Sunday, March 4, 2018Jumada II 16, 1439 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Australia take lead past 400 in fi rst Test against Proteas

Road Warriors sink Hawks, Curry tweaks ankle

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Di Maria on themark as PSG turnfocus on Real MadridPage 2

Neymar’s foot operation successful, Brazil on edge

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Assessment for Brazil and PSG superstar in six weeks, in race to recover before World Cup in June

AFPZurich

Football’s lawmakers yesterday approved video assistant ref-eree technology (VAR) for this summer’s World Cup, in one

of the biggest changes to the sport in years.

The International Football Associa-tion Board (IFAB), meeting in Zurich, rubber-stamped a move already backed by FIFA’s top brass, including president Gianni Infantino.

“We came to the conclusion that VAR is good for football”, Infantino told re-porters shortly after IFAB announced the decision.

He added that the fi nal decision to use the technology at the World Cup in Russia will be made when the FIFA Council — world football’s top deci-sion-making body — meets in Colom-bia on March 15 and 16.

“We will hope and encourage the council to take a favourable decision,” Infantino said, voicing confi dence that VAR will secure fi nal approval.

IFAB said in a press release that the

decision “represents a new era for football with video assistance for ref-erees helping to increase fairness in the game”.

Separately, the IFAB meeting also ap-proved a fourth substitute in the case of extra time.

VAR can only be used when there is doubt surrounding any of four key game-changing situations: goals, penalty decisions, straight red cards or mistaken identity of a sanctioned player.

It has already been implemented in top European leagues including the German Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A.

Spain’s La Liga on Friday began training offi cials ahead of the technolo-gy’s expected introduction next season.

‘ALMOST PERFECT’?But opinion is still divided.

Players and managers have com-plained of referees being too eager to defer to technology, while fans in stadi-ums have been left in the dark as to why decisions are being made.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said this week that European foot-ball’s governing body would not intro-

duce VAR in next season’s Champions League due to ongoing “confusion” surrounding its use.

Infantino conceded that he too was once a sceptic.

“I was pretty much against it a cou-

ple of years ago and I changed my mind because I studied it,” he said.

He pointed to IFAB research from 1,000 matches showing that referee accuracy without VAR — which stood at 93 % — rose to 99 % with video as-sistance.

With VAR, referee decision-making was “almost perfect”, Infantino said.

Others have voiced concern about video assistance slowing down the game, possibly breaking a team’s mo-mentum or diminishing fan experience by forcing people to abruptly halt a cel-ebration while a goal is reviewed.

Infantino said that rather than ruin-ing celebrations, VAR will create “an additional moment of tension”.

The Football Association’s chief executive Martin Glenn, seated next to Infantino, conceded that improve-ments were needed.

That includes better communication with fans while reviews were ongoing and a better defi nition of what consti-tutes a “clear and obvious error” that justifi es a VAR review, Glenn said.

Asked about reported hostility to-wards video review with the Premier League, Glenn said he believed English

clubs understood the benefi ts of VAR “conceptually” and that its implemen-tation was likely only a matter of time.

‘READY FOR RUSSIA?’Some sceptics also have reservations about introducing such a signifi cant change at the June 14 to July 15 World Cup, before all the kinks have been re-solved at lower-profi le competition.

“I can guarantee the referees that will be at the World Cup will be ready”, In-fantino pledged.

Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of FIFA’s referee committee, noted that the governing body had been preparing for more than a year to use VAR at the 2018 World Cup even though the deci-sion has not been made.

“FIFA is not going to start tomorrow”, he told reporters. “We already started in December 2016”.

For Infantino, the overriding objec-tive was to ensure that referees are able to make the right calls, especially in an era when many fans have access to a full range of replays on their smartphones.

“At the end of the day what is... impor-tant for us is that we can help the referee to take the right decision”, he said.

Football’s laws body approves VAR for World CupBOTTOMLINE

In this October 25, 2017, picture, referee Wilton Pereira Sampaio (centre) and his assistants pass by a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) screen ahead the 2017 Copa Libertadores semi-final between River Plate and Lanus in Buenos Aires. (AFP)

AFPBelo Horizonte, Brazil

Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain superstar Neymar underwent successful surgery on his bro-ken foot yesterday, offi cials

said, leaving the planet’s most expen-sive footballer in a race to recover be-fore the World Cup.

The operation, performed by Bra-zilian national team surgeon Rodrigo Lasmar, began early yesterday morning in the Mater Dei hospital in Belo Hori-

zonte.Just after midday (1500 GMT), a

spokesman from the Brazilian football federation announced that the opera-tion was over.

“Neymar is already in his room. It went well,” he said.

PSG later added that he would not be able to return to training for at least six weeks, and insisted they would be monitoring his recuperation.

“The post-operation rehabilitation will begin immediately under the con-trol of the club’s physiotherapist,” PSG said in a statement on their website.

“An assessment will be conducted in six weeks in order to determine the possible date of his return to training.”

Neymar broke his fi fth metatarsal — the bone leading to his small toe — during a 3-0 drubbing of Marseille on February 25.

The striker — whose transfer from Barcelona cost PSG a record 222mn eu-ros ($264mn) last August — has scored 28 goals in 30 appearances in all com-petitions for the club.

Neymar will defi nitely miss PSG’s make-or-break Champions League last 16 second leg against Real Madrid

next Tuesday. But with Lasmar pre-dicting a recovery period of two and a half to three months, Brazil are worried that Neymar, 26, may not be fi t for the World Cup in Russia starting in June.

The rival demands of club and coun-try appeared to erupt into tension just as he went under the knife, with Paris newspaper L’Equipe reporting yester-day that PSG believe Lasmar lied about Neymar’s condition.

The report said that Neymar was initially found to have suff ered a minor fracture and that PSG were shocked to hear Lasmar say on Thursday that it

was a serious break requiring a longer than expected recuperation.

Globoesporte.com reported that PSG also insisted they control any future in-formation on the player’s health.

Staff at the hospital in Belo Hori-zonte, were put on paparazzi lockdown, with a ban on using cellphones any-where near the star.

WORLD CUP STILL POSSIBLEAfter a remarkable turnaround in for-tunes since the shambolic 7-1 semi-fi nal loss to Germany in the 2014 World Cup, Brazil are seen as top contenders in Russia.

But a big part of that optimism de-pends on the talented Neymar, who missed that infamous humiliation four years ago through injury.

Jose Luiz Runco, a former chief medical offi cer for the Brazilian team, told AFP that Neymar will walk with crutches after two to three weeks, ex-ercise while putting weight on his re-paired foot after about 60 to 75 days, and only then return to training.

“He’s likely to recover pretty quickly because he’s an athlete and young.”

A potential plus for Neymar is that the enforced break from competitive

football may do him good.“When you think how exhausting

the European season is, he could even arrive fresher than the others, both physically and emotionally,” said Cris-tiano Nunes, the physiotherapist for Brazilian club Internacional.

EXPECTATIONSNeymar may not be able to walk for a while, but he is already carrying the burden of a nation’s expectations.

“I hope he recovers quickly in time for the Cup,” said Mateus Falqueto, 13, who waited outside the hospital in the hope of getting Neymar’s autograph.

Rita di Cassia Sepulveda stopped by with her seven-year-old twin sons, Gabriel and Rafael, who are avid fans of the star.

“I don’t think fans like them exist anywhere else,” she said. “They watch all the games and when Neymar was in-jured they cried.”

Neymar has suff ered 14 injuries that forced him to miss at least one game, including the fractured vertebrae dur-ing the 2014 World Cup that kept him out of Brazil’s German thumping, but the latest is by far the most serious, Globoesporte.com said.

Doctors Gerard Saillant, an orthopaedist surgeon (left), and Brazilian national team surgeon Rodrigo Lasmar address a press conference after Neymar underwentsurgery on his broken foot yesterday. (AFP)

Neymar arrives at Mater Dei hospital for his surgery on a fractured metatarsal and a sprained ankle in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on Friday. (Reuters)

Di Maria on the mark as PSG turn focus on Madrid

Guardiola heaps praise on ‘master’ tactician Conte

Liverpool up to second, Son rises as Spurs cruise

LIGUE 1 FOCUS

PREMIER LEAGUE

FOOTBALL

Gulf Times Sunday, March 4, 20182

Argentine and Nkunku score in win over Troyes; Parisians 14 points clear at top

AFPParis

Angel Di Maria kept up his irre-sistible form as a Paris Saint-Germain side missing Neymar, Edinson Cavani and Kylian

Mbappe defeated Troyes 2-0 ahead of their Champions League showdown with Real Madrid.

The Argentine notched his 13th goal in 14 starts this year during yesterday’s visit to the Stade de l’Aube, which coincided with Neymar successfully undergoing an operation to repair a broken bone in his right foot.

Academy product Christopher Nkunku marked his fi rst start of the season with his fi rst goal this term 13 minutes from time to complete a victory that left PSG 14 points clear of defending champions Monaco at the top of Ligue 1.

“Ahead of a big match and after (league and French Cup wins over) Mar-seille, I’m very happy because we kept up our level of play,” PSG coach Unai Emery said.

“I want the players to be ready (against Real). The players all want to play and that makes the decision tougher for me, but it’s better like that.”

With a 3-1 defi cit to overcome in the second leg of their last-16 tie against Real on Tuesday, Emery refused to risk Cavani while Mbappe stayed in Paris to continue treatment on an ankle injury sustained against Marseille in midweek.

Marco Verratti was also rested for yes-terday’s trip, as Di Maria again took full advantage of the opportunity presented to several members of PSG’s expensively assembled squad in the wake of Neymar’s injury.

Di Maria himself was feted as the player to turn PSG into genuine Cham-pions League contenders when he signed from Manchester United for 63mn euros ($78mn) in 2015, and the 30-year-old has arguably been their best performer of late.

“Angel is an important player who has the quality to make the diff erence,” Em-ery said. “He’s got both the confi dence and the desire. We want the players to be at their best level on Tuesday, and for some like Angel, it will be a special mo-ment.”

Troyes goalkeeper Erwin Zelazny pro-duced a series of saves to deny Di Maria, and then Giovani Lo Celso twice in the fi rst half, but the home goal was breached after a defensive lapse on 47 minutes.

A poor clearance followed by further miscommunication in the Troyes backline

gifted Julian Draxler the opening to slide in Di Maria and the Argentine masterfully dinked the ball over an advancing Zelazny.

Twenty-year-old Nkunku sealed the win on 77 minutes, picking out the far corner of the net after gathering a thread-ed pass from Dani Alves as the linesman’s fl ag controversially stayed down.

Troyes boss Jean-Louis Garcia and his assistant were both ordered to the stands after protesting the decision to allow the goal, with replays indicating Nkunku had strayed marginally off side.

