at ourselves, we know which team we face, I think they have won 10 and drawn one. Next week we go to Anfield to try to play them."

Guardiola's City trailed Southampton 1-0 before Sergio Aguero equalised 20 minutes from time and then Kyle Walker won it with three minutes remaining.

"We did everything, it was so difficult to attack when they defend with 11 players," Guardiola said.

South Australia 245 and 1 for 1 need 297 runs more to beat New South Wales 289 and 253 (Larkin 91, Sayers 5-67)

A handsome 13-wicket match haul for South Australia's dependable spearhead Chadd Sayers still left them facing a steep fourth innings chase ahead of the final day of the Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval.

Figures of 5 for 67 gave Sayers 13 for 131 for the match, the best analysis since Jason Behrendorff's 14 for 89 for Western Australia against Victoria in 2017, and the best at Adelaide Oval or for SA since Paul Rofe scooped 13 for 112, also against New South Wales (NSW), in 2002.

However another sturdy NSW innings, this time anchored by Nick Larkin's 91, meant that the hosts were presented with a chase near enough to 300. At no stage were South Australia able to claim a rapid sequence of wickets, which might have reduced their target to somewhere less than 250.

Left with three overs to survive to the close, South Australia lost Jake Weatherald lbw for the second time in the match, this time to Josh Hazlewood, with the nightwatchman Nick Winter accompanying Henry Hunt to the close.

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Eoin Morgan has called for an improved fielding performance when his side takes on New Zealand in their third T20I in Nelson on Tuesday.

James Vince, who starred with the bat as England won the opening game, put down a couple of regulation catches and one tough one as New Zealand leveled the five-match series 1-1 in Wellington, where Dawid Malan also dropped an easy opportunity and wicketkeeper Sam Billings failed to hold onto a sharp chance over his head.

"When you drop that amount of catches it's not a great reflection on the performance and the levels of fielding that we aspire to," Morgan said. "There were a couple of catches that went in the sun which made it look a lot worse but as regards our standard catches, we expect more.

"I think it's more of an attitude thing because there's such a short turnaround, the natural default of any player is to step back and not commit to a 50-50 chance or their mindset changes to go back in their shell. That's not what we want, we want guys continuing to attack the ball, find themselves in hot spots if they're good enough and if they drop catches, they drop catches. That's the nature of it."

Also read: Santner leads NZ bowlers to defend 176

But Morgan remained level-headed about a defeat - England's first in seven T20Is - which he believed could prove valuable for his a relatively inexperienced side, provided they learnt from it.

"We have to make mistakes," Morgan said. "If guys come in and smash it from the start and really find international cricket easy, I don't think that's a great opportunity given to guys.

"We want to see guys being pegged back and how they react from there. Chances will continue to come and opportunities will continue to come regardless of the result."

But the importance of making the most of opportunities was not lost on Malan who, playing his seventh T20I, was down on himself not just for his performance in the field but also for failing to build on his innings of 39 off 29 balls, which was England's top score.

"We fielded really well in the first game, so for us to come here and do what we did today was disappointing," Malan told Sky Sports. "The good thing about the way Morgs and Silvers [head coach Chris Silverwood] run the show is they don't put a lot of pressure on you - it's up to us to rectify that problem.

"We lost three wickets in that Powerplay ... we had to rebuild for a little bit, every time that we thought we were in the game we lost a wicket. Myself, Vincey and Sam Billings have been around the squad for four years waiting for these opportunities and they're few and far between - that's why I'm a bit disappointed today, if I'd batted for three or four more overs I could have put us in a position to win this game."

A shining light for England was Chris Jordan, who claimed 3 for 23 as the visitors contained New Zealand to 176 for 8 and then struck 36 off just 19 balls as part of a rearguard that offered his side some hope. When he fell to the left-arm spin of Man of the Match Mitchell Santner, however, England were left with too big a task to overcome the hosts.

Morgan said of Jordan: "He was exceptional. One of the reasons we combine these new guys with experienced players is to have them out on the field doing what they do. Having CJ out there with his experience and his execution is outstanding. He's one of the best."

Queensland 167 for 1 (Burns 76, Street 55*, Khawaja 30*) trail Western Australia 332 (Green 87, S Marsh 77, Gannon 4-79) by 165 runs

Usman Khawaja gave himself the chance to press his Test claims by grinding out a platform for Queensland with the help of Joe Burns and Bryce Street on day two of the Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia at the Gabba.

After Western Australia were able to stretch their first innings as far as 332, due largely to an industrious unbeaten innings of 87 not out by the emerging allrounder Cameron Green, Queensland dug in to reach 1 for 167 as Street dropped anchor.

Burns was by the far the most enterprising of the three home batsmen on show, gliding to 76 from 119 balls before he was lbw to a ball of very full length to Green that looked to be going on to hit middle and leg stump.

From there Khawaja and Street scrounged their way through another 31 overs for 67 runs, taking Queensland more than halfway towards the Western Australia total without ever being able to assert themselves against Green, Jhye Richardson, Matthew Kelly or David Moody.

Following Travis Head's century against New South Wales at Adelaide Oval and the strong early season performances of Marcus Harris and Will Pucovski, Khawaja needs a score of note to keep his name in the forefront of the selectors' minds despite a brilliant recent record batting in Test matches in Australia.

Chinelle Henry, the 24-year old West Indies women allrounder, is being treated for concussion and will therefore play no further part in the ongoing ODI series with India.

At the height of an incredibly thrilling game on Friday, Henry threw herself after the ball on the edge of the boundary and struck her head on the advertising boards. She was immediately pulled out of the game as the ICC's concussion sub rule took effect for the first time in women's cricket. But her effort saved two runs, in a match that went down to the very last ball, and resulted in a one-run victory for the Caribbean side.

A Cricket West Indies press release on Sunday said Henry will be unavailable for a minimum of seven days. Opening batter Hayley Matthews will take her place from the third ODI of the series, having served out an eight-match suspension for an undisclosed infraction. She hasn't played any international cricket since June after being pulled from West Indies' previous series against Australia.

Also, uncapped seamer Caneisha Isaac has been called up to replace injured opener Britney Cooper for the remaining two ODIs against India. Cooper, who did not play the first ODI, suffered a bruised shin after being struck with a ball, the CWI media release said.

Isaac has represented Trinidad & Tobago in the CWI's women's championship and T20 Blaze in 2017 and 2019. "Isaac is a young medium pacer and a live wire on the field who impressed during the recent pre-series camp," Ann Browne-John, CWI's lead selector for women and girls, said. "She will join the group of young medium pacers being groomed in the thrust to continue the development of young players."

The last two ODIs are also scheduled to be played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, following which the teams will be playing five T20Is at Gros Islet and Providence.