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Five-time champions Mumbai Indians lost their eighth successive match by 36 runs to Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday, The Indian Express reported.

Skipper KL Rahul smashed his second hundred as he guided Lucknow Super Giants to 168 for 6 and then restricted MI to 132 for 8 in 20 overs.

Rahul’s 103 not out off 62 balls was laced with 12 fours and four sixes.

The second highest scorer was Manish Pandey with 22 as other batters failed to make significant contribution, according to The Indian Express.

For MI, Jasprit Bumrah was the best bowler with 1 for 31 in 4 overs while Kieron Pollard had best figures with 2 for 8 in two overs.

When MI batted, all the Lucknow bowlers chipped in with wickets but special performance came from Dushmantha Chameera who conceded only 14 runs in 4 overs, The Indian Express reported.

With an unprecedented third straight home defeat, Barcelona is unintentionally clearing the way for Real Madrid to clinch the Spanish league title, Associated Press reported.

Barcelona lost 1-0 to Rayo Vallecano on Sunday, marking the first time it lost three in a row at home in all competitions in the same season, and leaving leader Madrid just a point away from winning its second league title in three seasons. 

Madrid will have its first chance of lifting the trophy Saturday when it hosts Espanyol. Madrid is 15 points ahead of second-place Barcelona with five rounds to go. The Catalan club has the better head-to-head tiebreaker.

Fans at the Camp Nou stadium booed the team after the final whistle. 

“We have been struggling at home,” Barcelona captain Sergio Busquets said. “We’ve been conceding goals early and then it becomes difficult to recover. We are in a bad dynamic right now.”

Barcelona had won seven straight home matches in the league against Rayo, which scored the winner with a shot by Álvaro García after a long pass into the area in the seventh minute, according to the Associated Press.

Barcelona pressed forward the rest of the match but couldn’t capitalize on its several scoring chances.

The loss left Barcelona tied on points with third-place Sevilla and only two points ahead of Atlético Madrid in the final Champions League spot. Securing second place is also important as it guarantees a place in the lucrative Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. 

“We are in a tough situation now,” Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández said. “We are still in the Champions League qualification zone, but we have been making it difficult on ourselves.”

Barcelona won at Real Sociedad on Thursday but was coming off defeats against Cádiz in the league and Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League. It hadn’t lost two in a row at home since 2003, and had lost three straight only once, between the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons, Associated Press reported.

It was the second straight win for Rayo after enduring a 13-game winless streak in the league. The Madrid club moved from 15th to 11th with the victory, its second this season against Barcelona. Rayo’s win on Thursday also came in the city of Barcelona, at Espanyol.

Only Bayern Munich had beaten Barcelona twice this season, in the group stage of the Champions League.

The result practically secured Rayo a spot in the first division next season.

The match was postponed from January. No other league games were played this weekend. Real Betis defeated Valencia on penalties on Saturday to win the Copa del Rey, according to the Associated Press.

Staying in the slipstream of Manchester City in the Premier League title race wasn’t Liverpool’s only cause for celebration following victory in another fast and furious Merseyside derby.

Liverpool’s 2-0 win at Anfield on Sunday also dumped Everton into the relegation zone, leaving its neighbor’s 68-year stay in England’s top flight in major doubt with a month left of the season, Associated Press reported.

Second-half goals by Andrew Robertson and Divock Origi were enough for Liverpool in a match that ended with the jubilant home fans singing “Going down, going down” to their rivals from across Stanley Park.

Completing a dismal day for Everton was relegation rival Burnley winning a second straight game since firing its long-serving manager Sean Dyche, 1-0 at home to Wolverhampton.

It left Everton in third-to-last place and two points below Burnley, which finally climbed out of the relegation zone.

Everton, which has been in the top division every year since the 1954-55 season, has played one game less than Burnley but has a tough run-in featuring games against Chelsea, Arsenal and in-form Brentford, according to the Associated Press.

More importantly for Liverpool, the team returned to being a point behind City with five games left in a title race that seems destined to go to the final weekend.

In other games, Chelsea scored in the 90th minute through Christian Pulisic to beat West Ham 1-0 and cement third place, five points clear of Arsenal in fourth. Brighton drew 2-2 at home to Southampton, Associated Press reported.

Sunrisers Hyderabad cantered to a nine-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL match here on Saturday, The Indian Express reported.

Chasing a mere 69 for a win, SRH overhauled the target with 12 overs to spare. They reached 72 for 1 in eight overs with captain Kane Williamsonremaining unbeaten on 16.

His opening partner Abhishek Sharma made 47. For RCB, Harshal Patel took one wicket for 18 runs.

Earlier, invited to bat, RCB were shot out for 68 by SRH. Suyash Prabhudessai top-scored for RCB with 15 while Glen Maxwell made 12, according to The Indian Express.

All the other RCB batters were out in single digit scores in a horrible display. For SRH, Marco Jansen and T Natarajan took three wickets apiece while spinner Jagadeesha Suchith got two.