Sunday, April 1, 2018Rajab 15, 1439 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Cavaliers survive as LeBron breaks Jordan’s record

City on verge of title aft er 3-1 victory over Everton

FOOTBALL | Page 2 NBANBA | Page 5

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Bavuma misses ton but South Africa take total control in Jo’burgPage 4

Asian history beckons for QatarBy Sports ReporterDoha

Qatari club football is shin-ing brighter than ever with Al Sadd, Al Rayyan and Al Gharafa poised to follow

already qualifi ed Al Duhail into the last-16 stage of the Asian Champions League.

But while QNB Stars League cham-pions Al Duhail became the fi rst team to book their spot in the knockouts with four victories in as many match-es, the other three still have some work to do to ensure their passage.

Success for the troika over the next couple of weeks will be a cause for celebration as it will be the fi rst time ever that all four teams from Qa-tar playing the lucrative continental tournament will have survived the group phase cut.

Percentage wise that means Qatar would have contributed a stagger-ing 25% of the 16 teams qualifying from the vast continent – no mean achievement considering the fact that the tournament involves teams from traditional Asian powerhouses such as Japan, South Korea, Iran, Australia and Saudi Arabia.

Such a scenario would be hard to digest for Saudi Arabia and the UAE who had unsuccessfully tried to lob-by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to have their clubs’ matches against Qatari teams played at neu-tral venues.

“We hope that the other three teams also qualify. Not only it would be an historic occasion for Qatar, it would also mean the Gulf crisis has had no eff ect on our football,” said an offi cial.

Former champions Al Sadd, who

won the title under coach Jorge Fos-sati in 2011, will clash with the UAE’s Al Wasl tomorrow hoping to consoli-date their position. Al Sadd have won three of their four matches so far and top Group C on goal diff erence, with Iran’s Persepolis second, followed by Uzbekistan’s Nasaf and Al Wasl.

Al Wasl have been already elimi-nated having lost all their four matches, but Nasaf have six points and can still qualify if they win their remaining two matches.

Al Sadd will secure their place in the next round if they beat Al Wasl and Nasaf fail to take all three points against Persepolis.

A Persepolis win in Uzbekistan

would ensure they return to the last 16 for a second year running, while a draw would also be enough as it would leave the Iranian side – currently three points ahead of Nasaf – with a better head-to-head record than Monday’s opponents.

Should Nasaf win then the group goes down to the wire, there remains a slight possibility that all three teams end up on 12 points after six games in a scenario that would need calculators at the ready.

Al Sadd, who beat Al Wasl 2-1 away earlier in the tournament, have been training hard for the match since Wednesday after six of their top players returned to the club after the

week long International Friendship Championship in Basra, Iraq.

The six – Saad al-Dosari, Hassan al-Haydos, Salem al-Hajri, Akram Afi f, Pedro Miguel and Abdelkarim Hassan – all took art in training ses-sions under the watchful eye of coach Jesualdo Ferreira and will be keen to keen to record their second straight win over Al Wasl and put the team on the path to qualifi cation.

Also tomorrow, Al Rayyan will take on Iran’s Estheglal in Group D at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran, with both teams hoping to grab a second win and qualify for the knockouts. Both teams are on six points, hav-ing drawn three of the four matches and the winning side would make the knockouts as it would ensure a bet-ter head-to-head record against their opponents.

Runners-up last year, Al Hilal re-alistically need to defeat Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates to have a chance of progression, while a draw coupled with an Esteghlal win over Al Rayyan would seal their elimination, as would a loss.

Al Ain have drawn all four of their games so far, but a win would give them a fi ghting chance of a top-two fi nish. Whatever the outcome, the Emiratis’ fate will be decided on a Matchday Six visit to Al Rayyan.

Meanwhile, in Group A, Al Gharafa would be aiming to beat Al Jazira of the UAE in Doha, with both teams on fi ve points from their four previous matches.

Al Gharafa lost their opening game to Al Jazira but, after scoring two away goals in Abu Dhabi, would be in a strong position if they defeat the Emiratis. The most unlikely sce-nario sees all four teams end on eight points.

Al Sadd, Rayyan and Gharafa could join Duhail in the last 16, marking the first occasion when all four participating teams from the country will have qualified for the knockout stage of the lucrative tournament

AFPJohannesburg

Australia bowling coach Dav-id Saker said yesterday that the ball-tampering scan-dal had been a factor in a

disastrous day for the tourists in the fourth Test against South Africa and admitted “the dressing room is hurt-ing”.

Australia were reeling at 110 for six at the end of the second day in reply to South Africa’s imposing fi rst in-nings total of 488.

The collapse started when three replacement batsmen made only 12 runs between them following the banning of captain Steve Smith, Dav-id Warner and Cameron Bancroft.

“Putting three guys into a Test match, two have come from Australia and one hasn’t played in a game for a while, was always going to be a little bit tough,” said Saker.

He paid tribute to the quality of

South Africa’s bowling but added: “Obviously after the week we’ve had there’s a lot of disappointment in the room that we can’t put something to-gether.

“We’re not thinking too much about what’s happening at home but we’re thinking about people who were part of our team that we’ve lost. That’s hurting a lot of people in the dressing room.

“That’s something that’s hard to get over. We’re not making excuses but it’s obviously a factor in the way we’re playing this game.”

Opening batsmen Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw were out for four and eight respectively while Peter Handscomb was out fi rst ball for nought to leave Australia 38 for three.

“We’ve tried to really care for each other this week,” said Saker. “We’re realists and we’re going to go out and try and play as well as we can, to put in a performance that the Australian public and our group are proud of.

“So far it hasn’t happened but the eff ort has been there. There’s no doubt in the dressing room that the guys are trying their hardest. It just hasn’t worked in this game.”

Saker admitted South Africa had batted better than the Australians.

“That’s been a little bit of the story of the series so far. We didn’t leave the ball and the opposition left the ball extremely well.”

Temba Bavuma made 95 not out after he and Quinton de Kock fought their way through a testing early pe-riod against a ball that was almost new in gloomy conditions.

“Generally at the Wanderers in the morning it’s quite hard for the batters to score,” said Bavuma.

“The wicket is still soft so the ball generally nips and swings a bit more.

I was just moving with the belief that later on it would get easier and the bowlers would get tired and I would get opportunities to score.”

Bavuma said the Australians, also missing the injured fast bowler Mitchell Starc, had bowled well.

“I had to respect that. My confi -dence and comfort came from know-ing that I’d be able to score my runs later on.”

South Africa, leading the series 2-1, need only to draw to beat Aus-tralia in a home series for the fi rst time since 1969/70.

Cummins was easily Australia’s most impressive bowler, fi nishing with fi ve for 83.

“He deserved that,” said Saker. “He’s bowled some spells this series that have been as good as any bowler has bowled for Australia.

“He’s backed it up now for more than 12 months and he’s now trust-ing his body. He’s got through some really good overs and bowling at good pace.”

Aussies ‘hurting’ overscandal as defeat looms

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Young fans take a selfie with Al Sadd captain Xavi Hernandez prior to a training session in Doha yesterday. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

Messi rescues Barca with late equaliser

LA LIGA

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi celebrates scoring their second goal as Sevilla’s Ever Banega looks dejected.

ReutersBarcelona

Lionel Messi came off the bench to preserve Barcelona’s unbeat-en run in La Liga with a sensa-tional late equaliser in a thrill-

ing 2-2 draw at Sevilla yesterday as the runaway leaders came back from two goals down in the space of a minute.

Franco Vazquez opened the scoring from close range in the 36th minute and Colombia international Luis Mu-riel doubled the home side’s lead by smashing in on the rebound fi ve min-utes into the second half.

Messi had began the game on the bench due to continued muscle dis-comfort which caused him to miss Ar-gentina’s friendlies against Italy and Spain and the league’s top scorer was called into action in the 58th minute, replacing Ousmane Dembele.

Barca were instantly lifted by the Argentine’s arrival and Luis Suarez rattled the near post but Sevilla con-tinued to pour forward and Vazquez and Muriel missed clear chances to put the game to bed.

They paid dear for their wasteful-ness as Suarez pulled one back for Bar-ca with an acrobatic fi nish in the 88th minute following a corner and Messi whipped in the equaliser in the 89th with a venomous left-foot strike.

The goal stretched the Catalans’ un-beaten league run to 37 games and if they avoid defeat next week at home to Leganes they will equal Real Sociedad’s Liga record of 38 games without defeat, which has stood since 1980.

Barca top the standings on 76 points but if second-placed Atletico Madrid beat Deportivo La Coruna today their advantage at the top will be cut to nine. Champions Real Madrid are third on 62 after beating Las Palmas 3-0.

ReutersKarachi

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed thanked the West In-dies for touring the country, as the Caribbean side arrived

in Karachi yesterday in the latest step towards the resumption of top-level cricket in the South Asian nation.

The West Indies will become only the third international team to play a bilateral series on Pakistani soil since a militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009.

The 13-member team and staff ar-rived late yesterday in two groups and were ushered into a bullet proof bus to their hotel.

Some 1,000 policemen and para-military staff were deployed along their route to guard the team, which will fl y out soon after the third match on Tuesday night.

International cricketers stopped playing in Pakistan after the 2009 as-sault, citing safety concerns, and the national team has had to play its home matches in the United Arab Emirates since.

There has been a trickle of interna-tionals and high-profi le matches in re-cent years, however, with an improve-ment in the security situation.

“We should thank... the West In-dies cricket board and their team for the tour,” Pakistan skipper Ahmed said yesterday.

“I hope it will be a successful tour

and when they go back they will tell players from other countries to come to Pakistan.”

Zimbabwe travelled to Lahore for fi ve limited-overs matches in 2015 — the fi rst since the 2009 attack.

That was followed by the fi nal of the Pakistan Super League T20 tour-nament last year — also in Lahore — which featured several international players, including former West Indies captain Darren Sammy.

Soon after, there was a series against a World XI and a match against Sri Lanka — all T20s in Lahore.

The West Indies will play three T20s in as many days starting today at Na-tional Stadium in Karachi — Pakistan’s largest city. This is the Caribbean side’s fi rst tour of the country since 2006.

Sarfraz grateful as West Indies fl y in for T20s

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“So far it hasn’t happened but the eff ort has been there. There’s no doubt in the dressing room that the guys are trying their hardest. It just hasn’t worked in this game.”

FOOTBALL2 Gulf Times

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Man City one win from title, Salah saves Liverpool again

PREMIER LEAGUE

Pep Guardiola’s side can seal the title when bitter rivals Manchester United visit Eastlands next Saturday

AFPLondon

Manchester City are one win away from being crowned Premier League champi-ons after a swaggering 3-1

victory over Everton, while Mohamed Salah was Liverpool’s hero yet again as the Egypt star clinched a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace yesterday.

Pep Guardiola’s side maintained their 16-point lead at the top thanks to a scintillating fi rst half display at Goodi-son Park. City, on a fi ve-match winning run in the league, can look forward to the delicious prospect of sealing the ti-tle when bitter rivals Manchester Unit-ed visit Eastlands next Saturday.

Leroy Sane put City ahead with a sumptuous volley from David Silva’s pin-point cross in the fourth minute. Gabriel Jesus increased City’s lead eight minutes later, the Brazil forward head-ing in from Kevin De Bruyne’s cross.

Thrashed 4-0 at Everton last season in one of the worst defeats of Guardi-ola’s glittering career, City underlined their vast improvement since then as Raheem Sterling fi nished off a ruthless counter-attack in the 37th minute.

Yannick Bolasie drilled home for Everton in the 63rd minute, but City’s club record 13th away league win means they have 84 points and can break the previous record total for Pre-mier League champions — Chelsea’s 85-point haul in 2005 — if they beat United.

