Friday, May 5, 2017Sha’baan 9, 1438 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Wenger ready to make peace with old foe Mourinho

Formula One star Alonso completes Indy 500 test

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Gabriel scalps fi ve as Pakistan collapse in a heap in 2nd TestPage 7

No bar too high as Barshim goes for world record

ATHLETICS/DOHA DIAMOND LEAGUE

Star Qatari high-jumper faces a crucial year as more glory beckonsBy Anil JohnDoha

Three years ago, Mutaz Barshim asked Meryl Streep if she could get a part for him in a movie she was starring

in. They happened to be seated next to each other at a dinner gala in Doha and the star struck Barshim was itch-ing to kick-start a conversation with arguably the most-loved and admired Hollywood actress of all time.

“I’m a huge fan of movies and I told Meryl she should take me along to star in her next Hollywood fi lm. She said, yes, sure, and started thinking up a character for me. I told her I might go to Hollywood after I’ve fi nished high jumping,” Barshim said later.

“We were joking, of course. It was a great experience spending the evening chatting and having fun with Meryl,” he added.

But what happened next was not a joke and it certainly shocked Barshim out of his wits. Streep and her sculptor husband Don Gum-mer said they knew he was Mutaz Barshim, a successful athlete, with several medals in international competitions.

“They both seemed to love the high jump and both knew a lot about my results – I was just surprised they knew about me!” Barshim said.

The Qatari is even more famous now thanks to his silver medal at the Olympics in Rio last year. His legacy as a national and Arab sporting icon is already etched in stone but in his heart of hearts he is aware that he needs that one giant leap that would catapult him to global superstardom.

That leap, which in mathematical terms means bettering his own per-sonal best of 2.43m by a little more than two centimetres to beat the near 25-year-old record of 2.45m held by Cuban great Javier Sotomayor, how-ever, has so far proven a bar too high for him.

At media events he is invariably asked if he is targeting Sotomayor’s record, and he would say that the Cu-

ban’s mark was certainly on his radar. Inevitably, that was the case yes-

terday also. “I’m really excited to kick off the

season here at home in Doha. It’s been a while as I haven’t been com-peting in the winter. I love high jump, I can’t stay away from it that long! I’m really excited, I’ve been work-ing really good and I hope this is the year that I’m going to break the world record!” Barshim said.

There’s an air of expectancy that this could be the year when Sotomay-or’s record would fall and success at today’s Doha Diamond League meet-ing could be the harbinger of glad tidings later in the year which also sees London hosting the IAAF World Championships in August.

Barshim is history’s second high-est jumper but he has never won at the Doha Diamond League, an anom-aly he would like to correct.

“I am comfortable with the way I have jumped so far. My coach is hap-py with it. It’s (the new season) here. Time to keep going. I am ready to go. I will do my best. Hopefully it will be a good start to the 2017 campaign,” he said.

“There are familiar faces for the fi rst round. Over here I have support of my family and friends. My mom will be present in the stands as an ex-tra motivation.”

He has already cleared 2.35m in Jeddah at the GCC Championships but faces competition from Erik Ky-nard of the US, the 2016 Diamond Trophy winner, and Robbie Grabarz of Great Britain, who shared the bronze with Barshim at the 2012 Ol-ympics.

Barshim said he was on the verge of getting rid of a back injury that had been nagging him for years and is now jumping off his full run-up

“I can’t say I have 100 percent re-covered from that back injury I had. It’s a stress back in my lower back. Once that happens, you have to be careful. I think I am 95 percent recov-ered. I just have to practice more and build more muscle around that area and I have to keep moving.”

By Sports ReporterDoha

Doha’s City Center Mall came alive this morning as lucky members of the public were off ered the rare opportunity

to interact with global athletics icons ahead of today’s Diamond League opener.

Four Olympic and World Champi-ons, including Qatar’s national high jump treasure Mutaz Barshim, Jamai-ca’s sprint sensation Elaine Thomp-son, Germany’s Thomas Rohler and Dutch athlete Dafne Schippers came together to answer questions, pose for selfi es and sign autographs, in a fun and lively session designed to bring the

excitement of athletics to a wider au-dience.

With members of the public inquisi-tively looking on, discussion jumped across topics with performance targets

for tomorrow’s meet on everyone’s mind. Elaine Thompson said:

“It’s good to be the fastest woman in the world. Even though everywhere I go in the world, everyone says I’m so

tiny! It’s also a wonderful feeling to be here in Doha. It’s my fi rst time and I’m really looking forward to some excite-ment tomorrow night”

On returning to Doha for the season

opener Dafne Schippers added: “I love the atmosphere here. The

weather’s perfect for quick running and I feel good so I just can’t wait to get stuck in”

After further contributions, Chris-tian and Michelle were asked if the role of presenter was more diffi cult than their day jobs as athletes. In a light-hearted response Michelle said: “I’ve been training for years to be an athlete and this is my fi rst time in this role so I’d defi nitely have to say that it is more diffi cult than being on the track!”

Mohammed Eisa al-Fadala, Gen-eral Secretary of the Qatar Athletics Federation (QAF) expressed his pride at bringing the athletes and Diamond League directly to the wider public. He said:

“We are hosting the Diamond League opener in Doha this Friday with a new and refreshed ambition to share our passion for sport and our culture with Qataris and the world.

“This ambition is rooted in our abil-ity to reach out and engage communi-ties so what better way than to inspire them in advance with the world’s very best athletes.

“Athletics has the power to connect people in common purpose, create lasting friendships and inspire people through exceptional human endeavour in a way that few other sports can.

“We hope that people will be in-spired by meeting these fantastic ath-letes today and they’ll be encouraged to attend tomorrow’s meeting and hopefully take up the sport.”

