Sunday, November 20, 2016Safar 20, 1438 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Murray digs deep to down Raonic to reach fi nal

Giroud goalearns Arsenal draw against Man United

FOOTBALL | Page 2 TENNISTENNIS | Page 9

Biggest win of career for Qatar’s Adel in Jeddah

Fekitoa dashes Irish hopes of All Blacks double

RALLYING

‘It was never easy to see the defined tracks and it was a big ask. I am so happy to take the win with Sébastien’

AFPDublin

Two tries from Malakai Fekitoa dashed Irish hopes of successive wins over world champions New Zealand as the All Blacks prevailed 21-9 in an engross-

ing hugely physical encounter at Lansdowne Road yesterday.

Fekitoa’s second try killed off the contest making up for his being sin-binned early in the second-half — man of the match Beauden Bar-rett scoring the other 11 including a try.

The All Blacks, intent on avenging the 40-29 defeat in Chicago a fortnight ago, came sprint-ing out of the blocks from the kick-off imme-diately pressurising the Irish and scored a try within three minutes.

Newly-crowned world player of the year Bar-rett saw space on the left and produced a trade-mark cross kick pass to Fekitoa and he opted to go on his own to touch down for his seventh Test try. Barrett converted for 7-0

Ireland weren’t rattled one bit and stormed back, Jamie Heaslip feeding Sean O’Brien who charged for the line but was just held up by Bar-rett — the Irish eventually won a penalty and Sexton slotted it over for 7-3.

However, they were to lose star young centre Robbie Henshaw — one of the standout players

from the Chicago victory — seconds later as he took a high hit from Sam Cane which fl attened him. The contact gained the Irish a penalty in-side their own half but coach Joe Schmidt looked less than happy that Cane wasn’t sin-binned for the challenge.

Henshaw to the relief of all raised his arm as he was stretchered off . His replacement Garry

Ringrose had barely settled before a moment of individual brilliance and vision by Barrett saw him cut inside Conor Murray and sprint clear only for Sexton to catch him and claim he had prevented him from touching down cleanly.

One camera angle said he was correct and another that Barrett had indeed touched down — the television match offi cial controversially

ruled it a try and Barrett converted for 14-3.Sexton, so infl uential in Chicago with Mur-

ray, was the next Irishman to depart this war of attrition shaking his head having lasted just 17 minutes as he walked down the tunnel and was replaced by Paddy Jackson.

The momentum shifted back to the hosts when Aaron Smith was sin-binned in the 17th

minute for two infractions and a superb pas-sage of play with Jackson and Heaslip involved had the All Blacks on the back foot — again they came away with just the penalty as Jackson slot-ted it over for 14-6.

CRICKET

Kiwis in control as Wagner, Boult shatter Pak battingPage 11

RUGBY

By Our CorrespondentJeddah

Qatar’s Adel Hussein Abdulla took advantage of his experi-ence in this year’s FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Ral-

lies to seal a convincing victory – the biggest of his career – in the two-day Rally Jeddah that fi nished in the King-dom of Saudi Arabia’s western deserts on Friday evening.

The Nissan Patrol T2 driver and his French navigator Sébastien Delaunay stayed out of trouble and kept to the challenging route to fi nish 10min 49sec in front of the experienced local driver Ibrahim al-Muhanna, also driving a Nis-san. The two drivers were the class of the 31-car fi eld, where only three cars retired but all but three teams received heavy time penalties for route violations.

“It was a very diffi cult and challeng-ing rally and probably more diffi cult than some of the rounds of this year’s FIA World Cup,” said Adel Hussein Abdulla. “It was never easy to see the defi ned tracks and it was a big ask. I am so happy to take the win with Sébastien. There was a strong entry here, with many local drivers.”

Last year’s T2 winner Monef al-Salm-ani fi nished third and second in T2, Saudi driver Ahmed al-Shegawi and Emirati navigator Arif Yousef Mohammed were fourth and Mohammed al-Saeri rounded off the unoffi cial top fi ve with co-driver Zian al-Harbi.

The UAE’s Atif al-Zarouni recovered well from his super special problems on Thursday evening to fi nish ninth overall and fi rst in T3. Kuwait’s Meshari al-Thafi ri was second in T3 and 15th overall, while overnight leader Khalid al-Mohannadi fi nished 23rd and third in the category.

Abu Dhabi-based Lebanese driver Emil Khneisser was one of the retire-ments, while Saleh al-Abdulali also blotted his copybook by badly damaging Yazeed al-Rajhi’s Hummer in a crash. Rajah Farhan al-Shammeri was the third

retirement after the Saudi rolled heavily without injury to himself or navigator Mubarak Farhan al-Shammeri.

In the absence of the fi rm favourite Yazeed al-Rajhi, this was the most open of any of the Saudi rallies since Farhab Ghaleb al-Shammeri won the Ha’il FIA candidate event back in 2006.

All 31 cars began the 220km selective section through the western deserts and the UAE’s Atif al-Zarouni rejoined the fray with a 10-minute penalty after stop-ping his Buggy on Thursday evening’s super special stage.

Qatar’s Khaled al-Mohannadi headed into the desert with a 14.5-second ad-vantage over fellow countryman Adel Hussein Abdulla, but overnight T2 leader Emil Khneisser was fi rst on the road and into the stage. According to the results, Fares al-Shammeri was the fi rst driver to cross the fi nish line in a time of 3hr 24min 21sec. The Saudi had been seventh overall at the night halt in his Nissan Patrol, but he didn’t have to wait long to realise he had been beaten by Yayha Halwa of the Haras Al-Hadod Rally Team as darkness descended at the stage fi nish control that had attracted large numbers of spectators.

Both drivers were soon given penalties for missing route waypoints and Adel Hussein Abdulla was the main benefi ci-ary and snatched the unoffi cial virtual lead. Time penalties were handed out to the majority of drivers and Adel Hussein weathered the storm to confi rm the vic-tory.Final positions after SS2:1. Adel Hussein Abdulla (QAT)/Sébastien Delaunay (FRA) Nissan Patrol T2 3hr 40min 52sec2. Ibrahim al-Muhanna (SAU)/Osama al-Sanad (SAU) Nissan Patrol T1 3hr 51min 41sec3. Monef al-Salmani (SAU)/Ali Hassan (UAE) Nissan Patrol T2 4hr 40min 45sec4. Ahmed Shegawi (SAU)/Arif Yousef Mohammed (UAE) Nissan Patrol T2 4hr 59min 58sec5. Mohammed al-Saeri (SAU)/Ziad al-Harbi (SAU) Nissan Patrol T2Sébastien Delaunay (L) and Adel Hussein Abdulla pose after winning the two-day Rally Jeddah on Friday.

New Zealand players perform the Haka before the match against Ireland in Dublin yesterday.

Laidlaw penalty gives Scotland 19-16 win over Pumas

EDINBURGH: A penalty after the hooter by Greig Laidlaw gave Scotland a last-gasp 19-16 win over Argentina in a fiercely contested test at Murrayfield yesterday.Argentina breached the Scottish line 10 min-utes into the second half when centre Matias Orlando chased and caught Juan Martin Hern-andez’s measured cross kick and ran round to touch down under the posts.Scotland hit back within four minutes to level at 13-13 when winger Sean Maitland scored in the corner from Huw Jones’s fine run and pass and Laidlaw converted from the touchline before a further exchange of penalties.A tight first half had ended 6-3 to Scotland after two Laidlaw penalties to one from Nicolas Sanchez, who then levelled with another kick soon after the restart.

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FOOTBALL2 Gulf Times

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Late Giroud strike earns Arsenal draw at Man Utd

SPOTLIGHT

‘Last year we would have maybe lost this game and today we didn’t, so we have improved on that front. Hopefully now we can kick on with some wins’

AFPManchester

Substitute Olivier Giroud convert-ed Arsenal’s fi rst eff ort on target in the 89th minute to rescue a smash-and-grab 1-1 draw for Ar-

sene Wenger’s side at Manchester United yesterday.

Juan Mata’s 69th-minute strike looked to have earned Jose Mourinho’s United a much-needed win, only for Giroud to level with a last-gasp header from fellow substi-tute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross.

The result preserved Arsenal’s six-point lead over sixth-place United, who are falling even further behind the Pre-mier League leaders.

“The result in the end is positive for us because we were 1-0 down with two min-utes to go,” said Arsenal manager Wenger.

“Last year we would have maybe lost this game and today we didn’t, so we have improved on that front. Hopefully now we can kick on with some wins.”

Arsenal remain without a league win at Old Traff ord in 10 years and Wenger has still not beaten Mourinho in the league in 12 attempts.

But this was a draw that will have felt like a win for Wenger, particularly af-ter Mourinho provocatively cited the Frenchman’s 12-year wait for a league ti-tle in the build-up to the game.

“This team at the moment is the un-luckiest team in the Premier League. That is the reality,” Mourinho said.

“I have absolutely nothing to say against my players. But I feel sorry for them because we feel like a defeat and for sure Arsenal is feeling like a victory.”

Giroud’s goal, only his fourth of the season, extended Arsenal’s unbeaten run to 17 games in all competitions and left United with just two wins from their last nine league fi xtures.

Mourinho, who shared an icy hand-shake with Wenger before and after the

match, must now rouse his players for Thursday’s key Europa League home game with Feyenoord.

VALENCIA PENALTY CLAIM Alexis Sanchez came through a fi t-ness check on a troublesome hamstring to boost Arsenal and he was his usual, buzzing self in the early stages, steering a header off -target from Theo Walcott’s fl ick-on.

But with Michael Carrick anchoring United’s midfi eld again and Antonio Va-lencia, back from a fractured arm, sup-plying drive from right-back, there was poise and purpose to the hosts’ football.

Carrick’s presence allowed Paul Pogba to get forward and he gave a glimpse of his ability by steamrollering Francis Co-quelin and drilling a cross into the box that Arsenal managed to clear.

United felt they should have had a pen-alty in the 35th minute when Valencia nutmegged Nacho Monreal and then went down as the Spaniard leaned across him.

But referee Andre Marriner said no, leaving Mourinho to rage on the touchline.

“My view was it was not a penalty. You won’t be surprised by that,” Wenger said.

“Mourinho’s view is it was a penalty.

You won’t be surprised by that.”Pogba then teed up Mata, who had ear-

lier bent a free-kick wide, for a low shot that Petr Cech pushed around the post and the Arsenal goalkeeper also saved three times from Anthony Martial.

Wayne Rooney, aiming to redeem him-self after his late-night carousing while on England duty last weekend, and Daley Blind came on, with Martial and Matteo Darmian making way.

Slowly, United picked up the pace and with 21 minutes remaining they made the breakthrough.

Pogba’s pass sent Ander Herrera haring towards the byline on the right and from his cut-back, Spanish compatriot Mata arrived to send the ball past Cech with a sumptuously crisp side-foot eff ort.

Wenger introduced Giroud for Mo-hamed Elneny, which saw Sanchez, whose infl uence had dimmed, withdraw to the left fl ank, and Granit Xhaka also entered the fray.

Mourinho’s men continued to domi-nate, Marcos Rojo heading wide from Blind’s deep cross, only for Oxlade-Chamberlain to skin Marcus Rashford before crossing for Giroud to snatch an unlikely point.

Toure double gives City victoryBOTTOMLINE

AFPLondon

Yaya Toure marked his fi rst Premier League game of the season by scoring both of Man-

chester City’s goals in a 2-1 win away to Crystal Palace yesterday.

Toure’s goals, allied to a strut-ting display patrolling a City midfi eld of which he used to be the leader, saw the Ivory Coast midfi elder make a compelling case to manager Pep Guardiola as the visitors maintained their title challenge at Selhurst Park.

Toure has been eff ectively fro-zen out since Guardiola’s pre-season arrival at Eastlands.

Apart from a Champions League outing against Steaua Bucharest in August — largely irrelevant after City’s 5-0 win in the away leg — Toure had not worn a City shirt since the fi nal game of last season.

But few would have known it by his work against the Eagles.

Bristling with intent and even

pressing defenders to appease Guardiola’s concerns over his work-rate, Toure demonstrated his confi dence has not been dulled by repeatedly sitting in the stands.

His fi rst goal arrived six min-utes before half-time.

Toure exchanged passes with

Sergio Aguero inside the home area and, with the Palace defence standing off , he did the same with Nolito before rifl ing home a rising shot which clipped James Tom-kins on its way into the net.

The goal came fi ve minutes after Guardiola had called Toure and Kevin De Bruyne over to the

touchline for an animated tactical discussion during a break in play.

Then, after Connor Wickham had drawn Palace level midway through the second half, Toure slipped his marker at an 83rd-minute corner and calmly side-footed his side to victory.

KOMPANY BLOW That stoppage was caused by a worrying collision between City keeper Claudio Bravo and club captain Vincent Kompany, who was shadowing the run of Palace striker Christian Benteke.

Kompany’s head was rocked back by a combination of his keeper’s right knee and thigh.

It appeared to be more a case of whiplash than concussion.

Kompany will be doubtful for City’s Champions League trip to Borussia Moenchengladbach as a result. There was little else of note in an insipid fi rst half.

That the second period was more open and exciting owed much to the bravery of Palace manager Alan Pardew, who took off ineff ective winger Andros

Townsend and gave Benteke a strike partner in Wickham.

That change stretched the play and meant more chances were created at both ends of the pitch.

The momentum of the game swung in the space of 30 seconds in the 66th minute.

Palace keeper Wayne Hennes-sey parried the fl ick but needed the help of right-back Joel Ward who scampered back to clear the ball off the line and upfi eld.

The ball eventually found Wilfried Zaha whose jink inside ended with a slipped pass for Wickham to drive the ball past Bravo.

If that equaliser gave Palace hope of a fi rst Premier League point in fi ve matches, it also set the stage for Toure to round off his return from exile.

Unfortunately for Pardew and Palace, defeat meant their slide down the table continued.

As in recent games, they could consider themselves unfortu-nate to lose, but that is a habit of which they will want to rid themselves soon.

AFPManchester

Manchester United manager Jose Mour-inho dubbed his side “the unluckiest team

in the Premier League” after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Arsenal yesterday.

United claimed reward for their mounting pressure when Juan Mata put them ahead in the 69th minute, only for Olivier Gi-roud to equalise a minute from time with Arsenal’s fi rst attempt on target.

United have won just two of their last nine league games and trail Arsenal by six points.

“Of course it is two points dropped. We were the best team by far. They had no chances to win,” Mourinho said.

“They could not be Arsenal the way they normally play football. We were phenomenal defensive-ly. The way we pressed and the way we controlled their counter-attacks.

“Then when we had the ball we were very comfortable. We scored a fantastic goal, we had chances to win the game and then the only time they go there and the only time we had a situation we could not resolve, they scored.

“They are the lucky ones and we are the unlucky ones. The team played very well. This team

at the moment is the unluckiest team in the Premier League. That is the reality.”

Arsenal had not troubled Unit-ed goalkeeper David de Gea until Giroud climbed to head home fellow substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross.

But visiting manager Arsene Wenger drew heart from their refusal to accept defeat.

“The result in the end is posi-tive for us because we were 1-0 down with two minutes to go,” the Frenchman told Sky Sports.

“For the rest it was a bit of a scrappy game with two teams well organised who defended well.

“The players who came on made a massive diff erence to-day. When you are 1-0 down and come back to 1-1, of course you have to feel happy.

“We lacked a bit of sharpness today. What is it down to? I don’t know, but at least we came back.”

Arsenal have not won at Unit-ed in the league since September 2006 and Wenger admitted his side’s dismal record at Old Traf-ford had crossed his mind as he watched from the bench.

“I wondered during the game about that. Honestly, you never know,” he said.

“Last year we would have maybe lost this game and today we didn’t, so we have improved on that front. Hopefully now we can kick on with some wins.”

Man Utd ‘unluckiest team in league’, laments Mourinho

RANT

Misfi ring Reds held in Southampton stalemate

TOOTHLESS

AFPSouthampton

Premier League lead-ers Liverpool missed a chance to burnish their title credentials as

they were held to a 0-0 draw at Southampton yesterday.

