Monday, February 22, 2021Rajab 10, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Burns clings to Riviera lead as No. 1Johnson lurks

Medvedev hopes for more chances to win a Slam title

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Sterling strikes as Manchester Citydown ArsenalPage 3

Djokovic routs Medvedev for ninth Aus Open crown

Xavi stays humble despite Sadd’s dominance

The Serb claimed his 18th Grand Slam title to move within two of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal who have 20 each

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By Sports ReporterDoha

Even though Al Sadd have swatted aside all oppo-sition this season, Xavi Hernandez makes it a

point to acknowledge his team’s rivals before every match, often paying them generous tribute for the way they compete or for the potential they hold.

With the QNB Stars league ti-tle literally for them to lose – they lead second-placed Duhail by 13 points with six matches to go – Xavi could easily get away with some bombast if he wanted to.

But that’s not his style as he once again spoke about the “diffi culty” of Al Sadd’s match against Al Arabi today, saying they are capable of causing an upset.

“The next game is against Al Arabi and we expect it will be diffi cult. Everybody can remem-

ber we suff ered in the fi nal of the Amir Cup because they were defending very well. They didn’t concede too many goals in the re-cent period. They have improved a lot after that with a few new players,” the Spaniard said yes-terday.

“They improved in defence and in attack, and of course they have new players like Youssef Msakni who have increased the level of the team. It will be diffi -cult because for sure, they will be really motivated against us.”

Al Sadd will wrap up the title

with fi ve matches to spare today itself if they beat Al Arabi and Al Duhail lose to Al Gharafa, but Xavi said he was only focused on what his team can do.

“We can win the title if we win the game tomorrow and Al Du-hail lose, but just depending on ourselves, if we win the next two games, we are champions. So the focus now is on Al Arabi.

“It is a derby against Al Arabi, and there will be a lot of tension, and a lot of motivation from Al Arabi for sure. We are in a good moment and we are the favour-ites to win the three points.”

As for Al Arabi’s recent form, Xavi said: “The match will be very diffi cult as Al Arabi hasn’t lost since we played the Amir Cup fi nal. It means that they are in a really good moment, they improved a lot and they are working really hard, especially in defence. They didn’t concede too many chances to score for their opponents.”

Finally, Xavi extended his wishes to his Al-Arabi counter-part Heimir Hallgrimsson who has tested positive for Covid-19. “I’m sorry for Heimir. I too got the virus in the summer. It hap-pens, this is life.”

“I wish him all the best and a quick recovery, and I will miss him on the bench. It’s a pity that he cannot be on the bench, and of course I wish him all the best because I respect him as a coach and as a person. So, get well soon!

Meanwhile, Al Duhail coach Sabri Lamouchi said facing Al Gharafa for the second time in a matter of a week will be a “new challenge”.

“After our 2021 Qatar Cup semi-fi nal victory over Al Ghara-fa, our focus has been more on the recovery of our players and restoring their physical readi-ness in preparation for the league match against Al Gharafa tomor-row, in which we have to make greater eff orts in order to achieve

victory. “Our squad could wit-ness a number of changes, but we must take into account the ele-ment of harmony and the need to maintain balance within the group. For me, I will count on the best 11 players to play this match. Facing Al Gharafa again is a new challenge.”

Al Duhail have 31 points form 16 matches and with no realistic

chance of winning the title will have to keep fi ghting for the sec-ond spot with Qatar Sports Club, Al Gharafa and Al Rayyan breath-ing down their necks.

Al Rayyan, meanwhile, take on Al Kharaitiyat today and will be primarily concerned with avoid-ing the humiliation of getting beaten by a relegation-threat-ened team.

AFPMelbourne

Peerless world number one Novak Djokovic de-molished Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in straight

sets to win his ninth Australian Open title and extend his record-breaking reign at Melbourne Park yesterday.

Djokovic overpowered the fourth seed 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 in front of 7,400 fans on Rod Laver Arena to end the Russian’s unbeaten run at 20 matches.

In winning a third straight Australian Open for the second time, the Serb claimed his 18th Grand Slam title to move within two of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal who have 20 each, while denying Medvedev his fi rst.

Rarely has a player been so dominant at a single tournament with the Serb’s record-extend-ing ninth title moving him past Federer’s eight at Wimbledon, but still some way behind the 13 Nadal has won at Roland Garros.

But it was a rollercoaster ride to get there, with Djokovic drop-ping fi ve sets en route to the fi nal and battling an abdominal tear that nearly forced him to pull out after the third round.

Despite admitting it was a gamble to keep playing, with a risk the injury could get worse and aff ect the rest of his season, the 33-year-old chose to contin-ue and it paid off .

He said, though, that the problem was “not healed” and he planned to take time off with no tournament commitments locked in after Australia.

“I think emotionally it was one of the hardest tournaments that I’ve ever had, to be honest,” he said.

“If there was a tournament where I want to risk any more damage, and try my hardest

to battle, it’s here, it’s a Grand Slam.”

He also paid tribute to Medvedev as a “class act”.

“He’s defi nitely one of the toughest players I have ever faced in my life. It’s a matter of time till

you hold a Grand Slam.”Djokovic’s presentation with

the trophy came after Tennis Australia chair Jayne Hrdlicka was booed for mentioning the Covid vaccine and the Victorian government.

The unusual scenes came at the end of a tournament that was delayed three weeks over the coronavirus and had to bar fans for fi ve days when state authori-ties ordered a snap lockdown.

Medvedev, 25, is one of the

smartest players on tour, keep-ing his opponents guessing with his fl at and low groundstrokes, changing up the pace and angles, as he blends impenetrable de-fence with opportunistic off ence.

But the Serb, who held a 4-3

head-to-head record against him but had lost three of the previous four, had his measure.

“Yeah, it’s defi nitely tough. I don’t like to lose matches. Doesn’t matter if it’s a fi rst round or a fi nal of a Grand Slam,” said Medvedev.

“He was better than me today. I could have done things for sure better today, but I didn’t manage to. That’s why I don’t have the trophy.

“But congrats Novak and his team. I mean, nine Grand Slams in Australia and 18 total is amaz-ing and probably not the last one.”

In front of a pro-Djokovic crowd, Medvedev overcooked two forehands on his opening service game then sent one into the net to hand the Serb the fi rst break points, then a wild back-hand saw him immediately on the back foot.

Djokovic consolidated with a serve to love before the Russian fi nally got off the mark with a wobbly hold for 1-3. But then a failed drop shot and net volley from the top seed allowed the Russian to break back.

Long rallies ensued and it went with serve until some brilliant groundstrokes from Djokovic

earned three break points at 6-5. Medvedev saved two but not the third to lose the opening set.

Undeterred, the tall, pencil-thin Russian kept coming and dialled up the pressure to break Djokovic’s opening serve in set two, only for the Serb to immedi-ately strike back.

Djokovic won three games in a row, despite the disruption of two fans being ejected in an ap-parent refugee protest, as he took control.

He raced to a 5-2 lead with Medvedev smashing his rac-quet in frustration as the set and the championship began slip-ping away.Defl ated, Medvedev dropped his opening serve in set three and never looked like fi nd-ing a way back as Djokovic, in his 28th Grand Slam fi nal compared to the Russian’s second, drew on his experience to close out the match, dropping to the court in celebration.

The win reinforced Djokovic’s status as world number one, where he will mark his 311th week when the new rankings come out today, surpassing Federer’s record of 310.

Medvedev will move to a ca-reer-high three in the rankings, behind Nadal.

Afi f fi ned, banned for two matchesThe Qatar Football Associa-tion yesterday announced that star Al Sadd player Akram Afif has been fined QR30,000 and banned for two matches for criticising the referee in com-ments made to the media.Afif will now miss Al Sadd’s match against Al Arabi today as also the Qatar Cup final on Feb 26.Afif’s statement during an inter-

view with Al-Kass channel after the Qatar Cup semi-final match against Al Rayyan sparked great controversy on social media.Afif said in the statement that “We were playing against 11 and half players,” referring to the referee who according to him “did not provide them with protection against the rough play by Al Rayyan players.”

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates after beating Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in their Australian Open final yesterday.

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev throws his racquet during his match against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

TENNISGulf Times Monday, February 22, 20212

Medvedev hopes for more chances to win a Slam title

Osaka aims to inspire new generation — but says Williams is still the queen

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ReutersMelbourne

Daniil Medvedev had the enviable record of defeating Novak Djokovic in three out

of their last four matches be-fore the Australian Open final, but after yesterday’s thrashing the Russian was left wondering if his best would have made any difference.

Medvedev walked on to the floodlit Rod Laver Arena for his second major final, having won the Paris Masters, the ATP Finals and the team-based ATP Cup in a 20-match winning streak that included 12 straight wins over top-10 opponents.

But his unbeaten run and the past record counted for noth-ing as Djokovic tutored him on his “living room”, showing him how he has managed to remain unscathed in nine Australian Open fi nals with a 7-5 6-2 6-2 victory.

“I feel like I could have played better,” Medvedev told report-ers, when asked to explain if he played badly or Djokovic was too good. “Especially looking at the matches where I played him.

“At the same time there is al-ways a question maybe he was not that good (during) the other matches I played him... the question is how did he manage to win here nine times out of nine. Probably all nine times he was better than his opponent.

“He defi nitely was good. I defi nitely could have done bet-ter. But even if I would have done better, doesn’t mean that the score would be diff er-ent... Today we have this score. I’m the loser; he’s the winner. That’s the point.”

Medvedev lost in a fi fth set decider against Rafa Nadal in his maiden Grand Slam fi nal at the 2019 US Open.

He said the defeat in New York hurt more than his Aus-tralian Open loss as he had more chances to win that day.

“But both losses hurt,” the 25-year-old said. “The only thing that keeps me warm is that I always try to do my best on the court. I think I got closer because I always say experience is the key for me.

“Next time if I play Novak ever here in the fi nal, I am going to do some things on the court, maybe off the court also, diff er-ently because at least I would have this experience where he

won (against) me easy.“Doesn’t mean that I will

succeed, but that’s (the) life of a tennis player.”

Labelling Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic as his three most diffi cult opponents and “cyborgs of tennis”, Medvedev

said he would be happy to win a Grand Slam against any op-ponent.