Having already won the League Cup, City next face a Champions League quarter-fi nal fi rst leg against Liverpool on Wednesday. In rainy south London, Liverpool trailed when Luka Milivojevic drove struggling Palace into a 13th-minute lead from the penalty spot after Loris Karius fouled Wilfried Zaha.

But Senegal winger Sadio Mane lev-elled four minutes after the break with a close-range fi nish. Salah, in the midst of an incredible debut season at Liver-pool, proved the match winner as he

smashed home in the 84th minute.Salah, who has 37 goals in 42 games

in all competitions this term, has scored in the joint-most Premier League matches (21) in a single 38-match sea-son. That ties the mark set by Robin van Persie in 2012-13 and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2007-08. “I think the moment you see it is Mo (on the ball) you feel good. It was a very cool fi nish and long may that

form continue,” Klopp said.Liverpool were unable to hold onto

second place as Manchester United moved two points ahead of them with a 2-0 victory against Swansea at Old Traff ord. “ Every point is vital because we want to stay in second place,” United manager Jose Mourinho said. “In other leagues we would be fi ghting for the ti-tle. We are having a positive season and

we still have the FA Cup to come.”Romelu Lukaku scored for United

with a defl ected strike from Alexis Sanchez’s pass in the fi fth minute.

Former Chelsea and Everton star Lu-kaku, who has netted in fi ve times in his last six appearances, now has 100 ca-reer Premier League goals.

Chile forward Sanchez bagged just his second goal since joining United

from Arsenal in January in the 20th minute. The Premier League’s high-est paid player had gone seven games without a goal until he fi nished off Jesse Lingard’s pass.

Marko Arnautovic lifted the gloom at West Ham as his double inspired a cru-cial 3-0 victory against relegation rivals Southampton. Hundreds of fans staged a march against West Ham’s co-owners

David Gold and David Sullivan before kick-off in the aftermath of the crowd protests that marred their recent home defeat against Burnley.

Amid a tense atmosphere that saw extra security measures to protect the owners, on-loan Inter Milan midfi eld-er Joao Mario eased the anxiety with a 13th-minute opener for David Moyes’ side. Four minutes later, Arnautovic doubled West Ham’s lead and celebrat-ed by shouting angrily towards Saints boss Mark Hughes, who fell out with the Austrian when they were together at Stoke. And Arnautovic ensured West Ham’s fans went home happy for once with a superb volley in fi rst-half stop-page time. “The supporters were great and they appreciated the performance of the players. We got the job done early which helped,” Moyes said.

West Ham are fi ve points above the relegation zone, while Southampton drop into the bottom three. West Bro-mwich Albion look certain to be rel-egated after Burnley’s 2-1 win at the Hawthorns handed the bottom club an eighth consecutive defeat. Leices-ter struck late in a 2-0 win at Brighton, with Albion striker Glenn Murray miss-ing a penalty before Vicente Iborra and Jamie Vardy sealed the points. Newcas-tle beat Huddersfi eld 1-0 and Watford drew 2-2 with Bournemouth.

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE RESULTSBrighton 0 Leicester 2 (Iborra 83, Vardy

90+6)

Crystal Palace 1 (Milivojevic 13-pen) Liver-

pool 2 (Mane 49, Salah 84)

Everton 1 (Bolasie 63) Manchester City 3

(Sane 4, Jesus 12, Sterling 37)

Manchester United 2 (Lukaku 5, Sanchez

20) Swansea 0

Newcastle 1 (Perez 80) Huddersfield 0

Watford 2 (Femenia 13, Pereyra 49)

Bournemouth 2 (King 43-pen, Defoe 90+2)

West Brom 1 (Rondon 83) Burnley 2

(Barnes 22, Wood 73)

West Ham 3 (Mario 13, Arnautovic 17, 45+4)

Southampton 0

Today: Arsenal v Stoke (1230 GMT), Chel-

sea v Tottenham (1500 GMT)

Chelsea’s CL chances hang on same old Spurs story Napoli title dream takes a hit

SPOTLIGHT SERIE A

AFP Milan

Napoli missed a golden opportunity to move top of Serie A with a 1-1 draw at strugglers Sas-

suolo to give champions Juventus the chance to pull clear later last night against AC Milan. Matteo Politano put Sassuolo ahead after 22 minutes with Maurizio Sarri’s side proving wasteful before earning a point through a Rogerio own goal with ten minutes to go.

Napoli — who have won just one of their last four games — are now one point behind six-time defending champions Juventus who can extend their advantage to four points by the end of the night. Andrea Consigli proved solid in the Sassuolo goal, sav-ing a Lorenzo Insigne eff ort from point-blank range before Rog-erio turned a Mario Rui cross into his own net. Sassuolo remain four points above the relegation zone after following last week’s win against Udinese with a cru-cial point. Earlier, Mauro Icardi scored a brace in a 3-0 win over Verona as Inter Milan closed in on third-placed Roma who were held 1-1 by Bologna. Substitute Edin Dzeko rescued Roma who were also hit by a Radja Naing-golan injury that could compro-mise their Champions League quarter-fi nal against Barcelona in Spain midweek.

Eusebio Di Francesco’s Roma have 60 points from 30 games, but their grip on third is threat-ened by Inter who edged two points behind. Lazio are a fur-ther point back just outside the Champions League places for next season in fi fth after surviv-ing a scare to thrash rock-bottom Benevento 6-2.

Dzeko headed in after 76 min-utes at the Stadio Dall’Ara after Erick Pulgar had given Bolo-gna the lead on 18 minutes. “We are going into a very important match, we all had our thoughts on Barcelona a little bit, but even then we had chances and could

have scored more,” said Dzeko.Roma lacked speed against a

Bologna side which included Di Francesco’s son Federico, with third-choice goalkeeper Antonio Santurro proving the unlikely hero for the home side. Santurro was appearing in fi rst Serie A game with Antonio Mirante sus-pended and understudy Angelo Da Costa injured.

And the 26-year-old did well on his debut keeping out an early Patrik Schick strike, followed by a Daniele De Rossi header from the resulting corner. Nainggolan limped off after just 16 minutes with a muscular problem, and looks a doubt to face Barcelona.

Two minutes later Bologna were ahead, Pulgar picking up a poor clearance on the edge of the box to fi re past Alisson. Santurro denied Stephan El Shaarawy, with Kevin Strootman miss-ing the chance to equalise when alone in front of goal. But Dzeko replaced El Shaarawy with half an hour to go and got his head to Argentine winger Diego Perotti’s

cross to fi re past Santurro.“We know that if we play like

that against Barcelona, it won’t be enough,” said Di Francesco. “But we also know that Barca will attack. It will be a totally diff er-ent match.”

Icardi, meanwhile, earned a standing ovation from the 60,000 crowd at the San Siro after bringing his tally of Serie A goals to 105. The Argentine — who scored four in a 5-0 win over Sampdoria last time out — con-tinued where he left off , bagging the fi rst after 38 seconds from an Ivan Perisic throw-in.

Perisic added a second on 13 minutes, with Icardi slid-ing in the third after the restart for a confi dence boost ahead of next Wednesday’s Milan derby against AC Milan. “I’m happy for my fastest goal in my career,” said Icardi. “It was the perfect day, not for goals, but because the team won. We go into the derby with the right frame of mind. We’re aware that we have to do well because there is little time

to reach the goal of going to the Champions League.”

Serie A top scorer Ciro Immo-bile also netted a double as Lazio fought back after going 2-1 be-hind to 10-man Benevento, nab-bing fi ve goals in the last half-hour.

ITALIAN SERIE A RESULTSBologna 1 (Plugar 18) Roma 1 (Dzeko

76)

Inter 3 (Icardi 1, 48, Perisic 13)

Verona 0

Atalanta 2 (Petagna 68, Masiello 74)

Udinese 0

Fiorentina 2 (Simeone 3, Chiesa 62)

Crotone 0

Genoa 1 (Lapadula 30-pen) SPAL 1

(Lazzari 60)

Cagliari 0 Torino 4 (Falque 61, Ljajic

65, Ansaldi 79, Obi 87)

Lazio 6 (Immobile 19, 68, Caicedo

60, de Vrij 66, Lucas 83, Alberto

90+1 pen) Benevento 2 (Cataldi 23,

Marques 51)

Chievo 2 (Castro 62, Hetemaj 79)

Sampdoria 1 (Quagliarella 26-pen)

Sassuolo 1 (Politano 22) Napoli 1

(Rogerio 80-og)

AFPLondon

Chelsea host Tottenham Hotspur on Sun-day aiming to extend the visitors’ 28-year wait for a league win at Stamford Bridge and keep their hopes of Champi-

ons League football next season alive in the proc-ess. Spurs sit fi ve points above the English cham-pions in the fourth and fi nal Champions League place with just eight games of the campaign to go.

Missing out on the top four would almost cer-tainly seal Chelsea manager Antonio Conte’s fate with speculation already rife over the Italian’s future and who trigger-happy owner Roman Abramovich could look to as his successor.

However, Conte remains hopeful that Chelsea can make up the lost ground caused by four de-feats in their last six league games. “If we win, we go very close to Tottenham,” said Conte. “Other-wise, we continue to stay not so close and, with seven games to go, it will be diffi cult to take a place in the Champions League.”

By contrast, Spurs are unbeaten in their last 12 league games stretching back to December. Vic-tory for Mauricio Pochettino’s men would be extra sweet as, despite the impressive progress made under the Argentine in recent years, Chel-sea have largely continued to hold the upper hand on their London rivals.

Most memorably, Spurs’ hopes for a fi rst title since 1961 were ended as Chelsea fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 in a bad-tempered clash labelled ‘Battle of the Bridge’ in 2016. In-stead, Leicester were crowned champions on a night that saw nine Spurs’ players booked and

Mousa Dembele slapped with a six-match ban for an eye gouge on Diego Costa.

Tottenham fi nished runners-up in the Premier League again last season, this time behind a re-lentless Chelsea, who also beat Spurs 4-2 in the FA Cup semi-fi nals. “History is history and is there, but it is not going to help. That is not what counts,” said Pochettino. “I think it is not a point to be focused on for us. We must be focused on the win and the performance.”

Spurs’ case could be massively boosted by a shock early return for talismanic striker Harry Kane. The England international was expected to be sidelined for well into April by ankle ligament damage suff ered at Bournemouth three weeks ago. Pochettino was coy on Kane’s status on Fri-day, insisting it was too early to make a judgement call on the man who has already scored 35 goals in all competitions this season. However, he hailed Kane’s work rate to bounce back so quickly from what seemed a very serious injury.

“The most important (thing) is that we are so positive about his recovery, and we are doing fantastic, and we are so happy,” said Pochettino. “After Bournemouth everybody believed it would be a long period out, but the resolution has been fantastic.”

Spurs have coped impressively without Kane during injury absences over the past two sea-sons. However, Conte was clear he would rather not have the headache of stopping he called “one of the best strikers in the world.” “When you have a player, a striker, who scores 30 goals every season, for sure when he’s missing you can feel this.” Chelsea have injury problems of their own, though, with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and defender Andreas Christensen both doubtful.

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (right) celebrates with team mates after scoring the winner against Crystal Palace during the Premier League in London. (Reuters)

Napoli’s Arkadiusz Milik (right) attempts to score during the Serie A match against Sassuolo. (Reuters)

Missing out on the top four would almost certainly seal Chelsea manager Antonio Conte’s fate with speculation already rife over the Italian’s future.

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Sunday, April 1, 2018

AFPCarson, United States

Zlatan Ibrahimovic re-vealed on Friday he had initially hoped to join the Los Angeles Galaxy two

years ago as he vowed to conquer Major League Soccer in the fi nal chapter of his glittering career.