Champs charm the public at City Center MallBOTTOMLINE

Doha Diamond League scheduleVenue: Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium (Qatar Sports Club) today:

18:00: Shot Put Women 18:15: Pole Vault Women 18:45: High Jump Men 18:50: 800m Men Regional 19:03: 400m Men 19:05:Javelin Throw Men

19:14: 1500m Men 19:25: 800m Women

19:35: 200m Women

19:45: Triple Jump Men

19:50: 100m Hurdles Women

20:05: 3000m Steeplechase Women

20:25: 100m Men

20:35: 400m Hurdles Men

20:45: 3000m Steeplechase Men

AFPDoha

They fi nished second and third in last year’s Olympics 100m fi nal and today Justin Gatlin and Andre De Grasse renew

their rivalry in the Diamond League season-opener in Qatar.

The sprint race is not the only stand-out event of the now-traditional Doha curtain-raiser for the league — this year spread over 14 meetings in 13 dif-ferent countries — but is given an ex-tra edge coming as it does in a World Championship season.

Both athletes will have their eyes on London in August, when they will take on the legendary Usain Bolt in his international farewell, but for now battle commences in Doha.

Canadian De Grasse, 22, is Bolt’s heir apparent and has already said that he wants to “spoil” the legen-dary’s Jamaican’s goodbye to athlet-ics.

De Grasse also claimed silver to Bolt in the 200m in Rio.

The controversial Gatlin, 35, has already struck an early season blow, anchoring his American team to vic-tory at the IAAF World Relays in Nas-sau last month, De Grasse’s Canada bombing out in the fi nal.

The pair will be joined in Doha by another former Jamaican 100m world record holder — and last year’s Dia-mond League winner — the evergreen Asafa Powell and yet another rising star, Akani Simbine.

The South African, 23, ran 9.92sec in March, the second fastest time of the year so far.

His early season form has been su-perb, dipping under 10 seconds fi ve times and winning his country’s 100m title ahead of Wayde van Niekerk.

The women’s 200m will be contest-ed by the gold and silver medallists from Rio — Jamaica’s Elaine Thomp-son and Dafne Schippers from the Netherlands.Last year’s bronze med-allist in Rio, Tori Bowie from the US, is not in Doha but has already made her presence felt by clocking the year’s fastest time so far, 22.09sec.

In recent years in the Doha leg of the Diamond League, some of the best performances have come in the mid-dle and long-distance races.

This year could prove the same.All three female 800m fi nalists

from Rio — South Africa’s Caster Se-menya, Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui — will race today. They will be joined by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba, a former 1500m world-record holder who has chosen an extremely tough fi eld in which to make her 800m debut.

In the 3000m steeplechase, Ken-yan-born Bahraini runner Ruth Jebet, who won gold in Rio, will make her season debut.

She is also the current world record holder with a time of 8mins 52.78.

Off the track, there’s another clash of Olympic gold and silver medallists from Rio, when Greece’s Ekaterini Ste-fanidi takes on America’s Sandi Morris in the pole vault.

Gatlin and De Grasse ready for Doha clash

SPOTLIGHT

This file photo taken on August 16, 2016 shows gold medallist Jamaica’s Usain Bolt (C) posing with silver medallist USA’s Justin Gatlin (L) and bronze medallist Canada’s Andre De Grasse on the podium of the men’s 100m at the Rio Olympic Games.

Qatar’s Olympic silver medallist high-jumper Mutaz Barshim poses at the City Center Mall during a media event ahead of today’s Doha Diamond League meeting. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

AFPLondon

Arsenal manager Ar-sene Wenger says he is prepared to bury the hatchet with old foe

Jose Mourinho ahead of Sun-day’s home game with Manches-ter United.

Wenger regularly clashed with Mourinho during the Por-tuguese’s two stints as Chelsea manager, the rivalry spilling over into a touchline shoving match during an October 2014 game at Stamford Bridge.

The pair resume hostilities at the Emirates Stadium with their sides competing for a place in the Premier League top four.

Asked if peace could be made with United manager Mourinho,

Wenger told reporters: “I am open always in life for every-thing, you know, for peace.

“But what is important when you are a competitor is that you give absolutely everything to win the next game.”

Wenger, who has never beaten Mourinho in the league, was re-minded of his relationship with former United manager Alex Ferguson, which shed its initial spikiness to become corial.

“My relationship with Fergu-son mellowed, yes. We have re-spect,” Wenger said.

“I think I try to respect every-body and I do not want to make a case of any person. I think it is important that I focus on my own team, the performance of my team and forget all the rest.”

Arsenal approach the week-end in sixth place in the table,

fi ve points below United and six behind Manchester City, with a game in hand on both.

“It just shows that everybody has moved up,” said Wenger, whose side will face Chelsea in the FA Cup fi nal. “The number of clubs that can fi ght at the top is bigger this season and the dif-ference between the teams is smaller. As soon as you are not at your best, you can lose.”

With Sunday’s game sand-wiched between the two legs of United’s Europa League semi-fi -nal against Celta Vigo, Mourinho has indicated he will rest players for the trip to north London.

Xhaka doubt Wenger said that if Arsenal

fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League he will fol-low Mourinho’s lead by making

the Europa League a priority.“I take every competition se-

riously,” he said during yester-day’s pre-game press confer-ence at Arsenal’s London Colney training base. “The only thing I always did over the years was to use the League Cup to give chances to young players. We always treated all the other com-petitions seriously.”

Wenger is still to announce what he will do at the end of the season and has faced calls to stand down from disgruntled supporters.

United’s struggles in the post-Ferguson era have been held up as a warning to fans calling for Wenger to go, but he says his de-parture could prove to be a good thing.

“It can as well go better from when I leave one day,” said the

Frenchman, who has been in charge at Arsenal since 1996.

“You know, when you are such a long time at a club like I am, like Ferguson was, it is a little bit like when you have children. You want them to be happy.

“Even when you are not there anymore, you want them to be happy.”

Reminded that he had vowed to make an announcement on his future in March or April, Wenger joked: “That means I was wrong!”

He added: “I don’t want to speak about my personal case any more.”