“I had two (Grand Slam)

chances. I lost both of them. Hopefully I will have some more.” Reuters

Meanwhile Goran Ivanisevic said Novak Djokovic will fi n-ish his career with more Grand Slams than Roger Federer and battle it out with Rafa Nadal. Victory over Daniil Medvedev gave world number one Djok-ovic his 18th major and the 33-year-old champion is now two shy of Federer and Nadal who have won a men’s record 20 each.

Djokovic lost the oppor-tunity to close the gap at last year’s US Open after he was disqualified for accidentally hitting a lineswoman with a ball. He then lost a one-sided French Open final to Nadal, but Ivanisevic said he could target Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Slams.

“I said couple of years ago Rafa and Novak are going to overtake Roger, both of them. I still believe that,” Ivanisevic told reporters.

“They surprise me every day. Rafa for sure is going to win one, I hope not two, but I give him one... They’re produc-ing better and better tennis... When you think the young guns are coming, these guys are one step better in the fi nals.

“I don’t know where is the end. Maybe they’re going to overtake Margaret Court and Serena Williams (23 majors), maybe not. But it’s amaz-ing what they’re doing on court, how they perform in big matches.”

Federer, 39, has not won a major since winning in Mel-bourne in 2018 and the Swiss has not played in over a year after requiring surgery on his right knee twice in 2020.

“I’m waiting for Roger to come back,” Ivanisevic added. “It’s going to be more interest-ing to see what’s going to hap-pen at the French Open and Wimbledon.”

Ivanisevic said Djokovic’s triumph in Melbourne was also his redemption after the media coverage of his quarantine re-quests prior to the tournament as well as his injury.

“He needed this victory so badly. There’s somebody up-stairs who sees all this unfair-ness with a lot of media and (what) people (are) doing to him,” Ivanisevic said.

“He’s going through lot, es-pecially after last year — US Open, then pretty poor final at Roland Garros, it’s not easy.”

AFPMelbourne

Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka said she felt comfortable being a role model for the next genera-

tion after her fourth Grand Slam vic-tory solidifi ed her position at the fore-front of a new era for tennis.

But the Japanese star, a four-time major-winner at the age of just 23, in-sisted America’s Serena Williams, 39 — who has 23 Slam crowns — remains the face of the women’s game.

Osaka beat America’s Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 in the Australian Open fi nal on Saturday to win her fourth Slam from the last eight in which she has played, and extend her year-plus winning streak to 21 matches.

She joins Monica Seles and Roger Federer in winning her fi rst four major fi nals, and will move up to second in the world rankings.

Her sweeping triumph was viewed as heralding a shift in women’s tennis with Australia’s Fed Cup captain Ali-cia Molik declaring it a “changing of the guard”, while the New Yorker said Osaka was the “most thrilling athlete of her generation”.

Osaka brushed aside Williams in the semis, after also beating her in the stormy 2018 US Open fi nal to win her fi rst major.

But when asked if she was now tak-ing over from Williams as the game’s leading light, Osaka replied: “No, not at all,” adding that she simply wanted

to remain true to herself.“I have learned on-and-off the

court it’s okay to not be sure about yourself,” she said.

“I’m more at peace with where I am, and I’m honestly just happy to be playing a Grand Slam in a pan-demic.”

After winning her second Austral-ian Open title, Osaka spent a lengthy time signing autographs for fans in a gesture that received widespread ap-plause on social media.

Having once grappled with fame as a shy youngster, a content Osaka said she was still “growing as a person” but hoped to provide inspiration to young players.

“In the past I felt it as a very strong responsibility, and I was also very scared and nervous of it,” she said.

“It’s a really big honour that there are little kids that like me, that come to my matches and cheer for me.

“But at the same time, I don’t weigh it too heavily on myself.”

A more mature Osaka, who says she gained greater perspective during tennis’s coronavirus shutdown, said she now appreciated the diffi culty of winning a Grand Slam.

“I feel like I know how much hard work you have to put into this, be-cause the fi rst time that I have won both these trophies I think, in a way, I was just a kid,” she said, referring to her wins at the 2018 US Open and

2019 Australian Open. “I didn’t really know what I was do-

ing.”Her win prompted celebrations in

Japan, where she will play the Tokyo Olympics this year, while Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi tweeted his congratulations from the Interna-tional Space Station.

“There are many Japanese fans who are very excited now that Naomi has won the Australian Open,” Japan’s 58th-ranked Yoshihito Nishioka told AFP ahead of next week’s ATP Singa-pore Open.

“I’m sure they will be following the progress of Japanese players in more tennis tournaments around the world.”

But Osaka said her biggest goal wasn’t Grand Slam titles, an Olympic medal or returning to world number one.

“I feel like the biggest thing that I want to achieve is... hopefully I play long enough to play a girl that said that I was once her favourite player,” she said.

“For me, I think that’s the coolest thing that could ever happen to me... Unfortunately I didn’t get to play Li Na, but, I just think that that’s how the sport moves forward.”

Jabeur and Azarenka set for Qatar Total Open

By Sports ReporterDoha

With just over a week to go for the Qatar Total Open 2021, the numbers

of stars confi rmed for the WTA Tour Premier event has contin-ued to grow with Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, the fi rst Arab woman to reach the quarter-fi nals of a Grand Slam tournament, named in the main draw of the tourna-ment.

The tournament will be held from March 1 to 6 at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha.

Aside from the 26-year-old World No. 30 Jabeur, the high-est-ranked Arab player in WTA history, two-time champion and World No. 13 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, 2016 fi nalist Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, Egypt’s Mayar Sherif are joining as wild-card entrants.

In all, a total of 32 players, in-cluding four qualifi ers, are ex-pected to feature in the singles event of the $565,530 total prize purse tournament, while 16 teams will slug it out in the dou-bles. For the qualifi ers, Qatar’s Mubaraka al-Naimi, who made her WTA main draw debut at the 2017 Qatar Total Open in the doubles draw partnering Fatma al-Nabhani of Oman, will be at-tempting to book her fi rst entry into the main draw.

The 19-year-old al-Naimi is Qatar’s highest-ranked player and an inspiration for many up-coming players across the coun-try. She is the defending champi-on of the Qatar Rail Tennis Open Tournament.

Also featuring in the qualify-ing rounds are al-Nabhani, Alge-ria’s Ines Ibbou and Cagla Buyu-kakcay from Turkey.

Al-Nabhani is one of the most successful players from the re-

gion, having won ten singles titles and 13 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On October 4, 2010, she reached her best sin-gles ranking of world No. 362. On April 28, 2014, she peaked at No. 238 in the doubles rankings.

She was the gold medallist at the 2011 Pan Arab Games in Doha. Al-Nabhani made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2009 Dubai Tennis Champi-onships, having received a wild card with Magali de Lattre in the doubles tournament, but they lost to Chan Yung-jan and Sun Tiantian in the fi rst round. Play-ing for Oman at the Fed Cup, al-Nabhani has a win-loss record of 13-7.

“We are delighted with the increasing numbers of stars who have confi rmed their partici-pation at the Qatar Total Open 2021. The strength of this year’s fi eld, which includes eight of the world’s top-ten, is an indication of the quality of play to be ex-pected at the week-long event. We look forward to another ex-citing time on the courts of the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in about two weeks,” said Tournament Direc-tor Saad al-Mohannadi.

The WTA Tour event, held since 2001, has grown to become one of the signature events on the WTA Tour calendar and a most sought-after tournament in the region.

‘Next time if I play Novak ever here in the final, I am going to do some things on the court, maybe off the court also, diff erently because at least I would have this experience where he won (against) me easy’

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev holds his runners-up trophy after losing against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in their Australian Open final match yesterday in Melbourne.

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Ons Jabeur of Tunisia

Japan’s Naomi Osaka poses with the 2021 Australian Open winner’s trophy at the Government House in Melbourne yesterday.

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FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Monday, February 22, 2021

Barcelona hit by late penalty to draw with Cadiz

Sterling strikes early as leaders City sink Arsenal

LA LIGA

EPL

AFPMadrid

Barcelona compounded their Champions League misery at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain by drawing yesterday at home to

Cadiz, who scored an 89th-minute pen-alty to snatch a 1-1 draw at Camp Nou.

Lionel Messi broke a Barcelona record by making his 506th La Liga appearance for the club and marked the milestone with a goal, his own spot-kick looking likely to secure a narrow win for his side.

But Barca failed to score a second de-spite a hatful of chances and Cadiz pun-ished them with a late equaliser, Alex Fernandez converting from the spot after a wild swing from Clement Lenglet.

The draw means Ronald Koeman’s side move only one point closer to Atletico Madrid in the table instead of three, after Atletico gave their rivals an opportunity by losing at home to Levante on Saturday.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Koe-man. “Maybe even more than after the game on Tuesday. We were on a good run in the league and we could have cut the distance with those above us. “We didn’t have many problems and it’s a game that with our quality we should win, but we haven’t done it.”

Barcelona had won their previous sev-en games and another victory would have put them back in sight of Atletico, who are now eight points ahead of the Cata-lans. Real Madrid are only three points behind Atleti but have played a game

more. “It hurts a lot, after Atletico’s re-sult, we had a chance,” said Gerard Pique. “So lose two points like we did in the last minute is tough to swallow.”

It also brings an end to a hugely disap-pointing week for Barcelona after their 4-1 hammering by PSG, with Elche up next on Wednesday before a tough trip to fourth-placed Sevilla next weekend.

Barca had 21 shots to Cadiz’s three but having failed to capitalise, they were al-ways vulnerable to a lapse at the back, which the out-of-form Lenglet duly pro-vided. Fernandez held his nerve to score the equaliser, an even more memorable goal for him perhaps as a Real Madrid fan and brother of Madrid defender Na-cho Fernandez. Messi’s goal was his 16th of the season, drawing him level with Atletico’s Luis Suarez at the top of the La Liga charts. The 33-year-old cooly rolled the ball into the corner after Pedri was stopped from breaking through, sand-wiched between Salvi and Isaac Carce-len. Both Frenkie de Jong and Pedi had goals ruled out for off side while Messi almost teed up Antoine Griezmann early in the second half. Ousmane Dembele’s driving run lacked a fi nish too.

Then Cadiz’s moment came, a long ball launched into the box and Lenglet failing to spot Ruben Sobrino arriving behind him. Lenglet swung a leg but Sobrino touched the ball away fi rst, allowing Fernandez a special equaliser. Real Sociedad later de-stroyed Alaves 4-0, with Alexander Isak scoring his fi rst ever hat-trick in La Liga. La Real sit fi fth, four points behind Sevilla, having played two games more.