The 36-year-old Swedish su-perstar told reporters at a press conference he had planned to head to California after his stint with Paris Saint-Germain came to an end in 2016, before instead opting for Manchester United.

“This thing was supposed to happen a couple of years before, but it didn’t. But I’m here now,” Ibrahimovic told reporters at the Galaxy’s StubHub Center ground.

“So the destiny was that it was supposed to happen, it was only a question of when. Finally I’m here and I’m just excited, looking forward to playing.”

Ibrahimovic was speaking af-ter training with his new team-mates for the fi rst time earlier Friday after arriving in Los An-geles less than 24 hours earlier. The veteran striker, who has not played since appearing for Unit-ed against Burnley in December, declared himself fi t was available for Galaxy’s much-anticipated derby with Los Angeles FC late last night.

Ibrahimovic insisted he was raring to go after barely playing

in the past 12 months as he re-covered from a serious knee in-jury. “I just want to go out on the fi eld,” Ibrahimovic said.

“I know it has been a long break for me. It’s been a long wait where I haven’t been in my rhythm where I play every day because of the injury. Now I want to go out, smell the grass, touch

the ball. Today when we fi nished training, I just wanted to contin-ue. I asked the coach ‘Can I shoot some more balls?’ And he said okay, so I just shot some more balls.”

Ibrahimovic, whose signing for Galaxy was announced last week, compared himself to Benjamin Button, the movie character who

ages in reverse. “I feel young,” he joked. “I feel like Benjamin But-ton. I was born old and I will die young. For sure. So don’t worry about my age.”

The striker, who will earn an estimated $3mn for two seasons in MLS, added that he had already proved sceptics wrong during his spell with United in the Premier League, where he scored 28 goals in 46 appearances before tearing knee ligaments last April.

“When I came to England they all said I was old, I came in a wheelchair,” Ibrahimovic said. “But after three months, I conquered England and they said I was fl ying. So age is only a number. I know what I am able to do, I know what I will do. I’ve come here to win. I’ve already brought my family. My wife can take care of the family and I can can take of what I’m good at — playing football. I feel excited. The lion is hungry.”

Asked about the chances of his appearing for Galaxy against, he replied: “I’m available. I have so much adrenaline in me, so I think it can hold a long time. Let’s see.

“We start step-by-step. I’m not here only for one game, I’m here for the season and another season after that. I think the coach wants to build it up and make me feel comfortable, set-tle in. If the coach needs me for the whole game, I’m there for the whole game. If he needs me for one minute, I’m there for one minute.”

‘Benjamin Button’ Ibrahimovic ready for Los Angeles Galaxy debut

MLS

Bayern Munich crush Dortmund but title party put on hold

BUNDESLIGA

AFPMadrid

Gareth Bale made a strong case for a start-ing spot against Juven-tus by scoring twice in

Real Madrid’s 3-0 victory over Las Palmas yesterday. Bale’s double in Gran Canaria served as a timely reminder to coach Zine-dine Zidane, with the trip to Tu-rin for the fi rst leg of the Cham-pions League quarter-fi nals to come on Tuesday.

Karim Benzema had doubled Real’s lead before half-time as Los Blancos moved just one point behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, who host Deportivo La Coruna today.

Las Palmas stay 18th, seven points adrift of safety.

The only worry for Zidane was the sight of Nacho hobbling off in the fi rst half, with what appeared to be a hamstring problem. Bale opened the scoring with a trade-mark run and fi nish down the left before Benzema converted one penalty and then generously handed over a second, which the Welshman had earned himself.

The question now is whether Zidane was suitably impressed to pick Bale in Italy. The 28-year-old also scored against Getafe before Real faced Paris Saint-Germain earlier this month and

that was only enough to earn him a place on the bench in Paris, where he had also started the fi rst leg.

Bale has now scored 10 goals in 11 starts since the turn of the year but the suspicion remains that Zidane does not trust him defen-sively against elite opposition. Cristiano Ronaldo was rested against Las Palmas, and is sure to return against Juve, while Lucas Vazquez, Marco Asensio and Isco all started ahead of him across the two legs against PSG.

Isco was absent with a back problem following his hat-trick for Spain against Argentina last week, and Sergio Ramos was also spared, after picking up a knock over the international break. Bale’s fi rst goal arrived in the 26th minute as Luka Mo-dric curved a superb pass in-side right-back Michel Macedo, which Bale drove forward before slamming home at the near post.

Benzema tucked his penalty into the bottom corner 13 min-utes later and then presented Bale with the ball after his team-mate had been fouled in the area by Ximo Navarro. Bale made no mistake. Elsewhere yesterday, Girona’s hopes of Europa League qualifi cation took a knock af-ter they were held to a 1-1 draw by struggling Levante. Athletic Bilbao also drew 1-1 at home to Celta Vigo.

AFPBerlin

Hat-trick hero Robert Lewand-owski put former club Borussia Dortmund to the sword as Bay-ern Munich rampaged to a 6-0

win yesterday, but the Bavarians have to wait at least another week to celebrate a sixth successive Bundesliga title.

Lewandowski was lucky not to be ruled off side when he gave Bayern the lead after just fi ve minutes.

Franck Ribery was less fortunate a few minutes later, as his goal was correctly ruled out by VAR. Luck had little to do with it, however, as Bayern completely outclassed Dortmund in the fi rst half, strikes from James Rodriguez and Tho-mas Muller giving them a 3-0 lead before the half-hour mark.

In the dying minutes of the half, Rib-ery twinkle-toed his way through the defence to set up Lewandowski’s second, before getting on the scoresheet himself with Bayern’s fi fth, lofting the ball el-egantly over goalkeeper Roman Burki.

After a quiet second half, Lewandowski completed his hat-trick three minutes from time, turning in Joshua Kimmich’s cross from close range. Bayern’s title cel-ebrations remain on hold after Schalke eased to a 2-0 victory over Freiburg ear-lier in the day.

Daniel Caligiuri put Schalke ahead from the penalty spot on 63 minutes, be-fore Freiburg striker Nils Petersen saw a second yellow card for dissent. With both their striker and their coach Christian Streich sent off , Freiburg capitulated, and Guido Burgstaller secured victory 17 min-utes from time.

RB Leipzig survived a late scare in Hanover, battling to a 3-2 victory to break back into the top four. Leipzig drew fi rst blood on 16 minutes, as Timo Werner broke down the right fl ank to provide Emil Forsberg with the easiest of tap-ins.

Willi Orban doubled the lead early in the second half, sending a powerful header past Philipp Tschauner. Salif Sane quickly pulled one back for Hanover, be-fore Yussuf Poulsen appeared to secure victory for Leipzig in the 76th minute.

Niclas Fuellkrug fi red Hanover back into the game with a fl ying header, and appeared to complete a dramatic come-back when he found the net again min-utes later, only to see his equaliser dis-allowed for off side through VAR. “The

three points are hugely important for us and we are happy that we got the reward for our hard work,” said Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuettl. “But we need to re-gain stability at the back.”

Leipzig leapfrog Bayer Leverkusen into fourth, as the latter were held to a tur-gid 0-0 draw by Augsburg. At the other end of the table, Hamburg dropped more points as they drew 1-1 in Stuttgart. Lewis Holtby scored his fi rst league goal since August to fi re Hamburg into the lead on 18 minutes, but Daniel Ginczek equalised against the run of play for Stuttgart just before half-time.

Hamburg remain bottom, a point be-hind fellow strugglers Cologne, who were subjected to a 6-0 thrashing at Hof-fenheim. Serge Gnabry scored two bril-liant goals to kick-start the rout. Having danced around several defenders to fi re in a net-busting opener in the fi rst half, Gnabry grabbed a second just after half-time, picking out the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

Cologne-born forward Mark Uth grabbed a brace, as he and Lukas Rupp scored three goals in the space of 10 min-utes. Uth then set up Steven Zuber to prod home Hoff enheim’s sixth.

BUNDESLIGA RESULTSHoff enheim 6 (Gnabry 23, 47, Uth 56, 65,

Rupp 61, Zuber 72) Cologne 0

Bayer Leverkusen 0 Augsburg 0

Stuttgart 1 (Ginczek 44) Hamburg 1 (Holtby 18)

Schalke 2 (Caligiuri 63-pen, Burgstaller 73)

Freiburg 0

Hanover 2 (Sane 71, Fuellkrug 79) RB Leipzig

3 (Forsberg 16, Orban 54, Poulsen 76)

Bayern Munich 6 (Lewandowski 5, 44, 87,

Rodriguez 14, Mueller 23, Ribery 45+1) Borus-

sia Dortmund 0

Playing Today: Werder Bremen v Ein-

tracht Frankfurt (1330), Mainz v Borussia

Moenchengladbach (1600)

Bale double guides Real to easy victory

LA LIGA

Lewandowski scores hat-trick as Bayern score five times in first half

Ocampos, Payet give Marseille dramatic win at Dijon

LIGUE 1

AFPDijon, France

Lucas Ocampos and Dimitri Payet struck in the fi nal minutes as Marseille claimed a pre-

cious 3-1 win at Dijon in Ligue 1 yesterday to stay on course for a Champions League place. Valere Germain put Marseille in front 10 minutes before half-time, but the visitors then lost goalkeeper Steve Mandanda to injury for the second time in fi ve matches.

South Korea international Kwon Chang-Hoon curled in an equaliser for Dijon with a quarter of an hour remaining. But Germain was again involved

as Marseille regained the lead on 88 minutes, his near-post header from a corner was bun-dled in from point-blank range by Argentine Lucas Ocampos.

A frenetic fi nale saw Dijon reduced to 10 men when Cedric Yambere was harshly sent off after conceding a penalty for a foul on Ocampos, although the spot-kick from Payet was saved by Baptiste Reynet. But Payet, overlooked by Didier De-schamps for his latest France squad, atoned deep into stop-page time after winning anoth-er penalty, this time converting as Marseille pulled fi ve points clear of fourth-placed Lyon.

Marseille go to Germany next week for the fi rst leg of their Europa League quarter-fi nal

against RB Leipzig, with top scorer Florian Thauvin once more unlikely to feature as he nurses a hamstring injury.

Lyon, who beat Marseille 3-2 ahead of the international break, can reduce the gap today when they host a relegation-threatened Toulouse side.

FRENCH LIGUE 1 RESULTDijon 1 (Kwon 73) Marseille 3

(Germain 35, Ocampos 88, Payet

90+5-pen)

Playing Today (all times GMT): Guingamp v Bordeaux (1300),

Troyes v Nice, Strasbourg v Metz,

Caen v Montpellier, Lille v Amiens,

Nantes v Saint-Etienne (all 1500),

Lyon v Toulouse (1900)

Playing Wednesday: Rennes v

Monaco (1645)

Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski (left) and Borussia Dortmund’s Manuel Akanji vie for the ball during the Bundesliga match in Munich, southern Germany, yesterday. (AFP)

Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale scores from a penalty against Las Palmas yesterday. (Reuters)

Olympique de Marseille’s Lucas Ocampos celebrates after scoring a goal against Dijon. (AFP)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic holds his new club LA Galaxy’s jersey at a press conference in Los Angeles, California, on Friday. (AFP)

CRICKET4 Gulf Times

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Bavuma denied ton as SA sink hapless Australia

JOHANNESBURG TEST

South Africa posted 488 in their first innings and lead by a massive 378 runs as they seek a first home series win over the Australians in almost 50 years

ReutersJohannesburg

South Africa’s Temba Bavuma was left stranded on 95 not out as they tightened their grip over scandal-hit Australia after reducing the

hapless visitors to 110 for six at the close on the second day of the fourth and fi nal Test yesterday.