Wenger revealed midfi elder Granit Xhaka is likely to miss Sunday’s game after taking a kick to the calf in last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at derby rivals Tot-tenham Hotspur.

Wenger ready to make peace with old foe Mourinho

SPOTLIGHT

FOOTBALL

Gulf Times Friday, May 5, 20172

AFPLondon

Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil has de-fended himself against criticism of his attitude

and says his nonchalant body language can be misleading.

Ozil, 28, has been a periph-eral fi gure as Arsenal’s season has hit the skids, with Arsene Wenger’s side slipping from the top four and being thrashed 10-2 on aggregate by Bayern Munich in the Champions League. He produced another poor display in Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat at derby rivals Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, but says people who say he does not care are wrong.

“Some people like me, some people don’t,” the Germany playmaker told the Goal website.

“Some people look at my body language and think I don’t care. But that’s me. I won’t change my body language or my style of play drastically any more.

“Expectations on me were very high everywhere because

I am a player who can make the diff erence. You have to deal with that.

“There will always be criti-cism and there will always be praise. But what matters is what the manager tells me. I have said that numerous times.

“But what I can’t understand is when people say: ‘Look, he does not push any more’ or ‘He does not run enough.’ If you look at my numbers, you can see I run a lot and I show a good attitude.”

Wenger defended Ozil on Thursday after it emerged the former Real Madrid star had kicked a door in anger after being selected for a drugs test follow-ing the defeat at Spurs.

“I am sorry that he kicked the door, but I can understand,” the Arsenal manager told his weekly press conference.

“I don’t think his frustration was towards the drug test. It was towards the fact that we lost the game and that is the only expla-nation I have.”

Ozil’s contract is due to expire in 2018 and he is yet to sign a new deal.

Wenger’s future is also up in the air, but Ozil says his future is not tied to that of his manager.

“It does not only depend on the manager,” he said.

“Of course he was the one who convinced me to join Arsenal and he was a main factor for me to come here. He is a very expe-rienced coach who made Arse-nal one of the best clubs in the world.

“You must have respect for him because he is a great man-ager. But I do not decide whether the manager stays or not. What’s important for me is that we de-velop as a team and reach our goals.”

Ozil also revealed he had re-ceived a lucrative off er from the Chinese Super League.

He said the off er was “tempt-ing”, but decided to turn it down.

“Money is not everything,” he explained.

“I want to win titles and I have my goals I want to achieve. That is more important than money. That’s why I said from the be-ginning that China is not an op-tion for me.”

Tottenham look to crank up pressure on Chelsea

EPL PREVIEW

ReutersManchester

If Chelsea needed any re-minder that there is still work to be done to secure a second title in three years,

the Premier League schedule should ensure there is no com-placency in Antonio Conte’s squad.

Second-placed Tottenham visit West Ham United today and a win for Mauricio Pochet-tino’s team would cut the gap to leaders Chelsea to just one point ahead of the Blues’ Mon-day game against relegation-threatened Middlesbrough.

Both the title-chasers are in buoyant mood after crucial wins last weekend with Spurs triumphing over Arsenal in the North London derby and Chelsea winning 3-0 against Everton at Goodison Park in the toughest game on paper of their run-in.

“We keep going, it’s hard to do anything else. We can’t control what Chelsea do, we just have to keep winning our games,” said Spurs forward Harry Kane, who scored in the 2-0 win over Arsenal to take his league tally to 21 for the season.

“We have another Lon-don derby on Friday night and hopefully we can win that, drop it down to one point and see what happens... We’re playing as well as we ever have done in the Premier League.”

Tottenham have won nine consecutive league games but West Ham will remember that they were only minutes away from doing what no team has managed this season — beating

Spurs at White Hart Lane.Spurs fought back from 2-1

down in stoppage time, with two Kane goals, to claim a 3-2 win in November and Ham-mers defender Winston Reid knows the England forward will be a threat again.

“When we played them at White Hart Lane, he didn’t have a shot on target for 89 minutes, then out of nowhere he had scored a penalty and another goal from open play and they had won the game,” he said.

Chelsea start as clear fa-vourites against second-bot-tom Middlesbrough but they will have noted the fi ghting spirit shown by Boro in their 2-2 draw with fourth-placed Manchester City on Sunday.

In the battle for Champions League qualifi cation, third-placed Liverpool are at home on Sunday to Southampton — a club they have raided for sev-eral players in recent seasons — while fi fth-placed Man-chester United take on Arsenal, in sixth. Manchester City will expect to get back to winning ways, after three games with-out a victory, when they host Crystal Palace tomorrow.

Sam Allardyce’s team, how-ever, are unlikely to roll over as they still need points to secure their safety after their home loss to Burnley last Saturday.

At the bottom of the ta-ble, Hull City will be hoping to pull further away from the drop zone when they face al-ready-relegated Sunderland, while Swansea, in 18th and two points adrift of the safety zone, face a tough home game against Everton.

Don’t say I don’t care, says Arsenal’s OzilCOMMENT

Arsenal’s German midfielder Mesut Ozil (L) and Arsenal’s Brazilian defender Gabriel react to the first goal by Tottenham Hotspur’s English midfielder Dele Alli during the English Premier League match at White Hart Lane in London on April 30, 2017. (AFP)

‘I think I try to respect everybody and I do not want to make a case of any person’

Arsène Wenger (left) and Jose Mourinho clash in 2014 when Arsenal played at Chelsea.