Jurgen Klopp’s men had the majority of possession, but Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster denied his former team-mate Sadio Mane in the fi rst half and Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Nathaniel Clyne missed second-half chances.

Liverpool remain in fi rst place ahead of Manchester City only on goals scored, but now Chelsea will go above them with a win at Middlesbrough today.

Both sides were without key creative players, with South-ampton midfi elder Dusan Tadic not risked after breaking his nose while on international duty.

Former Southampton captain Adam Lallana did not travel with the Liverpool party after sus-taining an injury while playing for England.

But Coutinho was deemed fi t enough to start despite a ham-string problem while Dejan Lovren, another ex-Saint, re-turned to the back four after re-covering from a virus.

Lovren was jeered every time he received the ball in an early spell of Liverpool possession

that forced the home side back towards their own penalty area.

But when the Merseysiders were able to fi nd a gap, either their touch or the fi nal pass elud-ed them.

Southampton were seeing lit-tle of the ball and were restricted to attacks on the break, one of which ended with right back Ce-dric Soares shooting a yard wide with his left foot from 22 yards.

The Portugal defender then sent over a cross from the right that Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius punched clear under very little pressure.

APPEALED IN VAIN Otherwise it was mostly Liver-pool and they created what could have been a decisive opening in the 28th minute when Georginio Wijnaldum found Mane free in the penalty area with an intelli-gent diagonal pass.

Mane’s shot was struck hard and true but Saints’ England goalkeeper Forster fl ung himself to his left to save.

The second half opened in similar fashion.

Liverpool appealed confi dent-ly but in vain for a penalty as Van Dijk tugged Firmino’s shirt, For-ster saved Mane’s shot at the foot of his near post and Coutinho sliced his shot wide after Firmi-no’s pass sent him in on goal.

And such close missed chanc-es were what Liverpool were left ruing at the end of the day.

Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud celebrates after his team’s Premier League game against Manchester at Old Traff ord yesterday. It was the Frenchman’s goal that gave Arsenal a draw.

Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino after the game.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (L) and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho at the end of the match yesterday.

Manchester City’s Yaya Toure celebrates scoring their second goal.

ResultsCrystal Palace 1 Manchester City 2 Everton 1 Swansea City 1 Manchester United 1 Arsenal 1 Southampton 0 Liverpool 0 Stoke City 0 Bournemouth 1 Sunderland 3 Hull City 0 Watford 2 Leicester City 1

Dortmund defeat Bayern to leave Leipzig at the top

BUNDESLIGA

‘I suff ered during several phases but when you climb into the ring with Bayern you can’t think you will come out without a black eye’

DPABerlin

Borussia Dortmund beat Bay-ern Munich 1-0 yesterday to leave promoted RB Leipzig three points clear at the top of the

German football Bundesliga.Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted

the only goal in the 11th minute to hand Bayern a fi rst league defeat of the season and a fi rst loss in the league since March.

Leipzig, who won 3-2 at Bayer Leverkusen on Friday, top the table on 27 points, with Bayern on 24 and Dortmund third on 21, level with Cologne and Her-tha Berlin.

It is the fi rst time in 14 months that Bayern have not been on top of the league after a weekend programme.

Cologne meanwhile snatched a last-gasp 2-1 win at Borussia Moencheng-ladbach, while Hertha were goalless at Augsburg.

Dortmund, who were wearing black armbands following the death of former

player Alfred “Aki” Schmidt, enjoyed their fi rst home win over Bayern since April 2012.

The record champions had meanwhile not been beaten in the league since a home defeat to Mainz on March 2.

Dortmund led from the 11th minute after former Bayern midfi elder Mario Goetze crossed through the legs of former Dormund defender Mats Hum-mels for Aubameyang to stretch out his left leg and turn the ball over the line.

The Gabon striker celebrated his 12th league goal of the season by doing some press-ups before being embraced by team-mates.

Franck Ribery had a back-heeled goal disallowed after the break for off side as Bayern up the pressure, and Xabi Alonso curled a shot against the bar with keeper Roman Buerki a spectator.

But Aubameyang, who had missed two opportunities shortly after the break, had a golden chance to increase Dortmund’s lead when he was gifted the ball by Alon-so on the half-way line.

The striker raced clear but his shot was

too imprecise, allowing Manuel Neuer in goal to save.

Bayern then came close to snatching a point when Robert Lewandowski headed narrowly wide in the third minute of stoppage time.

Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said it was a “diffi cult” game, telling Sky TV: “I suff ered during several phases but when you climb into the ring with Bayern you can’t think you will come out with-out a black eye.”

Hoff enheim could leapfrog Dortmund to go third if they win at home on Sunday against bottom side SV Hamburg, while Werder Bremen greet Eintracht Frankfurt in the day’s other game.

Elsewhere, struggling Wolfsburg slipped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Schal-ke, Mainz defeated Freiburg 4-2, while Ingolstadt won 1-0 at fellow strugglers Darmstadt for their fi rst league victory of the season in Maik Walpurgis’ debut as coach.

In Moenchengladbach, the home side went in front in the Rhineland duel against Cologne through Lars Stindl in

the 32nd minute but Anthony Modeste levelled on the hour.

The France striker’s goal was a little fortunate after defender Jannik Vester-gaard got his head fi rst to a long pass from Dominique Heintz but the ball came off the head of Modeste into goal.

The 90 minutes were up when Cologne substitute Salih Oezcan tapped a free-kick to Marcel Risse who let fl y into the roof of the net from 30 metres.

Cologne coach Peter Stoeg said: “It was a diffi cult game against a team who showed what quality they have. The team gave everything you could expect.”

RESULTSBorussia Moenchengladbach 1 (Stindl 32) Cologne 2 (Modeste 59, Risse 90+1)Mainz 4 (Bungert 15, Malli 20-pen, Bell 82, Onisiwo 90+5) SC Freiburg 2 (Grifo 67, Petersen 85)Wolfsburg 0 Schalke 1 (Goretzka 82)Augsburg 0 Hertha Berlin 0Darmstadt 0 Ingolstadt 1 (Hartmann 68)Borussia Dortmund 1 Bayern Munich 0

Messi-less Barca held by MalagaLA LIGA

AFPMadrid

Barcelona paid a heavy price for the absence of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez as nine-man

Malaga held out for a 0-0 draw at the Camp Nou yesterday.

Carlos Kameni produced an incredible 94th minute save from Neymar after Diego Llorente had been sent-off mid-way through the second-half.

Juan Carlos also then saw a straight red in the sixth minute of time added on, but Ma-laga hung on as Barca blew the chance to go top of the table.

Five-time World Player of the Year Messi was ruled out just hours before the game due to illness, whilst Suarez was suspended. In the absence of the Uruguayan, Paco Alcacer was handed a rare start, but his search for a fi rst Barca goal con-tinues as he failed to make any meaningful impact.

Without his usual two strike

partners, the focus was on Ney-mar to break down the mass ranks of Malaga defence.

The Brazilian fi red into the side-netting inside the fi rst 10 minutes, but Barca’s bright start quickly fi zzled out.

Rafi nha’s drive produced Ka-meni’s only serious save of the fi rst 45 minutes.

Barca continued to dominate

possession without a cutting edge at the start of the second period and should have been caught out on the counter-at-tack.

Carlos had the best chance of the game just before the hour mark when he rounded Barca ‘keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen but fi red into the side-netting with the goal gaping.

Malaga had to see out of the fi -nal 21 minutes with 10 men when Real Madrid loanee Llorente cynically chopped down Ney-mar and was shown a straight red card.

Yet, even with a man advan-tage, Barca badly missed the creativity of Messi and injured captain Andres Iniesta as they resorted to launching cross balls into Gerard Pique, who moved forward from central defence to act as an emergency forward.

Substitute Ivan Rakitic head-ed inches wide, whilst Pique also had a goal ruled out for off side after Andre Gomes had struck the bar.

However, Barca’s best chance came deep into stoppage time when an injured Kameni some-how clawed Neymar’s header from point-blank range to safety.

Earlier, Sevilla moved up to third as defender Gabriel Mer-cado sealed a stunning fi ghtback from 2-0 down at Deportivo la Coruna to win 3-2.

Sevilla’s demons away from home looked set to strike once

more when Ryan Babel’s fi rst-minute opener and a wonder-ful individual eff ort from Florin Andone handed struggling De-portivo a 2-0 lead.

However, in-form French midfi elder Steven N’Zonzi launched the comeback with a vital goal just before half-time to give Sevilla hope.

Jorge Sampaoli then intro-duced Spanish international Vi-tolo at the break and Sevilla were transformed in the second half.

The visitors had to wait until three minutes from time to level when Vitolo fi red home at the back post despite Przemyslaw Tyton’s best eff orts.

And Tyton was beaten again deep into stoppage time when he saved Nico Pareja’s fi rst eff ort, but Mercado followed up to blast home the rebound.

AFPLondon

Harry Kane scored two late goals as Totten-ham Hotspur came from behind to beat

West Ham 3-2 yesterday in a bad-tempered derby that fea-tured two controversial penalty awards by referee Mike Dean.

Dean, already known to be the most zealous offi cial when it comes to enforcing this sea-son’s directive to clamp down on grappling in the box, penalised Spurs’s Vincent Janssen for im-peding Winston Reid in the 67th minute at White Hart Lane.

That allowed West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini to add to Michail Antonio’s fi rst-half opener for the visitors.

But Tottenham, for whom Harry Winks scored on his fi rst Premier League start, saw Kane equalise and then win the game in added time thanks to another disputed penalty.

Dean has now awarded nine penalties this season, more than any other Premier League of-fi cial, having previously penal-ised Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling and Charlie Daniels of Bournemouth for off -the-ball off ences other referees might well have let go.

And just before yesterday’s fi nal whistle, Dean also sent off Reid for a clash with Kane.

Winks, the 20-year-old mid-fi elder, fi red an early chance wide as Tottenham made the livelier start.

Christian Eriksen found the net from Spurs’ next attack, slot-ting past Darren Randolph, in for Adrian in the West Ham goal, but it was correctly ruled out for off -

side.Sppurs felt they should have

had a penalty for Pedro Obiang’s manhandling of Harry Kane but Dean wasn’t interested.

West Ham had already shown they were keen to attack, how-ever, and Antonio cut inside from the right to fi re just over.

Antonio saw an eff ort from closer range defl ected behind for a corner that Cheikhou Kouy-ate headed against the bar in the 24th minute.

Reid was fi rst to the rebound to set up the alert Antonio to nod in.

Spurs were level, however, in the 51st minute.

Janssen’s fi erce shot was par-ried by Randolph at his near post but Winks was fi rst to the re-bound and despatched it despite the goalkeeper getting a touch.

That sparked Tottenham into life and West Ham survived two penalty appeals for handball be-fore Randolph did well to block Eric Dier’s header with his foot.

Then it was the turn of Dean to make the headlines, the referee pointing to the spot when Reid went down with Janssen’s arms all over him.

Lanzini made no mistake with the penalty, in the 68th minute, and the Dutchman was immedi-ately replaced by Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino with Dele Alli.

Kane made it 2-2 with two minutes remaining with a back-post fi nish after Randolph could only spoon out a cross by Son Heung-Min, the substitute.

Then, in stoppage time, Ham-mers substitute Havard Nor-dtveit tangled with Son on the edge of the box and again Dean pointed to the spot, for Kane to win a game that ended with Reid shown a red card.

Kane the hero as Spurs fi ght back to defeat West Ham

EPL

Costa and Hazardboost Chelsea ahead of Boro clash

PREVIEW

AFPLondon

Chelsea head to Middles-brough today buoyed by the knowledge that star men Diego Costa

and Eden Hazard have both been passed fi t as the Blues resume Premier League duty after the international break

The pair had been considered doubts due to a groin injury and an unspecifi ed knock respective-ly but manager Antonio Conte has confi rmed they had each re-ceived the all clear as the West Londoners bid for a sixth straight league win.

Costa’s fi tness was of par-ticular concern after the forward suff ered an injury at Everton which meant he missed Spain’s international matches with Macedonia and England.

But he is now at the service of Italian manager Conte, while mid-fi elder Cesc Fabregas is also fully fi t following a muscle problem.

“I have all the players avail-able,” said Conte. “They are in good form. Costa had a bit of an injury after the game against Everton, and started to train with us on Wednesday. But his physi-cal condition is good.

“Hazard is fi t, yes. It was only a tackle. But he recovered very well. Fabregas is in good shape. He’s available for Sunday, for sure.

“I’m always worried when I see that there is a probability that one player of my team, of my squad, is not able to play the game.

“But, in this case, when there is an international break and you

are a bit worried for your players it’s important to play for the na-tional team.

“Until now, so far, we were lucky because no one player came back from the national team injured after the interna-tional break,” former Italy man-ager Conte added.

‘PHILOSOPHY’ Conte believes he is building a new-look side with his men second in the Premier League over the international break following the disappointment of failing to qualify for Euro-pean football last season.

“I see a chance to build some-thing important with Chelsea here, a new method and phi-losophy,” he said. “These are the most important things. Then it’s logical, when you play this championship, that you want to fi ght until the end. To win the ti-tle, or for a place in the Champi-ons League.

“It’s important now to work with the players, to continue to build something of importance for Chelsea for the present and the future.”

Conte, meanwhile, insisted Oscar still has a future at Stam-ford Bridge despite the midfi eld-er failing to start a league game since September.

“Oscar’s future is Chelsea, Chelsea, full stop,” said the man-ager. “For me, Oscar is an impor-tant player in the squad. He’s in good form.

“It’s logical I have to take the starting XI every week, but Oscar is a great player. For me, he stays at Chelsea.”

Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reacts after his team’s Bundesliga match against FC Bayern Munich at the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund yesterday.

Tottenham Hotspur’s English striker Harry Kane celebrates after scoring their third goal from the penalty spot yesterday.

Barcelona’s Brazilian forward Neymar gestures during the Spanish league football match against Malaga CF at the Camp Nou stadium.

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Results

Deportivo Coruna 2 Sevilla 3 Eibar 1 Celta Vigo 0 Barcelona 0 Malaga 0

FOOTBALL4 Gulf Times

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Gharafa see off old rivals Arabi 4-2

QATAR STARS LEAGUE

Al Gharafa move up to fifth in the QSL table after a comprehensive defeat of Arabi

By Sports ReporterDoha

Al Gharafa moved up to fi fth in the QSL table after beating their old rivals Al Arabi 4-2 yesterday at the Al Gharafa stadium.

Al Arabi, with new coach Edison Aguirre in charge, started brightly and had good spells of possession early on. Just 13 minutes into the match, the Dream Team’s captain, Boualem Khoukhi, gave the new coach a reason to smile after he scored what will surely be a contender for goal of the season. The number 10 re-ceived a lay off 35 yards out and with one touch, smashed a long range shot into the top corner that gave Gharafa’s goalkeeper no chance, and gave his team the lead.

Unfortunately, Al Arabi’s lead didn’t last long. Just minutes later Aguirre’s compatriot Paulinho was deemed to have fouled fellow Brazilian Johnson Kendrick in the box and a penalty was given. Gharafa’s Slovakian international, Vladimir Weiss, stepped up to and made no mistake from the spot.

The pace of the game intensifi ed and Gharafa began putting pressure on Al Arabi, dominating in the fi nal third and creating chance after chance. Gharafa’s intensity eventually paid off and took the lead through their skipper Lawrence Quaye in the 28th minute.

Just fi ve minutes later though, Al Arabi were level again after Boualem Khoukhi bagged his second goal of the match.

But then a two-goal burst from Gharafa, in a span of fi ve minutes turned the match on its head. Gharafa’s fi rst came in the 68th minute when Kwasi stabbed home from just a yard out after a teammate’s header bounced favourably off the crossbar.