Aided by Bavuma’s brilliance, South Africa posted 488 in their fi rst innings and lead by a massive 378 runs at the Wanderers as they seek a fi rst home se-ries win over the Australians in almost 50 years.

The controversial tour looks to be coming to a meek end for the visitors in a game they need to win to share the series and their new captain Tim Paine (five) and Pat Cummins (seven) will resume on the third day facing a daunt-ing task.

Australia need a win to share the series, an outcome that would provide hollow comfort after the chaos that engulfed the team in the wake of their ball-tampering in the third test in Cape Town and the crisis that followed this week.

The squad was bolstered by openers Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw, who ar-rived in the country 48 hours before the start of the fourth test along with all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, after deposed captain Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were sent home for their part in the scandal.

However, if the tourists had hoped that fresh blood at the top of the order might spark a change of batting fortunes,

it proved false optimism as they were blasted out.

Burns’ (four) tame prod saw him edge Kagiso Rabada to a diving Faf du Plessis at second slip, while Queensland open-ing partner Renshaw (eight) provided a simple catch to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock off Vernon Philander (3-17).

After Aiden Markram’s masterful 152 on the opening day, Bavuma was left stranded fi ve runs short of what would have been a second test century when he ran out of partners.

His 95 not out was deserving of three fi gures as he manoeuvred the ball around

the ground with great skill, adding 85 for the seventh wicket with De Kock (39) and 76 for the ninth wicket with Maharaj, who smashed a career-best 45 from 51 balls.

But when the latter slashed at a wide delivery from the excellent Pat Cum-mins (5-83) and was caught by wicket-keeper Paine, Morkel, playing in his fi nal test, edged the fi rst ball to Handscomb at second slip and Bavuma was denied the chance to claim a deserved ton.

ScorecardSouth Africa, first inningsD. Elgar c Sayers b Lyon ............................................... 19

A. Markram c M. Marsh b Cummins ....................152

H. Amla c Handscomb b Cummins ........................27

A. de Villiers c Paine b Sayers ..................................69

F. du Plessis lbw b Cummins ...................................... 0

T. Bavuma not out .......................................................... 95

K. Rabada c Renshaw b Sayers ................................. 0

Q. de Kock c M. Marsh b Lyon ................................. 39

V. Philander c Khawaja b Lyon ................................. 12

K. Maharaj c Paine b Cummins ............................... 45

M. Morkel c Handscomb b Cummins .................... 0

Extras (b13, lb12, w5) ...................................................30

Total (136.5 overs) ......................................................488

Fall of wickets: 1-53 (Elgar), 2-142 (Amla), 3-247

(Markram), 4-247 (Du Plessis), 5-299 (De Villiers),

6-299 (Rabada), 7-384 (De Kock), 8-412 (Philan-

der), 9-488 (Maharaj), 10-488 (Morkel)

Bowling: Hazlewood 26-3-86-0, Sayers 35-9-78-

2, Cummins 28.5-5-83-5 (1w), Lyon 40-3-182-3, M.

Marsh 6-1-30-0, Renshaw 1-0-4-0

Australia, first inningsM. Renshaw c De Kock b Philander .........................8

J. Burns c Du Plessis b Rabada ...................................4

U. Khawaja c De Kock b Philander .........................53

P. Handscomb b Philander .......................................... 0

S. Marsh c De Villiers b Maharaj .............................. 16

M. Marsh b Morkel ............................................................4

T. Paine not out ...................................................................5

P. Cummins not out .......................................................... 7

Extras (b3, lb 8, nb2) ..................................................... 13

Total (6 wkts, 38 overs) ............................................110

To bat: N. Lyon, C. Sayers, J. Hazlewood

Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Burns), 2-34 (Renshaw),

3-38 (Handscomb), 4-90 (Khawaja), 5-96 (M.

Marsh), 6-96 (S. Marsh)

Bowling: Philander 12-7-17-3, Rabada 9-3-24-1,

Morkel 9-2-23-1 (2nb), Maharaj 8-2-35-1

Match situation: Australia trail by 378 runs with

four wickets remaining in the first innings

Toss: South Africa

Umpires: Ian Gould, Nigel Llong (both ENG)

Watling, De Grandhomme spearhead Kiwi fi ghtbackCHRISTCHURCH TEST

AFPChristchurch

BJ Watling and Colin de Grandhomme hauled New Zealand back into the second Test yester-

day to trail England by 115 runs with four wickets in hand at stumps on day two in Christch-urch.

When bad light stopped play seven overs early, New Zealand were 192 for six.

Watling was on 77 after shar-ing a 142-run stand with De Grandhomme which was bro-ken in the final hour by Eng-land’s man of the moment Stu-art Broad.

Broad, who had De Grand-homme caught behind for 72, finished the day with four for

38. It was Watling’s 14th Test half-century and De Grand-homme’s second highest score as they passed New Zealand’s previous 6th wicket partner-ship record against England of 141, set by Martin Crowe and Adam Parore 24 years ago.

In a match of fluctuating for-tunes, New Zealand’s recovery from 36 for five followed Eng-land’s own revival from 164 for seven to be all out for 307.

After months of misery on the road, England felt their luck had turned after Jonny Bairstow’s rescue mission, with the wicketkeeper-batsman posting his fifth Test century before he was out for 101.

Broad and James Anderson then routed the New Zealand top order to have the Black Caps in serious trouble be-

fore De Grandhomme joined Watling to steady their in-nings.

De Grandhomme took an ag-gressive approach to bring up his 50 off 87 deliveries but then took a back seat as Watling opened up in the final session.

Watling, on 40 at tea, was troubled by Mark Wood after the resumption before taking out his frustration on spinner Jack Leach to reach his 50 with a huge six over mid-wicket.

From there, he scored freely in an innings which also in-cludes 10 fours.

Scoreboard England first innings (overnight 290-8)A. Cook b Boult ........................................ 2

M. Stoneman c Latham b Southee 35

J. Vince lbw Southee ............................ 18

J. Root b Southee ..................................37

D. Malan lbw Boult ................................0

B. Stokes c Watling b Boult ............. 25

J. Bairstow c Taylor b Boult ...........101

S. Broad c Sodhi b Southee ................5

M. Wood b Southee ............................ 52

J. Leach c Watling b Southee ..........16

J. Anderson not out .............................0

Extras: (b9, lb5, w1, nb1) ....................16

Total: (for 10 wickets; 96.5 overs) .....

307

Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Cook), 2-38

(Vince1), 3-93 (Root), 4-94 (Malan),

5-94 (Stoneman), 6-151 (Stokes), 7-164

(Broad), 8-259 (Wood), 9-307 (Leach),

10-307 (Bairstow)

Bowling: Boult 28.5-5-87-4, Southee

26-7-62-6 (1w), De Grandhomme

17-4-44-0, Wagner 20-5-69-0 (1nb),

Sodhi 5-0-31-0.

New Zealand first inningsJ. Raval c Bairstow b Anderson ......... 5

T. Latham c Bairstow b Broad ............0

K. Williamson c Bairstow b Anson .22

R. Taylor c Cook b Broad ...................... 2

H. Nicholls lbw Broad ............................0

B. Watling not out .................................77

C. De Grandhomme c Bairstow b

Broad ..........................................................72

T. Southee not out .................................13

Extras: (lb1) ................................................ 1

Total: (for 6 wickets; 74.5 overs) .192

Fall: 1-0 (Latham), 2-14 (Raval), 3-17

(Taylor), 4-17 (Nicholls), 5-36 (William-

son), 6-178 (De Grandhomme)

To bat: Ish Sodhi, Neil Wagner, Trent

Boult

Bowling: Anderson 19-5-43-2, Broad

14-4-38-4, Wood 17.5-3-50-0, Leach

18-3-46-0, Root 1-0-9-0, Stokes

3-1-5-0

Toss: New Zealand

Series: New Zealand lead 1-0

Umpires: Marais Erasmus (RSA),

Bruce Oxenford (AUS)

TV Umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS)

Match referee: Richie Richardson

(WIS)

Tearful Warner says tampering scandal may spell doom for Australia career

REPENTANT

AFPSydney

Former Test vice-captain David Warner said he re-alised he may never play for his country again as

he tearfully apologised yesterday over a ball-tampering scandal which has had deep repercus-sions for Australian cricket.

As stand-in captain Tim Paine signalled a new approach with a pre-match handshake between the teams at the fourth Test in Johannesburg, Warner became the third disgraced Australian player to make an emotional ap-pearance in front of media.

The usually pugnacious bats-man, 31, repeatedly struggled to talk and tears ran down his face as he apologised to fans, team-mates, his family and the Aus-tralian public.

But he also evaded questions about whether the ball-tamper-ing plot was his idea, whether it was the fi rst time, who else was aware of it and whether he had been made a scapegoat.

Warner, 31, told a media con-ference in Sydney: “I can hon-estly say I have only wanted to bring glory to my country through playing cricket.

“In striving to do so I have made the decision which has had the opposite eff ect and it’s one that I will regret for as long as I live.”

Warner’s appearance comes after similar heartfelt apologies from opening batsman Cam-eron Bancroft and captain Steve Smith, who broke down when he faced the media on Thursday.

Coach Darren Lehmann, con-vinced to step down after seeing the anguished statements from Bancroft and Smith, was also tearful as he announced his res-ignation.

Smith and Warner were banned from international and domestic cricket for a year and Bancroft was suspended for nine months after the incident during the third Test in Cape Town.

Bancroft was caught on cam-era trying to use yellow sandpa-per to alter the ball, an off ence which triggered an outpour-ing of criticism from home and abroad against the hard-nosed Australian team.

Warner, a dynamic batsman but a divisive fi gure in the game,

has appeared isolated after he was charged by Cricket Australia with developing the plot and telling Bancroft to carry it out.

“I suppose there is a tiny ray of hope that I may one day be given the privilege of playing for my country again, but I am resigned to the fact that may never hap-pen,” Warner said.

He also signalled a possible appeal when he said: “That’s something that I will continue to sit down with my family and weigh up all my considerations before I make any decisions.”

A report yesterday said Ban-croft was set to lodge an appeal and had sought legal advice. The deadline for appeals is on Thurs-day.

With his wife, Candice, crying as she watched from the back of the room, Warner stonewalled requests for more details about the incident and his relationship with the team.

“I am here today to accept my responsibility for my part and my involvement for what hap-pened in Cape Town,” Warner said, using a formulation he re-peated several times.

“It’s inexcusable, I am deeply sorry. I will do everything I can to earn back the respect of the Aus-tralian public.”

Warner later took to social media to say: “I know there are unanswered questions and lots of them. I completely under-stand. In time I will do my best to answer them all. But there is a formal CA process to follow.”

Warner, who has played 74 Tests since his debut in 2011, has been described as the Australia’s “attack dog”. He was also banned in 2013 after punching England’s Joe Root in a bar.

“In the coming weeks and months I am going to look at what has happened and who I am as a man,” he said.

“To be honest, I am not sure right now how I will do this, I will seek out advice and expertise to make serious changes.”

The fallout from the crisis has seen Warner dumped by spon-sors ASICS and LG, while Crick-et Australia has been dropped by its top sponsor, fund manager Magellan.

Along with Smith, Warner has also been ejected from this year’s Indian Premier League, losing contracts worth nearly US$2mn each.

AFPKarachi

Pakistan’s masters of reverse-swinging a cricket ball have unanimously defended it as an “art” which can be achieved

without the tampering that ended in shameful bans for three Australian players.

Steve Smith had to step down as Australia captain and David Warner as vice captain after they orchestrat-ed ball-tampering through batsman Cameron Bancroft in the Cape Town Test against South Africa last week.