AFC punishes Guangzhou over ‘British dogs’ banner

Chinese giants Guangzhou Evergrande escaped yesterday with a fine and a suspended two-match stadium ban from Asia’s foot-ball governing body after supporters unfurled a “British dogs” banner during a match in Hong Kong. The anti-independence banner, which read “Annihilate British dogs, destroy HK inde-pendence poison” in Chinese, was held up during Evergrande’s 6-0 AFC Champions League win over Hong Kong’s Eastern on April 25. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had last week charged Guangzhou Evergrande “under Article 58 for discrimi-nation and Article 65 relating to spectator misconduct”. “Guangzhou Evergrande were ordered to play two future match-es in AFC club competitions which they host in China PR without spectators, with both matches suspended for a probationary period of two years,” it said in a statement yesterday. The Chinese side was also fined $22,500. AFC warned that the suspended sanction would be automati-cally enforced should any new violations occur.Former British colony Hong Kong became a semi-autonomous Chinese territory 20 years ago, but independence sentiment has been running high following mass protests against Beijing. The game was played in a hostile atmosphere in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok Stadium, near where rioting erupted last year which involved pro-independence activists. Fans from both sides hurled obscenities and gave each other the middle finger, with the Evergrande fans heard chanting “Traitor!”. One Eastern supporter displayed Hong Kong’s colonial-era flag, which features Britain’s Union Jack, while others booed and swore at the Chinese team. Evergrande, the two-time Asian champions and winners of the last six Chinese Super League titles, were in trouble with the AFC only last year. The then defending champions were fined and forced to play their first Champions League game of the season behind closed doors for a string of off ences, including wearing the wrong sponsor’s name on their shirts during the 2015 final.

AFPMonaco

Two-goal hero Gonzalo Higuain urged his Ju-ventus teammates to keep their feet on the

ground after a brilliant 2-0 win in Monaco on Wednesday that left them on the brink of the Champions League fi nal.

Argentine striker Higuain was set up by Dani Alves to open the scoring in the 29th minute and then converted an Alves cross just before the hour as Juve claimed a seemingly decisive victory in the semi-fi nal fi rst leg at the Stade Louis II.

The Italian champions have the fi nal in Cardiff on June 3 in their sights, with a showdown against holders Real Madrid, Higuain’s former side, looking probable.

“The dream we have been

pursuing since August has been to get to Cardiff and we are just one step away,” said Higuain, who was applauded off by the home support in Monaco.

He now has 31 goals this sea-son following his 90 million-eu-ro ($98mn) transfer from Napoli, helping Juve close on a potential treble.

Higuain, who ended a seven-game run without scoring in the Champions League knockout stages, added: “We have not won anything yet, so we mustn’t get carried away. I always kept calm. I knew everyone had faith in me and that hard work is always re-warded in the end.”

Juventus were immense in all areas against a Monaco side who have lit up Europe this season with their brand of attacking football.

Buff on still going strong

The hosts found the Juve de-

fence to be impermeable, with Gianluigi Buff on majestic as ever in goal.

The 39-year-old, making his 149th European appearance, denied Kylian Mbappe and Rad-amel Falcao in the fi rst half and produced a stunning fi ngertip stop from Valere Germain late on.

Juventus, who welcome Mo-naco to Turin for the second leg next Tuesday, have now gone over 10 hours without conceding in the Champions League and Buff on has kept clean sheets in all fi ve matches in the knockout rounds.

“In every game I want to show that I deserve to play at this level despite my age. I work hard eve-ry day for this. The day I quit, I want people to be sad about it,” remarked Buff on, twice a beat-en fi nalist in the Champions League.

“We had the right approach.

They are a fearsome team and the only way to beat them was playing the way we did.”

Buff on also praised coach Massimiliano Allegri for his decision to bring Andrea Bar-zagli into a three-man defence, thwarting Monaco’s attack and allowing Dani Alves to wreak havoc down the right.

“Gigi showed that he is still a great goalkeeper. He always does it in big games, and Hi-guain scored two lovely goals. But to get results everyone needs to work hard. You need to make sacrifi ces and track back and he did that too,” said Allegri.

Juventus could wrap up a record sixth consecutive Serie A title this weekend, when they face city rivals Torino, while Lazio await in the Italian Cup fi nal.

To put their performance in the principality into context, Monaco had won their previous

13 home games and scored in 41 consecutive matches at the

Stade Louis II since November 2015.

“They were more clinical than us — with two or three chances they scored and we couldn’t put any of ours away. Buff on made some incredible saves,” said Mo-naco coach Leonardo Jardim.

He missed marauding Ben-jamin Mendy at left-back and now Monaco must attempt to become just the third team ever to overturn a home fi rst-leg def-icit in the Champions League.

“It is diffi cult but we need to keep believing. The best thing is to believe it is possible, even if we only have a fi ve % chance.”

In the meantime, Monaco will switch their focus back to their attempt to win the French title — they play Nancy on Saturday and need two wins from their last four league games to become champions.

‘We have not won anything yet, so we mustn’t get carried away. I always kept calm. I knew everyone had faith in me and that hard work is always rewarded in the end’

Monaco outclassed but Higuain warns Juve not there yet

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

PSG to bid 70 mn euros for AubameyangAFPBerlin

Paris Saint-Germain are poised to make a 70-million-euro ($76.5 mn) off er to Borussia

Dortmund for striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, a report in Germany said on yesterday.

A source close to PSG said no bid was imminent and denied Bild reports that the French-born hot-shot, who has scored 35 goals this season, has already met PSG director of football Patrick Kluivert in Paris. Aubameyang, 27, could reportedly earn up to 14 mn euros per season at PSG, twice his current salary.

Dortmund are set to re-ceive an off er from PSG when their season fi nishes after the German Cup fi nal on May 27 against Eintracht Frankfurt, reports said. The Gabon in-ternational, who was born in France, has repeatedly said he

wants to eventually join Real Madrid or at least play in the Spanish league, but he has family in Paris. The striker has three years left on his Dort-mund contract, but has hinted he may leave at the end of the season and the German club has not ruled out selling him.

Amid numerous reports in Germany about a move to the French capital, ex-Germany striker Lukas Podolski says it would be a good move for Au-bameyang.

“He comes from France, speaks the language, his fam-ily is there,” Podolski wrote in a column for Bild last week.

“But he has to ask himself: do I have the same feeling as in Dortmund?

“He is the superstar at Borussia. Saint-Germain has lots of them. Plus Dortmund is also among the top eight to 10 clubs in the world and he en-joys certain liberties there.