Then on the 72nd minute Gharafa were awarded a penalty after the ref-eree deemed that Al Arabi’s captain, Khoukhi, blocked a Gharafa shot with his arm. Hungarian international Krisztian Nemeth converted from the spot to make it 4-2 and secure all three points for The Cheetah’s.

Aguirre has his work cut out with the Dream Team languishing in 11th place in the league. Gharafa leapfrog Umm Salal into fi fth.

Al Ahli and Umm Salal settle for a point each in 1-1 drawAl Ahli and Umm Salal had to settle for a point each yesterday at Al Ahli stadium after the game fi nished 1-1 in a hard-fought draw. Both sides have endured a mixed start to the 2016/17 QSL season and would have both welcomed three points to push up the table but neither side was able to create many chances in a game which saw limited shots on goal.

Al Ahli got off to a dream start and after just 48 seconds found themselves 1-0 up thanks to Yessoh N’Guessan taking ad-vantage of some sloppy defending from Umm Salal’s back four.

Salal survived a few chances before fi nally scoring an equaliser in the 83rd minute through substitute Tha’er Bawab.

Both teams pressed for the winner in the remaining ten minutes but nei-ther were able to fi nd the back of the net and both teams left with a much needed point.

ResultsAl Ahli 1 – 1 Umm SalalAl Gharafa 4 – 2 Al Arabi

Injury-hit PSG warm up for Arsenal with Ligue 1 victory

BOTTOMLINE

ReutersParis

Paris St Germain suf-fered a double injury scare as they warmed up for their Champions

League clash at Arsenal with a 2-0 home win against Nantes in Ligue 1 yesterday.

The French champions, who play at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday with top spot in Group A at stake, are second in the league with 29 points from 13 games, behind leaders Monaco on goal diff erence.

Third-place Nice will reclaim the lead if they avoid defeat at St Etienne today.

Angel Di Maria netted the fi rst goal, his fi rst in Ligue 1 this season, in the fi rst half before limping off with a suspected thigh muscle injury before Jese wrapped up the win with a late penalty.

Di Maria’s Argentine compa-

triot, Javier Pastore, who came on as a late replacement for his fi rst appearance since suff ering a calf injury in September, sus-tained a knee injury in stoppage time.

PSG will already be with-out infl uential midfi elder Adr-ien Rabiot at Arsenal after the

France international was injured with the national team earlier this week.

Argentine winger Di Maria slotted home after being set up at the end of a fi ne collective move by forward Jean-Kevin Augustin, who started up front as Unai Emery decided to rest Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani.

Keeper Kevin Trapp, stand-ing in for the injured Alphonse Areola, denied Guillaume Gil-let from point-blank range as Nantes threatened.

Di Maria limped off 10 min-utes before the interval and was replaced by Hatem Ben Arfa.

Nine minutes into the second half, Blaise Matuidi fi red a fi erce shot against the post.

Second-half substitute Jese rounded it off with a penalty af-ter Pastore was fouled by Diego Carlos in the last minute.

But there was still time for the Argentine midfi elder to pick up another injury and limp off dur-ing stoppage time.

AFPGlasgow

Super sub Harry Forrester scored in stoppage time as Rangers left it late to secure a 1-0 win over struggling

Dundee at Ibrox yesterday.The Glasgow giants looked to be

heading to their second successive draw in the Scottish Premiership until substitute Forrester popped up in the third minute of injury time to head home fellow sub Joe Dodoo’s cross.

The win - only their sixth of the season - means third place Rangers reduce the gap with league leaders Celtic to 11 points and remain one point behind second place Aberdeen who came from behind to secure a 3-1 win away to Inverness.

Defeat sees Dundee slip to the bottom of the table after Ross County defeated St Johnstone 3-1 to end a 10-match winless run.

Rangers kept faith with the same starting 11 that were held to a disappointing draw with Ross County before the international break and the Gers players looked like they were desperate to make amends for their drab display in Dingwall as they dominated the early proceedings.

The fi rst real chance fell to Joe Garner after he collected a Josh

Windass pass on the edge of the box before he spun and fl ashed a low shot narrowly wide.

Garner, who has enjoyed a stuttering start to his Ibrox ca-reer following his summer move from Preston, was clearly in the mood and turned provider as he launched a dangerous ball across the face of the Dundee goal that veteran striker Kenny Miller was close to converting.

Dundee fi nally came to life in the 25th minute as Wes Foder-ingham was forced to scramble low to his right to push a dip-ping 25-yard free-kick from Tom Hately round the post.

From the resultant corner Marcus Haber was handed a free header at the far post but his ef-fort was cleared off the line by the Rangers defence.

Rangers started the second half on the front foot and Garner was inches away from connect-ing with Windass’ delivery from the right.

Rangers rallied but Garner’s luck in front of goal failed to im-prove with the forward again not able to get on the end of substi-tute Joe Dodoo’s cross from right.

However, with time running out Dodoo swung the ball deep into the Dundee box from the left and Forrester sent a backward header into the bottom right hand corner of Bain’s net.

Rangers leave it late to secure Dundee win

SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP

Renaissance man Leonardo gives Jeonbuk the edge

AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL

AFPJeonju, South Korea

Brazilian forward Le-onardo hit a blistering second-half double as Jeonbuk Hyundai Mo-

tors came from behind to beat Al Ain 2-1 and seize the initiative in the two-legged AFC Champions League fi nal yesterday.

The mohican-sporting front-man grabbed his ninth and 10th goals of the competition to out-shine Al Ain hotshot Omar Ab-dulrahman and put Jeonbuk in the driving seat ahead of next week’s second leg.

Top-rated Abdulrahman, nicknamed “Amoory”, delivered a sublime assist for Danilo As-prilla’s second-half opener but Leonardo then took control with a scorching equaliser and an ice-cool penalty seven minutes later.

It gives South Korea’s Jeonbuk the edge going into next week’s game against the Emiratis in Abu Dhabi, where both teams are seeking their second AFC Cham-pions League title.

“Of course none of the players wanted to concede but Al Ain are a strong team. Even though we conceded one goal, we worked really hard to come back into the game and that made me very proud,” said Jeonbuk’s coach Choi Kang-Hee.

He added: “Leonardo has spent fi ve years here but he’s rarely been the diff erence in big matches. He knew that and has tried to focus on it and I expect him to be the diff erence-maker more in the future.”

A tense fi rst half saw plenty of uncompromising tackles but lit-tle goalmouth action in front of a packed and noisy crowd at Jeonju World Cup Stadium.

Jeonbuk won a string of free kicks around the box but Leonar-do’s delivery was disappointing with Al Ain’s Khalid Eisa having little trouble punching clear.

Abdulhrahman, in a more ad-vanced role than his usual play-maker position, was anonymous and Al Ain’s best chance was ac-cidental, when Caio’s cross-shot zipped past the post.

Brilliant equaliser It was dour stuff but Al Ain

fl icked the switch at half-time and Abdulrahman suddenly came alive, forcing Kwoun Sun-Tae into a fi ne save with an in-stinctive snap-shot on 54 min-utes.

His assist on 63 minutes was one for the ages, when he held off three defenders before pick-ing out Asprilla, who had time to select his spot and rifl e home left-footed.

But Leonardo then had the crowd on its feet with a brilliant equaliser on 70 minutes, when he made space and slammed his shot into the top corner from well outside the area.

Seven minutes later, the Bra-zilian put Jeonbuk ahead from the spot.

But Al Ain will take heart from their valuable away goal and Ab-dulrahman especially will be des-perate to underline his undoubted talent with his fi rst major title.

“We now have 90 more min-utes to play but we are in a good position,” said Choi. “It will be very hard but we’ll prepare the best we can to get through the next match.”

Action during the Qatar Stars league match between Al Gharafa and Al Arabi held yesterday at the Al Gharafa stadium. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

Action during the Qatar Stars league match between Al Ahli and Umm Salal held yesterday. PICTURE: Othman Iraqi

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors’ Leonardo Rodrigues Pereira (L) celebrates his goal against Al Ain during the AFC Champions League Final 1st Leg.

Paris St Germain’s Angel Di Maria reacts after goal against Nantes.

Paris St Germain’s Jese reacts after scoring against Nantes.

World football body FIFA has joined the International Olym-pic Committee in threatening legal action against Kuwait over the government takeover of sporting bodies, according to a letter obtained by AFP.The letter from FIFA secre-tary general Fatma Samoura also reaff irmed that Kuwait would be kept in international isolation as long as the Kuwait Football Association is run by government-named off icials following the passing of a new sports law this year.The IOC and FIFA suspended Kuwait in October last year over government interference in sport.It is the second time in five years the Gulf state has been suspended.The letter to the state-backed KFA head Fawaz Mubarak al-Hasawi, owner of English

football club Nottingham Forest, said: “FIFA hereby reserves all its rights to take any action against all those who have been involved in any way, directly or indirectly, in the establishment as well as any other activities of the interim committee.”It added that the action could include “claims for the conse-quences of any damages result-ing from your illegal acts”.The IOC sent a similar warning at the start of November.The IOC and FIFA protested after police were used to for-cibly take over the headquar-ters of the Kuwait Olympic Committee and the KFA.“FIFA will not accept any of its members to establish contact or sporting relations with the government-appointed off icials,” the FIFA secretary general said in the latest letter.

FIFA threatens legal action against Kuwait

RUGBY5Gulf Times

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Rokoduguni brace as England hand Fiji crushing defeat

EMPHATIC

Italy maul Springboks for historic victoryUPSET

AFPFlorence, Italy

Giovanbattista Venditti scored a crucial second-half try as Italy bounced back from an All Blacks mauling to score an

historic fi rst 20-18 win over embattled South Africa yesterday.

Bryan Habana, winning his 124th cap for the Springboks, gave Allister Coetzee’s men an early boost with an eighth-minute try that took his test to-tal to 67.

But Italy, now under Irish coach Conor O’Shea, were on a mission to play creative rugby and did so while re-pelling several promising South African attacks during an entertaining game in Florence.

Praising his players’ “courage”, O’Shea was quick to calm hopes of an Italian renaissance in Florence.

“I’m very happy for the players and the fans, but this is only the start us,” said O’Shea, who succeeded French-man Jacques Brunel in July.

“We have a lot to do to change rugby in Italy, but we have the capability, tal-ent and potential to do it.

“Today, we made a lot of mistakes

and we had some problems with dis-cipline. But the sheer heart and cour-age... they weren’t just brave, they were just heroic.”

It is South Africa’s fi rst defeat to Italy in 13 matches and will heap more pressure on Coetzee ahead of their fi -nal November Test against Wales next week.

Coetzee pinpointed Italy’s defence as the key and he was vindicated in an entertaining fi rst half that saw the Boks left frustrated with their two-point half-time lead.

But Coetzee’s decision to recall Habana paid dividends almost imme-diately when he touched over after full-back Willie Le Roux’s powerful run.

Patrick Lambie missed the conver-sion from wide on the left just inside the 22.

Italian heads went down quickly in Rome last week when the All Blacks scored the fi rst of 10 tries inside fi ve minutes, but the Azzurri had been giv-en hope by the Boks’ recent crisis.

From the restart, Italy won a pen-alty and kicked deep into Bok territory where a driving maul, and some cha-otic defence, saw Bloemfontein-born Andries Van Schalkwyk crash over for a pushover try.

Carlo Canna hit the conversion to give the hosts a 7-5 lead on 13 mins.

It sparked an immediate response, but Edoardo Padovani did well to stop Ruan Combrinck with a great touch tackle as the Boks charged down the middle.

But the visitors were dogged and kept the ball moving in the middle before scrum-half Rudy Paige plucked it out and eventually found Damian de Al-lende in space on the right.

Italy captain Sergio Parisse made a despairing attempt at a tackle but there was no stopping the big centre. This time Lambie found a way through the posts and South Africa were ahead.

When Vincent Koch penalised from angling in at a scrum, Padovani hit a 50-metre penalty to take the score to 12-10.

South Africa started the second pe-riod in determined fashion and were given a boost when Fuser was shown a yellow card for a tip tackle on De Jaeger.

Play continued, but Combrinck missed an inside pass from Habana with the tryline begging.

Lambie kicked the penalty to take the Boks’ lead to 15-10, but the visi-tors spurned several chances to cross for their third try, Le Roux narrowly missing going over in the corner be-fore seeing his pass back in field go awry.

The Boks, however, were caught out spectacularly on 55 minues when the ball was fed out to the left and Venditti went over in the corner.

Canna hit the conversion for a 17-15 lead to revive thoughts of the Boks’ his-toric defeat by Japan at the 2015 World Cup in England.

When Parisse was caught off side in his own half on the hour, Elton Jantjies fi red his long-range eff ort over to take the score to 17-18.

But De Jaeger failed to roll away at a ruck, and Canna hit the penalty to take Italy’s lead to 20-18.

Italy thought they had won the match two minutes from the end when Marco Fuser touched down following a driving maul.

Amid South African protests, the try was ruled out by video replays.

AFPLondon

Fiji-born England winger Semesa Rokoduguni scored a brace as Ed-die Jones’ team buried an over-powered Fiji under an avalanche

of tries to record their biggest win over the Pacifi c Islanders in a one-sided con-test at Twickenham yesterday.

Jones saw his side pick up where they left off in last weekend’s win over South Africa, overpowering their opponents to run in nine tries in a 58-15 win.

England made it 12 successive wins, and 11 of those coming since Jones took over the reins after the World Cup fail-ure.

They are now just two victories away from England’s best ever winning streak which was the 14 under Clive Woodward.

Fly-half George Ford admitted: “It’s another good win but we know we can play better.

“We did a lot of good things right in the opening half but then let ourselves down

a bit and allowed them to cross for three tries.

“We will have to improve against Ar-gentina next weekend because they will come here believing they can beat us. But we’re enjoying this winning habit and want it to continue.”

Jones requested plain old fi sh and chips rugby from his players — nothing too ex-otic, fanciful or daring.

And he got a no-nonsense approach to the game and a few frills and thrills on top as his team feasted on a glut of sumptu-ous tries.

Five tries in the opening 26 minutes left Fiji dazed as England blitzed their op-ponents into submission and led 34-10 at their break. They took less than four minutes to break through the visitors’ de-fence for the opening score.

Owen Farrell fed Jonathan Joseph who found a big gap and charged over.

And when the Fijians fell over them-selves trying to stop another England at-tack, left wing Elliot Daly coasted over for the second try from 30 metres.

It was Daly’s fi rst Test try in his seventh

cap and Farrell converted both tries.You already sensed a hard afternoon for

the visitors lay ahead.That feeling increased with Rokodu-

guni bursting over for what was also his fi rst England try in his second cap hav-ing made his debut two years ago against New Zealand.

The Twickenham crowd were lapping up the one-sided aff air, and the white Fijians shirts just could not halt the dark blue tide as next it was fl anker Teimana Harrison’s turn to grab his fi rst try in his third England appearance.

Fiji made their fi rst attack on the Eng-land line pay dividends as the ball was swept across to Nemani Nadolo, and even Rokoduguni, no slight fi gure himself, had little chance of stopping the most power-ful back in world rugby at full tilt.

Nadolo burst over and his side were on the board.

Surprisingly, Farrell kicked a penalty when England were back on the attend-ancy but Fiji had the fi nal say of the fi rst half with lock Leone Nakarawa forcing his way across for his side’s second try.

Suddenly Fiji were awake and a real threat.

The confidence returned and when full-back Metuisela Talebula surged over for an early second half try the odd alarm bell began to ring amongst the hosts.

Just moments later Alex Goode dived over for his fi rst international try to give England regained dominance and Farrell converted.

And Josh Matavesi’s fl oated pass was snaffl ed by Joseph who strolled over for his second.

The visitors’ defence was split apart twice again as fi rst Rokoduguni and then Launchbury crossed with no tackler in sight as England cruised to victory.

England are now two wins from two games in this home Autumn series but they know Argentina will be tougher op-ponents next Saturday.

Fiji captain Akapusi Qera admitted: “We were half asleep in the fi rst half and England came out fi ring at us.