Bancroft was found to have used a piece of sandpaper in an attempt to alter the condition of the ball while on the fi eld to create swing for Australia’s bowlers and deceive the South African batsmen.

Cricket Australia came down hard, handing a one-year ban each to Smith and Warner and nine months to Ban-croft for sullying the country’s sport-ing image.

In Pakistan, an internet meme swept social media appearing to show leg-

endary pacemen Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis smiling over the incident — with a caption that ac-cused the Australians of being “ama-teurs” in their eff orts to create reverse swing.

Former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz – widely regarded as a pioneer of reverse swing – refused to accept the implication that the skill requires ball-tampering.

“This is ridiculous to say reverse swing is cheating,” Sarfraz told AFP. “You can achieve reverse swing with-out tampering with the ball.

“There is a conventional swing which is done with the new ball and then there is reverse swing which is achieved with an old ball and it has been proved in laboratories that reverse swing is a scientifi c phenomenon.”

Sarfraz took 177 wickets in 55 Tests, including an amazing nine for 86 against Australia at Melbourne in 1979 that included a spell of seven wickets for a mere one run in 33 balls.

“When I passed the art to Imran Khan he developed it and then taught Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, and in those times everyone called it cheat-

ing but when the Englishmen started to reverse swing it became an art,” said Sarfraz.

“It was and will remain an art, but resorting to tampering is cheating

and that was what Australians did to beat South Africa and were deserv-edly punished. “Conventional swing is simple — if the seam is angled toward the slip fi elders it will swing away from

the right-handed batsman, and if the seam is angled towards the leg side it will swing into the batsman,” explained Sarfraz. “Reverse swing is totally op-posite.”

Sarfraz passed the art to Imran, who achieved more success than his master but also confessed to ball-tampering by using a bottle top to roughen one side of the ball.

Asked in a 1994 television interview whether he would have got 362 Test wickets had he not tampered with the ball, Imran replied: “Yes, it’s a miscon-ception that whoever scratches the ball can get wickets.

“The whole Sussex team knew I could reverse swing and I would swing at one end while other bowlers could not swing it,” said Imran, who played for the English county.

Imran passed the torch to Wasim and Waqar — regarded as one of interna-tional cricket’s most destructive new-ball pairings.

The two ripped through England’s batsmen on Pakistan’s 1992 tour, but were also alleged by British media to have tampered with the ball. Wasim excelled for English county Lancashire

for a decade while Waqar starred for Glamorgan and Surrey.

“Those allegations were hurtful,” recalled Waqar. “Of course, reverse swing can be achieved without cheat-ing. Nowadays most of the bowlers do that and get wickets and help their teams win.”

While Wasim — nicknamed the “Sultan of Swing” — was never caught tampering, Waqar was slapped with a one-match suspension and fi ned 50 % of his match fee in a tri-series in Sri Lanka in 2000.

Waqar suggested only one brand of cricket ball should be used in interna-tional cricket, saying it would lead to a fairer contest.

“Why do we use diff erent brand of balls in diff erent countries?” Waqar asked. “In my opinion the Duke ball is the best and the SG comes close to it. They are the best balls for swing so in order to have uniformity and better swing these balls should be used eve-rywhere.

“This will help bowlers and this will also produce better batsmen. We should solve the problem and not in-dulge in the blame game.”

Pak legends say reverse swing is ‘art’ not ‘cheating’SPOTLIGHT

Australian cricketer David Warner cries during a press conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) yesterday.

South African batsman Temba Bavuma plays a shot on the second day of the fourth Test match against Australia at Wanderers cricket ground in Johannesburg yesterday.

Swing twins: Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

Cavaliers survive as LeBron breaks Jordan’s recordReutersLos Angeles

LeBron James broke the NBA record for con-secutive games scoring at least 10 points and

added 17 more as the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 107-102, on Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

It was the 867th consecu-tive regular-season game in which James has scored at least 10 points, breaking a tie with Michael Jordan for the longest such streak in NBA history. The streak began January 5, 2007.

The record will stand for at least several years because the next closest active streak belongs to Houston’s James Harden (258 after Friday’s game against Phoenix ).

James was honoured during a stoppage in play as the crowd of 20,500 gave him a big ovation and he was handed the game ball.

“It will probably go in my trophy case with a lot of accom-plishments in my life,” James said of the ball.

“That’s a good moment, a special moment not only for myself but for my family and for so many kids that look up to me for inspiration to know that you can actually go out there and do it.

“(You) know, where I’ve come from, brought up 30 minutes south of here, and the statis-tics is always stacked up against you, and for me to be in this po-sition today, being able to ac-complish something that a lot of people thought would not happen again or be able to break a record like that.

“It means a lot for me.”Jordan Clarkson added 23

points and Rodney Hood scored 16 for the Cavaliers, who main-tained their hold on third place in the Eastern Conference.

They stayed a half-game ahead of Philadelphia, which beat Atlanta, 101-91, and moved a game in front of idle Indiana.

Jrue Holiday led New Orleans with 25 points, Nikola Mirotic added 20, Anthony Davis scored 16 and Darius Miller had 11.

The Pelicans, who lost their

third straight game, slipped into a tie with Utah for the seventh spot in the Western Conference after the Jazz beat the Grizzlies

on Friday night. New Orleans sits one game

back of idle San Antonio and a half-game behind Minnesota,

who hung on against Dallas, and Oklahoma City, who lost in overtime to Denver.

The Pelicans are two games

ahead of the Nuggets and Clip-pers, who both sit outside the playoff picture.

The Cavaliers cut the Peli-cans’ 10-point halftime lead to fi ve during the fi rst two minutes of the third quarter, but Mirotic answered with back-to-back 3-pointers.

The lead reached 13 before Clarkson made two 3-pointers and Jeff Green added a three-point play during a 20-6 run that gave Cleveland a 78-77 lead.

Ian Clark made a jumper for New Orleans, but Green an-swered with a jumper that gave the Cavaliers an 80-79 lead af-ter three quarters.

Mirotic and Miller each made a 3-pointer to give the Pelicans an 85-82 lead before Cleveland made another run. J.R. Smith, Clarkson and Jose Calderon each made a 3-pointer and Cleveland built a 95-88 lead midway through the quarter.

Holiday scored six straight New Orleans points, but James countered with eight straight for the Cavaliers to give them a 105-98 lead with 1:59 remaining. Baskets by Solomon Hill and Holiday got the Pelicans within three and they had a chance to tie, but Holiday’s 3-pointer missed with 18 seconds left.

Smith made a free throw and Holiday missed another shot before Clarkson made a free throw for a fi ve-point lead with eight seconds left.

Gerald Green drilled a cor-ner 3-pointer at the buzzer, and Houston extended its winning streak to 11 games with a victory over Phoenix at Toyota Center.

Rookie Josh Jackson sank a pull-up jumper with 1.4 sec-onds left to push Phoenix back in front after Rockets guard James Harden hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 12.2 seconds left. Harden had been 0-for-7 from behind the arc before momen-tarily knotting the score at 101.

RESULTSCleveland .. 107 New Orleans 102Portland ..... 105 LA Clippers ... 96Dallas ..........92 Minnesota ......93Atlanta ........91 Philadelphia 101Utah ............. 107 Memphis .........97Houston ..... 104 Phoenix .........103Oklma City 125 Denver ...........126 Orlando......77 Chicago .......... 88

NBA

‘That’s a good moment, a special moment not only for myself but for my family and for so many kids that look up to me for inspiration to know that you can actually go out there and do it’

SPORT5Gulf Times

Sunday, April 1, 2018

By Jim ThomasSt. Louis Post-Dispatch

The St. Louis Blues’ playoff ex-press hit a bump in the road Friday at T-Mobile Arena. A 4-3 overtime loss to the expan-

sion Vegas Golden Knights snapped the team’s winning streak at six games in a row, and with just fi ve games left in the regular season the Blues still have work to do to avoid missing the playoff s for the fi rst time in seven seasons.

At 43-28-4, they have 92 points in their quest for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Johnathan Marchessault scored the game winner, his second goal of the night, just 22 sec-onds into overtime.

Vegas (49-22-7) avoided the fate of current playoff teams Boston, Colum-bus and San Jose, who all fell to the Blues during their winning streak. The Golden Knights can clinch the Pacifi c Division title with a victory Saturday over San Jose.

Entering the game, the Blues were in line to play the Golden Knights in the fi rst round of the playoff s. Coach Mike Yeo reminded his team of that potential pairing before the contest.

“Let’s send a message here in this game that we wouldn’t be very much fun to play against,” Yeo said.

It was a message the Blues couldn’t quite deliver despite rallying to tie the

score in the third period.The Blues needed at least a point

to stay in a playoff slot because both Colorado and Anaheim won Friday. The Ducks have 93 points and the Ava-lanche have 92. But the Blues have a game in hand on both teams, and have two games in hand with the Los Angeles Kings, barely in third place in the Pacifi c Division with 94 points.

Oskar Sundqvist won a dinner bet with Chris Thorburn against San Jose over who would score fi rst this season. Turns out Thorburn was just one game too late in scoring his fi rst of the season, with a huge goal for the Blues at the 6:14 mark of the third period to tie the score at 3-all.

First Thorburn, and then Sundqvist, helped keep the puck alive down be-low the Vegas net. The puck went to Scottie Upshall, playing his fi rst game since suff ering a knee injury March 3 in Dallas.

Upshall fed Thorburn from behind the net, and Thorburn skated in front of Vegas goalie Malcolm Subban and beat him through the legs.

With a healthy sprinkling of Blues fans in the building, the crowd at T-Mobile was jacked up from the open-ing faceoff . Chants of “Let’s go, Blues!” erupted less than three minutes into the game when Patrik Berglund took a feed in the near slot from Alexander Steen and buried it past goalie Subban.

It was Berglund’s 13th goal of the sea-

son and his fi fth in the last nine games. The Blues had the better of it in the early going, using tenacious checking to get most of the early off ensive zone time. They even had a pair of power-play chances basically back to back, with just 16 seconds in between them, but couldn’t stand the prosperity.

In fact, roughly midway through the second Vegas penalty - a delay of game penalty against Subban for fi r-ing the puck over the glass - the Golden Knights tied the score on a short-hand-ed goal by William Karlsson.

Karlsson’s 41st goal of the season came after he was sprung on a breaka-way on a stretch pass from Cody Eakin.

It became 2-1 Vegas at the 13:31 mark of the opening period when Marches-sault went backdoor on Jake Allen for his 26th goal of the season.

But the Blues had all sorts of chanc-es and near chances in the period, and cashed in at 16:09 when Jaden Schwartz kept the puck alive along the boards and then fed Brayden Schenn in the right fa-ceoff circle. Schenn pivoted and ripped a shot past Subban for his 26th goal, matching his career high set in 2015-16 in Philadelphia.

That made it a 2-2 game in a fi rst pe-riod that included only 15 shots com-bined by the teams. Subban, by the way, was starting in place of Marc-Andre Fleury, making him the sixth backup goalie the Blues have faced in their past seven games.

Schenn had another great chance, this time from the slot, three minutes into the second period, but Subban made the save. Oskar Sundqvist found himself with the puck right at Subban’s feet three minutes later, but former Blue Brad Hunt got his stick in the way to ruin what looked like a great chance.

The Blues survived a Berglund slash-ing penalty midway through the sec-ond, but the Golden Knights had more off ensive zone time than in the fi rst pe-riod.

With the period winding down, Ve-gas took the lead 3-2 after a takeaway in the St. Louis zone. Schwartz slipped, and Tomas Tatar came up with the puck around the blue line.