Emery then handed a fi rst-team debut

to Timothy Weah, as the son of former PSG star, and current Liberian president, George Weah replaced Lo Celso for the fi -nal few minutes.

The 18-year-old US youth interna-tional, whose father won the 1995 Ballon d’Or, nearly bagged a debut goal in stop-page time after racing clear of the Troyes defence before being foiled by Zelazny.

On Friday, Rony Lopes scored his sixth goal in seven games as Monaco came from behind to beat Bordeaux 2-1 to tighten their grip on second place, with Marseille and Lyon not in action until today.

AFPLondon

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane fi red Liverpool into second place in the Premier League with a 2-0 victory

against Newcastle, while Tottenham cemented their top four berth as Son Heung-Min inspired a 2-0 win over Huddersfi eld yesterday.

Salah struck in the 40th minute at Anfi eld to maintain his superb form in his fi rst season with Liverpool follow-ing his move from Roma.

The Egypt winger took Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s pass and shot low un-der Martin Dubravka for his 32nd goal of the season and his eighth in his last seven appearances.

Liverpool took complete control 10 minutes after half-time when Rob-erto Firmino drove at the heart of the Newcastle defence, playing in Senegal winger Mane, who claimed his 14th goal of the season with a clinical fi nish.

A fourth win in their last fi ve league games took Jurgen Klopp’s side one point above Manchester United, who drop to third but can regain second spot with a win at Crystal Palace tomorrow.

Leaders Manchester City sit 15 points clear of Liverpool and host Chelsea to-day.

Newcastle are two points above the bottom three after their fi rst defeat in fi ve matches.

At Wembley, Son put Tottenham ahead in the 27th minute with his 14th goal of the season as Dele Alli’s pass sliced open the Huddersfi eld defence and the South Korea forward raced clear to fi nish emphatically.

Son struck again in the 54th minute, timing his run perfectly to meet Harry Kane’s cross with a bullet header past Huddersfi eld goalkeeper Jonas Lossl.

Fourth-placed Tottenham’s third successive league win lifted them fi ve points clear of fi fth-placed Chelsea in the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League via a top-four fi n-ish.

“I hope I can score many more goals for Tottenham. The manager has to choose 11 players. I try my best and try to be ready at all times,” Son said.

“The pass from Harry Kane was very good for me, it made it easy to score. We feel comfortable at Wembley, we know how we play here.”

Swansea climbed out of the relega-tion zone and pushed West Ham deeper into trouble with a 4-1 win at the Lib-erty Stadium.

South Korea midfi elder Ki Sung-Yueng drove a 20-yarder past West Ham goalkeeper Adrian in the eighth minute for only his second goal of the season.

ROCK AND ROLLWest Ham defender Winston Reid was given oxygen before being stretchered off after a nasty looking fall.

Carlos Carvalhal’s team took advan-tage to double their lead in the 32nd minute as Mike van der Hoorn was left unmarked to head home from close range.

Former Leicester midfi elder Andy King notched a 48th-minute tap-in for his fi rst Swansea goal.

Jordan Ayew slammed in a 63rd-minute penalty, awarded for a foul on his brother Andre Ayew, as Swansea moved three points clear of the bottom three.

Michail Antonio got one back for West Ham in the 79th minute, but the visitors’ third defeat in their last four games leaves them three points above the relegation zone.

“We have had some important victo-ries since I arrived but this was the best performance,” Carvalhal said.

“We made West Ham dance to our music and it was rock and roll.”

Troy Deeney pushed West Bromwich Albion closer to relegation as the Wat-ford striker’s late goal sealed a 1-0 win at Vicarage Road.

Deeney slotted home from a Will Hughes pass in the 77th minute to leave bottom-of-the-table West Brom nurs-ing a fi fth consecutive defeat that leaves them eight points from safety.

Southampton, sitting one point above the relegation zone, have only one win in their last 16 games after be-ing held to a drab 0-0 draw by second-bottom Stoke at St Mary’s.

Riyad Mahrez rescued Leicester with a last-gasp free-kick equaliser in their 1-1 draw against Bournemouth, who had taken the lead through Josh King’s penalty.

Burnley ended an 11-match win-less run in the Premier League as Chris Wood’s 80th minute header sealed a 2-1 victory over Everton.

Cenk Tosun headed his fi rst Everton goal before Ashley Barnes equalised for Burnley.

Everton defender Ashley Williams was sent off in the 86th minute after swinging his arm into Barnes’ face.

RESULTS Burnley 2 (Barnes 56, Wood 80)

Everton 1 (Tosun 20) Leicester 1 (Mahrez 90+7) Bourne-

mouth 1 (King 35-pen) Liverpool 2 (Salah 40, Mane 55)

Newcastle 0 Southampton 0 Stoke 0 Swansea 4 (Ki 8, Van der Hoorn 32,

King 48, J Ayew 63-pen) West Ham 1 (Antonio 79) Tottenham 2 (Son 27, 54) Hudders-

field 0 Watford 1 (Deeney 77) West Brom 0

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (left) scores their first goal during the Premier League match against Newcastle at Anfield in Liverpool yesterday. (Reuters)

ReutersLondon

Antonio Conte is a “master” tactician and the Chelsea manager has already changed

the way clubs play in the Premier League, according to the Italian’s Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola.

Conte won the Premier League title in his debut season in Eng-land last year but the London outfi t are currently struggling down in fi fth place, 22 points be-hind runaway leaders City.

Chelsea are also two points behind Tottenham Hotspur in the race for a top-four fi nish that will ensure qualifi cation for next season’s Champions League.

“I think Conte is going to leave something to English football. I am sure of that,” Guardiola told reporters as his side prepare to heap more misery on the cham-pions in today’s clash at the Eti-had Stadium.

Guardiola’s side will go into the match on the back of a 3-0 league victory over Arsenal on Thursday, while Chelsea lost their last league fi xture 2-1 to Manchester United at Old Traf-ford last Sunday.

Conte, who led Italy to the Euro 2016 quarter-fi nals before joining Chelsea later that year, has been the subject of persistent British media reports suggesting he will leave the club after criti-cising their transfer policy this season.

Guardiola, however, feels the former Juventus boss has already left his mark on English football.

“What Antonio has done here in the Premier League, maybe the people don’t realise,” the former Barcelona boss said.

“He introduced another way to attack with fi ve at the back, another system. A lot of teams, even Arsenal, had to do a lot of imitating to do that.

“Tactically, he is a master. He did it amazingly with the na-tional team with Italy and when he went to Turin.”

SANE CREDITS PEP FORIMPROVEMENT

City’s Germany playmaker Leroy

Sane has credited Guardiola for helping him improve this season.

He has already scored 12 goals with 15 assists in all competitions after nine goals and eight assists last term.

“I have improved a lot, even from last season, with this coach (Guardiola),” Sane, 22, told Sky Sports. “And I am really enjoying it and having so much fun play-ing and training with my team mates. I am kind of lucky to be here.

“As soon as I arrived here he was criticising me straight away! He showed me where I can im-prove and every time I made a mistake he would say, ‘You have to do it like this!’ And when I tried to do it, I could see it helped me...

“He makes the game easier for you to keep the ball, to see where your team mates are, what you can do with them and how you can help them...”

Sane’s stellar season has been helped by midfi elder Kevin De Bruyne, who tops the league in assists with 14 in 28 matches, and the German has praised the Belgian international.

“Kevin is a fantastic player... He also really enjoys playing football and the way he plays is fantastic — the assists and some of the passes he plays.

“... Sometimes he is not even looking at me and he still passes the ball. And that is why I always say that when Kevin has the ball, something is going to happen.”

Paris Saint-Germain’s Angel Di Maria celebrates his goal during the Ligue 1 match against Troyes yesterday. (AFP)

Al Arabi register second straight win

Dybala stoppage time goal helpsJuventus beat Lazio

Sevilla ease pastAthletic Bilbao to close gap on top four

Three-star Reus targets World Cup aft er Dortmund leveller

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Sunday, March 4, 2018

QNB STARS LEAGUE SERIE A

LA LIGA

BUNDESLIGA

Kwame Karikari’s brace fuels Arabi to 3-1 victory over Al Markhiya

Hosts Al Arabi put up a fi ghting show to beat Al Markhiya 3-1 in Week 19 of the QNB Stars League yesterday. It was The

Dream Team’s second successive win, their fourth this season. They have 18 points now.

Diego Jardel (seventh-minute penalty) and Kwame Karikari (22nd and 90+4) scored Al Arabi’s goals. Al Markhiya re-duced the defi cit through Leonardo de Souza’s spectacular eff ort in the 30th.

The home side grabbed an early lead when young Mohamed Salah brought down Khalfan Ibrahim on the edge of the box. Jardel easily converted the spot kick past goalkeeper Mohamed Ahmed al-Bakri.

After Al Arabi’s Suad Naji’s shot nar-rowly missed the crossbar, they doubled the lead when Karikari found the net from close range.

Khalfan easily spotted Jardel on the left pocket of the Al Markhiya box. Show-ing great speed, Jardel surged ahead with the ball before easily picking out an un-marked Karikari who defl ected the ball into the net with ease. It was the Ghana player’s fourth goal of the season as Al Arabi fans cheered from the stands.

Al Markhiya, one of the gutsiest sides this season, fought back for their opening goal when Leonardo found the net. Leon-ardo, backing himself to score from more than 30 yards, unleashed a curling that shot sailed into the net.

In the 68th minute, Al Markhiya’s goal hero Leonardo ran all the way from the half-line, beating a couple of Al Arabi defenders, before unleashing a power-packed left-footed drive that narrowly missed the goalpost.

In the dying seconds, Karikari sent a knee-high ball into the net to seal the win. (QSL.com)

AFPBerlin

Marco Reus underlined his brilliant return from a se-rious knee injury by scor-ing in his third straight

Bundesliga game yesterday as Borussia Dortmund drew 1-1 at RB Leipzig.

After eight months sidelined hav-ing torn his cruciate knee ligament in last May’s German Cup fi nal, Germany winger Reus now has three goals in four games.

Having missed Germany’s 2014 World Cup victory with torn ankle liga-ments and Euro 2016 with a groin in-jury, the fl eet-footed Reus is even more determined to help defend the global title at Russia 2018.

“I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t think about the World Cup and really want to be there,” he told Bundesliga.com before kick-off .

“I won’t make a secret of the fact it’s a big goal of mine to be there. I know I’ve got a good chance, if I’m playing well.”

Reus was a constant threat on Satur-day and involved in the build up when striker Michy Batshuayi tapped home on 16 minutes, but Andre Schuerrle, who supplied the fi nal pass, was off side.