They are one of the top teams in the world and our poor start cost us.”

Jones had requested plain old fish and chips rugby from his players — nothing fanciful or daring

England’s wing Semesa Rokoduguni (R) holds off Fiji’s full back Metuisela Talebula during their rugby union Test match at Twickenham stadium in southwest London yesterday.

AFPCardiff

Sam Davies held his nerve to hit a drop-goal with just nine seconds re-maining to seal a 33-30

triumph for Wales over Japan at the Principality Stadium in Car-diff yesterday.

The Brave Blossoms looked to have snatched a draw after a late try from replacement wing Amanaki Lotoahea, before Dav-ies stepped up to break Japanese hearts.

Wales were never in complete control despite scores from Dan Lydiate, Jamie Roberts and Sam Warburton.

Japan’s wingers Kenki Fuku-oka and Akihito Yamada crossed to keep the visitors in touch, with outside-half Yu Tamura adding 13 points from the kick-ing tee.

But 23-year-old Davies land-ed the drop-goal on only his second cap to steal victory in the most dramatic of circumstances right at the death.

Japan, who only fi elded fi ve survivors from their famous Rugby World Cup triumph over South Africa, made a positive start at the Principality Stadium.

Scott Baldwin’s overthrown lineout allowed the Brave Blos-soms to swing the ball wide, but Leigh Halfpenny, who had switched places with Liam Williams onto the right wing, stopped Fukuoka 10 metres short.

However, Japan did take the lead moments later after Jonathan Davies high-tackled full-back Kotaro Matsushima, allowing Tamura to give Japan a 3-0 lead.

Wales full-back Liam Wil-liams was then sent to the sin-bin for blocking Yamada, who looked to be on his way to the try-line after Alex Cuthbert failed to deal with his chip ahead.

Tamura kicked his second penalty to make it 6-0, before Wales struck back.

Outside-half Gareth Ans-combe looped a perfectly weighted pass to fl anker Lydiate, who charged over at the corner for his fi rst try in 62 Test match-es.

And Wales reasserted their dominance up-front after 24 minutes as they drove back the

Japanese scrum to set up their second score.

The ball was worked to Jonathan Davies, who was tack-led, but found Roberts with an offl oad, and there was no stop-ping the giant centre.

Halfpenny converted to make it 14-6.

But just when Wales were in complete control, Anscombe, who had impressed on his fi rst start at fl y-half, threw a loose pass that was scooped up by Ya-mada, and the wing raced home from 40 metres.

Timothy Lafaele converted to cut the gap to a single point at half-time despite the Welsh dominance.

Wales restored their four-point lead seconds after the re-start thanks to the boot of Half-penny, after the Japan scrum creaked once more.

Alun Wyn Jones injected some much-needed go-forward when he charged though a gap in mid-fi eld and found skipper Warbur-ton, who crashed over for the try on 52 minutes.

Halfpenny converted, but Ja-pan would not be beaten.

Jamie Joseph’s men showed their slick handling skills to freeze the Welsh defence as hooker Shota Horie found Ta-mura, who combined with Mal-gene Ilaua to send Fukuoka over at the corner.

Tamura converted to make it 24-20, and Wales showed their nerves as they opted to kick a penalty in front of the posts in-stead of going for the try.

But Japan stayed in touch with another Tamura penalty after Samson Lee went off side.

The tighthead prop was re-placed after giving away a sec-ond off side penalty, but his in-fringement went unpunished as Tamura missed the target.

Instead it was Wales who moved 30-23 ahead thanks to Halfpenny’s third penalty of the afternoon.

Japan looked to have snatched a draw when no.8 Amanaki Mafi charged down the right wing and somehow offl oaded to re-placement wing Lotoahea, who side-stepped full-back Williams to score.

Tamura landed the conversion to level the scores at 30-30 with seven minutes remaining, but Davies broke Japan’s resilience with the last-gasp drop-goal.

Last-gasp drop-goal saves Wales blushes against Japan

SPOTLIGHT

Wales’ Liam Williams and Sam Davies hug at full time after their match against Japan yesterday.

Action from the Italy-South Africa match in Florence yesterday.

AFPLos Angeles

LeBron James hailed the Cleve-land Cavaliers for produc-ing their best performance of the season in a blowout vic-

tory over the Detroit Pistons on Fri-day while Russell Westbrook reached a statistical milestone with his fourth triple double of the year.

James had been rested for the Cav-aliers in Wednesday’s surprise loss against the Indiana Pacers, but was back in the starting line-up on Friday to score 21 points in a 104-81 win.

Kyrie Irving topscored with 25 points and added 11 assists while Kevin Love fi nished with 12 points and 13 rebounds in a formidable all-round display.

“Off ensively and defensively this is the best we’ve played all year,” James said after a win saw the Cavs improve to 10-2.

It was the 12th consecutive game in which the Cavs have made at least 10 three-pointers, an NBA record.

Head coach Tyronn Lue however was less emphatic, stating that hard work had obscured mistakes.

“We made some mistakes, but we played hard,” Lue said. “When you play hard, you can cover for mistakes. I thought we did a great job of just play-ing hard in that fi rst half.”

‘We got crushed’

The defeat continues Detroit’s poor record on the road this season. The Pistons have now gone 1-7 on their travels, and coach Stan Van Gundy was in no mood to mince his words after Friday’s rout.

“We got crushed,” Van Gundy said. “They did everything better. We were just awful.”

In Oklahoma City, Westbrook and the Thunder were similarly convincing winners against the visiting Brooklyn Nets, coming home 124-05.

Westbrook’s latest triple double — in which he scored 30 points — helped him become only the second player after the legendary Oscar Robertson to reach 13,000 points, 3,400 rebounds and 4,500 assists inside his fi rst 600 career games.

“He’s unique. Really unique,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said of West-brook.

“Everything he brings to the table is competitiveness. How fast he is, how strong he is. Very impressive player.”

In Boston meanwhile, Kevin Durant reminded Boston what they missed out on as the Golden State Warriors romped to a 104-88 win at the TD Garden.

Durant, who was aggressively courted by the Celtics this year be-fore deciding to join Golden State in a blockbuster move from Oklahoma City, was booed relentlessly by the home fans throughout.

However, it did little to throw Du-rant off his game as he fi nished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

The highlight was a spectacular play in the second half, when the Warriors broke quickly.

Stephen Curry fl oated a pass up to

Durant who soared above the cover to smash in a one-hand alley-oop that fi nally drew applause from the crowd. “(Curry) tossed it up and I was just trying my best to go get it,” Durant said. “We’ve been working on that in practice.”

Happy HolidayElsewhere Friday, the San Antonio

Spurs were made to work all the way by the resurgent Los Angeles Lakers before claiming a 116-107 win at the Staples Center.

Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge each scored 23 points for the Spurs, who improved to 10-3 while the Lakers slipped to 7-6.

In New Orleans, Anthony Davis turned in another dazzling individual performance with 38 points as the Pel-icans grabbed only their third win of the season, downing Portland 113-101.

While Davis’ masterclass helped keep his average above 30 points per game this season, the win also marked the return to duty of Jrue Holiday.

Holiday, who has missed the fi rst 12 games of the campaign to care for his wife, Lauren, who underwent brain surgery after giving birth to the couple’s fi rst child, showed no sign of rustiness with 21 points from the bench.

“These guys made it easy for me,” Holiday said. “We were trying to get

into the rhythm and I think the way they were moving the ball before I came just kind of helped. They were all really encouraging and they were passing the ball and looking for me so it felt good.”

ResultsCharlotte 100 Atlanta 96 Phoenix 116 Indiana 96 Cleveland 104 Detroit 81 New Orleans 113 Portland 101 Oklahoma City 124 Brooklyn 105 Golden State 104 Boston 88 Memphis 80 Dallas 64 Toronto 113 Denver 111 (OT) San Antonio 116 LA LAKERS 107 LA Clippers 121 Sacramento 115

‘When you play hard, you can cover for mistakes. I thought we did a great job of just playing hard’

James returns for Cavs blowout over Pistons

NBA

SPORT

Gulf Times Sunday, November 20, 20166

Hossa’s goal wins it for Blackhawks over FlamesNHL

By Chris HineChicago Tribune

The Calgary Flames were there for the taking.

The usually enthu-siastic hockey city was

still coping with the loss of star player Johnny Gaudreau for four to six weeks because of a broken fi nger, giving the Saddledome a funereal feel Friday.

Normally, the Chicago Black-hawks bring out the noise in op-posing fans, but it was hard not to notice the listless atmosphere and lack of energy.

If there was a gimme game for the Hawks on this circus trip, this was it. They had two days of rest in their legs and a battered opponent. They grabbed that opportunity with a 3-2 victory to improve to 1-1 on the seven-game trip and avoid their fi rst two-game losing streak since the fi rst two games of the season.

Marian Hossa scored the win-ner, breaking a tie with 2 min-utes, 23 seconds remaining by stuffi ng in the rebound of an Ar-temi Panarin shot.

The Hawks did what they were supposed to do in the fi rst peri-od, seizing an early lead against a teetering opponent. The scoring sequence began with Artem Ani-simov rifl ing a stretch pass from the Hawks zone to Ryan Hart-man near center ice.

Hartman outraced Flames defenseman Dennis Wideman and used his posterior to keep Wideman from interrupting his shot before beating goaltender

Chad Johnson at the 7:42 mark. It was Hartman’s third goal of the season. The Hawks were poised to take a two-goal lead in the second period when Patrick Kane had a chance at an open net after Johnson fell. But Kane double-tapped his shot in close and failed to score - and then the Hawks’ night took a bad turn.

Moments after Kane’s misfor-tune, Kane and Corey Crawford could not handle a loose puck in the crease, and Flames center Sam Bennett scooped up a goal at 3:33.

The top line of Kane, Jonathan Toews and Richard Panik allowed another goal a few minutes later. The Hawks surrendered an odd-man rush, leading to a goal by Sean Monahan that defl ected off the skate of defenseman Gustav Forsling at 7:03.

Former Hawk Troy Brouwer, who helped end the Hawks’ season with the winning goal in Game 7 of the playoff series with the St. Louis Blues, assisted on both goals.

Through two periods, the top line was on the ice for as many opponent goals as it generated shots on Johnson _ two.

The Hawks tied it later in the period on their fi rst power play when Brent Seabrook launched a slap shot that rattled around the net at 14:34. It was a vintage Seabrook bomb from the right circle that Johnson had little chance to stop.

It was also a sight for a sore Hawks power play that had con-verted just one of its previous 16 chances and was Seabrook’s sec-

ond goal of the season.Johnson and defenseman

Mark Giordano saved a poten-tial Hawks go-ahead goal early

in the third when Giordano used his stick to prevent a Toews shot from crossing the goal line. Offi -cials reviewed the play, but it was

inconclusive and the no-goal call stood.

It was the second could-have-been goal for the Hawks, but

they didn’t need them in the end.

REULTSPittsburgh 3 NY Islanders 2 (OT)

Washington 1 Detroit 0 Columbus 4 NY Rangers 2 Carolina 3 Montreal 2 Chicago 3 Calgary 2

Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James (R) drives past Detroit Pistons Marcus Morris during the second half of their NBA game. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Chicago Blackhawks Marian Hossa (R) scores the game winning goal against Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

ReutersNew York

Kris Bryant of the World Series champion Chicago Cubs capped off a dream season by winning the

National League MVP award, while Mike Trout backed up his case as baseball’s best by claiming AL hon-ours for a second time.

The versatile, power-hitting Bry-ant, 24, was still in the afterglow of joining with his teammates to end the Cubs’ 108-year wait for a World Se-ries triumph with their seven-game victory over the Cleveland Indians.

“Obviously, I want to continue to get better and win more World Se-ries. But it’s all downhill from here,” he joked on a conference call with reporters. “This year has defi nitely been one of the best years of my life. Winning the World Series, now this is just icing on the cake.”

After a unanimous victory in last year’s Rookie of the Year vote, Bry-ant nearly duplicated the feat. He re-ceived 29 of the 30 fi rst-place votes in romping to victory over Daniel Murphy of the Washington Nation-als. Bryant belted 39 homers and had 102 RBIs with a league-leading 121 runs scored, while hitting for a.292 average.

Before settling in as a Fall Classic fi xture at third base, Bryant played 107 games at third, 69 in the outfi eld and manned fi rst base nine times.

Los Angeles Angels outfi elder Trout won his second AL Most Valu-able Player award after fi rst receiving it in 2014. The 25-year-old Trout, who blends power, speed and de-fensive prowess, hit 29 home runs, drove in 100, scored a league-lead-ing 123 runs, stole 30 bases and led the league with an on-base percent-age of.441.

Trout received 19 fi rst-place votes to nine for runner-up Mookie Betts of the AL East champion Boston Red Sox. Despite playing for a Los Ange-les team that fi nished fourth in the AL West at 74-88, Trout’s outstand-ing season brought him recognition for a fi fth successive campaign.

Trout fi nished second in the MVP voting in his 2012 rookie season, was runner-up again in 2013, won MLB’s top honour in 2014 and was runner-up once more last year.

“It humbles you, it’s an outstand-ing honor,” Trout said in a confer-ence call. Trout is only the second MVP winner in either league to have won twice after fi nishing second in the previous election. The other was Barry Bonds in the National League in 1992 and 2001. “I was very sur-prised,” he said about winning. “It’s an unbelievable feeling.”

Bryant and Trout win MVP awards

MLB

Stenson fi nally clicks as money-list title moves closer

ReutersDubai

Henrik Stenson has one hand on the European Order of Merit title after a string of bird-

ies on the back nine of his third round at the DP World Tour Championship yesterday lifted the Swede up the leaderboard as his money-list rivals failed to make headway.

While the 40-year-old was making moves towards topping the season’s rankings, France’s Victor Dubuisson fi red himself into contention for the tourna-ment win with an eight-under-par round to lead by one shot after 54 holes.

Having continued his strug-gles of the fi rst two days into day three with bogeys on holes four, six and 10, Stenson fi nally clicked into gear in the after-noon sunshine in Dubai as he holed fi ve birdies in the last sev-en holes – including chipping straight in from the greenside rough on 16.

“I turned it around at least and, yeah, I’ve got to be pretty pleased with the way we man-aged to play on the way home,” Stenson told reporters.

His two-under par round of 70 moved him to fi ve under

for the tournament, level with world number two Rory McIl-roy, who had earlier threatened one of his familiar surges to give himself a sniff of a chance to usurp Stenson.

However, the Northern Irish-man found the water with his second shot on 18, and the eventual bogey left him four under for the day.

“Maybe I just was a little too aggressive with it and pulled it slightly, as anything left of that pin is going to go in the water, unless you hit it way past the pin,” McIlroy said.

Coming into the tournament second on the money list, Dan-ny Willett’s challenge wilted on Saturday as a four-over par 76 left him well out of contention for both the event and season honours. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted a three-under-par 69 to leave him tied for 13th overall at seven-under.

He needs a top-two fi nish in Dubai to be in with a shout of topping the money list.

FRENCH REVELATIONAfter a steady fi rst two days,

Dubuisson emerged from the pack to head the season-ending championship. The French-man’s eight-under par 64 in-cluded seven birdies and a eagle achieved through a contender

for shot of the tournament on hole fi ve – a majestic approach which gently spun back into the cup. “Yeah, sometimes it goes in,” Dubuisson said of the eagle. “I made a lucky bogey on the next hole, so it kind of set it up.”

Rivalling the Frenchman – both for the tournament and individual piece of brilliance – was English youngster Matthew Fitzpatrick.

His six-under par 66 includ-ed a monster eagle putt on hole seven, as well as seven birdies. The only aberration was a dou-ble-bogey on 13.

The 22-year-old was joined on 12 under par by fellow Eng-lishman Tyrrell Hatton and Nicolas Colsaerts. Tied-second after day one, it is where the Belgian is placed once more af-ter a topsy-turvy round three of two eagles, six birdies but also four bogeys.