“Would he get the same at another club?”

SPOTLIGHT

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Friday, May 5, 2017

AFPMadrid

Barcelona forward Neymar and his par-ents will stand trial over alleged fraud and cor-

ruption, making the Brazilian the latest football superstar to have to take the stand, a Spanish court ordered yesterday.

The National Court also or-dered Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and his prede-cessor Sandro Rosell to be sent to trial over alleged fraud and cor-ruption over Neymar’s transfer from Santos in 2013.

They will stand trial for “busi-ness corruption and fraud”, the court said in a statement.

The two clubs, Barcelona and Brazil’s Santos, were also or-dered to stand trial. Neymar’s arrival from Brazil’s Santos has been a huge success for the Spanish champions on the pitch but a judicial nightmare off it.

The 25-year-old striker is be-ing investigated in Brazil and Spain over his headline move to La Liga.

The case initiated with a com-plaint from Brazilian investment company DIS, which owned 40% of Neymar’s sporting rights at the time of his transfer.

DIS received just 6.8mn eu-ros — 40% of the 17mn euros fee paid to Santos — with the com-pany claiming it was cheated out of its real share because part of the transfer fee was concealed by Barcelona, Santos and the Ney-mar family. But the court suspects Santos was actually paid 25mn euros, which would mean DIS was cheated out of 3.5mn euros. Barcelona originally published the transfer fi gure as 57.1mn eu-ros ($62.3mn), with 40mn euros of that given to the player’s family and the rest to Santos.

Jail term sought

DIS has called for fi ve-year sentences for Neymar and his parents, who acted as the play-er’s representatives, eight years for Rosell and Bartomeu plus a mammoth 195mn euro fi ne for Barca. Spanish prosecutors have recommended that Neymar be handed a two-year jail sentence and fi ned 10mn euros. Sentences

of two years or less are habitually suspended for fi rst time off end-ers in Spain.

However, DIS also recom-mended that Neymar be banned from playing football during any judicial sentence.

In July 2016 a judge ruled that irregularities in the transfer were detected, but said it was an issue for a civil court, not a criminal court to settle.

But prosecutors successfully argued the player and his father were aware of potentially fraud-ulent dealings between Barce-lona and Santos to the detriment of DIS to fully overturn that decision. The decision to order Neymar to stand trial is another blow to the image of the Spanish giants and the player himself.

Barcelona hoped to bring an end to the murky aff air when the club agreed to pay a 5.5-million-euro fi ne in a deal with prosecu-tors in June to settle a separate case and ensure the club avoided trial on tax-evasion charges over the transfer.

Messi sentencedNeymar is far from the only

Barca star to fi nd himself em-broiled in problems with the Spanish authorities.

Five-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi and his father were given 21-month suspended jail sentences in July 2016 for tax fraud relating to the player’s im-age rights.

Barca’s Argentine defender Javier Mascherano also agreed a one-year suspended sentence with authorities for tax fraud earlier this year.

The off -fi eld upheaval hasn’t aff ected Barca, Neymar’s sign-ing being an undoubted sporting success as he has formed one of the most fearsome strike part-nerships of all-time with Messi and Luis Suarez.

Barca have won back-to-back Spanish league and Cup doubles with the trio and won the Cham-pions League in 2015.

Neymar signed a bumper new deal with the club to extend his contract until 2021 in July 2016 despite admitting he held talks with Paris Saint-Germain amidst interest from a host of top European clubs in luring him away.

Spanish court orders Neymar to stand trial for fraudFOCUS

The Indian men’s football team yesterday climbed to the 100th spot in the latest FIFA world rankings — their best rating in more than two decades. Despite having a population of well over one bn, India languishes as a footballing minnow, ranked equally alongside Nicaragua, Lithuania and Estonia in a global table headed by Brazil.India — where the national pastime of cricket is something of an obsession that squeezes other sports out of the running — last made the top 100 in 1996, reaching an all-time high of 94, before plunging. The boost in ranking comes after India beat Cambodia 3-2 in Phnom Penh on March 22 in a friendly clash before edging out Myanmar 1-0 in Yangon on March 28 during an AFC Asian Cup qualifying match. Head coach Stephen Con-stantine congratulated his side on the milestone, but warned them against complacency ahead of important matches.“As long as we keep heading up the ladder I am happy. It points out that we are heading in the right direction,” the 54-year-old Englishman was quoted as saying by the All India Football Federation (AIFF).“There are major matches ahead and we cannot take things lightly. There’s no place for complacency,” said Constantine, who took charge of the Indian team in 2015.India will play a friendly against Lebanon on June 7 and then an Asian Cup qualifier against Kyrgyzstan on June 13.The team has won 11 of their last 13 matches, including an un-off icial match against Bhutan, scoring 31 goals in the process.“It’s pleasing that we are presently ranked 100. At the same time, we need to stay aware of the challenge in hand. The AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers UAE 2019 are an acid test for us,” said Kushal Das, AIFF general secretary.

India breaks into FIFA top 100 after 21 years

Juventus’ forward from Argentina Gonzalo Higuain (black jacket) celebrates with teammates after their 2-0 win over Monaco during the UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg match at the Stade Louis II stadium in Monaco. (AFP)

Maradona set for India visit ahead of U-17 WCFootball legend Diego Maradona is set to visit the soccer-crazy city of Kolkata in September ahead of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup being hosted by India. The Argentine superstar will participate in a charity football match against Kolkata’s greatest cricket export and former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, the event promoters told AFP. Maradona — who was given a hero’s welcome when he first visited the eastern Indian city in 2008 — will also be presented with a lifetime achievement award in West Bengal state. “It is such an honour for me to be able to make this trip. Kolkata is a very special place and I have good memories from my trip there many years ago, the fans were fantastic,” Maradona posted on his Facebook page.“#India is a very passionate football nation, and I look forward to meeting a whole new generation of fans while continuing to spread the overwhelming love that I have for this beautiful game.”Football is hugely popular in Kolkata, with fans closely following international matches, despite India’s dominant obsession with cricket. The city has also hosted Brazilian great Pele, who last visited in 2015. Maradona’s visit is expected to build enthusiasm for the U-17 World Cup, which India is hosting for the first time this October.