He fed Erik Haula down low, who went across the goal mouth for James Neal. Neal, camped near the net, beat Allen high with a quick shot for his 25th goal of the season at the 16:35 mark.

Young defenseman Jordan Schmaltz, pressed into the lineup following Carl Gunnarsson’s season-ending knee in-jury last Saturday in Columbus, suf-fered an upper-body injury in the fi rst period and did not return to the game.

RESULTSToronto ..............5 NY Islanders .....4 Tampa Bay .......7 NY Rangers ......3 Carolina .............4 Washington .......1 Colorado ...........5 Chicago .............0 Anaheim ............2 Los Angeles.......1 (OT) Las Vegas..........4 St. Louis ..............3 (OT)

Golden Knights end Blues’ winning streakNHL

Price shines as Red Sox edge Rays 1-0ReutersSt. Petersburg, USA

Rafael Devers’ RBI single in the seventh inning proved to be enough of-fense for the Boston Red

Sox after a solid start by David Price paved the way to a 1-0 vic-tory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Price (1-0), who spent the fi rst seven-plus seasons of his MLB career with the Rays, tossed seven shutout innings with fi ve strikeouts while allowing only four hits and walking none. Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth for his fi rst save of the year.

It was another solid outing for a Red Sox starter after Chris Sale tossed a six-inning one-hitter with nine strikeouts in the sea-son opener Thursday, only for Boston to blow a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning in an eventual 6-4 defeat.

The scoreless outings from Price and Sale marked the fi rst time that the Red Sox’s fi rst two starters in a season posted con-secutive scoreless eff orts since Lefty Grove and Jim Bagby Jr. in 1940, according to STATS LLC.

Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings with three hits, two walks and two strikeouts in a no-decision. Chaz Roe (0-1) allowed a run in 1/3 of an inning

and took the loss when Jose Alvar-ado gave up the RBI hit to Devers.

Xander Bogaerts went 2-for-4 with two doubles and a run and Hanley Ramirez was 2-for-4 with two strikeouts for Boston. No Rays batter had more than one hit, as Tampa Bay totalled only four hits.

The win was the fi rst for new Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was hired to replace John Farrell this past off season.

Bogaerts led off the top of the seventh with a double and was promptly brought home by De-vers as he rolled a single into cen-tre for the game’s only off ense.

Boston’s Rick Porcello makes his season debut Saturday night for the third of four games against Tampa Bay to start the season. The Rays will implement their “bullpen day” plan Satur-day, using a combination of re-lievers to pitch the game.

RESULTSRed Sox ..................1 Rays ...............0Marlins ..................2 Cubs ............... 1 ... (17 innings)Yankees ................4 Blue Jays ..... 2Nationals ..............2 Reds...............0Texas ......................5 Houston ....... 1Angels ...................2 A’s .................... 1Pirates ................. 13 Tigers .......... 10 ... (13 innings)Diamondbacks .9 Rockies ........ 8Philadelphia .......5 Atlanta.......... 4 .... (11 innings)Giants......................1 Dodgers ......0

MLB

Vegas Golden Knights players celebrate after defeating the St. Louis Blues in overtime at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher David Price throws a pitch during the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Rypien opens up on mental health issuesMark Rypien, the MVP of Super Bowl XXVI, revealed that he once attempted suicide as a result of mental health issues he believes originated from his days of playing football. “I suff er from a complex stew of mental health conditions,” Rypien told Spokane, Wash., TV station KHQ. “Dark places, depression, anxiety, addictions, poor choices, poor decisions, brought about from dozens of concussions and thousands of subconcussive injuries from playing this sport.”Rypien opened up on his mental health with both KHQ-TV and The Spokesman-Review in the hopes that sharing his story would help urge others to share theirs. He said the January suicide of Washing-ton State quarterback Tyler Hilinski and the death of Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) High School principal Troy Schueller from an apparent self-iNFLicted gunshot wound earlier this month pushed him to speak out. “Let me share my story so others can share theirs,” Rypien said. “Let’s get rid of this silence that happens when you’re caught up in this cycle and you don’t know how to find the help I’ve been aff orded. There are ways to get help... My story is impactful because people see me in a diff erent light. I want them to see me in an accurate light. I’ve been down the darkest path. I’ve made some horrible, horrible mistakes. But I’ve given myself a chance to progress forward.”

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James acknowledges the crowd aft er setting the record for most consecutive games with double digit points in NBA history during the game against New Orleans Pelicans at Quicken Loans Arena. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

AFPMiami

John Isner produced a blis-tering Miami Open semi-fi nal display against crowd favourite Juan Martin Del

Potro to win 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) and snap the former US Open cham-pion’s 15-match winning streak.

It was a phenomenal eff ort from the American who blasted down 13 aces and took just one hour and 23 minutes to fl oor Ar-gentina’s Del Potro and book his place in today’s fi nal. Isner will meet world number fi ve Alexan-der Zverev in the fi nal after the German rolled over Spaniard Pa-blo Carreno Busta 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 in the other semi-fi nal.

“I have played a lot of big matches and not been able to get such a good start but I am play-ing some of the best tennis I have played in such a long time,” Isner said.

“I started the tournament well and I have improved with every game. I am super fresh and ready to go for the fi nal.”

An exhausted Del Potro said he is looking forward to some much-needed time away from tennis before deciding on when to play next.

Winning the fi nal would have seen him climb to world number three but simply staying fi t for the French Open in May is the ultimate goal.

French Open target

“I don’t want to think about tennis right now,” said the Ar-gentine.

“I just want to stay healthy and maybe I will miss a few tournaments to get ready for the French Open. We will come up with a schedule for the clay court season. I will go home now, eat some barbeque, spend time with friends and not talk about tennis for the next few weeks.”

Isner, who won an impressive 83 percent of points on his sec-ond serve, was aiming to reach his fi fth ATP Masters fi nal and, fi nally, emerge victorious from one after four defeats.

The American had never reached the showpiece here but knew that with the fi t again Del Potro in such devastating form and unbeaten in his last 15 matches, it would take a monu-mental eff ort to upset the Argen-tine and his hordes of followers at Crandon Park. The American wasted no time in breaking Del Potro and racing into a 3-0 lead while sending down fi ve aces on his own serve to brilliantly wrap up the fi rst set in just 27 minutes.

The second set was a tight af-fair, going into the ninth game with the match delicately poised

at 4-4.Isner suddenly had a chance

to break which was saved by Del Potro after the world number 17 hit the net, a mistake which was punished by an ace and drop shot from the crowd favourite.

Deafening chants of ‘Delpo, Delpo’ rang around the main stadium here as the 29-year-old tried to force a deciding set yet Isner’s serve held fi rm to force a tie-break.

The momentum was with the American, his serve reaching 136 mph as he fl ew into a 3-0 lead. Isner’s serve was relentless and on target every single time mak-ing it impossible for Del Potro to get a foothold in the game, and when an excellent passing shot gave Isner four match points, he took the fi rst with a brilliant drop volley to complete one of the fi nest wins of his career.

Zverev needed 88 minutes to

oust Carreno Busta and punch his ticket to the fi nal. The 20-year-old Zverev will be seek-ing his seventh career ATP title and fi rst of the season when he

faces Isner. Zverev blasted 10 aces and won 88 percent of his fi rst serve points in his fi rst ca-reer meeting with the 26-year-old Carreno Busta.“Every day I

want to serve big,” said Zverev, who improved to 13-4 on the season. I was very fortunate to win the fi rst set and then I found my game in the second set.”

‘I have played a lot of big matches and not been able to get such a good start but I am playing some of the best tennis I have played in such a long time’

SPORT

Gulf Times Sunday, April 1, 20186

Isner stuns Del Potro to reach Miami fi nal

TENNIS

AFPDubai

Thunder Snow stormed to a shock vic-tory in yesterday’s Dubai World Cup to give Godolphin its seventh win in the race, after holding off favourite

West Coast.Under Belgian jockey Christophe Sou-

millon, four-year-old colt Thunder Snow led from the front ahead of West Coast and cruised to victory by fi ve-and-three-quarter lengths to win at odds of 8-1.

It gave trainer Saeed bin Suroor an incred-ible eighth Dubai World Cup win and fi rst since Prince Bishop in 2015.

It was a third near-miss in big races for the Bob Baff ert-trained West Coast, after fi n-ishing second in the Pegasus World Cup and third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

But Thunder Snow earned redemption after refusing to run at last year’s Kentucky Derby by winning the $10 million race.

Mubtaahij completed the places in third at 28-1, behind stablemate West Coast.

North America had been seen as the likeli-est challenger to West Coast, but missed the break to eff ectively end his chances.

The mile-and-a-quarter contest quickly became a straight fi ght between the leading duo, and although West Coast looked well-placed on the outside of Thunder Snow com-

ing into the home straight, the three-year-old colt was left trailing and only just hung on for second.

The Dubai World Cup retains plenty of its prestige, despite being usurped as the world’s most lucrative race two years ago by the Pegasus World Cup.

But it remains the richest day in interna-tional racing, worth $30 million, and Godol-phin completed a stunning clean sweep of the

three closing races. After 4-1 favourite Ben-batl powered clear to win the $6 million Du-bai Turf, William Buick guided Hawkbill to a front-running victory in the Dubai Sheema Classic, also worth $6 million.

Jungle Cat won the Group-One Al Quoz Sprint for Godolphin after favourite Blue Point was a late non-runner, with Mind Your Biscuits claiming the other top-level race of the day in the Dubai Golden Shaheen.

Thunder Snow triumphsHORSE RACING

Struggling Djokovic splits with coach AgassiFormer world number one Novak Djokovic has parted company with head coach Andre Agassi after struggling to rediscover his form following a long elbow injury layoff . “With only the best intentions I tried to help Novak. We far too often found ourselves agreeing to disagree,” American Agassi said in a statement broadcast by ESPN. “I wish him only the best mov-ing forward.”The split leaves Djokovic’s coaching staff down to Czech Radek Stepanek, who joined on a part-time basis after eight times grand slam winner Agassi came on board ahead of last year’s French Open.Djokovic, the winner of 12 grand slams, suff ered a sharp decline in form after lifting his maiden French Open title in 2016 to complete a career

slam. After failing to retain his title at Roland Garros, the Serb retired against Czech Tomas Berdych in the Wimbledon quarter-finals and was sidelined for six months with a recurring elbow injury.Following a last-16 Australian Open exit to South Korean youngster Chung Hyeon in January, the 30-year-old Djokovic had elbow surgery but has struggled to make an impact since returning to action.He suff ered successive defeats this month to Ja-pan’s Taro Daniel in the first round at Indian Wells and to Frenchman Benoit Pare at the Miami Open, looking a pale shadow of his former vintage self. Djokovic is due to play at the Monte Carlo Masters, which is scheduled for April 14-22.

Park, Lindberg surge into leadPark Sung-hyun fired an eight-under-par 64 to thrust herself into contention at the top of the leaderboard at the ANA Inspiration on Friday as she chases a second major after a dazzling rookie season. The 24-year-old star from South Korea shrugged off an opening bogey to card seven birdies and an eagle at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, California, to claim a share of the second round lead. Park, who last year won the US Women’s Open at Trump National in her first year on the LPGA Tour, heads into the weekend on 12 under alongside Sweden’s Pernilla Lindberg after 36 holes, leading by three from Jessica Korda of the United States on nine under. Lindberg, the first round leader, followed up her opening 65 with a five-under-par 67 while Korda remained in the hunt with a 68.But the day belonged to Korea’s Park, who made the cut of every event she entered in her rookie LPGA season, and was also the first rookie in history to make it to world number one in the rankings. Friday’s highlight was an eagle two on the par-four 15th, when she holed out from around 100 yards.“Today the shots were awesome,” Park said afterwards.