A further shot back were the trio of Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello, who made 10 birdies and a bogey to record the lowest round of the tournament, Eng-land’s Lee Westwood and over-night co-leader Francesco Mo-linari of Italy.

Fellow halfway leader Sergio Garcia of Spain fell away after a two-over par round of 74 which included four bogeys and a dou-ble-bogey on the front nine.

Third-round scores 203-Victor Dubuisson (FRA) 70-69-64204-Matthew Fitzpatrick (ENG) 69-69-66, Nicolas Colsaerts (BEL) 67-71-66, Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)71-66-67205-Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP) 71-71-63, Lee Westwood (ENG) 66-70-69, Francesco Molinari (ITA) 68-67-70207-Soren Kjeldsen (DEN) 70-69-68, Nacho Elvira (ESP) 70-69-68, Bernd Wiesberger (AUT) 70-67-70, Charl Schwart-zel (RSA) 70-67-70208-Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 70-71-67209-Rikard Karlberg (SWE) 72-70-67, Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN) 71-70-68, Alex Noren (SWE) 71-69-69, Byeong Hun An (KOR) 70-69-70, Sergio Garcia (ESP) 68-67-74210-David Horsey (ENG) 72-71-67, Ross Fisher (ENG) 72-71-67, Shane Lowry (IRL) 70-71-69, Joost Luiten (NED) 68-69-73211-Branden Grace (RSA) 72-74-67, Rory McIlroy (NIR) 75-68-68, Julien Quesne (FRA) 67-76-68, Jorge Campillo (ESP) 72-71-68, Henrik Stenson (SWE) 72-69-70, Richard Sterne (RSA) 70-70-71212-Jeunghun Wang (KOR) 75-72-65, Martin Kaymer (GER) 71-74-67, Andy Sullivan (ENG) 76-66-70, Ricardo Gouveia

(POR) 72-69-71213-Gregory Bourdy (FRA) 72-73-68, Li Haotong (CHN) 74-70-69, Renato Parattore (ITA) 70-73-70, George Coetzee (RSA) 72-70-71, Pablo Larrazabal (ESP) 71-71-71, Alexander Levy (FRA) 69-73-71, Jaco van Zyl (RSA) 69-71-73214-Felipe Aguilar (CHI) 74-73-67, Scott Hend (AUS) 72-73-69, Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 74-70-70, Thomas Pieters (BEL) 72-72-70, Padraig Harrington (IRL) 72-71-71215-Alejandro Canizares (ESP) 73-72-70, Joakim Lagergren (SWE) 74-69-72, David Lipsky (USA) 72-71-72, Raphael Jacque-line (FRA) 72-71-72216-Matthew Southgate (ENG) 72-74-70, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA) 69-74-73, Mikko Ilonen (FIN) 70-73-73217-Richard Bland (ENG) 71-76-70, Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 69-74-74, Danny Willett (ENG) 71-70-76218-Chris Wood (ENG) 75-72-71219-Bradley Dredge (WAL) 72-75-72220-Romain Wattel (FRA) 82-68-70, Soomin Lee (KOR) 71-73-76221-Brandon Stone (RSA) 74-73-74, Marcus Fraser (AUS) 69-74-78226-Andrew Johnston (ENG) 78-70-78

DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

‘...I’ve got to be pretty pleased with the way we managed to play on the way home’

AFPMiami

Canadian rookie Mackenzie Hughes took a two-shot lead at the US PGA Tour’s RSM Classic in Georgia on Friday

after following up his spectacular opening round with a fi ve-under-par 67.

Hughes, playing in only his ninth event on the tour, had lit up the fi rst round with a superb 61 on Sea Island’s par-70 Seaside Course to start the day one stroke clear of the fi eld.

The 25-year-old swapped to the par-72 Plantation Course on Friday and was quickly back in the groove, hitting three birdies over the front nine before adding two more after the turn.

Hughes stands at 14 under after 36 holes heading into the weekend, two clear of Taiwan’s Pan Cheng-Tsung, another rookie, who shot a 64 on the Seaside Course to back up his opening round of 66.

“Today was defi nitely a little more work,” a satisfi ed Hughes said after his round.

That is “no slouch of a score and I would take two more of those in a heartbeat,” he added.

Both Hughes and Pan are rookies on the US PGA Tour after playing on the Web.com Tour. Pan is looking for-ward to dueling with Hughes over the weekend. “It should be fun,” Pan said. “It’s exciting to see both of us play well out there because it’s a dream come true for both of us.”

Four players – Hudson Swaff ord, Blayne Barber, Chad Campbell and Chesson Hadley – were tied for third on 11 under.

Jonathan Byrd, who fi nished the opening round with a 62 on the Sea-side Course, carded a two-under-par 70 to remain in the hunt at 10 under along with nine other players, includ-ing Billy Horschel and Japan’s Hiroshi Iwata.

Behind that pack were a cluster of nine players tied for 17th including Jim Furyk and 2009 British Open champi-

on Stewart Cink on nine under.With benign conditions perfect for

low scoring, the cut came at a fi ve-under-par, leaving the likes of Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson, Ernie Els, Dav-is Love III and Vijay Singh all out of the weekend action.

LEADING SCORES (USA unless noted)128-Mackenzie Hughes (CAN) 61-67130-Pan Cheng-Tsung (TPE) 66-64131-Hudson Swaff ord 64-67, Blayne Barber 63-68, Chad Campbell 66-65, Chesson Hadley 65-66132-Jonathan Byrd 62-70, Jason Kokrak 67-65, Noh Seung-Yul (KOR) 66-66, Billy Horschel 66-66, Kyle Stanley 65-67, Russell Henley 67-65, Charles Howell III 67-65, Bryce Molder 67-65, Josh Teater 66-66, Hiroshi Iwata (JPN) 65-67133-Jamie Lovemark 67-66, Camilo Villegas (COL) 66-67, Lucas Glover 66-67, Jim Furyk 64-69, J.J. Spaun 68-65, Tyler Aldridge 66-67, Kelly Kraft 67-66, Luke List 69-64, Stewart Cink 62-71

Rookie Hughes edges clear in Sea IslandSPOTLIGHT

AFPSydney

Former US Open cham-pion Geoff Ogilvy fi red an eight-under-par 64 to move into the outright

lead at the Australian Open and set up a fi nal round showdown with two-time major winner Jordan Spieth yesterday.

Ogilvy, 39, was 11-under-par and two shots ahead of Ameri-can Spieth, fellow Australian Aaron Baddeley and New Zea-land’s Ryan Fox with one round remaining at the Royal Sydney Golf Club.

Veteran Australian Rod Pam-pling was one shot further back after a third round 70 while world No.7 Adam Scott carded a tumultuous 71.

Scott joined fellow Austral-ians Jake Higginbottom, Jason Scrivener, Lucas Herbert and James Nitties in a fi ve-way tie for sixth at seven-under.

Ogilvy began the day six shots behind overnight leader Nit-ties and produced six front-nine birdies – including four in a row – to join the lead halfway through his round.

The 2010 Australian Open champion consolidated with birdies at the par-fi ve 16th and par-four 18th for a tournament-low round. “That was kind of an easy 64 if there is such a thing,” Ogilvy said.

“I didn’t really see 64 on the fi rst tee, but after going out so well on the front nine, I kind of started seeing a score like that.

“When you’ve been seeing putts hit the edge and not go in for a few months, or years, you feel a lot better when they actu-ally lip in instead of lip out.”

Former world No. 1 Spieth began the day at fi ve-under and recovered from a slow start with fi ve birdies from the sixth to the 14th to post 68 and his best round of the tournament.

“After being one over through the fi rst fi ve holes and really be-ing all over the golf course, I re-ally could have been three or four over at that point and turned it around into a four-under round, so I’m very pleased with being at nine under,” Spieth said.

The 2014 Australian Open champion needed 25 putts on Sat-urday and said he feels confi dent on the greens after lamenting poor putting on the fi rst two days.

“I’m just going to be more ag-

gressive on the greens tomorrow now that I feel more comfort-able,” he said.

“I feel like my best golf is yet to come out and, therefore I feel confi dent about where things are.”

Baddeley, 35, began the third round with back-to-back bird-ies on his way to a fi ve-under 67 and will play alongside Ogilvy in today’s fi nal pairing.

The 35-year-old is chasing a third Australian Open title, 17 years after his win as an 18-year-old amateur at Royal Sydney in 1999.

“You have so many good memories here, lots of good shots, putts made, so it defi nite-ly helps when you go back to a course that you’ve played well at and have got such good memo-ries at like here,” Baddeley said.

“It would be pretty cool to win here tomorrow, I mean, 17 years later, that would be super spe-cial.”

Scott mixed four birdies with three bogeys and was upbeat af-ter his 71 despite missing a short birdie putt on the fi nal green.

“I didn’t play good on the front nine and I was happy to hang in there and shoot an under par score,” Scott said.

“I only lost one shot to the lead, which is not bad consider-ing it wasn’t a good day for me,” the 2013 US Masters champion said. “A hot start tomorrow is what I need, a quick front nine and I’ll be right in it.”

The top three players at the Australian Open will win direct entry into next July’s British Open at Royal Birkdale.

Leading third-round scores 205-Geoff Ogilvy (AUS) 70-71-64207-Aaron Baddeley (AUS) 74-66-67, Jordan Spieth (USA) 69-70-68, Ryan Fox (NZL) 68-68-71208-Rod Pampling (AUS) 71-67-70209-Jake Higginbottom (AUS) 73-70-66, Jason Scrivener (AUS) 70-70-69, Lucas Herbert (AUS) 67-71-71, Adam Scott (AUS) 73-65-71, James Nitties (AUS) 70-65-74210-Nick Cullen (AUS) 72-70-68, Steven Jeff ress (AUS) 71-71-68, Robert Allenby (AUS) 71-71-68, Cameron Smith (AUS) 74-68-68, Anthony Summers (AUS) 73-68-69, Ashley Hall (AUS) 71-69-70, Min Woo Lee (AUS) 72-67-71, Rhein Gibson (AUS) 71-66-73211-Travis Smyth (AUS) 69-73-69, Jake McLeod (AUS) 71-69-71, Peter Lonard (AUS) 70-69-72

Ogilvy hits lead to set up Open showdown with Spieth

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

GOLF7Gulf Times

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Victor Dubuisson of France measures his shot during the third day of the DP World Tour Championship event at the Jumeirah Golf Estates yesterday in Dubai. (AFP)

Mackenzie Hughes of Canada plays his tee shot during the second round of the RSM Classic at Sea Island Resort Seaside Course in St Simons Island, Georgia. (Getty Images/AFP)

Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy tees off on the 16th hole on day three of Australian Open in Sydney yesterday. (AFP)

By Sports ReporterDoha

China hogged the lime-light on the last day of the 49the CISM World Military Shoot-

ing Championship by winning three medals yesterday.

At the Losail shooting Range, China’s Zhenxiang and Yongde Jin won the men’s 25m rapid fi re pistol gold and silver respectively, while France’s Fabrice Daumal claimed the bronze.

Xu Ying completed the Chi-nese domination by clinching the men’s individual skeet gold with a perfect score in the gold medal shoot-out in the last event of the day.

The 33-year-old from Hu-nan, who has been competing for the last 16 years in interna-tional competitions, took skeet gold beating off the challenge from Jan Sychra of Czech Re-public 16-14 in the shoot-out.

In the fi nal shoot-out, Xu shot down all the 16 targets which were thrown in his di-rection, while Sychra, the 47-year-old, who fi nished fi fth at the 2012 London Olympic Games fumbled at the fag end missing two targets to give Xu the gold medal. Oskari Kossi of Finland took the bronze win-ning the shoot-out with Yang Wang of China (12-11).

In the team event, Xu along with Yang Wang and Fan Zhang shot down 364 clay pigeons in a new championship record to give the Chinese team the gold.

The Russian team of Alek-sei Skorobogatov, Alexander Zemlin and Anton Astakhov, were on target 362 times but that was good enough for them to take only the silver, while Finland trio of Oskari Ko-ssi, Tomi Aspholm and Miikka Peltonen took the bronze.

Chinese men won the 25m centre fi re pistol event, win-ning both the individual and team gold Wednesday.

Hosts Qatar were pushed to the fourth spot having shot 354 targets two less the bronze winning team. China’s third gold medal came in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol men’s event. Zhenxiang Xie took the top spot followed by compatriot

Yongde Jin. Fabrice Daumal fi nished third.

In the other medals de-cided yesterday, Norway took two gold while Germany and Thailand walked away with one each. Norway’s twin gold medals came in the 300m

Rapid Fire Rifl e, individual and team. Arne Odd Brekne along with Aannestad Kim-Andre Lund and Boe Kristian Hans helped Norway take the gold while Austrian trio of Alexan-der Schmirl, Bernhard Pickl and Gernot Rumpler took the

silver followed by Denmark team of Lars Jepsen, Allan Aa-gaard and Steff en Olsen took the bronze.

In the individual event, Arne Odd Brekne continued from where he left off from the team event to give Norway the

gold while Bernhard Pickl of Austria took the silver while Aannestad Kim-Andre Lund baaged the bronze.

Thailand’s gold came in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol in-dividual event for women. Naphaswan Yangpaiboon took

gold while Michelle Skeries of Germany took silver followed by Hyun Joo Park of Korea. On Friday, Germany led by Sker-ies had won the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol team event, while Mon-golia took the silver and Russia the bronze.

China clinch two gold and one silver on the concluding day of the CISM championship

Chinese shooters hog limelight on last day

WORLD MILITARY SHOOTING CHAMPIONSHIP

SPORT

Gulf Times Sunday, November 20, 20168

Belarusian envoy, Aspire discuss potential co-operationSPOTLIGHT

By Sports ReporterDoha

A high-level delegation participating in the As-sociation of National Olympic Committees

(ANOC) assembly taking place in Doha this week, was wel-comed in Aspire Zone and taken on a tour of its venues, includ-ing Aspire Academy, Aspetar, Khalifa International Stadium, Hamad Aquatic Centre and the Torch Hotel.

The delegation, represented by the First Vice President of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus Maksim Ryzhenkov and the Charge d’Aff aires at the em-bassy of Belarus Vitaly Mirutko, were greeted by several offi cials from Aspire Zone, including the Director General of Aspire Lo-gistics Abdullah Nasser al-Nai-mi, the Deputy Director General of Aspire Academy Ali Salem Afi fa, Acting Chief Administra-tive Offi cer of Aspetar Khalid Ali al-Mawlawi and the Direc-tor of PR and Communications of Aspire Zone, Nasser Abdullah al-Hajri.

Commenting on the occa-sion, Acting Chief Administra-tive Offi cer of Aspetar, Khalid Ali al-Mawlawi, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Maksim Ryzhenkov for the second time in Aspetar. During his fi rst visit we introduced him to Aspetar’s facilities and briefed him on our

services. Our hope is that this visit serves as a stepping stone for potential cooperation be-tween us, as Aspetar and the Na-tional Olympic Committee are currently in discussions around signing a Memorandum of Un-derstanding to provide medical services to Belarusian athletes.”

Maksim Ryzhenkov added: “The main purpose of my second visit is to improve cooperation with Aspire Zone. I was very im-pressed by Aspetar when I fi rst visited and have shared what I learned about its facilities and services with our specialists in Belarus, who found Aspetar to be very progressive.

“As such, we believe it would be a great opportunity for the National Olympic Committee of Belarus and Aspetar to develop an agreement that allows As-petar to provide rehabilitation programmes for our athletes.”

Meanwhile in Aspire Academy Maksim Ryzhenkov was taken on a tour by the Director General of Aspire Logistics, Abdullah Nasser al-Naimi, and the Deputy Director General of Aspire Acad-emy, Ali Salem Afi fa.

After the visit, Ryzhenkov met with Aspire Academy Director General Ivan Bravo to discuss bilateral relations in sports de-velopment.

Commenting on this, Ryzhenkov, said: “Aspire Acad-emy’s philosophy of combining sports training and education is worthy of note. My visit here

aims to discuss possible coop-eration agreements between As-pire Academy and six Belarusian sports academies, specialising in various sports.”