AFPMelbourne

Manchester City moved a step closer to the Premier League title as Raheem Ster-

ling’s early goal gave the runaway leaders a 1-0 win against Arsenal yesterday.

Pep Guardiola’s side made it 18 successive victories in all com-petitions thanks to Sterling’s second-minute header at the Emirates Stadium.

With 13 games left, City are 10 points clear of second-placed Leicester, who had closed the gap to seven with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa earlier yesterday.

City have equalled the club record of 11 successive away vic-tories in all competitions, set from May to November 2017. They are the fi rst top-fl ight team to win their opening 11 league

matches in a calendar year. Storming towards a third title in four seasons, City have won 13 consecutive league matches and are unbeaten in 25 games in all competitions since a defeat at Tottenham in November.

Incredibly, that was the last time they trailed in any league fi xture. Guardiola’s men weren’t even at their best on their return to north London, but they still had enough in the locker to hand Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal a third defeat in their last four league games.

“It was hard like we expected it would be. We suff ered a lot. It’s diffi cult to play against Arsenal and Mikel. That’s why I give the players incredible credit for this victory,” Guardiola said.

“People look at our run of wins and think it’s so easy. I didn’t ex-pect it. I’m more than grateful for these players for what they’re doing, but winning these games

1-0 is what we need to do. “The last 10-15 minutes was brilliant. We know what we want to do. We want to make a big step.”

Borussia Monchengladbach have the next chance to stop City’s incredible winning streak in the Champions League last-16 fi rst leg on Wednesday.

If anyone would have the se-cret to stopping City’s march to the title, it might have been Gun-ners boss Arteta.

The Spaniard served as Guar-diola’s City assistant before tak-ing charge of Arsenal last season.

But Arteta had to make chang-es as several of his players were fatigued after their midweek Eu-ropa League draw against Ben-fi ca.

“When we conceded the fi rst goal it put us in a diffi cult situ-ation. It was tough. With the formation and the players they use they are really comfortable,” Arteta said. “After that the team

reacted really well, were on top of the game and created chances but we lacked the quality in those situations to score the goal.”

City ruthlessly pounced on the uncertainty in Arsenal’s reshuf-fl ed line-up as they took the lead after just 80 seconds.

Ruben Dias played a superb long pass to Riyad Mahrez and the Algeria winger lofted a cross into the six-yard box, where Sterling defi ed his diminutive stature as he rose above Rob Holding to head into the far corner.

Sterling’s 13th club goal of the season was his sixth in his last nine appearances.

He should have had another moments later when Kevin De Bruyne’s pass split the Arsenal defence, but this time Sterling delayed his shot and Bernd Leno was able to save at the forward’s feet.

Mahrez was tormenting Arse-nal left-back Kieran Tierney and

he danced past him for a shot that defl ected wide.

City’s De Bruyne was making his fi rst start for over a month after a hamstring injury. The Bel-gium midfi elder, who came off the bench in the win at Everton in midweek, tried to pick out Il-kay Gundogan but his errant pass betrayed a little rustiness.

City nearly conceded against the run of play when Tierney’s volley forced a good save from Ederson. They regained their momentum at the start of the second half and De Bruyne was just wide with an audacious chip from the edge of the area.

Leno had to save well from Gundogan’s 20-yard drive be-fore De Bruyne’s volley whis-tled wide. Joao Cancelo nearly gifted Arsenal an equaliser when his high backpass was volleyed straight to Mohamed Elneny by Ederson, but the midfi elder blazed just wide.

GUARDIOLA’S MAN CITY MARCH ON TOWARDS TITLE, WEST HAM INFLICT MORE PAIN ON MOURINHO’S TOTTENHAM

AFPParis

A superb second-half free-kick from French international Jonathan Ikone helped Lille ease

to a 4-1 win at Lorient yesterday as they moved back to the top of Ligue 1 ahead of Lyon.

Lyon had gone provisionally to the summit on goal diff erence with a 3-2 victory at Brest on Friday, piling pressure on a Lille side who were beaten at home by Ajax in the Europa League in midweek.

However Lille kept up their momentum in the league to make it a club record seven straight away wins in the top fl ight, with Jose Fonte and Domagoj Bra-daric also scoring after Andreaw Gravillon’s own goal had put them ahead in Brittany.

Lille now lead by three points from Lyon with Paris Saint-Germain another point back in third before hosting Monaco in late game. Gravillon defl ected Jonathan David’s shot into his own net midway through the fi rst half, only for Jerome Her-gault to equalise shortly after.

However, veteran centre-back Fonte restored Lille’s advantage with a low drive from outside the area in the 38th minute and the four-times capped Ikone curled in a free-kick just before the hour mark.

Lorient had gone unbeaten through their previous fi ve out-ings, notably beating Paris

Saint-Germain and holding Mo-naco, to boost their hopes of es-caping the drop.

However, Bradaric wrapped up a big win for Lille in stoppage time, plunging Lorient back into the bottom three on goal diff er-ence behind Nantes.

Earlier Olympique Lyon-nais went provisionally top of the Ligue 1 standings by beating Stade Brestois after benefi ting from some terrible defending by their hosts.

Lucas Paqueta, Houssem Aouar and Memphis Depay found the back of the net in the opening half to put OL on 55 points from 26 games, ahead of second-placed Lille on goal dif-ference.

Brest, who pulled two back through Brendan Chardonnet and Irvin Cardona in an enter-taining second half, are 12th on 31 points.

Keeper Sebastien Cibois tried to dribble past Paqueta in the box but the Brazilian dispos-sessed him and tapped the ball into the empty net to put the vis-itors ahead after nine minutes.

Some poor defending by Paul Lasne then led Aouar to double the tally from inside the area in the 29th minute and Depay added a third from the penalty spot after being brought down by Cibois one minute from the interval.

Chardonnet reduced the ar-rears with a header eight minutes into the second half and Cardona fi red home after beating the off -side trap with 16 minutes left.

Lille reclaim top spotLIGUE 1

Barcelona’s forward Lionel Messi (left) vies for the ball during the La Liga match against Cadiz CF at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona yesterday. (AFP)

Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling scores against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in London yesterday. (Reuters)

My methods still second to none, says Mourinho

Jose Mourinho insists he is still one of the best coaches in the world despite Tottenham’s dismal run hitting a new low with a 2-1 defeat at West Ham yesterday.Mourinho’s side have lost five of their last six league matches and their hopes of finishing in the Premier League’s top four look over.There is mounting speculation that Mourinho, who is on one of the worst runs of his glittering managerial career, could be in danger of the sack.Tottenham were top of the table in mid-December, but since then they have won just three of 13 games, meaning their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League lay with winning the Europa League.After being sacked in his second spell at Chelsea, then dismissed following a diff icult stint with Manchester United, Mourinho’s critics claim he is past his best.The two-time Champions League winner’s conservative tactics are often accused of be-ing out-dated, but he was bull-ish when asked if he questioned his methods amid the poor run

of form. “No, not at all. Not at all. Zero,” Mourinho said.“Because sometimes the results are the consequence of mul-tiple situations in football and mine and my coaching staff ’s methods are second to nobody in the world.”Tottenham’s current run of form is far worse than the results which saw Mauricio Pochettino sacked in 2019. But Mourinho is adamant Tottenham, who are nine points adrift of West Ham in fourth, are not in crisis.“I don’t know what you mean by crisis,” he said.“If crisis is frustration and sadness in the dressing room, I’d say so because nobody is happy and we all showed that in this game.“When a team fights the way the team did until the last second, trying to get a diff erent result, it’s never a group crisis, because groups are in crisis when you’re not together in the search for better results than you have. So I wouldn’t say crisis, I would say a bad, a really bad run of results. That is obvious. We’re losing too many matches.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s coach Jose Mourinho gestures during the English Premier League match against West Ham United at the London Stadium in east London yesterday. (AFP)

SOCCERGulf Times Monday, February 22, 20214

Rangers close to within three wins of title

Martinez, Lukaku send Inter 4 clear aft er derby win

SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP

SERIE A

AFPMilan

Inter Milan beat city rivals AC Milan 3-0 to extend their lead at the top of Serie A yes-terday as Lautaro Martinez

scored a double, with Romelu Lukaku also on target.

Inter opened up a four-point lead over their second-placed opponents as Antonio Conte’s side target a fi rst league title since their unprecedented treble under Jose Mourinho in 2010.

Lukaku was on top form, the Belgian playing a role in Martin-ez’s two goals on fi ve and 57 min-utes before scoring his 17th goal in the league this season to move top of the Serie A scorers’ chart.

Milan, chasing a fi rst Scudetto since 2011, fell to back-to-back Serie A losses for the fi rst time this season, with their title push suff ering another blow with a

fourth defeat in eight league games.

“We’ve suff ered a lot this year,” said Martinez. “Two elimina-tions in the Italian Cup and the Champions League, this is the only goal we have left and we’re fi ghting for that.”

The match was played be-hind closed doors at the San Siro because of the coronavirus pandemic, but that did not stop thousands of fans gathering out-side the stadium for the fi nal Mi-lan derby of the season.

It was the third derby of the season, with Milan winning the fi rst 2-1 in the league.

Inter won a fi ery Italian Cup quarter-fi nal by the same score-line, a game overshadowed by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lukaku squaring off and trading insults, with the Swede later sent off .

The supporters waited for the team buses to arrive, wav-ing fl ags and singing, dispers-

ing once the teams had entered the stadium grounds. The game was also preceded by a minute’s silence and applause for former Inter defender Mauro Bellugi who died aged 71 years on Satur-day, months after having both his legs amputated because of coro-navirus.

Inter were fresher having been eliminated early from European action, with Milan coming off a 2-2 Europa League midweek draw at Red Star Belgrade. And Conte’s side came out fi ring with Lukaku powering down the right fl ank. Milan defender Simon Kjaer blocked his initial cross, but the ball returned to the Belgian for a perfect delivery for Martinez to nod home.

Ibrahimovic threatened with a back-heel fl ick after quarter of an hour following a scramble in the box but Inter keeper Samir Handanovic kept it out.

Milan Skriniar headed wide

before the break from a Christian Eriksen free-kick.

Gianluigi Donnarumma got his hand to the ball to deny Ivan Per-isic, with Handanovic pulling off a double save from Ibrahimovic after the break.

But Martinez broke through again, fi nishing off a Perisic pull-back from the by-line in a move started by Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi.