Leipzig took the lead when Liver-pool-bound Naby Keita, back after a thigh injury, played pass through Dort-mund’s defence which Jean-Kevin Au-gustin tucked away on 29 minutes.

Having also had an earlier goal fl agged for off side, Reus made no mis-take at the second attempt when he sprinted onto Batshuayi’s well-timed pass and equalised seven minutes from

half time.With an hour gone, Batshuayi, on

loan from Chelsea, bungled the chance to grab the winner with the goal at his mercy.

Leipzig, who picked up a point after three defeats, stay sixth.

SCHALKE GO SECONDThe result leaves Dortmund third after

Schalke had earlier snatched second spot with a 1-0 home win against Her-tha Berlin.

Marko Pjaca, on loan from Juventus, claimed his second goal in fi ve league games when Daniel Caligiuri whipped in a cross and Franco di Santo let the ball roll to Pjaca, who scored on 37 minutes.

Schalke are 17 points behind runaway leaders Bayern, who play mid-table

Freiburg today.Reports Bayern approached Freiburg

boss Christian Streich last month to replace Jupp Heynckes as head coach next season have added extra spice to the game.

Eintracht Frankfurt are fourth af-ter their 1-0 win at home to mid-table Hanover as defender Danny da Costa scored their winner.

Argentina striker Lucas Alario con-verted a fi rst-half penalty and Julian Brandt scored with a superb chip as Bayer Leverkusen consolidated fi fth place with a 2-1 win at ten-man Wolfsburg.

Admir Mehmedi scored the conso-lation eff ort for Wolfsburg against his former club.

The hosts fi nished with ten men when Brazilian left-back William was

sent off for a second yellow card in add-ed time.

HAMBURG NEED ‘MIRACLE’It fi nished goalless, but there was plen-ty of drama in Hamburg’s basement battle at home to Mainz.

Hamburg winger Filip Kostic hit the woodwork and had a goal ruled off side in the fi rst half.

Mainz had Nigeria defender Leon Balogun sent off for a second yellow card when he fouled Luca Waldschmidt in the area on 61 minutes.

The referee pointed to the spot, but Kostic’s weak attempt was saved by goalkeeper Florian Mueller on his Bun-desliga debut.

Hamburg are now seven points behind 16th-placed Mainz and on course for a fi rst relegation in the club’s history.

“Giving up is not in my nature, but we need a small miracle,” admitted Hamburg coach Bernd Hollerbach.

Having been booed by his own fans last weekend, the pressure eased on Hoff enheim coach Julian Nagelsmann with a 2-0 win at Augsburg.

Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric scored for the fi fth match in a row be-fore Germany winger Serge Gnabry added a superb second after the break.

RESULTS Schalke 1 (Pjaca 37) Hertha Berlin 0 Eintracht Frankfurt 1 (da Costa 39)

Hanover 96 0 Augsburg 0 Hoff enheim 2 (Kramar-

ic 30, Gnabry 50) Hamburg 0 Mainz 0 Wolfsburg 1 (Mehmedi 79) Bayer

Leverkusen 2 (Alario 31-pen, Brandt 78) RB Leipzig 1 (Augustin 29) Borussia

Dortmund 1 (Reus 38)

Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus celebrates his goal during the Bundesliga match against RB Leipzig yesterday. (AFP)

ReutersMilan

Paulo Dybala scored from a seemingly hope-less position in stoppage time to give Juventus a

1-0 win at Lazio on Saturday, their 10th successive Serie A vic-tory, and keep up the pressure on leaders Napoli.

Surrounded by three defend-ers, Dybala collected the ball outside the Lazio area with his back to goal, turned and fl icked the ball through an opponent’s legs, fell under a challenge from another and still managed to fi re past Thomas Strakosha from on the ground.

It was a typical Juventus win

and put the titleholders one point behind leaders Napoli who were at home to AS Roma in the late game. They also opened up a 16-point gap between them-selves and third-placed Lazio.

Juve also kept a clean sheet for the seventh consecutive time in the league. The only team to have scored against them in any competition this year are Tot-tenham Hotspur, who host Juve on Wednesday in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. (Writing by Brian Home-wood in Berne, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

RESULTS SPAL 1 (Grassi 48) Bologna 0 Lazio 0 Juventus 1 (Dybala

90+3)

AFPMadrid

Sevilla kept alive their hopes of a top-four fi nish in La Liga by easing to a 2-0 victory over Athletic

Bilbao yesterday. Two goals in fi ve fi rst-half

minutes from Luis Muriel and Franco Vazquez were enough for Sevilla, who play Manchester United later this month in the second leg of the Champions League last 16.

They head to Old Traff ord af-ter being held to a goalless draw in the fi rst leg.

Vincenzo Montella’s side face a fi ght, however, to qualify for the competition again next sea-son, their victory over Bilbao

closing the gap behind fourth-placed Valencia to fi ve points.

Valencia host Real Betis today. Elsewhere, Villarreal’s ambi-

tions of securing European foot-ball next season also took a knock as they were beaten 2-0 at home to Girona.

Girona sit seventh, but now just one point behind their op-ponents, who were undone by goals from Christian Stuani and substitute Anthony Lozano.

RESULTS Villarreal 0 Girona 2 (Stuani

16, Lozano 80) Sevilla 2 (Muriel 27, Vazquez

32) Athletic Bilbao 0 Deportivo La Coruna 1 (Dm-

itrovic 33-og) Eibar 1 (Inui 11) Leganes 2 (Eraso Goñi 55,

Amrabat 62) Malaga 0

Al Arabi’s Krame Karikari (right) hugs teammate Diego Jardel (centre) after scoring a goal during the QNB Stars League match against Al Markhiya yesterday. PICTURE: Nasar

Qatar SC split points with Umm SalalQatar SC fought back in style to share honours with Umm Salal at home in Week 19 of the QNB Stars League yester-day. It was Umm Salal’s seventh draw of the season.Feared striker Yannick Sagbo (third minute) and Oussama Darragi (20th) were on target as Umm Salal raced to a 2-0 lead. However, Qatar SC hit back through Osama Omari (65th) and Bruno Gallo (76th-min penalty).Umm Salal opened the scoring early when Sagbo found the net with a neat clip to the top right of the net from close range.Darragi found the Ivory Coast striker, stationed inside the box, with a short clip on an indirect free-kick. Sagbo swiv-elled and rifled the ball to the top of the net in one quick move.In the fast-paced match, Qatar SC nearly

pulled off an equaliser when Omari flat-footed a powerful drive from inside the box, but Umm Salal goalkeeper Baba Malick was alert to thwart the danger by punching the ball away.Umm Salal went 2-0 up when Darragi flicked home from close range following a cross from Mahmoud Mawas. It was Darragi’s third goal of the season. Nine minutes into the second half and Mawas ended up hitting the Qatar SC crossbar following a cross from Sagbo. After a series of attacks, Qatar SC produced their first goal through Omari, who deflected the ball into the net from close after Umm Salal’s Abdul Hussain failed to stop a low cross from the flank. It was Omari’s sixth goal of the season.Eleven minutes later, Qatar SC drew level with a well-taken penalty kick by Gallo. (QSL.com)

Qatar SC’s Osama Omari (right) in action during the QNB Stars League match against Umm Salal yesterday. PICTURE: Anas Khalid

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Gulf Times Sunday, March 4, 20184

Australia take lead past 400 in Durban TestAFPDurban

South Africa fought back on the third day of the fi rst Test but could not stop Australia from taking their lead beyond 400 at

Kingsmead yesterday.Australia were 213 for nine when bad

light stopped play, an overall lead of 402.South Africa will be faced with a

daunting task when they eventually get to bat today on a slow pitch on which batsmen have struggled to play with freedom.

But the hosts could take heart from a fighting, disciplined performance after Australia made a sparkling start to their second innings.

Cameron Bancroft (53) and David Warner (28) put on 56 in 13 overs for the first wicket and Australia seemed to be racing to an unassailable position. The run rate remained brisk as Australia reached 112 for three at lunch.

The scoring dried up after lunch, however, and Australia lost six more wickets while eking out another 101 runs in 44.4 overs before the umpires took the players off the field.

Kagiso Rabada bowled with pace and hostility and was unlucky not to claim more than the two wickets he took for 28 runs.

Bancroft and Warner attacked left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj when he started to bowl on Saturday, scoring 20 runs off his first two overs. But Maharaj settled down and again bowled the most overs for South Africa, taking three for 93 in 28 overs.

Fast bowler Morne Morkel, who did not bowl between lunch and tea after bowling poorly in the morning, came back strongly in late afternoon and fin-ished with three for 42.

Bancroft made his first fifty since he hit 82 not out on debut against England in Brisbane in November.

He was struck by a hostile lifting de-livery from Morkel in a testing first over when Australia started their second in-nings with a comfortable 189-run first innings lead. But he went on to make an impressive 53 off 83 balls with ten fours before he was stumped off Maharaj.

Australian captain Steve Smith scored 38 but was unable to bat with fluency in

an 81-ball innings before he was trapped leg before wicket by part-time left-arm spinner Dean Elgar.

Shaun Marsh laboured for 99 balls to make 33, twice surviving South African reviews for leg before wicket, the first, off a ball from Maharaj, where the deci-sion stayed with the “umpire’s call” and then from a delivery from Rabada which had pitched outside leg stump

Rabada had fi rst innings top-scorer Mitchell Marsh caught by Hashim Amla at fi rst slip for six. It was Amla’s 100th catch in 114 Tests. He added another shortly before play was called off when he caught Nathan Lyon off Morkel.

A crowd of 6118 watched yesterday’s play, an improvement on the fi rst two days but disappointing for a weekend.

SPOTLIGHT

Kagiso Rabada bowled with pace and hostility and was unlucky not to claim more than the two wickets he took for 28 runs

AFPWellington

Moeen Ali was as sur-prised as anyone as he combined with Adil Rashid to plunder

New Zealand’s batting stocks in England’s dramatic four-run vic-tory in the third one-day interna-tional in Wellington yesterday.

Not even an unbeaten 112 by Kane Williamson could save New Zealand after their top order dis-appeared in Ali and Rashid’s dev-astating spell of fi ve wickets for 23 runs in 41 deliveries.

When time was up New Zea-land were 230 for eight in reply to England’s 234 after Chris Woakes bowled two dot balls to William-son to end the match.

“My plan was just to try and bowl tight, it doesn’t really change game to game, and the wickets just came,” said man of the match Ali, who fi nished with three for 36 while Rashid took two for 34.

“They weren’t great balls, but the balls in between were build-ing pressure.” The game boiled down to New Zealand skipper Williamson needing a six off the fi nal ball, but a wide yorker from Woakes meant he was unable to deliver.