Fowler slips as Hossler takes lead in HoustonAFPHouston

Rickie Fowler edged closer to a timely fi rst victory of the year despite letting slip a

share of the lead with a closing hole bogey on day two of the Houston Open here Friday.

Fowler kick-started his second round 68 in storming manner with four birdies from his second to sixth holes to race to 10-under par in cloud-less conditions on a still rain-softened Golf Club of Houston course.

The current world number eight then stalled with six straight pars before mov-ing into a share of the lead at 11-under after chipping to just 18-inches for birdie at the par-5 13th hole.

Fowler, whose last vic-tory came at December’s Hero World Challenge in the Baha-mas, then parred his next four holes only to drop a shot at the last after sending his tee shot into water down the left side of the 18th for a four-under 68.

The 29-year old Fowler headed to the scorer’s hut trail-ing a stroke behind compatriot Ben Hossler (68) and tied in second place with fellow coun-trymen Abraham Ancer (66), Sam Ryder (68) and Nicholas Lindheim (66)

“I got off to a nice start as you can see with four bird-ies through the fi rst six, but it would have been nice to get a couple better looks through the rest of the round and fi nish off a little bit better,” Fowler said.

“So, it’s nice to obviously be in the position I’m in and not having my best stuff .

“I’ve been playing solid the fi rst two days, but some things we can clean up and looking forward to the weekend, for sure.”

Five players - the American foursome of Jordan Spieth (67), Bronson Burgoon (68), Kevin Tway (70), Julian Suri (69) and Ireland’s Paul Dunne (71) – share sixth place on nine-under par.

Spieth capped his ever-improving form, and with less than a week to the Masters, with fi ve birdies in a six-hole run from the ninth to the 14th

hole.“Honestly, my goal for the

week’s been accomplished just in two rounds,” said Spieth.

“I am just trying to show some consistency and make some birdies, see a couple putts go in,” he added.

The day began with Irishman Dunne taking the fi rst round lead as Thursday’s weather-hit fi rst round was completed.

Dunne returned to the course at 7.20am local time and birdied two of his closing four holes in an eight-under-par 64.

It is the fi rst time Dunne, who secured his Houston start by fi nishing top-10 in last week’s PGA Tour Corales Championship in the Domini-can Republic, has led a PGA Tour event.

But the fi reworks over his fi rst round dried-up with Dunne managing just three birdies against two bogeys for a 71.

“The course played a lot dif-ferent heading into my second round as the wind picked-up but then to shoot a 64 and to offi cially lead a PGA Tour is something I haven’t done be-fore,” he said.

“The good thing is I am driv-ing the ball well and this is after not playing all that well about three to four weeks ago but I did some good work in the fortnight leading into last week competing in the Dominican Republic.

“So, everything is in good place with nothing being spec-tacular.”

Leading second round scores133 - Beau Hossler 65-68134 - Rickie Fowler 66-68, Sam Ryder 66-68, Abraham Ancer 68-66, Nicholas Lindheim 68-66135 - Paul Dunne (IRL) 64-71, Bronson Burgoon 67-68, Jor-dan Spieth 68-67, Kevin Tway 65-70, Julian Suri 66-69136 - Shawn Stefani 67-69, Ryan Palmer 66-70, Murray Grayson 67-69, Matt Kuchar 68-68, Shane Lowry (IRL) 68-68, Luke List 68-68, Chesson Hadley 68-68, Bud Caulay 67-69, Sam Saunders 70-66, James Hahn 69-67, Henrik Stenson (SWE) 68-68, Brett Stegmaier 66-69.

GOLF

Cherif Younousse and Tajin Ahmed of Qatar-3 team receive Emir Cup Beach Volleyball trophy from Secretary-General of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Jassim Rashid al –Buenain. Younousse and Ahmed won the inaugural event defeating Julio and Martinez (left) of Qatar-1 (2-1) in the final at the Sea Line Beach yesterday. They reached the final after beating Al Shamal while Qatar-1 outplayed Al Khor 21-14, 21-8 in the semi-finals. In the third place playoff , Al Shamal (right) defeated Al Khor 2-1 to book the podium spot.

Younousse-Tajin win Emir Cup Beach V’ball

John Isner of the United States hits a forehand against Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in their Miami Open semi-final at Tennis Centre at Crandon Park. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Jockey Christophe Soumillon celebrates after winning the Dubai World Cup on Thunder Snow in Dubai yesterday. (AFP)

Lebanon regain ACFT trophy

By Sports ReporterDoha

Lebanon regained the Sixth Asian Commu-nities Football Tour-nament (ACFT) after

defeating India in a penalty-shootout (4-3) after a 1-1 dead-lock at the Al Arabi Stadium.

Lebanon, who fi rst won the title in 2015, also received a cash prize of QR15,000, while India and Jordan received cash prizes of QR10,000 and QR5000 re-spectively. Top scorer of the tournament Hussein Mansour received QR5,000 and a trophy.

Mohamed al-Saghir was ad-judged the best player, while Ali Krayem was declared the best goalkeeper of the tournament. The best coach award went to Ali Koteish.

The fi nal match and the clos-ing ceremony were attended by ambassador of Nepal Ramesh Prasad Koirala, ambassador of Malaysia Dato’ Ahmad Fadil

Shamsuddin, ambassador of the Philippines Alan L Tim-bayan, ambassador of India P Kumaran and ambassador of Lebanon Hasan Najem.

The fi nal was also attended by Qatar Football Associa-tion (QFA) Board Member Hani Ballan, Chairman of the Sub-Leagues Committee at QFA Hilal al-Mohannadi and Com-munity Engagement Manager at the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy Khalid

al-Jumaily. Speaking on the occasion,

Hilal al-Mohannadi said: “I would like to congratulate Lebanon on winning the title of this year’s Asian Communi-ties Football Tournament, they deserved the win. We are very happy with the turnout of fans to the fi nal as it demonstrates the football passion in Qatar. The ACFT demonstrates QFA’s objective which is to organise a tournament that acts as an ef-fective tool to help support in-tegration and positive commu-

nity engagement amongst the various communities in Qatar through football.

“We thank our partners for their ongoing support which started in 2013, their support is valuable for the ACFT and it also provides a unique oppor-tunity for community teams to take part in this signifi cant tournament while allowing the teams to display their talents and love for football.”

Khalid al-Jumaily said: “I would like to congratulate Lebanon on winning fi rst place tonight, and I would also like to congratulate India on earn-ing second place in the tourna-ment. India played really well throughout the match, howev-er, Lebanon were determined to win this edition, and were keen on not repeating what hap-pened in last year’s fi nal, which was to lose against Jordan.

“We are happy to sponsor the ACFT once again as we consider it to be a tournament that suc-cessfully spreads the culture of

football in Qatar, and also en-courages the various commu-nities to lead a healthy lifestyle through playing football. Leba-non and Jordan communities have a big passion for football and their teams possess incred-ible football skills.”

The sixth ACFT is sponsored by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy as the of-fi cial strategic partner, Nike as the offi cial supplier, and Al Kass Sports Channels as the offi cial broadcaster. Organised by the QFA, the ACFT is a community tournament which brings to-gether various Asian communi-ties residing in Qatar to display their football passion on the fi eld, and encourages them to play more football in a fun com-petitive environment.

The 12-team tournament was played from January 11 to March 30 at the Al Gharafa Stadium, the Al Markhiya Sports Club, the Doha Stadium and Al Arabi Stadium. Matches were played on Thursdays and Fridays to

allow the community teams to take part in the fun-packed tournament during the week-end. Jordan, India, Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Korea Re-public, Singapore, Japan, Leba-non, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nepal were the participat-ing teams.

The tournament this year followed the traditional format of twelve teams being split into two groups of six where they played group stage matches, followed with the top four teams of each group qualifying for the knockout stage.

The ACFT was launched in sports season 2012-2013 and witnessed the participation of six teams in the fi rst edition.

In its’ fi rst edition, the tour-nament saw huge success and as a result, the following edi-tions witnessed a big increase in the number of participating teams as more communities ex-pressed huge interest in being part of the exciting community tournament.

SPOTLIGHT

SPORT7Gulf Times

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Lebanon players celebrate after winning the Sixth Asian Communities Football Tournament at the Al Arabi Stadium. PICTURE: Shemeer Rasheed

By Sports ReporterDoha

Al Nasr defeated Al Matar 2-1 and fi nished with 30 points to win the Qatar Amateur League (QAL) yesterday.

Al Bidda came second with 29 points af-ter defeating Al Khabayib 3-1 in their last game.

Al Nasr received a cash prize of QR80,000, while Al Bidda and Al Ma-tar received a cash prize of QR60,000 and QR40,000 respectively. QR5,000 was given to the top scorer of the league Yehia al-Haj of Qatar University team. Al Matar team won the best team trophy.

The prize-giving ceremony was attended by Ambassador of Lebanon Hasan Najem, QFA Board Member Hani Ballan, Chair-man of the Sub-Leagues Committee at Qatar Football Association (QFA) Hilal al-Mohannadi and Community Engagement Manager at the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy Khalid al-Jumaily.

Hilal al-Mohannadi commented: “Con-gratulations to Al Nasr on winning the fi fth edition of the Qatar Amateur League. They have played well and deserved to win champions tonight. The goal of organiz-ing the QAL is that the amateur players in

Qatar deserve an amateur league and this tournament illustrates QFA’s 2021 vision to improve and develop amateur football in Qatar.

“I would like to thank the sponsors for their support which ensures the over-all success of the QAL. I would also like to thank Aspetar for providing the necessary medical services for the players and ensur-ing the medical treatment of players in case of injuries.”

Organising the QAL demonstrates QFA’s commitment to providing a platform for teams from the social, corporate and gov-ernmental sectors to integrate and interact through football in a fun and competitive environment.

The participating teams were Qatar Uni-versity, Al Khabayib, Madinat Khalifa, The Pearl, Al Nasr, Lusail, Al Thakhira, Al Thu-mama, Al Maroona, Al Bidda, Al Aziziya, Al Matar, and Doha. The matches were played at Doha Stadium, Al Markhiya Sports Club and Qatar University.

The QAL’s sponsors for this year include The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy as the Offi cial Strategic Partner, Qatar National Bank (QNB) as the Exclu-sive Financial Partner, Nike as the Offi cial Supplier, Al Kass Channel as the Offi cial Broadcaster and The Look Company as the Branding Partner.

Al Nasr clinch Qatar Amateur LeagueFOCUS

Al Nasr players celebrate with the trophy after winning the Qatar Amateur League.

Bolds, Stoglin shine as Wakrah and Rayyan post winsBy Sports ReporterDoha

Demarius Bolds scored a match-high 34 points as Al Wakrah raised their game a notch at

the halfway stage and clinched an 83-75 win in the Emir’s Cup basketball tournament at the Al Gharafa Sports Club yesterday.

Bolds was superbly aided by Adamu Saaka who recorded 22 points of his own as Al Wak-rah overcame a stumbling start to put it across their rivals in a match which Al Arabi led for 31 minutes.

Al Arabi raced to a 20-12 lead after the fi rst quarter and main-tained their momentum for a substantial 33-23 advantage at the midway stage.

The course of the match swung after that, however, as Al Wakrah produced 26 points in the third quarter and restricted Al Arabi to just 16.

That saw the teams headed into the fourth period with the scores tied at 49, but Al Wak-rah came up with a spectacular 34-point eff ort that left Al Arabi totally stumped.

Of Bolds’ 34 points, 15 came

from three-pointers, and he also shot a 100% from free throws – nailing seven out of seven.