Donnarumma denied Lukaku minutes later but the former Manchester United striker then burst through to score the third, becoming the fi rst Inter player to score in four straight Serie A der-bies since Benito Lorenzi in 1950.

Ibrahimovic asked to be sub-stituted with a quarter of an hour to go complaining of calf cramps.

“A striker depends on the team’s performance,” said Pioli.

“The goal after fi ve minutes weighed heavy.

“In the fi rst half we could have

done more. In the second half we had many scoring chances, but Handanovic hasn’t saved so well for a long time.”

“If we had been told months ago that we would now be sec-ond, everyone would have jumped for joy, but this would not be us. We didn’t do our best in the last three games and we know we can do something more.

“It was a tough week, the worst one of the season.”

Inter next host 11th-placed Genoa with Milan travelling to Roma, with the capital side third before they play Benevento later on Sunday.

“Ragazzi!!!!!! With full heart and great work we will never stop,” Chinese-owned Inter’s club president Steven Zhang wrote on Instagram.

Defending champions Juven-tus, in fi fth, 11 points behind Inter, play catch-up at home against lowly Crotone today.

AFPGlasgow

Rangers closed to within three wins of a fi rst Scot-tish Premiership title in 10 years by thrashing Dun-

dee United 4-1 yesterday to open up an 18-point lead over Celtic.

Steven Gerrard’s men showed no sign of fatigue from a thrill-

ing 4-3 win over Royal Antwerp in the fi rst leg of their Europa League last 32 tie on Thursday as three goals in 13 minutes either side of half-time ensured a com-fortable afternoon at Ibrox.

Ianis Hagi opened the scor-ing when he defl ected Joe Aribo’s shot home 10 minutes before the break.

Ryan Kent quickly killed the game as a contest as his volley

took a defl ection on its way in.Aribo’s stunning strike made

it 3-0 before Rangers were gifted a fourth when United goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist’s clearance re-bounded in off Alfredo Morelos.

Moments later Morelos was brought down for a penalty, but Siegrist made amends to deny Borna Barisic from the spot.

Rangers conceded for just the second time in 15 home league

games this season four minutes from time when Mark McNulty pulled a consolation back for the visitors.

Celtic can cut the gap at the top back to 15 points when they travel to Ross County later.

But the Hoops chase of their Glasgow rivals looks a forlorn one and Rangers could seal the title when the two meet at Celtic Park next month.

Romelu Lukaku celebrates Inter Milan’s second goal, scored by striker Lautaro Martinez at San Siro, Milan, Italy, yesterday. (Reuters)

QGL off icials and winners (L-R) President Manoj Megchiani, Sanjeev Gupta, Arnav Jain, PK Viswanath, Captain Clark White, Thomas Rolt, Andrew Robinson and VP Sanjay Jain.

‘We’ve suff ered a lot this year. Two eliminations in the Italian Cup and the Champions League, this is the only goal we have left and we’re fighting for that’

Robinson, White emerge winners

Thirty-two golfers braved freezing weath-er to participate in the 199th edition of Qatar

Golf Lovers’ (QGL) Individual Strokeplay Tournament at the Doha Golf Club last weekend.

Andrew Robinson was de-clared winner of Flight A (0-9 HCP) with a net score of 31, overcoming a strong challenge from Sanjeev Gupta. Mean-while, Clark White won Flight B (10+ HCP) with a net score

of 32, nudging P.K. Viswanath, the winner of the January tour-nament, into second place with a net score of 34.

Dr Deepak Mittal, ambassa-dor of India to Qatar, who also participated in the event, won a special prize for ‘nearest to rope’, whereas other prize win-ners were Manoj Megchiani for ‘nearest to pin’, Thomas Rolt for ‘the longest putt’, and Arnav Jain for ‘the longest drive’.

QGL captain Clark White

hosted the prize distribution dinner and welcomed new mem-ber Jafu Churakuth and guests.

President Manoj Megchiani and vice-president Sanjay Jain gave away the prizes and an-nounced that QGL would soon be announcing its milestone 200th tournament and celebrat-ing its 20th anniversary in the coming months.

Those interested in partici-pating may visit QGL website MYQGL.COM

GOLF

Leipzig brush past Hertha Berlin to close in on BayernAFPBerlin

RB Leipzig swept past Hertha Berlin with a 3-0 away win yes-terday to cut Bayern

Munich’s lead at the top of the Bundesliga table to just two points.

Leipzig capitalised on Bay-ern’s 2-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt 24 hours earlier.

A long-range goal by captain Marcel Sabitzer gave second-placed Leipzig a fi rst-half lead in Berlin. A superb second-half strike by defender Nordi Muk-iele and a header from centre-back Willi Orban sealed the victory. “It was a very impor-tant three-pointer,” Sabitzer told Sky.

“It’s a two-horse race now, but we can’t just talk about it – we have to stay in it, be focused and then at the end, it could be enough.”

Leipzig bounced back from their midweek defeat by Liver-pool in the Champions League with a clinical display.

Sabitzer struck at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium when his shot from 30 yards out crashed in off the crossbar on 28 min-utes. After US midfi elder Tyler Adams robbed Matteo Guen-douzi of possession in Hertha’s penalty area, Mukiele smashed home the second goal on 71 minutes.

Orban headed home Sabit-zer’s cross six minutes from time to seal Leipzig’s fourth straight league win. In con-trast, Hertha are winless in their last eight league games.

They are 15th in the table, but only goal diff erence keeps Hertha out of the relegation play-off place as they are lev-el on 18 points with Arminia Bielefeld.

Earlier, hosts Augsburg were denied a fi rst win over Bayer Leverkusen at the 20th at-tempt by a last-gasp equaliser from Burkina Faso defender

Edmond Tapsoba as the visi-tors snatched a 1-1 draw. Augs-burg were 1-0 up deep into added time when Leverkusen defender Tapsoba was left un-marked to convert a cross sec-onds before the whistle.

Leverkusen needed the late equaliser because their back-up goalkeeper Niklas Lomb had gifted Augsburg an early freak goal.

Five minutes into his fi rst league start this season, Lomb completely mistimed his clear-ance kick.

The ball rolled to Augsburg striker Florian Niederlechner, who tapped the ball into the empty net.

“The fact that I messed up like that really annoys me,” Lomb told broadcaster DAZN.

“The lads told me after-wards that it can happen, that we are a team.”

“They wanted to help me and then they did it with the equaliser,” he added.

Lomb’s early mistake rattled Leverkusen who struggled to impose themselves until Tap-soba’s late strike.

With Augsburg gaining in confi dence, Niederlechner thought he had won a pen-alty just after the break fol-lowing a tap on his ankle from Leverkusen’s ex-Manchester United defender Timothy Fo-su-Mensah.

However, VAR spotted Augsburg winger Ruben Vargas off side in the build up and the spot-kick was reversed.

With time running out, Leverkusen levelled just before the fi nal whistle when former Leicester City winger Dema-rai Gray whipped in a corner which Tapsoba drilled home.

After losing six of their nine league games since the start of the year, the result leaves Augsburg in 13th place.

Leverkusen remain fi fth, fi ve points behind third-placed Wolfsburg and fourth-placed Frankfurt in the race for the Champions League.

BUNDESLIGA

UK could off er to host whole of Euro 2020 The UK government is hopeful that fans will be able to return to sports stadiums by the end of May and could off er for Britain to host all of Euro 2020, according to a Sunday Times report. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has signalled to UEFA that crowds are expected back in UK stadiums before the rest of Europe, according to the Times, due to substantial progress on coronavirus vaccina-tions. That could lead to more games or the entire tournament being played in the UK to mitigate the loss of ticket revenue for UEFA.Euro 2020, which was postponed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is still scheduled to take place in 12 cities across the continent from June 11 to July 11.European football’s governing body has so far publicly insisted it is sticking to the original plan of using all 12 host cities despite the logistical challenges.However, UEFA is believed to be looking at contingency plans should ongoing restric-

tions render that plan impossible.British health secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday he was unaware of any off er to host the tournament. Hancock told Sky News: “I haven’t seen anything on that, I understand that that’s not right.”Wembley is scheduled to host seven Euro 2020 matches, including the semi-finals and final, with Glasgow also hosting four games.Israel has also off ered to host Champions League and Euro 2020 matches if corona-virus restrictions force them to be moved from other countries. Several Champions League and Europa League matches due to take place in Germany, Spain and Portugal have been moved to neutral venues in recent weeks due to entry restrictions.As well as London and Glasgow, Euro 2020 games are due to be held in Dublin, Amster-dam, Copenhagen, Saint Petersburg, Bilbao, Munich, Budapest, Baku, Rome and Bucha-rest. (AFP)

RB Leipzig’s Marcel Sabitzer celebrates with teammates after scoring their first goal against Hertha Berlin during their Bundesliga match in Berlin yesterday. (Reuters)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Monday, February 22, 2021

Leeds can benefi t from 49ers ‘playbook’, says vice-chairman

Butler scores 24 as Miami edge Lakers in fi nals rematch

Matthews powers Leafs to 5-3 win over Habs

FOCUSNBA

NHL

AFPLondon

The San Francisco 49ers have a “blueprint” to share with Leeds United on how to revive a sto-

ried club, says Paraag Marathe – a man with a foot in both camps.

Marathe is the new vice-chairman at Elland Road after the NFL franchise increased its stake in the three-time English cham-pions to 37 percent last month.

The club, managed by Argenti-na’s Marcelo Bielsa, have made an eye-catching return to the Pre-mier League following a 16-year hiatus. Leeds, who were a domi-nant force in English football in the late 1960s and early 1970s, went into freefall after being rele-gated from the top-fl ight in 2004, tumbling down to the third tier before a decade spent languishing in the Championship.

Marathe, who is president of 49ers Enterprises, said he had his eye on investing in the club even before Italian Andrea Radriz-zani took control in 2017 as it had “great bones”.

“I felt they had great potential and had fallen on hard times and had had multiple owners,” he told AFP in an online interview from his offi ce in California.

Marathe has been at the 49ers for two decades and said the fi ve-time Super Bowl champions could use their expertise gained in rebuilding the franchise to help the Premier League club.

“We have gone through the process of being the club that was underperforming with a dormant fan base,” he said.

“We also had such great suc-cess in the 80s and 90s through Joe Montana and Steve Young and we fell on some hard times.

“We have revitalised the fran-chise, we built a new stadium and restored our on-pitch per-formance. We have lived through it and we can impart our knowl-edge. We built a playbook and we have a blueprint we can share with our counterparts and friends over at Leeds.”