ReutersWilmington, North Carolina

World number one Dustin Johnson re-turns to competi-tive action at this

week’s Wells Fargo Champion-ship needing a win to join an elite group that includes some of the game’s greatest players.

Johnson has been sidelined due to a freak accident on the eve of last month’s US Masters but a triumph at Eagle Point would make him only the fi fth golfer in PGA Tour history to win four or more consecutive starts.

Should Johnson prevail over a fi eld that includes fi ve-times major winner Phil Mickelson and world number 11 Adam Scott, he would be the fi rst player to record four consecutive victo-ries on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.

“No one’s beaten me since

February,” a grinning Johnson, who grew up in nearby South Carolina, told a news conference on Wednesday.

“I was on a good roll, playing the best golf of my career leading into Augusta.

“Obviously I haven’t played much or done a whole lot of practising, but the body’s all

good... I’ve practiced enough to compete.”

Byron Nelson set the tour record for with 11 successive vic-tories in 1945, while Woods, Ben Hogan and Jack Burke Jr. are the only other players with at least four.

While Johnson has been fo-cused on healing his badly

bruised back since slipping on a staircase in Augusta, former world number one Scott has been enjoying time with his wife and young daughter in Swe-den.

“I put a lot into my game the month leading into the Masters,” said Scott, who fi nished equal ninth at Augusta.

“I needed a break. Felt I need-ed to see my family and spend some good time with them.

“Then last week was a re-ally intense week with training and getting myself back com-petitive again, fi red up to play this week and next (at the Players Championship), and have a short three-week focus of putting in the hard yards and trying to get a result.”

Eagle Point is being used for the event this year because the regular venue, Quail Hollow in Charlotte, is hosting the PGA Championship, the year’s fi nal major, in August.

The course is unfamiliar to most of a fi eld that includes defending champion James Hahn and eight of the world’s top 20 golfers and has required more preparation than usual ahead of Thursday’s opening round.

“I’m still, after two looks at the course, trying to fi gure out exactly how to go about it,” said Scott.

Johnson eyes Wells Fargo victory and entry into elite club

GOLF

SPORT

Gulf Times Friday, May 5, 20174

Rule change allows players to wear religious headgear

BASKETBALL

ReutersHong Kong

Basketball players will be allowed to wear headgear for religious reasons after world

governing body FIBA yesterday approved a new rule to come into eff ect from October 1.

“The new rule comes as a re-sult of the fact that traditional dress codes in some countries, which called for the head and/or entire body being covered, were incompatible with FIBA’s previous headgear rule,” FIBA said in a statement. Qatar’s women’s team withdrew from the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea after being denied permis-sion to wear the hijab on court.

The decision, which over-turns a 20-year ban on re-ligious head coverings that was originally imposed for safety reasons, was ratifi ed by Swiss-based FIBA’s Mid-Term Congress in Hong Kong. FIBA began a two-year revision and testing period in Septem-

ber 2014, granting exceptions at national level. It’s central board approved a modifi cation to the rule after receiving a re-port in January.

The Mid-Term Congress sin-gled out, as an historical mo-ment, a test game in Iran on April 13 that featured women wear-ing hijabs and “marked the fi rst time men witnessed a women’s sporting event in person.”

FIBA said the new rule, which would also allow tur-bans and yarmulkes, would minimise the risk of injury while ensuring uniform was of a consistent colour.

The headgear must be black or white, or of the same domi-nant colour as that of the uni-form, and the same colour for all players on a team.

It must not cover any part of the player’s face entirely or partially, can have no opening or closing elements around the face and neck or pose a danger to any player. Other sports, including soccer, already al-low players to wear headgear during matches.

‘I’m still, after two looks at the course, trying to figure out exactly how to go about it’

Retired NFL QB Romo vying to qualify for 2017 US OpenRetired Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is an excellent golfer and has some spare time these days, so he will try to qualify for the 2017 US Open.Romo is one of more than 9,000 players who signed up for the US Open. He is scheduled to play an 18-hole local qualifier Monday at Split Rail Links and Golf Club, which is outside Fort Worth, Texas. If Romo plays well enough in that event to advance, he would com-pete in sectional qualifying in June.Romo attempted to play his way into the US Open three previous times. He tried in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and got as far as the sectional qualifying in 2010. In the 36-hole sectional qualifier seven years ago, Romo opened

with a 71, but had to withdraw because delays due to inclement weather led to a conflict with Cowboys’ practices.USGA rules require that players have a handicap index “not exceeding 1.4” to be eligible to enter as a qualifier.Romo did not play golf for a while after undergo-ing back surgery at the end of the 2013 NFL sea-son. But he began playing seriously again this year.He played with his father in the Azalea Invitational in Charleston, S.C., last month and shot 78-77-77, missing the 54-hole cut.Soon after that event, it was announced that he would join the CBS NFL broadcast team for the 2017 season.

World number one Lydia Ko and Thailand’s third-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn are among the top seeds for the LPGA Lorena Ochoa Match Play event.South Korean-born New Zealander Ko, who withdrew from last week’s LPGA Texas Shootout with a left eye infection, tops the rankings for the 80th week in a row entering the 64-player event, the LPGA’s first match-play tournament since 2012.Ko, who turned 20 last week, meets Mexico’s Ana Menendez in a first-round match while Ariya opens against American Amy Anderson but faces a possible second-round match against sister Moriya Jutanugarn, who opens against Canada’s Alena Sharp. South Koreans Park In-Bee, ranked sixth, and Chun In-Gee, ranked fourth, are also top seeds in their brackets in a showdown that trims the field to 32 and 16 the first two days, then off ers two rounds each on Saturday and Sunday to decide a champion. Park, who won the 2015 Ochoa Invitational stroke-play crown but missed last year’s event with a thumb injury, opens against Taiwan’s Chien Pei-Yun while Chun’s first foe is Belgian Laura Gonzalez Escallon. China’s seventh-ranked Feng Shanshan is a second seed in Ko’s quarter of the bracket while South Koreans — number nine Jang Ha Na, 10th-ranked Park Sung Hyun and number 12 Kim Sei-Young — own the other second seed slots. Spain’s Car-lotta Ciganda is the defending champion of the event, which last year was a stroke-play event. “I love match play. I’m very comfortable with the format,” Ciganda said. “I played so many match-play events when I was an amateur. We play a lot in Europe so I like the format.”

