The Sport Matrix: Thursday 12 February 2015

Day a dolphin slam-dunked Lakers’ Young

LA Lakers’ Nick Young has revealed that a dolphin once tried to kill him – because it fancied his girlfriend, rapper Iggy Azalea.

“He was playing with everybody else, doing what dolphins do – the ‘ack ack’ and all that,” Young said before the Lakers’ 96-106 loss to the Denver Nuggets. “It was my time to ride the dolphin. For some reason, he took me all the way to the bottom. He was trying to drown me. I think he was trying to get on Iggy. He was a little friendly, kissing her and stuff. He was trying to take my woman.”

Azalea later backed up Young’s story by tweeting: “A dolphin in Cabo tried to kill him once. I was there and, to be fair, it’s true.”

Murray eases to victory over Mahut

Andy Murray marked his first match since his Australian Open final defeat to Novak Djokovic at the start of the month with a comprehensive victory at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam yesterday. The British No 1 took one hour 33 minutes to beat veteran Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-2 and set up a second-round meeting with Canadian Vasek Pospisil.

New Zealand too strong for England

England’s women lost the first match of their ODI series against New Zealand by 67 runs yesterday. The White Ferns reached 240-8 from their 50 overs, with captain Suzie Bates impressing with 106, and it proved too much for England as they managed only 173.

Laudrup rules out taking over at QPR

Michael Laudrup has ruled out becoming QPR’s new manager, saying that he has “no intention” of leaving Qatari champions Lekhwiya. “It is always positive to be linked with big jobs, and taking over QPR is a big job,” the former Danish striker said. “But I’d also like to say I have no intention of leaving Lekhwiya at the moment.” QPR are considering appointing caretaker Chris Ramsey until the end of the season.

Robshaw shows his captaincy steel

England head into Saturday’s Six Nations encounter against Italy with captain Chris Robshaw heralded as the new Martin Johnson. He led the team well in their win over Wales, with the victory at the Millennium Stadium atoning for their loss at the same venue two years ago. “You hope to learn from the experiences you go through and this was a sign of the team evolving,” said Robshaw.