New Zealand appeared to have the game in their hands at 80 for one in the 18th over, before Ali and Rashid turned the match.

Williamson denied there were concerns about the brittle New Zealand batting performance.

“Not really. It was a game where we weren’t at our smart-est. We didn’t adjust well on a tough surface and that’s all it is,” said Williamson, adding it was a “very frustrating” defeat.

“Starting off in our second in-nings we were in a position of strength after maybe 15 overs then we stumbled a bit in the middle which really hurt us... and just a shame not to get across the line.

“And credit to the way the English spinners bowled through the middle. They were outstand-ing.” Ben Stokes took a stunning dive to his left to catch Colin Munro (49) off Rashid to ignite the slump as New Zealand went from a comfortable 80 for one to 103 for six.

Williamson, who had strug-gled for runs in recent innings and missed the second ODI, which England won, because of a hamstring strain, returned to the arena with an imperious per-formance for his 11th ODI cen-tury. He faced 143 deliveries and was in the middle for most of the New Zealand innings after the early dismissal of Martin Guptill for three.

Williamson shared a 68-run stand with Munro, and once Ali and Rashid had destroyed the rest of the recognised New Zealand batting he engineered a revival with Mitchell Santner.

Santner was given the benefi t of the doubt on two when Jason Roy took a catch at ground level and there was no clear evidence the ball had not touched the grass.

From there he was more cir-cumspect to reach 41 before being run out when a Woakes attempt to stop a Williamson drive defl ected off the bowler’s fi ngertips and on to the stumps, with Santner caught out of his crease.

Woakes, defending 15 runs in the fi nal over, conceded two twos and a six to Williamson and then fi red in two dot balls to prevent a New Zealand victory.

Ali and Rashid spinEngland to dramatic ODI win over Kiwis

FOCUSBangladesh’s Shakib ruled out of Sri Lanka tri-series

AFPDhaka

Bangladesh captain Shakib al-Hasan has been ruled out of the upcoming tri-nation Twenty20 tournament in

Sri Lanka as he is still nursing a fin-ger injury, the Bangladesh Cricket Board said yesterday.

The Nidahas Trophy, which also includes hosts Sri Lanka and India, will start in Colombo on Tuesday.

Shakib picked up the injury dur-ing the final of a tri-nation one-day international competition against Sri Lanka in Dhaka in January.

He missed the two-match Test series and both Twenty20 interna-tionals against Sri Lanka last month due to the injury.

Bangladesh included Shakib in the squad for the Nidahas Trophy in the hope that he would recover at some stage of the tournament.

The BCB last week sent Shakib to Thailand for an expert opinion on

his injured finger, where doctors said it would need more time to heal.

Interim Bangladesh coach Court-ney Walsh said Shakib should not be rushed back to play cricket.

“We will give him the time, as long as he takes to get ready,” Walsh said at a press conference in Dhaka yes-terday ahead of the team’s departure for Sri Lanka.

“Guys have to understand and work around that. When you have a world-class player like Shakib, you give him every opportunity to get

fit.“He is a hard player to replace

overnight. He does everything — bat, bowl, field and captain. As soon as he is well enough to play, we will have to get him there,” he said.

Vice-captain Mahmudullah Riyad will lead the side in the T20 tourna-ment in Shakib’s absence.

Shakib has been replaced in the squad by batsman Liton Das.

Bangladesh will face India in their opening match of the tournament on Thursday.

England’s Moeen Ali celebrates with teammates after dismissing New Zealand’s Tom Latham during their ODI in Wellington yesterday.

AFPHarare

Phil Simmons insists that lead-ing Afghanistan to the 2019 World Cup and not exacting revenge over his West Indies

compatriots is his only priority when the 10-team qualifying tournament gets underway today.

Simmons, who played 26 Tests and 143 ODIs for the West Indies from 1987 to 1999, was sacked as coach of the Car-ibbean side in 2016, just fi ve months af-ter leading them to the World Twenty20 title in India.

His sacking had been preceded by a suspension the previous year for pub-licly criticising the West Indies selec-tion policy.

Simmons, 54, took over the reins of Afghanistan in December and his mis-sion to get the newly-minted Test team to a second successive World Cup in

England and Wales next year.Afghanistan take on Scotland in their

opening match at Bulawayo today with Simmons playing down his team’s sta-tus as one of the favourites to reach the fi nals.

“I am not putting the ‘favourites’ tag on me. We have just come here to play cricket, we need to play proper cricket and win this tournament,” said Sim-mons who has plenty of ‘inside knowl-edge’ of his opponents in the three-week qualifying event.

As well as West Indies, the former all-rounder has coached hosts Zimba-bwe and enjoyed a successful eight-year spell in charge of Ireland with whom he reached two World Cups.

Afghanistan are in Group B with Zimbabwe, Scotland, Nepal and Hong Kong.

The West Indies, world champions in 1975 and 1979 but forced to qualify this time around, are in Group A with the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Ire-land and the United Arab Emirates.

Three teams from each pool go through to the Super Sixes — where Afghanistan and the West Indies could meet — with the top two sides at the end of the process booking their spots at the 2019 World Cup.

“I am one of those who wants to win all the time, and I think these guys are the same,” added Simmons.

“So, the more we will win, the easier it will get for us in the Super Six stage. You win the Super Six stage, you are in the World Cup as well as in the fi nal. That’s how we look at it.”

The West Indies have endured a tor-rid few days in Zimbabwe, already los-

ing to Afghanistan in a rain-aff ected warm-up and then getting bowled out for a paltry 115 by the UAE before left-arm spinner Nikita Miller claimed fi ve wickets to save West Indies’ embarrass-ment.

West Indies will face the UAE again on Tuesday in their tournament opener.

“It is not going to be making 300 plus and then bowling teams out. It is going to be working out how to get to 180 to 220 and then deciding how to get the 10 wickets,” said West Indies’ Australian coach Stuart Law.

“To be honest, the wickets (in the warm-up matches) weren’t as condu-cive as we want to play and so just have to come up with diff erent ways to go about it.

“We do target 300-plus as we found in New Zealand, that’s probably a

benchmark score these days in One-Day Internationals. Here, we have to lower that target just to make sure we are safe to play better cricket or make better decisions out in the middle and get the job done.”

Law, who played one Test and 54 ODIs for Australia from 1994 to 1999, said the experience of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Miller will be key.

“You can’t buy experience on a shelf. You need these guys in these tough con-ditions to stand up as well and guide the youngsters through the diffi cult peri-ods.”Today’s matches (0730GMT)Group AIreland v Netherlands, PNG v UAEGroup B Zimbabwe v Nepal, Afghanistan v Scotland

Revenge over West Indies not on Simmons mind in World Cup qualifi erBOTTOMLINE

SCORECARD

Australia, first innings 351South Africa, first innings 162 Australia, second innings C. Bancroft st De Kock b Maharaj ..............53 D. Warner c sub (Mulder) b Rabada .........28 U. Khawaja c De Kock b Maharaj .................. 6 S. Smith lbw b Elgar ...................................................38 S. Marsh c De Villiers b Morkel .......................33 M. Marsh c Amla b Rabada .................................. 6 T. Paine c De Villiers b Maharaj .......................14 P. Cummins not out .....................................................17 M. Starc c Elgar b Morkel .........................................7 N. Lyon c Amla b Morkel ..........................................2 J. Hazlewood not out ...................................................4 Extras (lb5) .............................................................................5

Total (9 wkts, 71.4 overs) .................................... 213 Fall of wickets: 1-56 (Warner), 2-71 (Khawaja), 3-108 (Bancroft), 4-146 (Smith), 5-156 (M. Marsh), 6-175 (Paine), 7-185 (S. Marsh), 8-203 (Starc), 9-209 (Lyon)Bowling: Morkel 13.4-4-42-3, Philander 14-4-35-0, Maharaj 28-4-93-3, Rabada 13-6-27-2, Elgar 3-1-10-1 Match situation: Australia lead by 402 runs with one wicket remaining in the second innings. Toss: Australia TV umpire: Chris Gaff aney (NZL)

Cameron Bancroft (53) and David Warner (28) put on 56 in 13 overs for the fi rst wicket and Australia seemed to be racing to an unassailable position

SCORECARD

EnglandJ. Roy c Guptill b Boult .................................... 15

J. Bairstow b Sodhi ..............................................19

J. Root c Sodhi b de Grandhomme 20

E. Morgan b Southee .....................................48

B. Stokes c Munro b Sodhi ....................... 39

J. Buttler c Latham b Sodhi ..................... 29

M. Ali run out (de Grandhomme/

Southee) .........................................................................23

C. Woakes c Williamson b Boult ..........16

A. Rashid run out (Boult) ................................11

T. Curran not out .....................................................2

M. Wood run out(Nicholls/Boult) ...........1

Extras: (b2, lb2, wd7) ........................................11

Total: (for 10 wickets; 50 overs) .....234

Fall of wickets: 1-25 (Roy), 2-53

(Root), 3-68 (Bairstow), 4-139 (Morgan),

5-168 (Stokes), 6-184 (Buttler), 7-215

(Woakes), 8-222 (Ali), 9-231 (Rashid),

10-234 (Wood)

Bowling: Southee 10-0-48-1 (1w),

Boult 10-1-47-2, Santner 2-0-12-0, de

Grandhomme 10-1-24-1 (1w), Sodhi

10-0-53-3, Munro 8-0-46-0 (1w)

New ZealandM. Guptill c Curran b Woakes ................... 3

C. Munro c Stokes b Rashid ...................49

K. Williamson not out ..................................... 112

M. Chapman c Morgan b Ali .....................8

T. Latham lbw Ali ....................................................0

H. Nicholls lbw Rashid ......................................0

C. de Grandhomme c Woakes b Ali . 3

M. Santner run out (Woakes) ..................41

T. Southee c Stokes b Woakes ................ 7

I. Sodhi not out ..........................................................2

Extras:(lb1, w4) ........................................................5

Total: (for 8 wickets; 50 overs) 230

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Guptill), 2-80

(Munro), 3-97 (Chapman), 4-97

(Latham), 5-98 (Nicholls), 6-103 (de

Grandhomme), 7-199 (Santner),

8-210 (Southee)

Bowling: Woakes 10-1-40-2 (3w),

Wood 6-0-36-0, Curran 7-0-49-0,

Stokes 6-0-27-0 (1w), Rashid 10-1-34-2,

Ali 10-1-36-3, Root 1-0-7-0

Toss: New Zealand

Result: England won by four runs

Series: England lead 2-1

Umpires: Wayne Knights (NZL),

Ruchira Palliyaguruge (SRI)

TV Umpire: Rod Tucker (AUS)

South African bowler Keshav Maharaj (L) celebrates with teammate Hashim Amla after taking the wicket of Tim Paine at The Kingsmead Stadium in Durban yesterday.