Ko, Ariya among top seeds for LPGA Match Play event

Nastase slams ‘small-minded’ Wimbledon over Royal Box snub

Former Romanian world number one Ilie Nastase called Wimble-don organisers “small-minded” after they announced he would not be invited to the Royal Box at this year’s championships. The 70-year-old was provisionally banned from all International Tennis Federation (ITF) events after verbally abusing opposing team members and the umpire when he captained Romania in a Fed Cup tie against Britain last month. The former French and US Open champion had already run into trouble after making a derogatory comment about world number one Serena Williams’ unborn child ahead of the World Group II playoff tie in Constanta. “What does Wimbledon have to do with what I said about Serena and at the match in Romania?” Nastase told Romanian website ProSport. “If I did something stupid at Wimbledon then I’d understand... But in this case, I don’t get it. “In 1973, when everyone else refused to play at Wimbledon (because of a boycott by the Association of Tennis Professionals) but I did — does that not count for something?

Top seeds Jeff erson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse of Qatar defeated Hong Kong’s Lau Tsz Ho Kelvin and Wong Pui Lam 2-0 (21-11, 21-11) in their Pool ‘A’ match to enter pre-quarter-finals of Aspire Qatar Master Beach Volleyball at Aspire Park yesterday. (R) Second–seed Australian pair of Chris McHugh and Damien Schuman defeated Iran’s A. Poursagari and A. Vakili 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) in their Pool ‘B’ match. PICTURES: Jayaram

ASPIRE QATAR MASTER BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Dustin Johnson plays his shot from the fourth tee during the Pro-Am for the Wells Fargo Championship in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Getty Images/AFP)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Friday, May 5, 2017

Cavs cruise past Raptors, Leonard shines for Spurs

NBA

Leonard also delivered eight assists and seven rebounds for the Spurs, who now travel to Houston for games three and four of the best-of-seven second round

AFPLos Angeles

Kawhi Leonard scored a game- high 34 points as the San Anto-nio Spurs defeated the Houston Rockets 121-96 on Wednesday

to level their NBA playoff series at one game each.

Leonard also delivered eight assists and seven rebounds for the Spurs, who now travel to Houston for games three and four of the best-of-seven second round Western Conference series.

“We were focused,” Leonard said. “We lost by 30 points last game so we didn’t want to disappoint the fans.”

San Antonio’s win could prove to be costly because of an injury to guard Tony Parker. The Frenchman had to be carried off the fl oor by teammates with 8:43 re-maining after suff ering a left leg injury.

Meanwhile, LeBron James reached an-other milestone and the Cleveland Cava-liers nailed 18 shots from beyond the arc en route to a 125-103 rout of the Toronto Raptors in their East playoff series.

San Antonio led 97-83 at the time of Parker’s injury. The incident took place when Parker missed a short layup and landed underneath the Rockets’ basket. He had scored 18 points before leaving the game.

Parker clutched his left knee as he lay on the fl oor. He was carted off by team-mates Dewayne Dedmon and Dejounte Murray and did not look up as the crowd chanted his name.

“I just hope he is OK because we need him the next game,” Leonard said.

Parker is expected to undergo an MRI scan on Thursday.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Parker, “It is not good.”

LaMarcus Aldridge scored 15 points for the Spurs while Jonathon Simmons add-ed 14 points and Danny Green scored his 12 points all in the fi rst half.

In Cleveland, James became the NBA’s second all-time leading scorer in the postseason with a 39 point performance as the Cavaliers crushed the Toronto Raptors in game two.

James nailed a three pointer in the sec-ond half to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (5,762 points) for second place. Michael Jordan is fi rst with 5,987 playoff points.

“You fi nd somebody to stop LeBron in these moments, I’ll give you $100,” To-ronto’s DeMar DeRozan said.

The win gives Cleveland a 2-0 series lead but game three is in Toronto on Fri-day.

James also joined Ray Allen, Reggie

Miller and Manu Ginobili to become the fourth player in league history to make 300 playoff three-pointers in a career. And he now has 89 playoff games with at least 30 points, which moved him past Kobe Bryant. Only Jordan (109) has more.

James scored 17 points in the third quarter to give Cleveland a 99-73 lead heading into the fourth.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” James said. “My teammates do a great job of putting me in position. My coaching staff do a great job of putting me in position to be successful.

“And, I put a lot of work in on my craft

and I live with the results. Just blessed I’m able to make a few plays tonight to help us win another game.”

Kyrie Irving added 22 points and 11 assists for Cleveland, who also received 18 points from Channing Frye. Iman Shumpert came off the bench to score 14 for the Cavaliers, who easily won game one 116-105 on Monday.

The Raptors were led by Jonas Valan-ciunas who had 23 points. All-Star guard Kyle Lowry scored 20 points but injured his left ankle in the third quarter and was out of the game for good by the fourth.

The Raptors have never won a playoff

series when trailing 0-2 and are now a dismal 1-6 in game two’s on the road.

DeRozan, the Raptors’ leading scorer this season, was limited to fi ve points on two-of-11 shooting.

“It sucks. To lose like we did,” DeRo-zan said. “Now I just have the added time having to wait till Friday night to redeem myself.”