Ryzhenkov concluded his speech by praising the eff orts Qatar has taken to establish itself as a sporting leader in the region, saying: “The work being carried out in Aspire Zone and its mem-ber organisations is impressive. Qatar has taken signifi cant steps to develop its sports and medical infrastructure.”

This follows a series of visits by VIP delegates participating in

the ANOC assembly, comprised of the International Olympic Committee Vice President and President of the National Olym-pic Committee of Turkey, Pro-fessor Ugur Erdener, the CEO of the Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid, Gene Sykes, Vice Chairman of the Budapest 2024 Olympic bid, Gusztav Bienerth, and the Director of Sport and Venues of the Budapest 2024 Olympic bid, Attila Mizser.

Professor Erdener, visited As-petar and Aspire Academy on Wednesday, where he was greet-ed by Mr. Mohamed Khalifa Al-

Suwaidi, CEO of Aspire Zone, in addition to Chief Medical Offi cer at Aspetar Dr. Scott Gillogly and Chief Administrative Offi cer Khalid Ali al-Mawlawi.

Prof. Erdener was given a comprehensive tour of Asp-etar’s facilities, including the Sports Surgery Training Centre (SSTC), media imaging and west expansion departments, and was briefed about the services the hospital provides to athletes.

Professor Erdener praised As-petar and said: “I’m very happy to have the opportunity to join my fellow scientists in Aspetar

in this impressive visit. Aspetar, a research partner of the IOC, has provided signifi cant re-search contributions to the fi eld of sports medicine, and I’m glad for being able to experience the hospital fi rst-hand.”

Meanwhile at Aspire Acade-my, professor Erdener was given a tour of the Academy’s premises and sports science laboratories. Professor Erdener remarked that Qatar‘s reputation as a multi-sporting hub has grown rapidly in recent years, partly due to in-stitutions such as Aspire

Academy. “This is my fi rst time back

in 10 years and l have been im-mensely impressed by the de-velopment that has taken place,” Erdener said. After the visit, he signed the Academy’s Wall of Fame before receiving a memo-rial token from Aspire Zone’s CEO Mohamed al-Suwaidi.

Vice Chairman of the Buda-pest 2024 Olympic bid, Gusztav Bienerth, said, “Hungary can relate to the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid. It is time for mid-sized cities to be given a chance to host the greatest multi- sport event on the globe, the Olympic Games.

:We are confi dent the right choice was made by FIFA to se-lect Qatar for the hosting of the FIFA 2022 World Cup. Aspire Zone is a testament to Qatar’s sporting capabilities and proof of what it can off er.”

Director of Sport and Venues

of the Budapest 2024 Olympic bid, Attila Mizser added: “It’s challenging for a small city to bid for global events, as it is often awarded to bigger cities.

However, we are hopeful that we’ll be able to showcase our ca-pabilities through our sustain-able solutions and memorable projects.”

Meanwhile, the CEO of the Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid Gene Sykes, accompanied by Consul General of Qatar in Los Angeles Khalid Yousuf al-Sada were given a tour around Aspire Dome in Aspire Zone Foundation by an Aspire Zone delegation.

Commenting on the occa-sion, Sykes said: “I’m impressed by the extent and ambition of Aspire Zone, and how success-ful they are at off ering local and international athletes the op-portunity to improve their per-formance, and make it more possible for them to succeed. There’s nothing like it, and the Academy should be very proud.”

Mohammed al-Suwaidi, add-ed: “We are indeed proud of our achievements, it’s challenging to produce elite athletes, as it is not a one-day job. It takes years and a lot of hard work.

“Thankfully, we have suc-ceeded in producing star ath-letes, such as Olympic silver medallist Mutaz Barshim. We will continue moving forward with dedication to enable the sporting potential of young local athletes.”

ReutersDubai

Chris Wood has no regrets over ditching Lee Westwood as his partner for next week’s World Cup of Golf in Australia, with the Eng-

lishman banking on his team spirit with Andy Sullivan to carry the duo to glory.

Westwood and Danny Willett, sec-ond in the European Tour money-list, were lined up to represent England at the team event in Melbourne until the latter pulled out with a back complaint, mean-ing Wood stepped in as the next highest-ranked Englishman.

Under tournament rules, Wood could then select his own playing partner and, instead of maintaining Westwood’s place chose Sullivan — a move which, accord-ing to British media reports, left the former world number one fuming.

“I completely understand his frustra-tion, but Dan’s the one who decided to pull out when Lee’s plans were all done. The rules are the rules and I had the choice,” Wood told Reuters at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

“Obviously, it’s hard on Lee but I’d like to think that me and Sully can go there and be good enough to compete and try and win it.” Wood noted that himself and Sullivan represented Europe at the Ryder Cup this year and were at the top end of the European Tour’s Order of Merit going into the fi nal round in Dubai this week-end in ninth and 13th respectively.

Sullivan has been in good recent form, coming second in the Portugal Masters at the end of October and tied-third at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa last weekend. However, West-wood’s blistering performance so far in Dubai, leading the fi eld after day one and standing one shot behind at halfway, has placed increased scrutiny on Wood’s de-cision. “It’s typical really that it comes out and Westy leads the fi rst day. Good on him — I hope he wins it,” Wood said.

“I obviously made the decision last week and if Lee wins the tournament, I’m going to look even more of a tit. The decision’s been made and I will have to live with it.”

Westwood’s performance in the desert emirate contrasts sharply with Wood’s own struggles here. He was speaking af-ter carding a one-under par third round score which moved him to two-over for the tournament. “I could stand on the putting green for two hours this afternoon and feel like I’m not going to make a dif-ference,” Wood said. “Sometimes you get weeks like that, and once it’s in your mind — where you can’t see the lines — it’s a nightmare.”

He hoped to solve some of his issues with rest and “one or two beers” on Sunday with the friends and family who have accompanied him to Dubai, but his camaraderie with Sullivan will also give him a boost going into Melbourne.

Qatar military off icers enjoying the men’s skeet final yesterday.

China’s Xu Ying in action during the skeet event of the 49th CISM World Military Shooting Championship yesterday. PICTURES: Thaju Dheen

Wood has no regrets over Westwood WCup snub

GOLF

First Vice President of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus Maksim Ryzhenkov (L) with Acting Chief Administrative Off icer of Aspetar Khalid Ali al-Mawlawi.

Murray digs deep to down Raonic in thriller to reach fi nal

SPOTLIGHT

Scot will face world number two Djokovic or Nishikori in tonight’s final

AFPLondon

Andy Murray remains on course for a dramatic showdown with Novak Djokovic as the world

number one staged a superb fi ght-back to defeat Milos Raonic 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (11/9) in the semi-fi nals of the ATP Tour Finals last night.

Murray will face world number two Djokovic or Japan’s Kei Nishiko-ri in tonight’s fi nal after surviving a three-hour 39-minute classic that ranked as the longest match in Tour Finals history. The Scot, who saved a match point in the fi nal set tie-break, must win the Tour Finals for the fi rst time to be guaranteed to fi nish 2016 on top of the world rank-ings, with Djokovic able to overhaul him if he takes the title for a record-equalling sixth time.

Murray would also fi nish number one if Djokovic loses to Nishikori in late last night match. If Djokovic does make the fi nal, he might fi nd Murray running low on energy af-ter the Wimbledon champion was pushed to his limits by Raonic just days after he had to endured the pre-vious longest match in the tourna-ment, a victory over Nishikori that took three hours and 20 minutes.

“I played some great points and managed to get the break at the end,” Murray said. “It was an amazing atmosphere. The longer the match went on the louder the crowd got. This is what we play for. Matches like this and arenas like this. This is one of hardest matches I’ve played indoors.

“I didn’t expect to play a long one with someone with a serve like Mi-los. I’m tired. I’ve played so much tennis over the last few months. I’ll give it my best eff ort, the best of what I have.”

Raonic twice broke Murray when he served for the match in the fi nal set and saved three match points in the decisive tie-break. But the Ca-nadian fourth seed couldn’t take the one match point that came his way in a thrilling denouement that even-tually went Murray’s way to repeat the outcome of their meetings in the Wimbledon and Queen’s fi nals on the other side of London earlier this year. Murray’s 23rd successive victory set a new career-best for the 29-year-old but only a 24th would bring a fi tting fi nale to the best year of his life.

Nishikori has lost to Djokovic on his previous appearance in the semi-fi nals in 2014. The 26-year-old suff ered a frustrating warm-up for his latest meeting with Djokovic as the world number fi ve was beaten 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 by Marin Cilic in the evening session on Friday to leave him with two defeats in his three group matches.

SPORT9Gulf Times

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Losail Circuit all set for night-time WTCC season closerMOTOR SPORT

By Sports ReporterDoha

There will be a duel in the desert when the 2016 FIA World Touring Car Champi-onship reaches its climax at

WTCC Race of Qatar on 24th and 25 th November, as second and third in the fi nal standings are decided at the Losail International Circuit.

While Jose Maria Lopez has wrapped up his third WTCC title, the battle for the coveted runner-up spot and, indeed, third place will be intense. Yvan Muller, Lopez’s factory Citroën teammate and is preparing for his fi nal WTCC races before he retires, occupies second place on 235 points.

But Honda trio Tiago Monteiro (204 points), Norbert Michelisz (190) and Rob Huff (180) all retain math-ematical possibilities to snatch the position.The Moroccan driver Mehdi Bennani, who became the fi rst Arabic driver to win an FIA world champi-onship motor race when he won at WTCC Race of China in 2014, will head to the Middle East as the WTCC

Trophy winner for 2016 following another impressive season driving a Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

He is sixth in the WTCC Drivers’ standings with 176 points but could end up a career-high third in the ta-ble if results go his way in Qatar.

Emerging young stars take on cate-gory experts and ex-grand prix driv-ers in race-ready versions of punch-packing road cars from Chevrolet, Citroën, Honda, LADA and Volvo.

With aerodynamic aids, carbon fi bre parts, 1.6-litre turbo engines and six-speed sequential gearboxes, World Touring Cars can reach a top speed of 265kph, placing a huge onus on driver skill and judgement, while creating a dramatic spectacle for fans.

Race strategy goes out of the win-dow as drivers push hard from start to fi nish without the need to make pit stops. They don’t do favours and certainly don’t expect any in return.

The grid for the Opening Race is decided by the Qualifying Q2 re-sults with the fastest 10 lining up in reverse order. The grid for the Main Race follows the combined qualify-

ing classifi cation order. In addition, Manufacturers Against the Clock (MAC3) is a Tour de France-inspired team trial and new for 2016. It puts team competition to the fore at each WTCC weekend with three drivers from each manufacturer lapping to-gether against the clock.

On Thursday 24th November, track activity starts at 16:00 with 30’ of Free Practice 1 and fi nishes at 21:00 with another 30’ for the Free Practice 2. On Friday 25th November, Qualifying sessions are from 14:30 until 15:30, when it starts the session of Manufacturers Against the Clock (MAC3). The Opening Race is sched-uled at 21:00 and the Main Race will be at 22:10.

The entrance at the Grandstand and PADDOCK is free for the 2-days event and the VIP ticket is 1200QR for the 2 days or 700QR for Friday only. And for those fans wanting an adrenaline rush and fun with friends, the Go Karting track will be open during the 2-day event with a price of QR 100 for a 15-minute session from 16:00 to 21:00. More informa-tion and tickets is available at www.lcsc.qa

Spain’s golden era is fading but Lopez stays positive

FOCUS

ReutersLondon

Spain must accept the fact that the sun is setting on its golden generation in men’s tennis and the next

one may take a while to arrive, Feliciano Lopez said at the ATP World Tour Finals this week.

For the fi rst time since 1999, no Spanish player was involved in the singles at the showpiece event featuring the world’s top eight players, with only Lopez and his namesake Marc Lopez fl ying the fl ag for the power-house nation in the doubles. The pair bowed out on Friday, losing their fi nal group match to Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram.

No Spanish player has won the singles title since Alex Corretja beat compatriot Carlos Moya in Hannover in 1998, but the likes of Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco and Nadal have all been regulars.

Nadal would have crept into the top eight this year but ended his season early to recover from injury.

The clock is ticking on 30-year-old Nadal though and there are serious doubts about whether he will ever return to the level that once made in the most feared opponent in tennis.

Ferrer is 34 and Verdasco, Ro-bredo and Lopez are all in their 30s. “It’s something that we have to accept, our tennis is not go-ing to be successful forever,” the 35-year-old Lopez told Reuters at the O2 Arena.

“Of course we were a bit spoiled. People in our country think we are going to be there forever and we will win every-thing. It was the same with foot-ball and basketball, we were win-

ning in nearly every sport. But that’s not normal. “We will still have great players but it’s impos-sible to have a generation like our generation. People should realise how diffi cult it is to stay there and achieve all we achieved. We won the Davis Cup fi ve times in 10 years. That’s huge.”

Spain dropped out of the World Group in the Davis Cup in 2014, something that would have once been unthinkable, although they have fought their way back. Nadal and Marc Lopez also won Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro this year.

It hardly looks like a crisis when 11 Spaniards are in the top 100 of the ATP rankings — but seven of those are 30 or over. Roberto Bautista Agut, the sec-ond Spaniard on the ATP rank-ings at 14 has been something of a late bloomer at the age of 28 but despite two titles this year he is rarely talked about as a potential grand slam champion.

Likewise, Pablo Carreno Bus-ta, at 25 the youngest of Spain’s top 100 brigade. He also won two titles this year to climb to a ca-reer-high ranking of 30. Leaner times may be ahead for the Span-ish men but Lopez, currently ranked 28, still thinks there is no cause for panic.

“We will see next year what happens,” he said. “Obviously our generation is getting older, we are over 30, but we are still fi t and we still have some energy to compete against the young guys. We are in good shape. I think Rafa will be back next year. It was sen-sible for him to quit and prepare for next season, and Roberto and Pablo are really improving. They have a great work ethic. And I’m confi dent we’ll see more.

Maybe not like fi ve or six in the top 20 like before, but it is not all negative.”

Jose Maria Lopez has wrapped up his third WTCC title.

Spain’s Feliciano Lopez (left) and Marc Lopez lost to USA’s Rajeev Ram and South Africa’s Raven Klaasen during their round robin stage doubles match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Friday. (AFP)

Britain’s Andy Murray returns during his win over Canada’s Milos Raonic in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals tournament in London last night. (AFP)

SPORT

Gulf Times Sunday, November 20, 201610

Bulut the hero as Novi Sad notch up FIBA 3x3 hat-trick

SPOTLIGHT

The Serbian World Cup winner had casually mentioned in the pre-event pressconference that he was looking forward to a holiday after collecting the $20,000 top prize

Sports ReporterDoha

There were fi ve matches played in the fi nal pre-liminary rounds of the Qatar Rugby Sevens on

Friday night at the Aspire Warm up and Rugby Pitch. The Camels continued to top the standings at the end of the day.

Match 1: The Blue Phoenix registered a good opening win against Al Khor. They scored four tries and three conversions. Al Khor managed to score one unconverted try but it was not enough to aff ect the fi nal results and standings.

Final score: Blue Phoenix 24 Al Khor 5.

Best players: Phoenix: Re-mis Salati and Rony Georges; Al Khor: Oskar O’Halloran, Tom Cartwright and Conner O’Brien

Match 2. The Camels con-solidated their top spot on the competition standings dominat-ing the Pirates from the outset. They scored a whopping 10 tries, 5 in each stanza, with 7 converted goals.

Final score: Camels 64 Pi-rates 0.

Best players: Camels: Isri-eli Biumaiwai, Abdual Karim al-Muhanndi.

Match 3. Doha played with much enthusiasm stinging a very tired Lions outfi t. They scored 5 tries and 3 goals. The Lions had a few chances but could not pen-

etrate the solid defense of Doha to post any points. The win el-evated Doha to 2nd on the com-petition standings on points for and against.