For Al Arabi, William Byrd scored 29 points, while Nichlas Stover had 25 and Khalid Abdi 12.

In the second match of the day, Al Rayyan defeated Qatar Sports Club 98-93 with the pat-tern of play similar to that of the earlier tie.

Qatar Sports Club made a fast start to lead the fi rst quarter 23-20 and then 47-41 at the halfway stage. However, Al Rayyan, much like Al Wakrah earlier turned the tables with fi ne displays in the fi nal two quarters.

After tying the scores at 66 at the end of the third quarter, Al Rayyan went on a scoring spree over the fi nal 10 minutes to record 32 points.

Qatar Sports Club didn’t fare too badly either with 27 points, but in the fi nal analysis that proved a futile eff ort.

Terrel De Von Stoglin was the to-scorer for Al Rayyan with 34 points, while Mohamed Abdelk-away and Abdelrehman Abdel-haleem had 16 each.

For Qatar Sports Club, Baden Jaxen scored 26, while Abdirah-man Giama and Brandan Kear-ney scored 24 each.

EMIR’S CUP BASKETBALL

QNB to sponsor Qatar Cycling and Triathlon activities

Qatar Cycling and Triathlon Federation announced the sponsorship agreement with QNB for its activities in the coming period.The agreement was signed by assistant general manager of the bank’s communications department Salem Anzan al-Nuaimi and president of the Qatar Cycling Federation and Triathlon Dr Mo-hamed Jaham al-Kuwari. The sponsorship comes within the frame-work of the QNB keenness to support Qatari sport in general and to continue to raise the level of cycling and triathlon in Qatar.“This new sponsorship aimed at supporting aerobics and triathlon, which have seen great development in Qatar over the past years and is very popular with young people and children in Qatar,” said al-Nuaimi. He pointed out that this sponsorship also comes within the QNB’s policy to support all national institutions and federations in the sports sector in Qatar in line with the vision and mission of the Group on one hand, and to strengthen the Qatari sports movement on the other hand.On his part, Dr al-Kuwari expressed hope that national and private companies and institutions would follow the example of QNB, stressing that the Federation is always striving to achieve the best results and the largest, both at the level of hosting major tourna-ments and participation or achieve victories and culmination in competitions. (QNA)

Leabanon, India were tied 1-1 and match was forced into penalty shootout

Al Wakrah and Al Arabi players in action during their Emir’s Cup basketball tournament at the Al Gharafa Sports Club yesterday.

Sunday, April 1, 2018

GULF TIMES SPORT

Al-Sulaiti and al-Naimi win to set up exciting fi nal round

QATAR SUPERSTOCK 600

Essa al-Mutawa and Jassim al-Thani emerge winners in the QSTK Trophy at Losail International Circuit

Al-Emadi clinches Big Tour Class at Hathab seriesSPOTLIGHT

By Sports ReporterDoha

Salman Mohammed al-Emadi emerged triumphant in the Big Tour class during the 10th leg of the Hathab Qatar Equestrian

Tour yesterdayAt the Al Shaqab Indoor arena, al-

Emadi guided his 17-year-old geld-ing Zorro Z to a comfortable win. The pair was comfortably the fastest in the fi eld, as they fi nished their jump-off in 39.55secs, which earned al-Emadi QR7500 in prize money.

Saeed Nasser al-Qadi continued his terrifi c form as he fi nished runner-up with Desperadito. Abdullah Ali al-Ajeil had to contend with third place despite timing second fastest Blanca, as he was penalised four second seconds for a fall.

Saeed Nasser al-Qadi collected his second win of the leg after clinching the Open Class title. Al-Qadi had won Medium Tour class on the opening day and he was in fi ne form yesterday too.

The Qatari rider piloted Daydreamer EC to victory in 58.62 secs. Mohamed al-Ghazali (Casanova SCH) fi nished second, while Ahmed Mohamed al-Ba-di (Latino 291) completed the podium.

In the Dressage events, Ali Mohamed al-Marri won the Level 1 competition with Fernhill Friendly Touch as the pair tallied 70.000 points. Saeed Hamad al-Rashdi (Graffi ti De Lully CH) was second, followed by Hassan al-Nuaimi (Santa Cruz III) third.

In Dressage Level 2, Saoud Ahmed al-Boinin came on top with Champi-on’s Prince. Sheikha Alanoud al-Thani (Candyman) fi nished second, while Paula Vazquez Morales (Whisper Mag-ic) and Mia Kardos (Toberlina T) shared the third respectively.

There are two more rounds of Hathab remaining with the 11th leg to be held on April 13 and 14. The 12th and fi nal round is scheduled for 26th, 27th and 28th of April. Hathab, meaning ‘Canter’ in Ara-bic, is an initiative of HE Sheikh Joaan

bin Hamad al-Thani, president of the Qatar Olympic Committee. The champi-onship is jointly organised by Al Shaqab and Qatar Equestrian Federation.

The series, which carries a total prize money of QR1mn, is open for Qatari nationals and also to residents of Qatar. Organisers aim to improve the standard of horse riding among Qatari youths through Hathab, while also encourag-ing the involvement of private stables and individual horse owners to increase awareness of horsemanship as part of Qatar’s history and tradition. Results of the competition will be used in the selection process of riders to represent Qatar in future international competi-tions. Each leg will carry points, with

only top seven results to be counted.

RESULTSBig Tour, Table A, One round against the clock with jump off , Art. 238.2.2,130/140cm. Prize Money: QR30,000

1. Salman Mohammed al-Emadi. Horse:

Zorro Z. Time: 39.55secs. Prize money:

QR7,500

2. Saeed Nasser al-Qadi. Desperadito.

42.86. QR6,000

3. Abdullah Ali al-Ajeil. Blanca. 41.25.

QR4,500

Open Class, Table A, One round against the clock, Art. 238.2.1, 115/125cm, Prize Money: QR15,000 1. Saeed Nasser al-Qadi. Horse: Daydream-

er EC. Time: 58.62 secs. Prize money:

QR3,750

2. Mohammed al-Ghazali. Casanova SCH.

60.03secs. QR3,000

3. Ahmed Mohammed al-Badi. Latino 291.

61.87secs. QR2,250

Dressage Level 1 - Test B, Prize Money QR10,0001. Ali Mohammed al-Marri. Horse: Fernhill

Friendly Touch. Score: 70.000. Prize

money: QR2,800

2. Saeed Hamad al-Rashdi. Graff iti De Lully

CH. 69.200. QR2,250

3. Hassan Hassan al-Nuaimi. Santa Cruz III.

68.200. QR1,750

Dressage Level 2 - Test B, Prize Money QR5,0001. Saoud Ahmed al-Boinin. Horse: Cham-

pion’s Prince. Score: 64.583. Prize money:

QR1,750

2. Sheikha Alanoud al-Thani. Candyman.

63.333. QR1,400

3. Paula Vazquez Morales. Whisper Magic.

61.250. QR925

3. Mia Kardos. Toberlina T. 61.250. QR925.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Saeed al-Sulaiti and Mishal al-Naimi shared the spoils, win-ning a race each during the fourth round of the Qatar Su-

perstock 600 at the Losail Internation-al Circuit yesterday.

But it was al-Naimi who went home to happier, having taken a slender one point lead over al-Sulaiti in the cham-pionship race, with just one round re-maining.

In fi rst race, al-Sulaiti topped the timesheets, followed by Nasser al-Mal-ki and al-Naimi in third place.

Qatar’s young rider Abdullah al-Qubaisi impressed when he led in the fi rst seven laps, but unfortunately en-countered a problem with the gear box and had to fi nish in fourth place. Hun-garian rider Balint Kovacs came fi fth.

In the second race of the day, al-Nai-mi stood on top of the podium and to his delight saw his championship rival al-Sulaiti fi nish eighth.

The race was fi lled with drama as Soud al-Thani crashed at Turn 6 which brought a temporary halt to the action as the red fl ag was waved. After the re-start, with only 10 laps remaining, al-Naimi pushed from the beginning and took the lead.

In the sixth lap, al-Sulaiti overtook al-Naimi and led the race but crashed in Turn 15 on the penultimate lap. The de-fending champion was able to rejoin the race but al-Naimi stormed to victory and lead the championship by a slender margin. Al-Malki fi nished again in sec-ond, while al-Qubaisi took third place.

Al-Sulaiti was happy with his win in the fi rst race, but disappointed with the result in the second. “In the fi rst race, I was not expecting to win as I had a bad day yesterday. In practice I was trying to fi nd the right set up with these con-ditions and it was tough so I did some change today and it was better,” he said.

“In the second race, I had a good start and I knew that Mishal will be strong with new tires. In the middle of the race I caught up Mishal but unfortunately at corner 15, I lost the front. I am not happy with the crash. This is the sec-ond time this season this happened to me, but still there are some positives to take and I have a chance to come back,” added al-Sulaiti.

He was impressed with Abdullah al-Qubaisi’s performance yesterday. “Ab-dullah did a great job this weekend and I am really happy to see him in this form. I worked really hard with him and fi nal-ly it is paying off now. He is the young-est Qatari rider and we all are counting on him to take this sport to another lev-el. I would like to thank to QMMF and Losail Circuit Sports Club and also to Ooredoo for their sponsor for believing in me,” al-Sulaiti said.

For Mishal al-Naimi the fourth round of the championship could not have been better. “In the fi rst race I had a problem with my arm and I tried to stay in the front group but it was not possi-ble at the beginning. Later I pushed and I managed to be in second position but in the last lap I couldn’t break and con-trol the bike, so Nasser passed me and I fi nished third.” al-Naimi explained.

“In the second race, I tried to push from the fi rst lap after the restart of the

race I felt better with the bike as I put more pressure on the tyres but af-ter four laps I had a problem with the tyres and I slowed half a second and it is when Saeed passed me. Overall I am very happy with the results, I am again leading the championship and many thanks to Ooredoo for sponsoring me and to Losail Circuit Sports Club and QMMF for the championship,” he said.

In the QSTK Trophy, pole-sitter Essa al-Mutawa won the fi rst race, with

Soud al-Thani in second and Jassim al-Thani in third. The second race was clinched by Jassim al-Thani, with al-Mutawa fi nishing second. Kuwaiti rider Mohamed al-Zaidan ended the race in third place.

Al-Mutawa is now leading the QSTK trophy and hopes to keep his perform-ance level up. “In the second race I tried to win again and I pushed until the last four laps. But I had problem with the front tyre and then I decided to take it

easy. I didn’t fi ght and decided to keep the position which was good for my championship hopes as Soud was out in the second race,” said al-Mutawa.

Jassim al-Thani was pleased with his results this weekend, having had to start from the back of the grid. The trophies were presented by Abdulrazak al-Kuwari, QMMF General Secretary and Juan Baquero, CEO Losail Circuit Sports Club. The fi fth and fi nal round will take place on 6th & 7th April 2018.

Action from the fourth round of the Qatar Superstock 600 Race 1 at the Losail International Circuit yesterday.

Qatar Superstock 600 Race 1 winner Saeed al-Sulaiti (centre), runner-up Nasser al-Malki (left) and Mishal al-Naimi, who finished third, pose on the podium yesterday.

In the QSTK Trophy, pole-sitter Essa al-Mutawa won the first race, with Soud al-Thani in second and Jassim al-Thani in third at the Losail International Circuit

Salman Mohammed al-Emadi receives his winner’s trophy from Al Shaqab’s Commercial Manager Omar al-Mannai after he won the Big Tour class during the 10th leg of the Hathab Qatar Equestrian Tour yesterday. PICTURES: Lotfi Garsi

Saeed Nasser al-Qadi guides Daydreamer EC to Open Class title.

Winners of the Dressage competition pose on the podium.