SPORT5Gulf Times

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Road Warriors sink Hawks, Curry tweaks ankle

NBA

OT goal helps Predators win 7th straightNHL

ReutersNew York

Calle Jarnkrok’s goal 43 seconds into overtime gave visiting Nashville a come-from-be-hind 4-3 victory over the Van-

couver Canucks on Friday night, the Predators’ seventh consecutive win.

The Predators overcame a 2-0 defi cit for the second night in a row. The Ca-nucks took their second straight over-time setback at home.

Mike Fisher, in his fi rst game since offi cially coming out of retirement Monday, Kevin Fiala and Ryan Ellis tal-lied for Nashville in regulation.

Daniel Sedin led the Canucks with a goal and an assist. Bo Horvat and Bran-don Sutter also scored for Vancouver. Alex Edler assisted on two of the hosts’ goals, becoming the franchise’s all-time points leader among defensemen with 326.

Senators 5, Golden Knights 4Bobby Ryan had a goal and two as-

sists and Erik Karlsson added three as-

sists as Ottawa handed host Vegas its third straight loss.

Mark Stone fi nished with a goal and an assist, and Matt Duchene, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Alexandre Burrows

also scored goals for Ottawa, which snapped an overall fi ve-game losing streak and also a six-game road losing streak. Craig Anderson had 25 saves for the Senators.

Reilly Smith, Colin Miller and Wil-liam Karlsson each had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Carpenter also scored for Vegas. Marc-Andre Fleury fi nished with 33 saves.

Ducks 4, Blue Jackets 2Goals by Andrew Cogliano and Josh

Manson just 87 seconds apart midway through the second period sent host Anaheim off and running to a victory over Columbus.

Goalie John Gibson made 34 saves for the Ducks, who snapped a modest two-game slide despite being without cap-tain Ryan Getzlaf due to illness. Rickard Rakell and Cam Fowler also scored for Anaheim.

Columbus got goals from Sonny Mi-lano and Zach Werenski.

Rangers 3, Flames 1Henrik Lundqvist was at his best in

making 50 saves on his 36th birthday, and the red-hot Ryan Spooner collect-ed a goal and an assist as New York won at Calgary.

Spooner, who has collected one goal and seven points in three games since

joining the Rangers from the Bruins in the trade that sent Rick Nash to Boston, had a hand in New York’s fi rst and third tallies. However, Lundqvist was easily the biggest diff erence.

The veteran goalie was on his game right from the start, building off a 50-save performance two nights earlier in a win over the Canucks.

Avalanche 7, Wild 1Nathan MacKinnon scored twice to

boost his goal tally to a team-leading 31, and he added three assists as Colorado won its third consecutive game with a rout of Minnesota in Denver.

MacKinnon is the fi rst Avalanche player to have multiple fi ve-point games in a season since Paul Stastny did so twice in the 2007-08 campaign. MacKinnon also had fi ve points (one goal, four assists) in a 6-2 win against the Washington Capitals on Nov. 16.

Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Matt Nieto, Carl Soderberg and Tyson Barrie) each added a goal for the Ava-lanche, who matched a season high for goals and improved to 4-1-1 in their past six games. Mikko Koivu collected

the lone tally for Minnesota.

Jets 4, Red Wings 3Patrik Laine scored pair of goals,

including the decisive tally with 7:43 to play in the second period, and host Winnipeg beat Detroit.

Laine fi red a wrist shot past Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard’s stick-side blocker to put the Jets up 4-2 in the middle period. Detroit’s Trevor Daley scored 5:29 into the third, but Winni-peg held onto its lead from there.

Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Chiarot each had goals, and Connor Helle-buyck made 30 saves for Winnipeg. Anthony Mantha and Niklas Kronwall also scored for Detroit. and Howard re-corded 38 saves.

Panthers 4, Sabres 1Host Florida won its fi fth consecu-

tive game, defeating Buff alo to improve to 12-3-0 since the end of January.

The Panthers got goals from Mike Matheson, Aaron Ekblad, Aleksand-er Barkov and Colton Sceviour. Nick Bjugstad and Evgenii Dadonov each had two assists. Buff alo’s goal came from Sam Reinhart.

AFPLos Angeles

Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant each scored 28 points as the Gold-en State Warriors beat the Atlanta Hawks 114-109 on Friday despite

losing Curry in the second half to an ankle injury.

Curry tallied 15 of his points in the fi nal seven minutes of the second quarter, then left the game for good in the third after ini-tially tweaking his right ankle in the open-ing period.

Curry played just six minutes in the third before sitting down for the rest of the contest.

He said he doesn’t expect to miss much time going forward.

“Basically their call,” Curry said. “Frus-trating, but in the big picture I understand. I don’t think it’s going to be anything that will keep me out.”

Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala made a clutch dunk in the fi nal seconds of the fourth quarter to help seal the win. With Golden State ahead by three points, the Hawks took possession with a chance to tie the game. But Iguodala stripped the ball from a Hawks player then raced the length of the court for a slam dunk with fi ve seconds left.

The play solidifi ed the defending NBA champion Warriors’ 25th road win of the season, giving them the best road record in the league (25-7).

Atlanta rallied from an 18-point defi cit. Prior to Iguodala’s dunk they had used a

9-0 burst to pull within two points with 20 seconds remaining.

Curry shot eight-of-15 from the fi eld, four-of-nine from three-point range and made all eight of his free throws in 23 min-utes of playing time.

Curry also hit his 200th three-point fi eld goal of the season. He is the fi rst player in league history to sink at least 200 threes in six diff erent seasons.

Curry missed time earlier this season with a sprained right ankle and his health would most likely be a factor in deter-mining the Warriors’ chances of winning back-to-back titles.

His history of ankle injuries includes missing 13 games this season after sprain-ing it on December 4th in New Orleans.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said they don’t want to take any chances with Cur-ry’s health.

“He wanted to stay in but we didn’t want him to stay in just because of the po-tential to make it worse,” Kerr said.

Russell Westbrook had 43 points and 14 rebounds and took over the game down the stretch when the Oklahoma City Thunder overcame a 13-point defi cit for a 124-116 victory over the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena on Friday.

Westbrook, who fi nished two assists short of his 19th triple-double of the sea-son, scored eight points in the fi nal 1:32 to help the Thunder win for the fi fth time in the last six games.

Devin Booker had 39 points and eight assists and Josh Jackson and TJ Warren had 19 points apiece for the Suns, who have lost 11 of 12. They broke a 10-game

losing streak with a victory in Memphis on Wednesday.

Westbrook tied the game at 116 on a layup with 1:32 left, and his 3-pointer gave the Thunder a 119-116 lead with 55.9 sec-onds remaining.

After Jackson missed a long 3-pointer, Westbrook missed two shots but got the off ensive rebound both times. The Thun-der called a timeout with 22.5 seconds left.

Westbrook was fouled and made one of two free throws with 18.2 seconds remain-ing, and he sealed the game on a dunk after the Thunder stripped Booker at the other end.

The Suns have lost 19 of 22 since beat-ing Oklahoma City in Phoenix on Jan. 7. The teams meet in the fi nal game of the regular-season series Wednesday in Okla-homa City.

Paul George had 20 points and Carmelo Anthony had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Thunder, who have won 14 of 21 while competing for a playoff spot in the tight Western Conference.

Westbrook remains three triple-dou-bles short of becoming the fourth player in NBA history to reach 100. Jason Kidd (107) is third.

Booker tied a season high with six 3-pointers, and he has scored 39, 34, 40, 30, 27 and 28 points in his last six games while making 23 threes after missing the four previous games with a hip injury.

Suns center Alex Len had seven points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots. The Suns made 11 of 22 3-pointers.

Booker and Westbrook staged a tug-of-war in the fi rst half, which ended with the

Suns holding a 67-60 lead. Booker had 21 points, eight assists and

four rebounds while making 9 of 12 fi eld goal attempts. Westbrook had 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists while making 7 of 12 shots from the fi eld.

Elsewhere, DeMar DeRozan scored 23 points and reserve CJ Miles chipped in 20 as the Toronto Raptors won their season-high fourth straight game on the road with a 102-95 win over the Washington Wiz-ards.

Miles scored 11 points in the second half and was six of nine from beyond the arc as the Raptors’ reserves dominated the Wiz-ards’ bench 50-15.

Eastern Conference leaders Toronto have won 10 of their last 11 contests.

Otto Porter led Washington with 24 points on nine-of-12 shooting and Bradley Beal rebounded from an eight-point game Wednesday against Golden State to fi nish with 23.In Milwaukee, Victor Oladipo had 21 points, and the Indiana Pacers nearly blew a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter before holding off the Milwaukee Bucks for a 103-96 win.

RESULTS Utah ............................................. 116 Minnesota ................108 Washington ......................95 Toronto ........................ 102 LA Clippers ......................128 New York................... 105 Atlanta...................................109 Golden State........... 114 Phoenix ................................. 116 Oklahoma City ...124 Chicago ...............................108 Dallas ............................. 100 Memphis ........................... 102 Denver .........................108 Milwaukee...........................96 Indiana ......................... 103 Orlando ..................................115 Detroit ............106 (OT) Philadelphia .....................110 Charlotte ......................99

Dovizioso says Ducati ready to launch title bid in Qatar

MOTORCYCLING

“This is the fi rst year we’re a title contender from the beginning. Last year, it wasn’t like this.”

Ominous words from Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) in the midst of another overtly posi-tive interview during the 2018 preseason, after having come so close as more of a dark horse contender in 2017. With pace at all venues and good things to say about the majority of what he’s tested from the Borgo Panigale factory heading into 2018, the number 04 is looking to pick up where he left off – and go one better.

So what’s the eff ect of being a contender, and knowing you are? “It makes me happier, and I feel good,” he smiles. “We’ve worked well in tests until now, normally it’s diffi cult to test everything you need to, but we’ve done eve-rything perfectly. I’m happy with everything Ducati have brought over winter.”

‘DesmoDovi’ has also been, often, one of the fi rst to pack up on days of testing – having fi nished the program ahead of schedule. It’s not quite perfect in every aspect, as nothing ever is – but the positivity keeps fl owing.

“There are still a few areas where I’m not completely happy but on this track our bike works really well. Our speed is really good and we did the best lap on our long run – well, we did 12

laps, so not a very long run. But I was very happy, I was able to keep good pace. In the past our bike worked well on this track and now it looks even better.”