Marathe said it was not all one-way traffi c, with Leeds ex-ecutives able to share good prac-

tice on fan experience on visits to the 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium.

He said he was struck by Radrizzani’s leadership style, de-scribing him as somebody with “great vision and leadership”.

“He is one of those guys, and there are not many of them walk-ing this earth, who are going to succeed or die trying,” he said.

“People follow that certain leadership style. You pick up followers and belief and confi -dence and certainly the club has followed in his footsteps. Coach Bielsa has the same mindset.”

The 49ers are one of a number of American concerns that have invested in English football clubs including the Fenway Sports Group at Liverpool and the Glaz-ers at Manchester United.

Marathe said the 49ers were taking a long-term view.

“We were not just looking for an investment opportunity,” he said. “It was not just something to buy low and sell high. We feel we are in for the long haul.

“Because we wanted to do it we are passionate about it.”

He said he was as passion-ate about Leeds games as 49ers matches, which is not music to the ears of his wife Jennifer.

She now loses him and their young daughters Juniper and Maren – wearing Leeds strips – to even more matchdays sat in front of the television.

“I want to win but it is not about the level of investment,” he said. “I am passionate and care.”

Leeds, in the north of England, also proved an attractive lure be-cause it is a one-team city with a large and loyal fan base.

“What has hit me hard over the last few years is Leeds is part of everybody’s family,” he said.

“It is like a little brother or lit-tle sister where you love to love them and you love to hate them.

“You protect them when they are down and praise and support them when they are up. They are part of each neighbourhood, household, community.

“That is very diff erent to US sport – you love your team but it is not woven into the fabric of who you are based on where you were born. English football is the next level of loyalty.”

AFPLos Angeles

JJimmy Butler and Kendrick Nunn combined for 51 points as the Mi-ami Heat defeated reigning league champions the Los Angeles Lakers

96-94 on Saturday, in a rematch of last season’s NBA fi nals.

Nunn fi nished with 27 points and But-ler had 24 and eight rebounds for the Heat, who have won six of their last nine contests.

Bam Adebayo tallied 16 points and 10 rebounds and Duncan Robinson added 11 points with 10 rebounds.

This was the fi rst meeting between the two teams since the Lakers defeated the Heat four games to two for their record-equalling 17th league crown in October in Orlando, Florida.

The Lakers have now lost three of their last four games.

They were without injured all-star forward Anthony Davis, who sat out his fourth straight game with a right Achilles tendon injury, and guard Dennis Schroder, who missed his second straight game due to the NBA’s Covid-19 restric-tions.

The Lakers got 19 points from 36-year-old LeBron James, who shot just seven of 21 from the fl oor.

Kyle Kuzma had 23 points, Montrezl Harrell fi nished with 18 points and 10 re-bounds, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 11 points.

After both teams struggled to score in the fourth, Butler made two clutch free throws with 12 seconds left.

Miami led by as much as 15 points in the fi rst half and by halftime were ahead 59-52.

The Lakers took a 66-63 lead in the third before the Heat jolted back to life and went on a 13-0 surge for a 76-66 lead with just over three minutes left in the quarter.

Elsewhere, Terry Rozier hit the game winner at the buzzer, capping a game-high 36-point performance as the Char-lotte Hornets returned from an unex-pected break to beat the Golden State Warriors 102-100.

The Hornets hadn’t played since Val-entine’s Day after two games were post-poned because of Covid-19 measures.

Rozier shot eight-for-11 on three pointers and fi nished with his fourth consecutive 30-point outing. P.J. Wash-ington scored 15 points and Miles Bridges had 10 for the Hornets, who shot 20-for-40 on threes and outscored the Warriors

60-39 from three-point range. Kelly Oubre had 25 points to pace the

Warriors, who were missing all-star Stephen Curry and lost for a second straight game. Andrew Wiggins had 19 points, Eric Paschall 16, and Damion Lee

tallied 14 for Golden State.Curry was on the fl oor for the warmup

but returned to the dressing room short-ly before the tip off . The Warriors said the league’s third-leading scorer wasn’t feeling well.

ReutersMontreal

Auston Matthews scored two goals and tallied two assists to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs past the host Montreal Canadiens 5-3 Saturday.

It was Matthews’ third two-goal game in his last four contests that extended a 16-game point streak. He also logged a career best for most points in a single period, grabbing all of his points in a second-period binge. Mitchell Marner had a goal and two assists for the Leafs while Travis Boyd and Alexander Kerfoot each scored once. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Paul Byron and Tyler Toff oli scored for the Canadiens.

Both teams went scoreless in the fi rst pe-riod, the Leafs holding the Canadiens to two shots through the fi rst 10 minutes of the game. The fl oodgates opened in the second period. Matthews kicked off six goals be-tween the two teams, scoring on a 5-on-3 power play at the 1:03 mark of the second.

Just 15 seconds later at 5-on-4, he stood inside the blueline and knocked down a Ca-nadiens clearing attempt and got the puck up to Joe Thornton, who fed it over to Boyd, who scored for his fi rst career power-play goal at 1:20. The Canadiens got on the board at 3:24. Tomas Tatar worked the puck up the side-boards and got a long lead pass off to Kotkanie-mi. The 20-year-old sprung across the blue line for a breakaway and fl icked the puck over Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen (30 saves).

Only 33 seconds later, Byron capitalised on another Leafs defensive miscue at the

Canadiens’ blue line. The Leafs tried to give chase but he dodged coverage and dished a backhander over Andersen’s glove to knot the game at 2-2.

Marner restored the Leafs’ lead at 7:31, skating into the slot with a quick shot past Canadiens goalie Carey Price (22 saves), and then Matthews scored his second at 15:05, fi r-ing a laser shot through traffi c.

Kotkaniemi thought he had a second goal less than a minute later, shoving the puck past Andersen on a goal-mouth scramble, but Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe called for a challenge on goaltender interference. Offi cials agreed and the goal was called back. The Canadiens leaned toward off ense in the third but that meant giving up a 2-on-1. Jason Spezza fed Kerfoot for the Leafs’ fi fth goal.

Toff oli cut the Leafs lead down to 5-3 at the 18:34 mark to fi nish the scoring.

AVS EDGE KNIGHTS IN OUTDOOR GAME DELAYED EIGHT HOURS BY SUN

Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists, Devon Toews had a goal and an assist, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in the outdoor game at Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nev., on Saturday night.

The rink was located on the 18th fairway of the golf course at Edgewood Tahoe Resort, situated next to Lake Tahoe and provided a picturesque backdrop for the game. However, problems arose from the start.

The puck dropped at noon local time and then was delayed 8 hours, 8 minutes after the fi rst period. The delay was due to poor ice conditions resulting from “extreme sun” which compromised the players’ health, the NHL said in a statement. The league opted to resume the game at 9 p.m. local time and it fi nished 10 hours, 37 minutes after the open-ing faceoff . Samuel Girard also scored, Philipp Grubauer had 27 saves and Mikko Rantanen added two assists for Colorado. Alec Martin-ez and Alex Tuch had goals and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 36 shots for Vegas.

The Avalanche scored early in the fi rst pe-riod when MacKinnon sent a cross-zone pass to Girard, and his shot snuck through the legs of Fleury at 2:58 of the fi rst. It was Girard’s second of the season. It stayed that way until the game resumed under artifi cial light, and Martinez got the Knights even when he wrist-ed a loose puck by Grubauer at 7:37 of the sec-ond period for his fi rst goal of the season.

CHARLOTTE HORNETS EDGE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS ON BUZZER-BEATER

RESULTS

Chicago 122-114 Sacramento

Phoenix 128-97 Memphis

Charlotte 102-100 Golden State

Washington 118-111 Portland

Miami 96-94 Lakers

Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews celebrates his goal against Montreal Canadiens with teammates during the second period at Bell Centre in Montreal. (USA TODAY Sports)

San Francisco 49ers vice-chairman Paraag Marathe. (GETTY IMAGES/AFP)

Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler shoots over Los Angeles Lakers guard Wesley Matthews during the fourth quarter at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (USA TODAY Sports)

RESULTS

Leafs 5-3 Canadiens

Avalanche 3-2 Golden Knights

Oilers 7-1 Flames

Penguins 3-2 Islanders

Hurricanes 4-0 Lightning

Sabres 3-2 Devils

Rangers 4-1 Capitals

Predators 4-2 Blue Jackets

Red Wings 2-1 Panthers

Kings 4-2 Coyotes

Sharks 5-4 Blues

Wild 5-1 Ducks

Burns clings to Riviera lead asNo. 1 Johnson lurks

Mexico’s Valdez upsets Berchelt with 10th round KO

Foss-Solevaag of Norway checks out with slalom gold

France’s Dupont out of Scotland game

6 Gulf Times Monday, February 22, 2021

SPORTGOLF BOXING

SKIING

RUGBY

‘Game plan is still the same. Got to hit the fairways. It’s going to be diff icult’AFPLos Angeles, United States

Sam Burns, chasing his fi rst PGA Tour title, clung to a two-stroke lead over top-ranked

Dustin Johnson after yesterday’s conclusion of the third round of the Genesis Invitational.

World number 149 Burns made a bogey and four pars yesterday morning to complete a three-over par 74 round and stand on nine-under 204 after 54 holes at a cold and blustery Riviera Country Club.

“Just the way we hung in there the last fi ve holes, I was proud of the way we kept fi ghting,” Burns said. “I think that’s something we’ll have to keep doing the rest of the day.”

Reigning Masters champion Johnson made three impressive saves among fi ve pars yesterday to shoot 71 and share second on 206 with fellow American Max Homa and England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick.

“Everything is going pretty well,” Johnson said. “Game plan is still the same. Got to hit the fairways. It’s going to be diffi -cult. Take it one hole at a time and take what the golf course gives me.”

High winds on Saturday pro-duced unplayable conditions to halt the event for almost four hours, leaving 23 golfers to fi nish their third rounds Sunday.

“Even this morning the golf course was playing hard,” Burns said. “The wind wasn’t down much. Just grinding it out there at the end and see what happens next.”

The 24-year-old American became the fi rst player since Charlie Siff ord in 1969 to lead the event after each of the fi rst three rounds.

Burns saw his fi ve-shot lead trimmed to two in the fi nal min-utes of play Saturday with back-to-back bogeys and a birdie at 16 by Fitzpatrick.