Final score: Doha 29 Lions 0. Best players: Doha: Luke

Masirewa and Samuel Spencer; Lions: Sharith Amit and Gihan Sliva.

Match 4. The Stallions were back on a winning streak as they accounted for Al Khor scoring 4 tries and 2 goal conversions.

Final score: Stallions 24 - Al Khor 0.

Best players: Stallions: Ra-chid Boudala, Al Ameen Mo-hammed and Sandy Dwili.

Match 5. The fi nal match saw Blue Phoenix battle and beat the Pirates. Posting 4 tries and land-ing 3 conversions, the Phoenix were too strong for ‘never say die’ Pirates.

Final score: Phoenix 26 - Pi-rates 0.

Best players: Phoenix: Remis Salati and Nicolas Faivre; Pirates Ahmed Essam & TJ.

STANDINGS1ST. Camels 2ND. Doha 3RD. Lions 4TH.Stallions 5TH. Phoenix 6TH.Pirates 7TH.Al Khor

Friday 25 November will see the closing of the QR7’s with a semis and finals series.

By Anil JohnDoha

Dusan Domovic Bulut: as it is, the name sounds intimidating enough. What chance, then, when you face him in a game of

3x3 basketball?On Friday night, in front of a cheer-

ing crowd — no prizes for guessing they were mostly Filipino — Bulut lived up to his reputation as the world’s best bas-ketball player in its truncated format by powering Novi Sad Al Wahda of the UAE to a historic hat-trick in the FIBA 3x3 All Stars at the Al Gharafa Sports Complex.

The Serbian World Cup winner had casually mentioned in the pre-event press-conference that he was looking forward to a holiday after collecting the $20,000 top prize.

On Friday, he proved he was not joking as Novi Sad Al Wahda clinically demol-ished all opposition to bring the curtains down on the fourth and last edition of the FIBA 3x3 All Stars after which Qatar will be part of the World Tour programme.

“It is a great feeling to win the FIBA 3x3 All Stars for the third time in a row,” the 30-year-old said after his side thrashed Ljubljana 22-12 in the fi nal.

“It is always great to play in Doha and a third straight win here is the icing on the cake,” he added.

Ljubljana, the 2016 FIBA 3x3 World Tour winners, fell woefully short in the title-deciding match despite the pres-ence of shooting ace Jasmin Hercegovac in their ranks.

Hercegovac emerged as the leading scorer with 23 points in three matches, but the number four 3x3 player in the world was limited to just four points in the fi nal, with Novi Sadd Al Wahda hardly allowing him to get into a rhythm.

Bulut had been sweeping most of the MVP awards on the 3x3 circuit and it was the same old story in Doha too.

Although he had an indiff erent start to the event, scoring just two points in the quarter-fi nal against Manila, “Mr Bul-lutproof” raised his game several notches when he took to the court in the semi-fi nal against Doha. Doha, the champions of the inaugural edition in 2013, were represent-ed by Tanguy Ngombo, Erfan Ali Saeed and Adamu Saaka, but they were no match for Bulut’s heroics.

He peppered the loop with long-rang-ers to score a whopping 14 points in a ri-diculously easy 21-8 win. It was virtually a one-man show as the Doha players found it hard to stop his bursts towards the circle or his shots from the far court.

The winners received their cheque from FIBA Vice-President Hamane Niang and Qatar Basketball Federation President HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahaman al-Tha-ni. Bulut was tied second in the scoring list with teammate Dejan Majstorovic with 21 points. Majstorovic extended his team’s domination to the Shoot-Out Contest,

where he scored 14 points, just one shy of the all-time record.

The fi nal edition of the FIBA 3x3 All Stars brought together the best players in the format according to their individual world ranking.

Filipino schoolchildren in Qatar also

entertained the crowd with their spirited acrobatic drills between games.

RESULTSQuarter-finalsLjubljana 22 McGill University (CAN) 11New York Harlem NBA 21, Saskatoon 19

Doha 21 Hamamatsu 11Novi Sad Al Wahda 18, Manila 11Semi-finalsLjubljana 22 New York NBA 14Novi Sad Al Wahda 21 Doha 8FinalNovi Sad Al Wahda 21 Ljubljana 12

Camels consolidate top spot in Qatar Rugby Sevens

LOCAL SPORT

Qatar Basketball Federation President Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani hands over the winner’s trophy to Novi Sad Al Wahda captain Dusan Domovic Bulut while posing with other Novi Sad players and basketball off icials at the Al Gharafa Sports Complex on Friday night.

Bulut goes for the basket against Ljubljana in the final of the FIBA All Stars on Friday.

Action from the Qatar Rugby Sevens tournament on Friday.

Josoor Institute successfully com-pleted the fi rst cohort of its “Major Events Management” and “Foot-ball and Sports Management” pro-

fessional certifi cate and diploma pro-grammes as the programmes came to an end with its fi nal block. Following an 18-month journey packed with valuable knowledge transfer sessions, engaging debates and interactive group activities, 68 delegates from Qatar and the region are now fully equipped to face and over-come the challenges of delivering ex-ceptional events.

Josoor Institute is a centre of excel-lence for the sports and events indus-tries, inspired and developed by the Su-preme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC). The certifi cate and diploma pro-grammes are among Josoor Institute’s most prominent educational off erings and is organised in partnership with

leading international academic in-stitutions. All three academic partners including Georgetown University, Uni-versity of Liverpool and Leeds Beck-ett University lent support in a vari-ety of ways, notably through knowledge sharing by their faculty and off ering guidance on creating educational pro-grammes tailored to national and re-gional needs. The programmes were divided into six blocks and included

teaching that was supported by online and classroom delivery. The certifi cate and diploma programmes featured a number of leading academics and in-dustry experts who came to Qatar to share with delegates their wealth of knowledge and experience and carried on the learning experience through on-line advisory sessions.

Graduating delegates included pro-fessionals from Yemen, Oman, Pal-estine and Saudi Arabia coming from

leading sports organisations including the Saudi Pro League, Yemen Football Association, Palestinian Football As-sociation, Oman Football Association among others. Participating delegates from Qatar included professionals coming from some of the nation’s lead-ing sports organisations including the Qatar Football Association, Qatar Stars League, SC, and Aspire Academy.

The sixth and fi nal block of the pro-grammes ran from 06 – 10 November

and trained delegates on topics such as creative event design and entrepreneur-ship, business strategies for event pro-fessionals, and applied legal profession-al practices. Block six of the event was culminated with a special graduation ceremony that was held in the pres-ence of VIPs and dignitaries including His Excellency Hassan al-Thawadi, the Secretary General of the SC. HE al-Tha-wadi delivered a heartfelt congratulato-ry speech during the graduation urging

delegates to make the most out of their learning journey and utilise the bond and connections established during the programmes.

While addressing the delegates at the ceremony, HE al-Thawadi said: “The concept of a Centre of Excellence was on our agenda from a very early stage, as we were mindful of the need to provide a platform for cultivating the talent in our region to deliver a successful World Cup and also a platform for growing

a burgeoning sports industry. And so Josoor Institute was founded. To stand here today in front of the fi rst cohort of graduates, makes me immensely proud. I fi rmly believe that Josoor Institute of-fers something remarkably unique not only for the region, but also on a global level in the fi eld of sports and events management. I sincerely hope that what you have learned over the past 18 months prepares you for taking the next steps in your professional lives.”

First cohort of delegates graduate from Josoor fl agship programmesBOTTOMLINE

Josoor Institute graduates pose with of-ficials for a group picture. At right, Qatar 2022 chief Hassan al-Thawadi presents a certificate to a graduate.

Kiwis in charge as Wagner, Boult shatter Pakistan

FIRST TEST

Boult took three for 18 off 15 overs while Wagner, who started the wicket spree, had two for 21

AFPChristchurch, New Zealand

Neil Wagner and Trent Boult left Pakistan’s second innings in tatters yesterday to put New Zealand in sight of a compre-

hensive fi rst Test victory at the end of the third day in Christchurch. The tour-ists lost six wickets in the fi nal session at Hagley Oval to be 129-7 at stumps, ahead by only 62 runs with two days re-maining.

Boult had three for 18 off 15 overs while Wagner, who started the wicket spree, had two for 21. “We’ve been out-played so far,” Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur said, but he refused to concede defeat saying they would not need many more runs to set up a tight fi nish. “We feel that 150-170, we could have a real chance because there’s still enough in the wicket.”

Not out for Pakistan were Sohail Khan on 22 and Asad Shafi q on six with the Test likely to be all over in three play-ing days after the scheduled fi rst day was washed out. Until Wagner struck, Pakistan were clawing their way back into the Test having started the day on the back foot.

They ripped out the last seven New Zealand wickets for only 96 runs and Azhar Ali and Babar Azam were pains-takingly building their second innings — accumulating 37 runs in 23 overs. But, in the sixth over after tea Azam on 29 attempted to fend away a Wagner ball targeting his ribs only for it to skim the gloves and wicketkeeper BJ Watling completed the dismissal.

It gave Wagner his 100th scalp in his 26th Test, making him the second-fast-est New Zealander to claim a century of wickets after Richard Hadlee reached the mark in 25 matches. Younis Khan lasted only eight balls before he gloved a Wagner bouncer to Watling and Paki-stan had gone from 58-1 to 64-3.

Wagner said the short ball was part of New Zealand’s game plan when condi-tions did not off er much swing. “You’ve got to fi nd a way of creating doubt in a batter’s footwork... It’s obviously about picking the right moments and adapt-ing to the conditions and then you’ve got to execute it and lucky it was one of those days it worked.”

Pakistan Captain Misbah-ul-Haq tried to knock Tim Southee out of the attack with a four and two off succes-sive balls but he pulled the next delivery to Boult running around the long-leg boundary and he was gone for 13.

An inspired Boult then bowled Azhar to end the opener’s marathon innings

in which he faced 173 balls in more than four hours for only 31 runs. Boult, on a roll, bowled Sarfraz Ahmed for two and had Mohammad Amir caught for six.

Until the late collapse Pakistan had been all concentration with only 44 runs scored in the middle session to be 50 for one at tea, medium-pacer Colin de Grandhomme, whose fi rst innings 6-41 was the best bowling performance by a New Zealander on debut, made the opening breakthrough in Paki-stan’s second innings when he had Sami Aslam, who faced 57 deliveries, out for seven.

After New Zealand resumed the day in a commanding position at 104-3, some impetuous shot-making saw them all out for 200 as they tried to hur-ry the score along under cloudy skies

and a pitch that suited seam bowlers.Overnight batsmen Jeet Raval and

Henry Nicholls were gone in the fi rst four overs with Raval unable to add to his overnight 55 and Nicholls adding only one run to be gone for 30.

De Grandhomme, who has rarely been out of the spotlight in his maiden Test, belted a quickfi re 29 that included six boundaries while Southee (22) and Wagner (21) also plundered quick runs in their brief cameos.

The New Zealand innings folded in 55.5 overs, just four more than Paki-stan’s fi rst innings of 133.

Fast bolwer Rahat Ali was the chief destroyer for Pakistan with four for 62 while other seamers Sohail Khan and Mohammad Amir took three wickets each.

SCOREBOARDPakistan I innings 133New Zealand I innings (overnight 104-3) J. Raval c Aslam b Amir 55

H. Nicholls lbw Sohail 30

C. de Grandhomme c Rahat b Sohail 29

B. Watling c Younis b Rahat 18

T. Astle c Shafiq b Rahat 0

T. Southee c Ahmed b Amir 22

N. Wagner c Shafiq by Rahat 21

T. Boult not out 3

Extras: (lb1, w1, nb4) 6

Total: (all out; 59.5 overs) 200Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Latham), 2-15 (William-

son), 3-40 (Taylor), 4-105 (Nicholls), 5-109

(Raval), 6-146 (de Grandhomme) 7-146

(Astle), 8-171 (Watling), 9-177 (Southee),

10-200 (Wagner)

Bowling: Amir 18-4-43-3 (1w, 4nb), Sohail

22-5-78-3, Rahat 15.5-2-62-4, Shah 4-0-16-0

Pakistan II inningsSami Aslam c Watling b de Grandhomme 7

Azhar Ali b Boult 31

Babar Azam c Watling b Wagner 29

Younis Khan c Watling b Wagner 1

Misban-ul-Haq c Bould b Southee 13

Asad Shafiq not out 6

Sarfraz Ahmed b Boult 2

Mohammad Amir c Astle b Boult 6

Sohail Khan not out 22

Extras: (b5, lb7) 12

Total: (7 wkts; 66 overs) 129Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Aslam), 2-58 (Azam),

3-64 (Younis), 4-93 (Misbah), 5-93 (Azhar),

6-95 (Ahmed), 7-105 (Amir)

Bowling: Boult 15-5-18-3, Southee 19-10-

43-1, de Grandhomme 14-4-23-1, Wagner

14-6-21-2, Astle 4-0-12-0

Pakistan lead by 62 runs with 3 wickets remaining

CRICKET11Gulf Times

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Steyn wades into ball

tampering debate

Sydney: South Africa pace spearhead Dale Steyn has not allowed a series-ending injury to prevent him from backing his captain Faf du Plessis over allegations of ball tampering, suggesting Australia are using the inci-dent as an excuse for losing.

Du Plessis was charged with ball tampering on Friday after Australian televi-sion pictures showed him applying saliva to the ball with a sweet in his mouth during the second Test, which South Africa won to clinch the series with a match to spare.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) could ban Du Plessis from one Test match if he is found guilty, putting him in doubt for next week’s third Test in Adelaide. Du Plessis has pleaded not guilty. Hashim Amla and the rest of the Proteas squad made clear on Friday how they felt about the charge, the batsman describing it as a “joke” with his teammates standing behind him.

Steyn added his thoughts on Twitter yesterday. “Beat-en with the bat. Beaten with the ball. Beaten in the field. Mentally stronger. Here’s a idea, Let’s blame it on a lol-lipop, #soft,” he posted.

Steyn later tried to clarify his comment with another post. “Just so we clear, I’m not blaming the aussies, but I won’t let a fantastic series win be tarnished by some lollipop fabrication. 3-0 mission.”

A fractured bone in his shoulder, sustained in the first Test in Perth, has ruled Steyn out for the remainder of the series and is likely to keep the paceman on the sidelines for six months. His fellow South African quick Kagiso Rabada also took to Twitter to give his opinion more obliquely, posting a dictionary definition of the word “excuse”.

Du Plessis may yet play in Adelaide starting on Thurs-day as Cricket South Africa have asked the ICC to give them time “to consult and appoint legal representation and make the necessary logistical arrangements”.

Du Plessis was fined 50 % of his match fee for ball tampering in the second Test against Pakistan in 2013 after being caught on cam-era rubbing the ball against a zip on his pocket.

Wagner still making things happen, claims 100th wicket

South Africa beaten in Test warm-up game

FOCUS ROUND-UP

ReutersChristchurch

With the fi rst Test be-tween New Zealand and Pakistan ticking along at a pedestrian

pace on the third day in Christch-urch yesterday, Neil Wagner ful-fi lled his duty as the bowler who “makes things happen”.

Wagner’s double breakthrough triggered Pakistan’s slumped from 58-1 to 105-7 in their second innings and that he snared his 100th Test wicket in the proc-ess was icing on the cake for the left-armer. Before Wagner’s in-tervention, the tourists had been trying to slow the game at Hagley Oval with Babar Azam and Azhar Ali well set to lay the foundations for a solid second innings.

Persisting with a short-bowl-ing plan, however, Wagner had Babar caught behind for 29 be-fore an even better bouncer got rid of the prolifi c Younus Khan for one as Pakistan slumped to 64 for three.

“That’s my job to do that,” Wagner said. “When it’s not swinging and also conditions start getting a little bit easier to bat, I’ve obviously got to try and make something happen.”

Wagner has been making things happen for the New Zea-land side a lot this year. Origi-nally a line and length swing bowler in his home country of South Africa, Wagner came to

New Zealand in 2008 and got on the selector’s radar when he took fi ve wickets in one over for Otago against Wellington in 2011.