Even better would be ‘Desmo-Dovi’ going one better than the P2 he’s taken at the venue before. So could he start the season with a win? That positivity doesn’t fade when running through any of the day’s work.

“I’m happy with what we did; we compared the new chassis and there are positives and nega-tives – we did the long run on the new chassis and it’s not clear what we’ll use yet but there’s a lot of time left for everyone to work still!”

Final sign off ? You guessed it: “I’m very happy.”

Teams are currently testing at the Losail International Circuit ahead of the fi rst race of the sea-son at the same venue on March 18.

Curry shot eight-of-15 from the field, four-of-nine from three-point range and made all eight of his free throws in 23 minutes of playing time

Juventus’ midfielder Miralem Pjanic of Bosnia (L) celebrates after scoring against Atalanta during their Italian Cup match in Turin on Wednesday.

Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) dunks against the Atlanta Hawks in the first quarter of their NBA game on Friday. PICTURE: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Nashville Predators forward Kevin Fiala (C) celebrates his goal with defenseman Mattius Ekholm (14) and defenseman Ryan Ellis (4) on Friday. PICTURE: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

Qalandars suff er fi ft h straight defeat in PSL

Sharjah: Kamran Akmal hit 57 off 47

balls as Peshawar Zalmi handed La-

hore Qalandars a 10-wicket defeat in

the Pakistan Super league yesterday.

It was another disappointing display

by the Qatar-owned team who are

virtually out of the race for a decent

finish after suff ering their fifth

straight loss of the tournament.

Qalandars, who batted first on a slow

wicket, were bundled out for a mere

100, with only Fakhar Zaman making

a prominent contribution.

His 30 off just 17 balls helped Qaland-

ars make a fast start but his dismissal

in the seventh over with the total on

57 triggered a collapse with Hassan

Ali and Liam Dawson claiming three

wickets each.

Pakistan international Wahab Riaz

also chipped in with two wickets as

the Qalandars were all out with 16

balls still remaining.

In reply, Peshawar Zalmi made a

patient start with openers Tamim

Iqbal and Kamran taking their time to

settle down.

However, they came up with the big

shots later in the innings to win the

match with more than six overs to

spare.

Kamran hit seven boundaries

and two sixes, while Iqbal hit four

boundaries in his 37.

Earlier, Multan Sultans outplayed

Quetta Gladiators by an impressive

margin of nine wickets.

Chasing an easy target of 103, the

Sultans completed their third victory

in PSL-3 with 20 balls remaining.

Kumar Sangakkara remained not

out on 51, made off 44 balls with five

fours and a six, while Sohaib Maq-

sood scored an unbeaten 26 from 21

balls with two fours and a six.

Sangakkara made 66 for the opening

wicket with Ahmed Shahzad (27)

and then 42 for an unbeaten second

wicket with Sohaib.

The only wicket, Multan lost, was

taken by left-arm spinner Hasan

Khan.

Multan Sultans has now joined Kara-

chi Kings at the top of the table with

seven points, while Quetta Gladia-

tors, having won just two of their five

games, dropped down to fifth place

with four points.

Earlier, devastating bowling by left-

arm pacer Sohail Tanvir and a mar-

velous hat-trick by leg-spinner Imran

Tahir bundeled out Quetta Gladiators

for a mere 102 runs in 15.4 overs.

After being sent into bat, Quetta

made a good start but soon the

Multan pacers began to dominate

the scene, taking wickets at regular

interval.

However, captain Sarfraz Ahmed pro-

vided some resistance, making 30 off

33 balls with three fours while only

two other batsmen – Shane Watson

(19) and Mahmudullah (15) could get

into the double figures.

Sohail Tanvir captured three wickets

for 14 and Junaid Khan grabbed two

for nine. But it was Imran Tahir who

destroyed the Gladiators batting line

by claiming a hat-trick. He became

the third bowler after Mohamed Amir

and Junaid Khan to bag a hat-trick in

the PSL-3.

SPORT

Gulf Times Sunday, March 4, 20186

AFPDubai

Roberto Bautista Agut came from a break down in the second set to win his second title of the season on Sat-urday, beating Lucas Pouille, 6-3,

6-4, at the Dubai Championships.The Spaniard claimed the eighth trophy of

his career with an 81-minute victory over the French second seed.

The loss prevents number 15 Pouille climb-ing into the ranking top 10 for the fi rst time.

“This is a special win that I’ll always re-member, I’m so happy that I could win,” Bautista Agut said. .

“Lucas is a really good player and has a great future. He’s been playing unbelievable this month,” he said of the Frenchman who last month won in Montpellier and reached the fi -nal in Marseille.

“I’ve been working hard,” the winner said. “I was prepared to manage the emotions. I played very well this week.

Bautista Agut trailed 3-1 in the second set after winning the fi rst, but quickly broke back for 2-3 and then squared the set 3-all.

The 23rd-ranked Spaniard then put Pouille under pressure with three break points and profi ted from a break for 5-4 before serving out victory a game later on his fi rst match point. Bautista also won in Auckland in January. He improved to 3-1 against Pouille.

Bautista Agut beats Pouille in straight sets in fi nal

FOCUS

Mental battle key to Djoko comeback, says former coach Becker

AFPMonaco

Former world number one Novak Djokovic’s toughest hurdle when he returns to the ATP Tour after a long

injury absence will be a mental one, believes former coach Boris Becker.

The 30-year-old Serbian’s re-turn to competitive action is yet to be confi rmed although he pub-lished photos of himself on the practice courts earlier this week for the fi rst time since he underwent a minor “medical intervention” fol-lowing a fourth round exit at the Australian Open.

The 12-time Grand Slam win-ner struggled through his defeat

by Chung Hyeon of South Korea, troubled still by a persistent elbow injury, that had seen him off the circuit since Wimbledon last year, and a hip problem.

Becker, who coached Djokovic to six Grand Slam titles from 2014-16, told journalists earlier this week at the Laureus Awards in Monte Carlo that Djokovic would have to accept that renewed success might not come immediately.

“Mentally is going to be the big-gest challenge,” said Becker at the event staged by Laureus, a global movement that aims to use the power of sport to tackle social chal-lenges.

“How much you accept to do the dirty work like Monday morning practice, the fi rst and second round

of tournaments you are expected to win and it is hot and windy condi-tions.

“Usually they say the amount of time you have been away takes you the same amount to come back to your previous level and I hope that is not the case for Djokovic because that would mean the end of the year.”

Becker said legends Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer had shown it was possible to succeed after long in-jury absences.

Federer and Nadal dominated the Slams in 2017 while the Swiss star defended his Australian Open in January, claiming a 20th major.

“It would be a lot to expect him (Djokovic) coming back and win-ning his fi rst tournament at a Grand

Slam,” said Becker. “Rafa and Fed-erer have set examples of coming back but they are not normal. Usu-ally it takes time.”

‘A very physical game’

Becker, who won six Grand Slams including his fi rst Wimbledon aged just 17, denied Djokovic’s situation would be better if he had undergone surgery earlier.

“Tennis players don’t have only one injury,” said the 50-year-old German. “You play a Grand Slam over two weeks it is more than an elbow that hurts. You take the de-cision to have surgery when it is a serious problem.

“If you were to go into the locker room on a Monday morning you would be amazed how many play-

ers have elbow, ankle and foot in-juries.”

Becker added: “I hate to tell you tennis is a very physical game. Pe-riod. I can’t admire them (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray who has undergone hip surgery) enough. To play 75-80 matches a year - most sports aren’t like that.”

Becker, who named Austria’s Dominic Thiem and hot-headed Australian Nick Kyrgios as poten-tial successors to the likes of Fed-erer, Nadal and Djokovic when they fi nally retire, said injuries were nothing new.

“It is the nature of the beast of a professional tennis player,” he said.

“You have it in the 1980s and 90s but the diff erence now is it is be-coming more public.”

SPOTLIGHT

‘Mentally is going to be the biggest challenge. Usually they say the amount of time you have been away takes you the same amount to come back to your previous level and I hope that is not the case for Djokovic because that would mean the end of the year’

AFPAcapulco, Mexico

South Africa’s Kevin Anderson moved one step closer to capturing his second consecu-tive title with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over American qualifi er Jared Donaldson at the

ATP Mexican Open.Anderson, of Johannesburg, won the New York

Open crown two weeks ago. The world No 8 Anderson has plenty of confi -

dence heading into Saturday’s fi nal where he will face Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro.

“It just feels great to win tonight’s match,” Ander-son said. “When you’re out there, you’re not really thinking about fi nals and what happened before. In the heat of the battle, I thought it was a really tough match.”

Since last January, when he plunged to 80th in the world, Anderson has made fi ve fi nals compris-ing Washington, DC, the US Open, Pune, New York and now Acapulco. He was runner-up at the 2017 US Open.

Anderson saw his ranking fall of as a result of a va-riety of injuries and health issues.

In the other semi-fi nal, Del Potro blasted six aces and broke Alexander Zverev’s serve three times en route to a 6-4, 6-2 win on Friday night.

Del Potro, who is seeded sixth, won 78 percent of his fi rst-serve points and 55 percent of his second serves in the one hour, 31 minute match.

Zverev assumed top ranking after the late with-drawal of Rafael Nadal and he had not lost a set all week. But Del Potro, who has won 16 of his 20 career titles on hard courts like the one in Acapulco, domi-nated his higher-ranked opponent in a match that lasted just 90 minutes. Zverev, of Germany, ham-mered 10 aces but had two double faults.

On the women’s side of the draw, defending champion Lesia Tsurenko earned a ninth straight victory at this event as she held off a late charge from Daria Gavrilova to return to the WTA fi nal with a 6-2, 6-4 win.

Tsurenko will have the opportunity to play for her fourth career WTA title against Swiss Stefanie Voegele who cruised past Swedish qualifi er Rebecca Peterson 6-4, 7-6 (7/5).

“I just really like it here. I think all the condi-tions for the tournament are just great and I know that all the players enjoy to play here,” the Ukrainian Tsurenko said.

Anderson to battle Del Potro in Acapulco fi nal

MEXICAN OPEN

Novak Djokovic (left) won six Grand Slams under Boris Becker’s (right) tutelage.

Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut celebrates with the champion’s trophy after winning the ATP Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships yesterday. (AFP)

South Africa’s Kevin Anderson celebrates after beating Jared Donaldson of the USA in their Mexico Open semi-final in Acapulco, Mexico. (AFP)

The Netherland’s winner Kirsten Wild celebrates winning the women’s omnium during the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. (AFP)

WILD WINS OMNIUM GOLD

Sharma upstages big names to take lead in Mexico

ReutersMexico City

India’s Shubhankar Sharma surprised a few people, but not himself, as he upstaged the biggest names in golf for

a two-shot halfway lead at the WGC-Mexico Championship on Friday.