When play resumed Sunday morning, Burns stumbled to a three-putt bogey at the par-3 14th while Fitzpatrick closed with a bogey after missing the 18th green to fi nish a round of 69.

Burns avoided a fourth con-secutive bogey by curling in a tense 12-foot par putt at 15.

At the par-4 18th, Burns bur-ied his approach in the rough but chipped to nine feet and sank the putt to stay ahead by two enter-

ing the fi nal round.Johnson opened with a 17-

foot par putt at the 14th, saved par again at 15 and blasted out of a greenside bunker within inch-es of the cup and tapped in to avoid a bogey at the par-5 17th.

“Hit a couple nice drives,” Johnson said. “Hit some other nice shots just misjudged the wind a little bit. I’m happy with the way I’m swinging it.”

American Wyndham Clark fell from a share of second place with a double bogey-bogey fi n-ish while three-time major win-ner Jordan Spieth stumbled with his countryman onto 209 with

bogeys on four of the last seven holes.

Leading Round III scores204 — Sam Burns (USA) 64-66-74206 — Matthew Fitzpatrick (ENG) 66-71-69, Dustin Johnson (USA) 68-67-71, Max Homa (USA) 66-70-70208 — Matt Jones (AUS) 67-72-69, Talor Gooch (USA) 68-71-69, Tony Finau (USA) 71-67-70, Cameron Smith (AUS) 69-68-71, Patrick Cantlay (USA) 67-70-71, Alex Noren (SWE) 67-70-71209 — Jordan Spieth (USA) 68-68-73, Wyndham Clark (USA) 67-69-73, Jason Kokrak

(USA) 67-68-74210 — Viktor Hovland (NOR) 71-69-70, Patrick Rodgers (USA) 71-69-70, Branden Grace (RSA) 71-69-70, Andrew Landry (USA) 69-69-72211 — James Hahn (USA) 74-66-71, Xander Schauff ele (USA) 71-69-71, Jon Rahm (ESP) 70-69-72, Francesco Molinari (ITA) 68-73-70212 — Brian Harman (USA) 72-69-71, Nick Taylor (CAN) 72-69-71, Kyle Stanley (USA) 70-71-71, Adam Hadwin (CAN) 71-71-70, Scott Harrington (USA) 71-66-75, Collin Morikawa (USA) 73-69-70, Tyler McCumber (USA) 67-68-77

Sam Burns of the United States lines up a putt on the 12th green during the third round of The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, United States, yesterday. (AFP)

AFPParis, France

France scrum half Antoine Du-pont was yesterday omitted from the squad to face Scotland in the Six Nations as Covid-19 cases

continued to multiply in the camp.Dupont, who tested positive on Friday,

was left off the list of 31 players for next Sunday’s game in Paris.

The French Rugby Federation (FFR) also said that hooker Julien Marchand and centre Arthur Vincent had tested positive on Saturday, taking the number of cases in the squad to nine, including coach Fabien Galthie.

Dupont, the Six Nations player of the season last year, is reportedly asympto-matic and could, in theory, have observed a seven-day quarantine and returned for the game next Sunday at Stade de France.

The French government is increasing the length of quarantine to 10 days from today.

Marchand and Vincent were also dropped from the 31 as were prop Mo-hamed Haouas and winger Gabin Villiere who tested positive on Friday.

The FFR said on Saturday that two other potential squad members, lock Swan Rebbadj and prop Jean-Baptiste Gros, both of Toulon, had been in contact with known positive coronavirus cases at their club.

France are top of the Six Nations table after victories against Italy and Ireland. Dupont was named player of the second round for his performance in the 15-13 win in Dublin on February 14.

Dupont, Haouas, Vincent, Marchand

and Villiere started both games. Gros came off the bench in Rome.

In total, Les Bleus made seven changes as the squad reassembled at Marcoussis yesterday.

Dorian Aldegheri of Toulouse and Rac-ing 92 pair Teddy Baubigny and Hassane Kolingar, who between them have 10 caps, came into the ront row. Uncapped Bordeaux Begles scrum half Maxime Lucu comes in for Dupont.

Centres Jonathan Danty of Stade Fran-cais and Yoram Moefana of Bordeaux Be-gles and uncapped winger Donovan Taofi f-enua of Racing 92 also joined the squad.

After negotiations with the clubs and the government, France assembled a squad of 31 in a bubble in Nice at the end of January, but, along with other nations, decided to allow their players a break in the Six Nations bye week.

Before the players returned to France’s Marcoussis training centre, they under-went tests.

The FFR announced on Saturday that Karim Ghezal, one of two forward coaches, had tested positive. The other forwards coach, William Servat, tested positive earlier in the week.

Galthie tested positive on Tuesday.

AFPLos Angeles, United States

Mexico’s Oscar Valdez dethroned Miguel Berchelt on Satur-day, knocking him

out with one second left on the 10th round in a stunning upset, to claim the World Boxing Coun-cil junior lightweight title in Las Vegas.

Valdez, who scored two knockdowns earlier in the fi ght, landed a vicious left hook to the head that sent Berchelt crum-bling to the canvas at the MGM Grand Hotel.

Valdez brutally overpowered Berchelt in a battle between the two Mexican warriors that lived up to its pre-fi ght hype.

“I have a list of people who doubted me,” said the undefeated Valdez. “I proved them wrong.

“There is nothing better in life than proving people wrong. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.”

Bleeding from both nostrils, Berchelt remained motionless on his back for two minutes after the knockout before being helped to his feet by the ring doctors.

He sat on a stool with his head down, while Valdez, who improved to 29-0 with 23 KOs, celebrated the victory with his corner.

Valdez is a former feather-weight world champion who made six straight defences before moving up to 130 pounds in 2019.

One of those defences was by a unanimous decision after he suff ered a broken jaw in the fi fth round but continued to fi ght on.

Berchelt, one of the long-est reigning titleholders at 130 pounds, was looking to make his seventh straight defence but instead dropped to 37-2, with 33 KOs.

The only other time he has lost in his career was a knockout from another left hook.

FOGGY BRAINBerchelt began the fi rst round by establishing himself as the aggressor, moving forward and throwing jabs which backed Val-dez up.

But the 30-year-old Valdez started to do some damage of his own in the second round as blood began to drip from Berchelt’s nose.

Berchelt was saved by the bell in the fourth round after being hit by a left hook on the top of the head that left him wobbly-legged and disorientated with just over a minute to go.

Valdez kept the pressure on and smothered Berchelt with heavy blows. At one stage it looked like Berchelt was going down, but the ropes kept him on his feet.

The referee stopped the fi ght briefl y to award Valdez a stand-ing knockdown, leading to a 10-8 scoring round.

It took Berchelt a long time for the fog to clear, looking unsteady on his feet as he started the fi fth.

Valdez landed another straight right hand on the button but couldn’t put the champion down.

Berchelt appeared to gather his senses by the end of the fi fth and was throwing punches again.

But it didn’t last more than a few rounds — despite Berchelt’s height, weight and reach advan-tage, Valdez loaded up with every punch, and 29-year-old Berchelt was unable to counter the big blows.

In between the ninth and fi -nal round, his corner knew their boxer was beaten and asked him if he wanted to stop the fi ght.

Going out for the 10th was likely the biggest mistake of Berchelt’s career.

He was fl ailing away late in the round and missed three punches in a row when Valdez seized the opening and hit him with a dev-astating left hook that ended the match with just one second to go.

ReutersCortina D’Ampezzo, Italy

Norway’s Sebas-tian Foss-Solevaag twisted his way down a rutted and slushy

piste to take men’s slalom gold in the fi nal race of the Cortina d’Ampezzo Alpine skiing world championships yesterday.

Austria’s Adrian Pertl, sur-prise leader after the fi rst run on a clear and sunny morning in the Italian resort, had to settle for silver with Norway’s Henrik Kristoff ersen taking the bronze. The second leg started with the top 15 from the fi rst run going in reverse order, rather than top 30, to try and lessen the eff ect of warm temperatures.

Foss-Solevaag was the fi rst Norwegian to win the world sla-lom title since Tom Stiansen in Sestriere in 1997, also on Italian snow, and his country’s sole in-dividual champion of 2021.

He also helped Norway to team gold last Wednesday.

“At the start I knew that Hen-rik was leading by a lot so I knew that if I wanted to be on the po-dium I had to be really fast,” said Foss-Solevaag, who was third after the fi rst run with Kristof-fersen sixth.

“Today I gave it everything and it was a good day,” added the delighted Norwegian, whose second run was 0.37 quicker than Pertl’s and 0.24 better than his compatriot’s eff ort.

The fi nal gap between gold and silver was 0.21.

“I haven’t seen the whole team yet so when I’m meeting the rest of the team I’m going to cry like a baby,” Foss-Solevaag told Eu-rosport.

Italy’s Alex Vinatzer had been second after the fi rst leg but end-ed up fourth.

“The fi rst run was actually pretty icy but it was very un-even... because they tried to water (the piste) yesterday and they messed it up, a little bit like usual,” said Kristoff ersen, winner of 19 World Cup slaloms.

“Second run was more my

conditions but I tried to push everything and I made a little too many mistakes, some small mis-takes here and there which I lost some time on.”

The piste took a heavy toll, with some of the pre-race fa-vourites straddling gates.

Austria’s Marco Schwarz, leader of the slalom World Cup standings and gold medallist in combined, straddled on the sec-ond run.

France’s overall World Cup leader Alexis Pinturault, who crashed in Friday’s giant slalom with victory in sight, fi nished seventh and a second and a half off the pace.

Compatriot Jean-Baptiste Grange, the 2011 and 2015 world slalom champion, straddled on the fi rst leg.

Austria ended up top of the medal table with fi ve golds from a championships held without fans due to the Covid-19 pan-demic. Switzerland were second with three golds and France and Norway had two each.

Foss-Solevaag was one of fi ve skiers to fi nish with two golds, the others being Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami, Austria’s Katharina Liensberger and Vin-cent Kriechmayr and France’s Mathieu Faivre.

Hosts Italy ended up with just two medals – Marta Bassino’s women’s Parallel gold and Luca De Aliprandini’s men’s giant sla-lom silver.