After establishing his resi-dency, he was selected for New Zealand’s tour of West Indies in 2012 with Kieran Powell his fi rst wicket in Antigua. Wagner has often been the third seamer in the side, a role that involves run-ning into the wind, bowling a lot of overs while keeping the runs down and giving Tim Southee and Trent Boult a rest.

In the last couple of seasons Wagner has developed short-pitched bowling into the body as part of his armoury. Consistently aiming for the ribs unsettles batsmen and coach Mike Hesson said earlier this year it took con-siderable skill to keep putting the ball in a place that causes such discomfort.

It also results in wickets. While Wagner took 35 wickets in 10 matches in 2013, the last year he was consistently in the team, but this year he has been in arguably

career-best form. In eight games in 2016 he has taken 34 wickets at an average of 21.58.

Boult has 31 wickets at 32.51 in 10 games, while Southee has taken 17 at 41.70 in seven. “I’m not surprised to see him doing exceptionally well. He’s a whole-hearted trier,” Pakistan’s South African coach Mickey Arthur, who watched a young Wagner develop in Pretoria, said. “He’s a guy, who gives it his all and he kept running in. I thought he was magnifi cent.”

AFPMelbourne

South Africa were beaten by 53 runs by a Victorian XI in their 50-over day-night tour warm-up game yesterday as their fi nal preparation for next week’s third

Test against Australia in Adelaide. Hashim Amla scored an unbeaten 81 and Dean Elgar 40 retired out in the tourists 205 for four, chasing Victoria’s 258 all out.

The Proteas originally had a two-day planned against the Victorian team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but opted for a one-dayer under Test rather than one-day rules to enable them to get to Adelaide earlier.

Captain Faf du Plessis, facing an ICC hear-ing for alleged ball tampering during the second Hobart Test against Australia, won the toss and elected to bowl fi rst and then spend time in the middle under lights to adapt to match conditions with the pink ball ahead of the third Test.

Left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi boosted his chances of a Test debut by capturing four for 72 from 12 overs, while young gun fast bowler Ka-giso Rababa claimed three for three for 37 off four overs. Shamsi took three for 36 at home in a one-dayer against Australia last October and is delighted with talk the Australians have struggled to pick some of his deliveries. Young Victorian batsmen Seb Gotch (53) and Matthew Short (52) provided the backbone of the Victorian innings before all-rounder Evan Gulbis smashed 53 from 28 balls at No.8.BRIEF SCORES: Victoria XI 258 (S. Gotch 53, E.

Gulbis 53, M. Short 52; T. Shamsi 4-72, K.Rabada 3-37)

beat South Africa 205-4 (H. Amla 81 not out, D. Elgat

40 retired out; J. Coleman 2-26)

KENYA DEFY RAIN TO BEAT HONG KONG BY THREE WICKETS

Kenya beat Hong Kong by three wickets in their rain-aff ected fi rst match of the World Cricket League Championship at the Nairobi Gymkhana

club ground on Friday to secure two points.Set 223 to win, the Kenyan chase – spearheaded

by opener-cum-wicketkeeper Irfan Karim, who smashed 67 from 92 balls – was jolted when rain twice interrupted play, forcing the target to be ad-justed to 200 runs in 43 overs on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

The weather change also hit the rhythm of the match -- Karim and his second-wicket part-ner Dhiren Gondaria, who were steadily helping Kenya to recover after the loss of fellow opener Alex Obanda, were removed in quick succession. Gondaria was snared by Ehsan Khan and Karim, whose innings included fi ve fours and a six, soon followed. The home side looked to be in disarray after skipper Rakep Patel, whose tight bowling had helped restrict the Hong Kong batting line-up, was trapped lbw off Khan with only four runs to his credit.

It took tailenders Narendra Patel and Nehemiah Odhiambo to push the Kenyan score beyond the 200 target, and put the home side in the driving seat before the second match on Sunday.

Anshuman Rath top-scored with 90 off 92 balls for Hong Kong, who needed all four points to go top of the eight-team ICC World Cricket League, which counts towards the 2019 World Cup in England.

New Zealand’s fast bowler Trent Boult (right) appeals for a leg before decision against Pakistan’s Sami Aslam during the first Test in Christchurch yesterday. (AFP)

New Zealand’s Neil Wagner (centre) is pumped up after having Pakistan’s Younis Khan caught behind.

Hashim Amla scored an unbeaten 81.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

GULF TIMES CRICKET

Ashwin and Kohli put India in driver’s seat

SECOND TEST

It will be an uphill battle for England from here on as hosts stretched their lead to a formidable 298

Zimbabwe salvage tie in thriller with West IndiesTRI-SERIES

AFPVisakhapatnam, India

Ravichandran Ashwin claimed fi ve wickets while skipper Vi-rat Kohli struck a dominant half-century to help India

tighten its grip over England on the third day of the second Test in Visa-khapatnam yesterday.

India, who dismissed England for 255 in the fi rst innings, were 98 for three at stumps with Kohli (56) and Ajinkya Rahane (22) at the crease.

With the hosts having stretched their second innings lead to a formi-dable 298, it will be an uphill battle for England from here on.

It was Ashwin’s 22nd fi ve-wicket haul in 41 Tests that helped India bowl out England shortly before tea and gain a crucial 200-run lead.

“The accuracy that he bowls with is something that is a challenge,” Eng-land wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, who tackled Ashwin’s guile during his fi ghting fi fty in England’s fi rst innings, told reporters. “He bowled nicely today but we are not going into the fourth innings thinking that we can’t play Ashwin well,” said Bairstow.

England seamers came back roaring as Stuart Broad, who is nursing a foot injury, sent the Indian openers trudg-ing back to the pavilion early in their second essay.

Murali Vijay (3) was caught at gully while Lokesh Rahul (10) was plucked behind as England successfully used the review system on both occasions after the on-fi eld umpire had adjudged the batsmen not out. Senior pacer James Anderson also swung into ac-tion to clean up fi rst innings centurion Cheteshwar Pujara for one, reducing the hosts to 40 for three.

Kohli and Rahane then got together to put up an unbeaten 58-run stand and thwart the persistent bowling at-tack in the fi nal hour of play.

Kohli, who led from the front with a sparkling 167 in the fi rst innings, re-corded his 13th Test half-century as he raised his bat to an applauding home crowd. Rahane played the supporting role to perfection with his patient 54-ball knock.

England skipper Alastair Cook jug-gled with his seam and spin options but failed to make any more headway into the Indian batting. Earlier Ben Stokes, who top-scored with 70, and Bairstow struck gritty half-centuries to revive England after they resumed on the overnight 103 for fi ve.

“We compliment each other ob-viously being left and right handed helps. And we rotated the strike pretty

well. We should could bat in the sub-continental conditions” said Bairstow.

Bairstow’s knock was cut short just before lunch when Umesh Yadav cas-tled the wicketkeeper-batsman for 53. Bairstow’s departure ended a 110-run sixth-wicket partnership between him and his overnight partner Stokes who carried on the good work into the post-lunch session.

Ashwin fi nally trapped the left-handed Stokes lbw and even though the batsman reviewed the decision, the on-fi eld call was upheld by the third umpire. Adil Rashid scored an un-beaten 32 as Broad also came out to bat with purpose, but the English batting struggled to get close to India’s 455.

Ashwin got Broad (13) and Anderson (0) off consecutive deliveries as the visitors fell one run short of avoiding the follow-on.

“Right now, Ash (Ashwin) is bowl-ing beautifully, like a dream. You have to work on it (drift and spin), it doesn’t just come overnight,” debutant India spinner Jayant Yadav said of his senior partner.

The tourists, who gave India a run for their money in the drawn Test in Rajkot, have struggled against the In-dian spinners at Visakhapatnam which is hosting its fi rst-ever Test.

SCOREBOARDINDIA I INNINGS 455ENGLAND I INNINGS (OVERNIGHT 103/5) B. Stokes lbw b Ashwin 70

J. Bairstow b U. Yadav 53

A. Rashid not out 32

Z. Ansari lbw b Jadeja 4

S. Broad lbw b Ashwin 13

J. Anderson lbw b Ashwin 0

Extras (b6, lb3) 9

Total (all out; 102.5 overs) 255Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Cook), 2-51 (Hameed),

3-72 (Duckett), 4-79 (Root), 5-80 (Ali),

6-190 (Bairstow), 7-225 (Stokes), 8-234

(Ansari), 9-255 (Broad), 10-255 (Anderson)

Bowling: Shami 14-5-28-1, U. Yadav 18-2-

56-1, R. Jadeja 29-10-57-1, Ashwin 29.5-6-

67-5, J. Yadav 12-3-38-1

INDIA II INNINGS M. Vijay c Root b Broad 3

L. Rahul c Bairstow b Broad 10

C. Pujara b Anderson 1

V. Kohli not out 56

A. Rahane not out 22

Extras (lb 5, b 1) 6

Total (3 wickets; 34 overs) 98Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Vijay), 2-17 (Rahul),

3-40 (Anderson)

Bowling: Anderson 8-1-16-1, Broad 6-5-

6-2, Rashid 12-1-37-0, Stokes 5-0-25-0, Ali

3-1-9-0

To bat: R. Ashwin, W. Saha, R. Jadeja, J.

Yadav, M. Shami, U. Yadav

AFPBulawayo, Zimbabwe

Shai Hope hit his maiden one-day inter-national century but the West Indies could only stutter to a dramatic tie in a triangular series clash with Zimbabwe in

Bulawayo yesterday. With Hope scoring 101 in just his second ODI the West Indies were well on track to overhaul the hosts’ 257 all out, until his dismissal sparked a late collapse.

The tourists went into the fi nal over need-ing just four runs to win off seamer Donald Tiripano, but lost three wickets — two of them to run-outs — to fi nish on 257 for eight. “We should have won the game, but that’s cricket,” said West Indies captain Jason Holder. “It’s im-portant for the guys to learn from this occasion. As a young team we just need to think a bit more when we get into these tight positions.”

The game was set up by two dominant part-nerships for the third wicket, with Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza Butt putting on 144 for Zim-babwe before Hope and Kraigg Brathwaite’s 162-run stand for the West Indies.

With Ervine scoring 92 and Raza hitting 77, Zimbabwe went into the fi nal 12 overs of their innings on 188 for two, with their eye on a win-ning total. Instead the innings unravelled with Raza’s dismissal, as the hosts lost eight for 69 in the remaining overs to be bowled out off the fi nal ball of the innings.

Carlos Brathwaite picked up the key wicket of Raza as well as two more late dismissals to fi n-ish with fi gures of four for 48. The West Indies looked in control throughout their chase, with Kraigg Brathwaite scoring 78 and Hope taking advantage of being dropped on 69 and 84, both times by Raza off the bowling of Graeme Cre-mer.

The tourists reached the end of the 44th over on 217 for two, but when Hope was caught be-hind off the bowling of Chris Mpofu, Zimba-

bwe were able to squeeze the new batsmen on a two-paced pitch. Although Sean Williams picked up two wickets in his fi nal over, the West Indies were still heavy favourites when Carlos Brathwaite hit the fi nal ball of the penultimate over for six.

But Tiripano held his nerve to have Brathwaite caught in the deep, then enjoyed some luck

when he defl ected Holder’s drive onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end to run out Ash-ley Nurse. Holder only needed a single off the fi -nal delivery, but could not make contact and saw his partner Jonathan Carter run out as he tried to steal a bye.

“We made some mistakes and it could have gone our way, but credit to the guys for the way

they fought and secured the tie,” said Cremer. “We were a bit sloppy in the fi eld, we prob-ably gave away 20 runs and dropped a couple of catches, but we’ll take the positives from this game into the fi nal two matches.”

Zimbabwe take on Sri Lanka at the same Queen Sports Club venue tomorrow in the next game of the series.

SCOREBOARDZIMBABWE INNINGSB. Chari c Holder b C. Brathwaite 15

C. Chibhabha run out 25

C. Ervine c Powell b Gabriel 92

Sikandar Raza c K. Brathwaite b C. Brathwaite 77

S. Williams lbw b Nurse 2

E. Chigumbura c Hope b Holder 8

P. Moor c Powell b Holder 6

G. Cremer c Gabriel b C. Brathwaite 8

D. Tiripano b Gabriel 14

T. Chisoro not out 0

C. Mpofu b C. Brathwaite 2

Extras (8w) 8

Total (all out, 50 overs) 257Fall of wickets: 1-38 (Chibhabha), 2-46 (Chari), 3-190

(Sikandar Raza), 4-197 (Williams), 5-218 (Chigum-

bura), 6-228 (Moor), 7-233 (Ervine), 8-255 (Tiripano),

9-255 (Cremer), 10-257 (Mpofu)

Bowling: Gabriel 10-0-45-2, Holder 10-0-47-2, Benn

8-0-45-0, C. Brathwaite 10-0-48-4, Nurse 10-0-55-1,

Carter 2-0-17-0

WEST INDIES INNINGSJ. Charles lbw b Tiripano 19

K. Brathwaite c Ervine b Williams 78

E. Lewis c Chibhabha b Cremer 18

S. Hope c Moor b Mpofu 101

R. Powell b Williams 17

C. Brathwaite c Williams b Tiripano 9

J. Holder not out 4

A. Nurse run out 0

J. Carter run out 1

Extras (1b, 3lb, 5w, 1nb) 10

Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 257Fall of wickets: 1-33 (Charles), 2-58 (Lewis), 3-220

(Hope), 4-234 (K. Brathwaite), 5-242 (Powell), 6-255

(Brathwaite), 7-255 (Nurse), 8-257 (Carter)

Did not bat: S. Benn, S. Gabriel

Bowling: Mpofu 10-0-64-1, Tiripano 6-0-26-2,

Chisoro 10-1-42-0, Cremer 10-0-44-1, Williams 10-0-

52-2, Sikandar Raza 4-0-25-0

Match ended in a tieToss: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe (right) and West Indies players shake hands after the third tri-nation One Day International match ended in a tie at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo yesterday. (AFP)

India’s off -spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (left) celebrates with Virat Kohli after the dismissal of England’s Ben Stokes during the Second Test at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, India, yesterday. (Reuters)

Injured Broad

doubtful for third Test

Visakhapatnam: England fast bowler Stuart Broad is doubtful to feature in the third Test against India after a foot injury forced the team management to review his fitness.

Broad, who underwent a scan on his right foot after Friday’s play in the ongoing second Test, has suff ered damage to a tendon.

“Stuart Broad has strained a tendon and one of the small joints in his right fore-foot. The injury will be re-viewed further at the end of the Test,” an England media statement said yesterday.

However Broad, who rattled the Indian top-order with his twin strikes in the final session on day three, will “continue to bowl” in the rest of the innings. Broad, 30, also got Indian opener Lokesh Rahul for a duck in the second over of the match but struggled as the game progressed.

Broad’s injury scare has added to the woes of a team already missing leading paceman Chris Woakes who is nursing a knee injury. Woakes’ replacement James Anderson has just returned to action after recovering from a shoulder injury.

England have Steven Finn and Jake Ball in the squad as pace backup for the mara-thon five-match series.

The first Test at Rajkot ended in a draw.

TAKING FIVE WICKETS WAS NOT ON MY MIND,

SAYS ASHWINOff -spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who yesterday bowled India to a 200-run lead against England with his career’s 22nd five wicket haul, said he only wanted to bowl to his strength.

Ashwin returned with figures of 5/67 as England were bowled out for 255. “Hadn’t had a five-wicket haul against England, but it was not at the top of my mind. I knew I would get it if I stuck to what I do right. The challenges are actually a hassle for the batsmen. Not every ball spins,” Ashwin said after the match.

He explained about the plan which he and Skipper Virat Kohli discussed to dismiss Joe Root (53). “I was in the middle of a very good rhythm. I told Virat I will get Root out caught out at short midwicket. Virat said let’s get mid-on up and make him go for a slog sweep. I thought the moment he steps out I was going to go wider. That worked,” he said.