In his fi rst appearance in a World Golf Championships event, Sharma added a fi ve-un-der-par 66 to his opening round 65 to set the pace at 11-under 131 at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City.

“I didn’t really put any pres-sure on myself before I came here. I expected to play well,” the 21-year-old told Golf Channel.

“I’m really happy that I’m playing at such a high level and playing with all these great

players. I’ve tried to enjoy my-self as much as possible out there and this is the best posi-tion I could have been in.

“I’ve defi nitely proved to my-self that I belong here and I can play with the big boys.”

Several of those big boys were lurking close, with Spanish duo of Sergio Garcia (65) and Rafa Cabrera Bello (67) in a share of second with American Xander

Schauff ele (68) on nine-under.First round leader Louis

Oosthuizen (71) backtracked to fall four shots off the pace in a large group sharing fi fth, which also included defending cham-pion Dustin Johnson (66).

Sharma entered the week al-ready ranked fi rst on the Euro-pean Tour after two early-sea-son victories but it would be fair to suggest he was not a name

on everyone’s lips pre-tourna-ment. An eagle on Friday at the short par-four fi rst hole, where he drove the ball to inside two feet for a tap-in, changed that and bogeys at the next two holes proved minor setbacks.

The fi ve birdies he picked up on the back nine, including at the fi nal three holes, helped him stamp his authority on the event. “I just kept the ball in

play throughout the day,” Shar-ma said. “The only two bogeys I made were three putts. I kept the ball in the fairway and gave myself as many chances to at-tack the pin as possible.”

Sharma has plenty to play for over the weekend, not least a shot at securing a spot at next month’s Masters.

Currently ranked 75th in the world, he needs to climb into the top 50 in the next four weeks, or better yet win a tournament, to qualify for Augusta National.

But Sharma is likely to feel some heat in the fi nal two rounds, with reigning Masters champion Garcia among those poised to pounce.

“We still have a long weekend to go,” Garcia said. “The course is getting fi rmer and tougher as the week goes on. Hopefully I can play more of the same.”

WORLD GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

‘I’m really happy that I’m playing at such a high level and playing with all these great players. I have tried to enjoy myself as much as possible out there and this is the best position I could have been in’

AFPPretoria

South African George Coetzee, playing on his home course, increased his lead to two shots yes-

terday after three rounds of the European Tour Tshwane Open.

He fi red a three-under-par 68 at Pretoria Country Club for a tournament total of 199, 14 under par over the 6,476-metre/7,081-yard layout, after being one stroke ahead overnight.

Coetzee, whose three Euro-pean Tour victories include the 2015 Tshwane Open, is followed on the leaderboard by Sam Hors-fi eld of England and Mikko Ko-rhonen of Finland.

Horsfi eld carded a 64 - the best round of the day - while Korhonen shot a 69 in hot, clear conditions.

South Africans Thomas Aiken (67) and Eric van Rooyen (67), Scott Jamieson (67) of Scotland and Chilean Felipe Aguilar (71) are on 203, four strokes behind the leader.

Coetzee is hoping to become the fi rst two-time winner of the Tshwane Open and the sixth South African victor in the sev-en-year-old competition.

His score would have been even lower but for a bogey six on the fi nal hole of a course he fi rst played as a 10 year old.

Coetzee, who has also won the Joburg Open and Mauritius Open on the European Tour, picked up fi ve birdies and bo-geyed two holes.

“I am looking forward to the fi nal round, but I am not think-ing anything beyond that at the moment,” said the leader.

“It is great to have the lo-cal support here and, hopefully, I can give them something to cheer about on Sunday after-noon.

“I’m happy with how I played. The front nine was not that great, but I managed to play re-

ally nice golf from 10 onwards.” Horsfi eld, who turned pro-

fessional last year and is ranked 754 in the world, closed the gap behind Coetzee from six shots overnight to two.

He birdied the fi rst four holes, added a fi fth on the front nine and secured two more at 11 and 12 to match the lowest score of the week.

Korhonen, a Tshwane Open runner-up last year, bogeyed two holes before a change of fortune from 12 delivered four birdies.

Danny Willett of England and Julian Suri of the United States, two high-profi le competitors in the fi eld, are well back.

Willett, the 2016 US Masters champion, shot a 71 and is 10 strokes behind Coetzee with 18 holes remaining.

Suri, ranked 70 in the world and the lone top-100 golfer at the Tshwane Open, returned a 72 for a 211 total.

Leading scores after third round 199 - George Coetzee 67-64-68201 - Sam Horsfield (ENG) 68-69-64, Mikko Korhonen (FIN) 68-64-69203 - Felipe Aguilar (CHI) 65-67-71, Thomas Aiken 65-71-67, Scott Jamieson (SCO) 67-69-67, Eric van Rooyen 68-68-67205 - Sebastien Gros (FRA) 69-70-66, Shaun Norris 66-72-67, Victor Perez (FRA) 69-68-68, Adilson da Silva (BRA) 67-72-66, Danie van Tonder 67-72-66206 - Louis Cantor (ENG) 73-64-69, Matthew Carvell 69-69-68, Jens Dantorp (SWE) 70-69-67, Jacques Kruyswijk 69-69-68, Connor Syme (SCO) 70-68-68, Scott Vincent (ZIM) 68-69-69207 - Matthew Baldwin (ENG) 68-69-70, Bryce Easton 68-69-70, Hennie Otto 69-70-68Selected others208 - David Howell (ENG) 70-70-68209 - Danny Willett (ENG) 70-68-71211 - Julian Suri (USA) 65-74-72.

Coetzee widens lead to two on home course

TSHWANE OPEN

SPORT7Gulf Times

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Shubhankar Sharma in action during the second round of the WGC-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

ReutersBirmingham

Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas, an Athletics heroine who has shone in dark times for her

country, again made her compa-triots proud as she successfully defended her triple jump crown at the world indoor champion-ships yesterday.

Tom Walsh, a New Zealander who never fulfi lled his mother’s dream of him becoming a rugby All Black, again excelled in his preferred athletic fi eld, winning the shot gold with a record-breaking put on the penultimate morning of the four-day worlds.

Christian Coleman, the US sprinter tipped to take up Us-ain Bolt’s mantle as the world’s fastest man, was the centre of attention at Arena Birmingham as he overcame an early stum-ble before easing into the 60m semi-fi nals.

Rojas’s victory, after she be-latedly roused herself to pro-duce a fi fth-round winning leap of 14.63 metres, the best in the world this year, proved another emotional one for the dramatic

fi gure from Caracas.When she won the equivalent

crown in London last year to become the fi rst Venezuelan to strike gold at an outdoor world championships, Rojas dedicat-ed her triumph to her country, which was embroiled in political and economic strife.

Again, after adding a third world title to her impressive resume at the age of just 22, Ro-jas felt moved to declare: “This is a great achievement for Ven-ezuela, for our nation. I hope I

brought a bit of joy to them and they enjoyed watching it.”

The woman coached by Cu-ba’s former Olympic long jump champion Ivan Pedroso in Ma-drid had looked as if she might miss out as the Birmingham-based Jamaican Kimberly Wil-liams led with a fi ne series, head-ed by her third round 14.48m.

Yet before her fi fth round ef-fort, Rojas started whooping loudly to get the crowd involved and soared out to 14.63. Wil-liams was unable to respond,

with Spain’s Ana Peleteiro tak-ing the bronze with 14.40.

Walsh, rapidly becoming as dominant in the shot put arena as his female compatriot Valerie Adams has been, put the com-petition to bed with his opening eff ort of 22.13 metres, which he matched in the third round.

Then, with the competition won and to the accompaniment of rock music in the dimly-lit

arena, the 26-year-old unleashed his celebratory ‘shot in the dark’ of 22.31 metres, a lifetime best and Oceania record that put him fourth on the all-time list. The mark also erased East German Ulf Timmermann’s 31-year-old championship record of 22.24m, the longest-standing world in-door championship mark.

However, it also spelled bad news for Walsh’s coach, who

had promised to grow ‘mutton chop’ facial hair for the next nine months if his charge won with a personal best.

Walsh, who was a talented rugby player and cricketer as a youngster, reckoned that his mum, who had wanted him to concentrate on rugby, would now accept he had made the right choice to pursue Athletics.

“If you knew my mother, you

would know that she would never disagree with something she has said. But I made the right decision,” said a smiling Walsh, who consigned Germany’s David Storl (21.44) to silver and Czech Tomas Stanek (also 21.44), who was relegated to bronze on the countback.

“Mum will be pretty happy. It is great to have parents support-ing you, whatever you do.”

Australian star Sally Pearson’s Commonwealth Games prepa-rations suff ered a blip Saturday as she missed out on the world indoor 60m hurdles fi nal by one-hundredth of a second.

Pearson, the defending world outdoor 100m hurdles champion and 2012 Olympic gold medal-list, clocked 7.92 seconds in fi n-ishing third in her semi-fi nal.

It was not enough to ensure her one of the two fastest times behind the two automatic quali-fi ers from each of the three heats.

A busy morning also saw an ominously easy qualifi cation for today’s 4x400m relay fi nal by a US men’s quartet who clocked 3 minutes 04.00 seconds and could well lower their four-year-old world record of 3:02.13 in today’s fi nal.