Woodward hails All Black great Carter but rates Wilkinson as best No.10 everReutersBengaluru, India

Former British and Irish Lions coach Clive Wood-ward has described New

Zealand’s Dan Carter as the greatest attacking number 10 he has seen – but still rates Jonny Wilkinson ahead of him as the most complete flyhalf.Two-time World Cup winner Carter announced his retirement from professional rugby on

Saturday, finishing as the highest point scorer in test rugby history with 1,598 – more than 350 clear of England’s Wilkinson.Woodward, who coached England to the 2003 World Cup title, said he had often been asked who was a better number 10 – Carter or Wilkinson.“It’s almost an impossible choice. They were, by some distance, the two pre-eminent fly-halves of their era – both in-cidentally natural left-footers,” Woodward wrote in a column

for the Daily Mail.“I would score Jonny and Dan about equal as the best goalkick-ers we have seen, Dan was the best attacking 10 I ever saw while Jonny was far and away the best defensive 10 I ever witnessed.“If I was forced into a corner I would go with Jonny. Just. I was lucky enough to coach him for six years and knew his game intimately. With Dan I just admired from afar.”Woodward led the Lions on

the tour of New Zealand in 2005 where he said Carter announced himself as a “truly world class talent”.In the second test, Carter scored two tries, four conver-sions and five penalties to seal the series for the All Blacks.“His 33 points in the second test at Wellington, including two brilliant tries, was off the Rich-ter scale and possibly the best individual performance I have ever witnessed at test level. The Perfect 10,” Woodward said.

SPORT7Gulf Times

Monday, February 22, 2021

Lights on in Christchurch as NZ host Australia

Van der Poel makes winning start to UAE Tour

Took an hour to get used to size of new stadium: Pandya

No criticism of 2nd Test pitch from our point of view: Broad

Missing Tests in England for IPL not preferred: Williamson

Today’s game will mark the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that struck the city

CRICKET

CYCLING

FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

COMMENT

ReutersSydney, Australia

In the new normal for pro-fessional cricketers, Aus-tralia emerged from corona-virus quarantine yesterday

evening less than 24 hours be-fore their fi ve-match Twenty20 series against New Zealand be-gins in Christchurch.

Today’s series opener will be the fi rst international played under lights at Hagley Oval but the action will begin only after the sellout crowd marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake that killed 185 peo-ple in the city.

After a moment’s silence to remember that dark day in the past, the focus will shift reso-lutely to the future – in particu-lar the World Twenty20 in Oc-tober and November.

It is the one global title Aus-tralia have never won and the tourists, including three un-capped players, have the chance to prove they deserve a place in the squad to try to put that right in India later this year.

Automatic picks David Warner, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins are absent after be-ing selected instead for the later aborted test tour of South Africa.

That gives lesser known play-ers the opportunity to show the key attribute of versatility, even if skipper Aaron Finch said the number one priority was a series victory.

“The fi rst aim is to win the se-ries,” he told reporters yesterday.

“But there’s also a bit of in-formation grabbing through-out the series with guys in some different roles, poten-tially.”

New Zealand, who will play in a retro beige kit, have assembled their strongest squad to take on the second-ranked Australians, including pace-bowling sensa-

tion Kyle Jamieson and batting mainstay Kane Williamson.

The Black Caps have never it past the semi-finals at the World T20 and coach Gary Stead believes a “dangerous” Australia, featuring many of the form players from the re-cently completed Big Bash tournament, will be a good test for them.

“You could argue this is

the form team of the Big Bash that’s over here right now.” Stead said.

“Yes, they may not have some of those names that we expect to see, but when you look through their lineup they’re still class right the way through.”

There is still the possibil-ity that a small outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland last week could cause disruption to the se-

ries when it moves to New Zea-land’s largest city for match four on March 5.

While current lockdown con-ditions would mean no crowd at Eden Park, the Australian play-ers coming out of quarantine will probably just be happy for another chance to play.

“The boys are chomping at the bit to get out and start the series,” Finch said.

Australia captain Aaron Finch. (AFP)

AFPAl-Mirfa’, United Arab Emirates

Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel won the fi rst stage of the UAE Tour yesterday in a sprint

fi nish while Chris Froome sat comfortably in the peloton in his fi rst race for new team Israel Start-Up Nation.

Von der Poel, who combines road racing with cyclo-cross, edged ahead of fellow Dutchman David Dekker in the last 50 me-tres as cycling’s fi rst major race of the season got under way in the Gulf state.

Danish rider Michael Morkov was third in the 176-kilometre stage from Al Dhafra to Al Mirfa.

Reigning Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar fi n-ished fi fth in the stage while four-time Tour de France win-ner Froome completed the stage without diffi culty.

Pogacar, who fi nished second in this race last year, said he was confi dent his UAE-Team Emir-ates outfi t could win on home soil.

“It was a really hard stage but in the end our team did a super good job with four guys at the front,” the 22-year-old Slov-enian said.

“Sadly we missed out on win-ning the stage but we showed that we are strong and we can fi ght and for the next stage we have really good chances.”

The riders face a 13-kilometre time trial around Al-Hudayri-yat Island in Monday’s second stage.

This race was cut short last year by a Covid-19 outbreak among the teams, making it one of the fi rst international sports events to feel the eff ects of the pandemic.

Stringent measures are in place this year to prevent a re-currence, with staff and riders staying in separate hotels.

IANSAhmedabad, India

India’s star cricketers took about an hour to get used to the size of the newly refur-bished Sardar Patel stadium

in Motera near Ahmedabad, said all-rounder Hardik Pandya. The stadium’s capacity was expand-ed to 1,10,000, making it the largest cricket stadium in the world, and it will host its fi rst international match when India face England for the third Test starting on February 24.

“To be honest, to be in the world’s largest stadium, we ac-tually cannot wait to have the fans around and see the atmos-phere, which will be tremen-dous,” said Pandya in a video posted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“All the boys loved it, I think, for us, it took almost one hour to get used to the size of the

ground, the kind of facilities it has provided us, I feel really, really proud that we have this in India, where we can host so many people and we can have wonderful games here,” he said.

Pandya said that there is a gym that is attached to the dressing room which is something he has never seen before.

“To be honest, I have not seen a gym connected to my dressing

room... for the fi rst time I think I have seen a gym connected to the dressing room, which is fan-tastic,” he said.

“I can’t thank the GCA (Gu-jarat Cricket Association) enough and all the people who have worked really hard to make a stadium so wonderful that we can’t wait to actually come back again and play here,” he further said.

IANSNew Delhi, India

England players don’t have any issue with the pitch that was laid out for the second Test against

India at the MA Chidambaram stadium, said fast bowler Stuart Broad. England lost the second Test in the four-match series by 317 runs on a pitch that aided spin bowlers far more than it did during the fi rst Test at the same venue which the visitors won by 227 runs.

The pitch ended up invit-ing criticism from a number of former cricketers like former England captain Michael Vaughan and former Australia batsman Mark Waugh.

“There is no criticism of the second Test pitch from our point of view. That’s exactly what home advantage is and you are well within your rights to utilise that. Why wouldn’t India play on pitches that turn square and upon which fi rst innings runs are vital? They outplayed us on a pitch that they are very skilled on but one very alien to us,” Broad wrote in his column for United Kingdom’s Daily Mail.

“It’s the same as when we beat India at Lord’s in 2018: the ball

swung around, and when it did it looked like a diff erent pitch when we batted on it compared to our opposition. Why? Because we have spent 30 years playing against the ball moving through the air. India were dismissed for 107 and 130 and we won by an in-nings,” he further said.

The third Test will be played at the new Sardar Patel stadium in Motera near Ahmedabad, Gu-jarat. This will be the fi rst inter-national match to be played in the stadium, which after its ren-ovation has a capacity of 110,000 and thus becomes the largest cricket stadium in the world. Broad said that the distance that batsmen have to cover to walk from the dressing room to the ground might get timed-out dis-missals into play.

“I have to say that this new stadium at Motera, the biggest in the world, is so impressive that it has a bit of an aura about it even when empty. It’s like a coliseum. From the changing room to mid-dle is a three-minute walk and that might bring timed-out dis-missals into play! One or two batsmen might have to get a lit-tle jog on to remain safe,” said Broad.

The third match will be a day-night Test and starts on February 24.

IANSAuckland, New Zealand

New Zealand stars would “prefer” not having to miss out on their Test matches in England

due to the Indian Premier League (IPL) but it would be just another case of things not going to plan in the current situation, said cap-tain Kane Williamson.

While dates for the 2021 IPL have not been confi rmed, it is expected to be held across the months of April, May and early June. New Zealand are slated to play two Test matches at Lord’s and Edgbaston between June 2 and 14.

“It’s certainly not the pre-ferred thing,” Williamson is quoted as saying by ESPNCricin-fo about the potential clash. “I

know when plans were put in place that wasn’t the idea then, but as we’ve seen, you can make plans in this day in age and very rarely do they go to plan,” he said.

Williamson, the top-ranked Test batsman and captain of New Zealand across formats, along with Test regulars Trent Boult and Kyle Jamieson, have deals with IPL teams. Fast bowler Lockie Ferguson, who is part of the Kolkata Knight Riders, is also knocking on the doors of the Test team and could potentially miss out.

“For us it’s being able to adapt as quickly as possible, we still have to wait and see when dates are fi nalised to truly know what is happening before any decision is made but the ideal scenario is to be available and around for all that cricket. We’ll just have to wait and see,” said Williamson.

Mathieu van der Poel (left) of Team Alpecin–Fenix gestures as he approaches the finish line to win the first stage of the UAE Cycling Tour yesterday. (AFP)

Hardik Pandya at Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, near Ahmedabad, India. (Twitter/HardikPandya7)

Mumbai’s four stadia, Motera likely to host IPL 2021

IANSNew Delhi, India

Mumbai and Ahmeda-bad are likely to host the Indian Premier

League (IPL) matches with the former likely to host group stage matches across four venues and the latter’s refur-bished Sardar Patel stadium in Motera to host the play-off s.According to sources, four stadia are being discussed to host the league matches of the Indian Premier League that will start either in mid-April or second week of April.“At the moment there are discus-sions to host the league matches in four stadia in Mumbai – Bradbourne Stadium, Wankhede

Stadium, DY Patil Stadium and the Reliance Cricket Stadium. The play-off s are expected to be held in the refurbished Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera,” an off icial in the know of things told IANS. “However, this is yet to be made off icial. The tournament is likely to be hosted either in mid-April or second week of April,” he added.The success in hosting of domestic events like the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and Vijay Hazare one-dayers has made it possible for the Board of Con-trol for Cricket in India (BCCI) to look at the possibility of hosting the cash-rich T20 tour-nament in India this time after the 2020 edition was moved to the United Arab Emirates due to Covid-19 in India.