Triple jumper Rojas, shot putter Walsh strike goldATHLETICS

Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas celebrates after winning the women’s triple jump final at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham yesterday. (Reuters)

Leading second-round scores 131-Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 65-66133-Xander Schauff ele 65-68, Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP) 66-67, Sergio Garcia (ESP) 68-65135-Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 64-71, Brian Harman 68-67, Brendan Steele 69-66, Pat Perez 68-67, Dus-tin Johnson 69-66, Bubba Watson 69-66, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA) 66-69136-Kyle Stanley 71-65, Charley Hoff man 70-66137-Adam Bland 70-67, Jordan Spieth 70-67, Marc

Leishman (AUS) 69-68, Daniel Berger 69-68, Tho-mas Pieters (BEL) 69-68, Phil Mickelson 69-68138-Patton Kizzire 69-69, Rickie Fowler 68-70, Tyr-rell Hatton (ENG) 70-68, Jhonattan Vegas (VEN) 70-68, Russell Henley 69-69, Jon Rahm (ESP) 67-71, Tony Finau 68-70139 - Ross Fisher (ENG) 71-68, Alex Noren (SWE) 69-70 140-Matthew Fitzpatrick (ENG) 71-69, Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 71-69, Chris Paisley (ENG) 65-75

Korda tops leaderboard in SingaporeTeen sensation Nelly Korda powered her way into the lead at the HSBC Women’s World Championship yesterday as a third-round seven-under par 65 left the American poised to claim her first LPGA Tour title and a unique hat-trick of sporting successes for the Korda clan this year. It was a day of high drama as the chasing pack went out in hunt of overnight leader, rising American star Danielle Kang, as former world number ones Lydia Ko of New Zealand and Park Inbee of South Korea continued to lag behind, finishing tied for 12th and 30th respectively. American star Michelle Wie leads a group of four players tied for fifth at 10-under after she shot a six-under 66.But the day belonged to the 56th-ranked Korda, in just her second year on the LPGA Tour but having so far already finished in the top-10 six times. “I was aggressive when I needed to be, so I’m just happy with the way it ended and really looking forward to tomor-row,” said the 19-year old after ending the day on 15-under 201.Korda went on a birdie blitz through the middle of her round, pick-ing up five strokes from across holes six to 11 to put the pressure on Kang. Up until that point the 25-year-old Kang’s play had been flawless but bogies on 15 and 18 saw her hand up the lead to the charging Korda, who leads by a stroke from her rival going into the final round. Victory would certainly been in keeping with tradition among a Korda clan sired by former tennis pro father Petr, winner of the 1998 Australian Open. Korda’s elder sister Jessica won the Honda LPGA Thailand last weekend while her younger tennis-play-ing brother Sebastian picked up the boys’ singles at the Australian Open back in January. Korda admitted to feeling a little sibling heat coming in to the Sentosa Golf Club, saying she had been reminded that it was her turn to win “all the time.”

New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh celebrates winning the men’s shot put final at the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships at the Arena in Birmingham yesterday. (AFP)

Sunday, March 4, 2018

GULF TIMES

Dutch star Dekker, Finland’s Sundstedt defend titles

AL ADAID DESERT CHALLENGE

SPORT

By Sports ReporterDoha

Dutch cycling legend Erik Dekker and Finland’s Pia Sundstedt defended their men’s and wom-

en’s elite category titles of the Al Adaid Desert Challenge respec-tively.

The third edition of event con-cluded on Friday, with more than 350 runners and cyclists taking part in the gruelling contest at Sealine area, south-east of Qatar.

A new more-challenging 38.5km cycling route, that re-quired overcoming seven sand dunes, did not stop Dutch star Dekker from defending his title in the UCI Elite category. The former Olympic-medallist, fi n-ished the race in 1:24:55.

In fact, the top three positions did not see any changes from last year, but the battle for the title was more exciting, as New Zea-land’s Roman Van Uden fi nished second just 32 seconds behind the winner.

Frederic Gombert of France came third with a time of 1:25:59.

“It was a diff erent experience for me compared to last year. I told the guys the trick about us-ing the right kind of tires, and now they had good tires, so the top four riders were closer to each other,” Dekker said.

In the Women’s UCI Elite cat-egory, Finland’s Pia Sundstedt easily won her third straight title, fi nishing the race in an hour and 47 minutes, with Sophie Giovane of France coming second.

“I really liked the course this year, it is diff erent, a bit harder and more challenging,but re-ally nice. The new setting for the fi nish area this year is also very enjoyable for me and my fam-ily. Now, I will focus on my next competition, Doha Triathlon, af-ter two weeks. I have been eagerly waiting for it,” Sundstedt said.

The UCI MTB Class-3 event, organised by Qatar Cyclists Cen-tre in cooperation with Qatar Tourism Authority, is the tough-est off -road mountain bike race in the region, and this year a run-ning race was added to its pro-gramme.

Dr Jamal Rashid al-Khanji, Managing Director of Al Adaid Desert Challenge, said: “The success of the 2018 Al Adaid Desert challenge exceeded all expectations, I would like to thank all our sponsors, partners and supporters, without them it wouldn’t have been possible to organise this amazing event.”

“More than 350 participants painted a wonderful picture about Qatar and the showed how the country’s communities are enthusiastic about sport. They

also helped to shed light on one of the most amazing natural wonders in the world. Congratu-lations to all the winners and all the participants. We promise to do our best to make the next edi-tion of Al Adaid Desert Challenge another remarkable success.”

More than 60 Qataris par-ticipated in this year’s challenge, and the cycling race also counted as the Qatar National MTB Cross Country Championship. Local favourite Fawaz al-Hichan, won the title, after crossing the fi nish line in 1:55:06.

Dr Abdulaziz al-Kuwari, Presi-dent of Qatar Cyclists Centre, won second place in the same race, he commented “It was a thrilling experience, and the new route, in addition to the battle for Qatar Champion title added a lot of excitement to the event. The performance of Qatar Cy-clists members exceeded all ex-pectations, and the experience they gained through competing against international riders is invaluable. We have seen people from all ages, genders and na-tionalities taking part in Al Adaid Desert Challenge today, it shows the huge role this event plays in promoting cycling in Qatar, eve-ryone enjoyed being active, trying a new challenge and also enjoying the beauty of Qatar’s nature”.

Another impressive result for local riders came in the Fatbike Category, as Qatar’s Mubarak al-

Ajji won fi rst place with a time of 2:08:59s.

Experienced cross-country runner Andrew Jones of Great Britain won the fi rst edition of the running race completing a distance of 26.7km, that included four sand dunes, in a time of 1:49:01, while his compatriot Caroline Drew won the women’s title, crossing the fi n-ish line after 2:25:21.

Former Samla Race Champion, Ali al-Hajri, registered the best result for Qataris in the running race, fi nishing 8th overall, with a time of 2:09:21.

Dr Mohamed Jaham al-Kuwari, Qatar Cycling and Triathlon Fed-eration President, commented:

“We are really happy with what the participants achieved this year, despite the more challenging route compared to last year.”

“Congratulations to all the winners. We are proud with the record number of Qatari partici-pants taking part in the event. We have witnessed fi erce competi-tion between them for the title of the fi rst Qatar National Mountain Bike Cross-Country Champion-ship”, he said.

This year’s event required extra eff orts from the organis-ers due to the record number of participants, the new running competition and the new route. They did well to mark and secure

the participants’ route, while also providing a parallel route used by the spectators, event sponsors, and media.

The festive atmosphere at the fi nish area in Doha Bus Desert Adventures Camp was the per-fect end scene to this remarkable event, as riders and runners, from more than 45 diff erent countries, took a deserved break to replenish their energy and celebrate their triumphs with colleagues, friends and family members, ahead of the prize-giving ceremony.

A kids race was also organised at Doha Bus Camp and added to the excitement of the event.

Rashed al-Qurese, Chief Mar-

keting & Promotion Offi cer at QTA, said, “We are very pleased to see the signifi cant growth Al Adaid Desert Challenge has wit-nessed compared last year. This growth is not only testament to the potential that exists within our locally-developed sports events, but also to adventure sport events.

QTA’s support for the Challenge comes as part of our strategy to de-velop and grow local sports events. We look forward to welcoming more international visitors to challenge themselves against the backdrop of Qatar’s unique desert and sea landscape next year.”

A total of QR150,000 in prize-

money were awarded to the top fi nishers in each category, in addi-tion to special prizes from Garmin, an offi cial partner of the event.

The prize giving ceremony concluded another successful community cycling event from Qatar Cyclists and a memorable day for all the participants.

Jassim Ali al-Moftah, Chief Executive Offi cer of Doha Insur-ance Group, Insurance Partner of Al Adaid Desert Challenge, com-mented, “We have seen some amazing scenes today, the success of the 2018 Al Adaid Desert Chal-lenge exceeded all expectations, we are proud to be the insurance partner of this special event that helps in developing tourism and encourages community to be more active and take on new sports.

Pioneering Spirit is our slogan at Doha Insurance Group, and Qatar proved today once again that it is the pioneering country when it comes to organizing a world class sports event, the only one of its kind in this region”.

Manar Khalifa al-Muraikhi, Di-rector PR and Corporate Commu-nications at Ooredoo, the event’s Gold Sponsor, said, “at Ooredoo we are always keen on supporting sporting events and activities.

“We are proud to be sponsor-ing Al Adaid Desert Challenge, which was a real test of strength, stamina and determination of all participants again this year,” she said.

‘I really liked the course this year, it is different, a bit harder and more challenging, but really nice’

Erik Dekker (second from right) of the Netherlands, Roman Van Uden (second from left) of New Zealand and Frederic Gombert of France celebrate on the UCI Elite category podium of the Al Adaid Desert Challenge.

Al Rayyan, Qatar Sports Club start with winsQATAR CUP BASKETBALL

By Sports ReporterDoha

Terrel de von Stoglin scored 25 points while Tanguy Ngombo and Stephen Hurt contributed 19 and 17 respectively as Al Rayyan powered to a 104-84 win over Al Khor in the opening match of the Qatar

Cup basketball tournament yesterday.Meho Haracic and Abdelrahman Yehia and Mohamed

Hasan also chipped in with double fi gure scores to help Al Rayyan dominate their rivals at the Al Gharafa Sports Club.

It was Al Khor, however, who impressed at the start, tak-ing a 13-8 lead in the fi rst fi ve minutes before Al Rayyan got their act together and started dictating terms.

Al Rayyan edged the fi rst quarter 23-20 and consoli-dated further at the halfway stage by taking a 51-42 lead.

They virtually wrapped up the match by leading 78-58 at the end of the third quarter before easily completing the formalities, winning by a 20-point margin.

Dominique Lacy scored 26 points for Al Khor, while Aldaji Magassa had 21 and Khobi Williamson 20.

In the second match of the day, Qatar Sports Club de-feated Al Ahli 84-73 with Nicholas West and Brandon Kearney scoring 24 and 22, respectively.

Al Ahli edged the fi rst quarter 18-15 but thereafter lost the momentum as the Qatar Sports Club forwards found their groove.

Aiding West and Kearney superbly were Yousuf Mo-hamed and Baden Jaxen who managed 25 points between them.

For Al Ahli, Nemanja Besovic scored 18, while Ndoye Seydou had 16.

Today Al Wakrah play Sl Shamal at 5pm followed by a match between Al Gharafa and Al Sadd at 7pm

Qatar’s Mubarak al-Ajji (second from right), Simon Aggus (second from left) of the United Kingdom and Qatar’s Abdulla al-Khater (right) celebrate on the fatbike podium.

Al Rayyan and Al Khor (in blue) players vie for the ball during their Qatar Cup match yesterday.

Winner Glenn Bull (second from right) of Australia, second-placedFawaz al-Hichan (left) of Qatar and third-placed Max Caparanga (right) of the Philippines celebrate on the MTB men’s podium.

Winners of the Qatari category of the the Al Adaid Desert Challenge celebrate on the podium.

Action from the match between Qatar SC (in white) and Al Ahli.