Monday, February 22, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT

Al-Sulaiti edges out defending champ al-Qubaisi in Race 1

India’s Sharma slams critics over Chennai pitch furore

Afridi, Hafeez power Qalandars to four-wicket win

MOTORCYCLING / QATAR SUPERSTOCK 600 CRICKET

CRICKET / PAKISTAN SUPER LEAGUE

Meshaal al-Nuaimi finishes third; Youssef al-Darwish takes the Trophy class victory

By Sports ReporterDoha

The veteran Saeed al-Sulaiti used all his experience to narrowly beat Abdullah al-Qubaisi and win Race 1 of the second round

in the Qatar Superstock 600 at the Losail International Circuit on Saturday.

Al-Sulaiti, who had won the opening two races of the season, made it three-in-a-row with another brilliant show. The 35-year-old covered the 12-lap race of 64.6 km in a time of 25 minutes 12.849 seconds, a mere 0.100 seconds ahead of his closest competitor and defending champion al-Qubaisi. Meshaal al-Nuai-mi fi nished third in 25:43.119.

Al-Sulaiti’s hopes of continuing his dominating form were disappointed af-ter the second race was postponed due to rain and extreme wind at the Losail Inter-national Circuit. The organising commit-tee of the championship has now decided to hold the race during the third round of

the championship.After three races, al-Sulaiti leads the

championship table with a perfect 75 points, 15 ahead of al-Qubaisi, while al-Nuaimi has 48 points.

In the Trophy class category, rookie Youssef al-Darwish took the top hon-ours. The youngster clocked 25:47.350, to comfortably fi nish ahead of compa-triot Sheikh Khaled al-Thani, who timed 26:37.337. Canadian Stephen Turnbull fi nished third in a time of 26:53.447.

Meanwhile, Youssef al-Darwish also clinched the QSSP 300 class overall title, after winning the Race 2. Al-Darwish fi n-ished with 50 points, 12 ahead of Hamad al-Sahouti.

On Saturday, al-Darwish won the second race in a time of 16:21.928 sec-onds. Saad al-Harqan came second in 16:31.575 secs, while al-Sahouti was third in 16:37.293 secs.

Meanwhile, Khaled al-Rumaihi, Vice President of the Losail Circuit Sports Club (LCSC) was pleased with the per-formance of the riders in the second

round, despite diffi cult weather condi-tions at the weekend.

“The youngsters are very keen to par-ticipate in the championship, which has led to an increase in the number of con-testants. The level of the competition has improved signifi cantly despite the diffi -cult weather conditions during the week-end,” he said.

“Certainly, strong winds do not help riders, but at the same time they gain more experience that will undoubtedly benefi t them in the future, especially since every race has its diff erent circumstances and challenges. It is better for our young riders to face all circumstances so that they are ready for any scenario,” al-Rumaihi.

On the success of the championship de-spite the prevailing pandemic, the LCSC offi cial said: “The success is due to the concerted eff orts of state institutions, which have put precautionary measures in place, to which we are fully committed. It is well-known that Qatar organises events in the most diffi cult circumstances.”

Regarding competition in QSTK, he

said: “The competition is very good, al-though Saeed al-Sulaiti has won three consecutive races thanks to his experi-ence, which had a major role in his su-periority over Abdullah al-Qubaisi. However, al-Qubaisi has a natural talent but he does not have the experience of al-Sulaiti. There is also Youssef al-Darwish, who has a good future, especially as he is a fast rider and has high potential.”

RESULTSQSTK 600 Race 1 1. Saeed al-Sulaiti 25:12.849 2. Abdullah al-Qubaisi 25:12.9493. Meshaal al-Nuaimi 25:43.119

Trophy class1. Youssef al-Darwish 25:47.3502. Sheikh Khalid al-Thani 26:37.3373. Stephen Turnball 26:53.447

QSSP 300 class 1. Youssef al-Darwish 16:21.9282. Saad al-Harqan 16:31.5753. Hamad al-Sahouti 16:37.293

QSTK 600 podium winners pose with the off icials.

Saeed al-Sulaiti celebrates after winning the Race 1 of the second round in the Qatar Superstock 600 at the Losail International Circuit on Saturday.

Lahore Qalandars, 2020 runners-up, got off to a winning start with a four-wicket victory against

Peshawar Zalmi in the second match of Pakistan Super League (PSL) 6 at Karachi’s National Stadium yesterday. Qalandars, who had never won their opening match in any of the fi ve previous editions, made history in the 19th over.

Qalandars chased down the 141-run target for the loss of six wickets with nine balls to spare. Mohamed Hafeez anchored the Qalandars innings with an un-beaten 33 off 26 balls, hitting fi ve fours.

Rashid Khan, Qalandars’ plati-num pick, blasted his way to 27 as he smashed three fours and a six, which sealed the match, in his undefeated 15-ball knock.

Both batsmen contributed an unbroken 34-run partnership for the seventh-wicket. Before the two came together, Qaland-ars found themselves in a spot of bother following back-to-back dismissals of Samit Patel (eight off 11 balls) and David Weise in the 16th over as Saqib Mahmood, who returned two for 22, bowled the former and trapped the latter in front of stumps.

Zalmi captain Wahab Riaz also accounted for two batsmen as he fi nished with the fi gures of two for 30.

Qalandars were provided an excellent start by Shaheen Shah Afridi. The left-arm quick in-duced a leading edge off Im-am-ul-Haq on the fi rst ball of the match with a delivery that shaped away from the left-hand-

ed batsman to provide the fi rst breakthrough.

Afridi bowled impeccable lengths, denying the opposition batsman any opportunities to score against him, and fi nished with three for 14 in four overs, which bagged him the Player of the Match award.

Zalmi’s troubles compounded with the introduction of Rashid,

who bowled economical spell of 4-0-14-0 in his PSL debut.

Peshawar were reeling at four for 46 in the eighth over, be-fore Ravi Bopara and Sherfane Rutherford got together and stitched a valuable 64 runs for the fi fth-wicket. Bopara, who featured for Multan Sultans in the fi fth edition, top-scored with a 44-ball 50. His innings includ-

ed six boundaries.Rutherford, picked by Zalmi

in the diamond category, scored 26 off 27. His fi rst of two sixes, was the fi rst of the match, hit off David Wiese’s bowling in the 13th over.

After the departure of both batsmen, Amad Butt, batting at number seven, contributed a quickfi re unbeaten 23 off 11 balls.

His two maximums were hit in the 20th over, which helped the side to a decent fi nish at 140 for six.

Qalandars’ Mohamed Salman Mirza, making his debut in the PSL after he was drafted in the side as a replacement for injured Dilbar Hussain, ended-up with two for 35. He accounted for Pakistan in-ternationals Kamran Akmal (fi ve off 10) and Haider Ali (fi rst-ball

duck), in his opening spell.

GREGORY STARS WITH BAT AND BALL IN THRILLING

ISLAMABAD VICTORYMeanwhile, in the second

match of the day, an unbeaten 49 by Lewis Gregory pulled Islama-bad United past the 151-run tar-get with an over to spare against Multan Sultans.

Islamabad had opened their chase well before Phil Sait fell in the fourth over with the score at 30. Shadab Khan-led side were then reduced to 74 for 6 in the 12th over leaving them with a daunting task. However, a 43-run stand between Englishman Gregory and Faheem Ashraf stabilised the chase before the latter was sent back in the 16th over. Gregory then took major-ity of the strike as he and Zafar Gohar (3 runs) added the remain-ing 34 runs for the win. Carlos Braithwaite and Shahid Afridi took two wickets apiece.

Earlier, Multan captain Mo-hamed Rizwan scored a 53-ball 71 in their 150 for 8. Mohamed Wasim of Islamabad took three wickets, while Gregory, the Play-er of the Match, accounted for two. (PSL)

BRIEF SCORESPeshawar Zalmi 140-6 (Ravi Bopara 50; Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-14, Mohamed Salman Mirza 2-35) lost to Lahore Qalandars 143-6 in 18.3 overs (Mohamed Hafeez 33 not out, Rashid Khan 27 not out; Saqib Mahmood 2-22, Wahab Riaz 2-30) by four wickets. Player of the Match: Shaheen Shah Afridi (Lahore Qalandars)Multan Sultans 150 for 8 (Mohamed Rizwan 71; Mohamed Wasim 3-29, Lewis Gregory 2-31) lost to Islamabad United 151 for 7 in 19 overs (Lewis Gregory 49 not out; Carlos Brathwaite 2-23, Shahid Afridi 2-24) by three wickets. Player of the Match: Lewis Gregory (Islama-bad United)

Lahore Qalandars’ Shaheen Shah Afridi (right) celebrates a wicket during the PSL match against Peshawar Zalmi in Karachi, Pakistan, yesterday. (PSL)

Islamabad United’s Lewis Gregory in action during the PSL match against Multan Sultans in Karachi yesterday. (PSL)

ReutersBengaluru, India

Batsman Rohit Sharma took aim at critics who complained about the Chennai pitch in the

second Test against England, saying India were well within their rights to prepare a surface that assists spin.

India won the second Test by 317 runs to level the series at 1-1 after England struggled to nego-tiate spin on a track where Shar-ma and Ravichandran Ashwin notched centuries in the fi rst and second innings, respectively.

Former Australia batsman Mark Waugh called the pitch un-acceptable while former England captain Michael Vaughan de-scribed it as a beach but Sharma said home advantage meant In-dia could prepare a pitch to their liking.

“The pitch is the same for both teams, so I don’t know why there is so much discussion about it. Pitches have been prepared like this in India for years,” Sharma told reporters yesterday ahead of the third Test in Ahmedabad.

“Every side takes advantage of home conditions even when we travel... When we travel they (opponents) make our life dif-fi cult.

“We make pitches according to our preferences, that’s why it’s called home advantage. Other-wise take away home advantage and ask the ICC to make a rule to prepare the same pitches in India and outside India.”

Sharma’s 161 set the platform for India in the fi rst innings even as the ball spun from the fi rst session and kicked up dust on landing and the 33-year-old said it was a matter of application af-ter reading the conditions.

“As a batsman, depending on the pitch, you prepare yourself. Players are picked to play based on their skillset and mindset to play in challenging conditions,” Sharma added.

“There are chances you will fail but it doesn’t matter as long as you learn from that.

“We don’t complain about the pitch when we play outside India, we just move on and oth-ers should do the same. I would tell the experts to talk about the cricket and not the pitches.”