Results (all series best-of-seven): Eastern Conference Cleveland 125 Toronto 103 (Cleveland leads series 2-0) Western Conference San Antonio 121 Houston 96 (Series tied 1-1)

Judge shines as Yankees rally past Blue JaysBASEBALL

AgenciesNew York

Aaron Judge hit his major-league-leading 13th home run and scored the tying run in the seventh inning as the New York Yankees rallied from an early

four-run defi cit and posted an 8-6 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

Judge had his fi rst career three-hit game — with a single in the fi rst, a two-run homer in the third and a single in the seventh, when the Yankees scored three times off Joe Biagini (0-1).

Matt Holliday also hit a three-run homer as New York won for the 16th time in 21 games. Four relievers combined on fi ve scoreless in-nings, with Dellin Betances (3-1) recording four outs for the victory and Aroldis Chapman posting his sixth save.

ASTROS 10, RANGERS 1Charlie Morton produced his second con-

secutive quality start while Marwin Gonzalez continued his early-season power surge as Houston bashed Texas.

Gonzalez doubled as part of a four-run sec-

ond inning and belted a two-run homer in the Astros’ four-run sixth. It was his eighth home run of the season.

Morton (2-3) followed a strong outing against the Oakland Athletics earlier this homestand with six solid innings. The Astros backed him with four home runs — solo shots by Carlos Correa and Brian McCann and two-run blasts from Gonzalez and Josh Reddick.

METS 16, BRAVES 5Jose Reyes had two hits and fi ve RBIs to spark

New York’s 20-hit attack in a rout of Atlanta. Every player in New York’s starting lineup

had a hit and seven players had multiple hits, with left fi elder Michael Conforto, catcher Rene Rivera and fi rst baseman T.J. Rivera each picking up three.

Reyes was 2-for-4 with a double and matched his career high with fi ve RBIs, which he last accomplished in 2003. The 16 runs set a season best and the 20 hits matched a season high for the Mets.

RED SOX 4, ORIOLES 2 Josh Rutledge drove in two runs and Drew

Pomeranz tossed 5 1/3 innings as Boston de-feated Baltimore.

Chris Young and Dustin Pedroia each had an RBI for Boston, which has taken two of the fi rst three contests in the four-game series. Pe-droia was 1-for-3, moving into a tie with Harry Hooper for eighth on Boston’s all-time hits list, with 1,707.

Pomeranz (3-1) allowed fi ve hits and walked two while striking out seven. Craig Kimbrel struck out the side to notch his American League-leading 10th save in the ninth.

CUBS 5, PHILLIES 4Willson Contreras’ two-out pinch-hit dou-

ble keyed a four-run sixth inning as Chicago claimed a come-from-behind victory over Philadelphia.

Contreras laced a 1-1 pitch from left-handed reliever Joely Rodriguez into the left-fi eld cor-ner to drive home Ben Zobrist and Jason Hey-ward with the tying and go-ahead runs. The Cubs’ Jake Arrieta (4-1) earned his second vic-tory in three starts.

Wade Davis, the fourth Chicago pitcher, faced four batters in a scoreless ninth for his seventh save. The Phillies’ Jerad Eickhoff (0-3) took the loss, sailing through fi ve innings before getting into trouble.

AgenciesPittsburg

The Pittsburgh Pen-guins overcame the absence of star center Sidney Crosby to beat

the Washington Capitals 3-2 in a pivotal Game Four of their East-ern Conference semi-fi nal at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.

The victory gave the Penguins a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game Five is in Washington on Saturday.

Crosby, who led the NHL with 44 goals in the regular season, missed the game after suff ering a concussion early in Game Three.

Pittsburgh built a 2-0 lead on goals by Patric Hornqvist and Jake Guentzel, blew that by giv-ing up quick-strike goals to Evg-eny Kuznetsov and Nate Schmidt and took a 3-2 lead into the third period after Justin Schultz scored on a power-play.

The Capitals dominated the third but could not beat Pitts-burgh goaltender Marc-Andre

Fleury, who made 36 saves and became the 15th goaltender in the NHL to reach 60 playoff wins. Washington goalie Braden Holtby stopped 15 shots.

Ducks 4, Oilers 3 (OT)Ryan Getzlaf had two goals

and two assists, including a helper on Jakob Silfverberg’s goal at 45 seconds of overtime, as Anaheim rallied from two goals down to defeat Edmonton and even up their best-of-seven series at 2-2.

Getzlaf stole the puck in the Oilers’ zone and made a cross-ice pass that Silfverberg ripped into the net past goaltender Cam Talbot. The road team has won all four games in the western Conference semi-fi nal series.

With his second goal of the contest – Getzlaf’s 36th career playoff marker – he surpassed Teemu Selanne as the Ducks’ all-time leading post-season goal scorer.

Anaheim unleashed 21 shots in the second period, when it scored twice to tie the game at 2-2.

Penguins pip Capitals despite missing Corsby

NHL

San Antonio’s win could prove to be costly because of an injury to guard Tony Parker. The French-man had to be carried off the fl oor by teammates with 8:43 remaining aft er suff ering a left leg injury

LeBron James reaches another playoff scoring milestone

AFP, Los Angeles: Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Wednesday for second place on the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring list on Wednesday and now has No. 1 Michael Jordan in his sights.James moved ahead of Abdul-Jabbar (5,762 points) with his 27th point in a 125-103 Cleveland win over the Toronto Raptors in game two of their best-of-seven playoff series.Jordan heads the list with 5,987 points but James could pass him with an extended run this postseason with the Cavaliers, who are seeking their third consecutive finals appearance.“I have taken advantage of the oppor-tunity I have been given,” said James, who finished with 39 points Wednes-day. “It was always my dream as a kid to be part of this league. I seen I had a gift and I didn’t take it for granted. And I still don’t even at 32.“I been in this league for 14 years. I had some great teammates, I been in the postseason for 12 straight years so those guys and coaches I had put me in positions to be successful.“When you hear a name like Kareem who has done so many great things, winning championships in the 1980s and how many points he put up. I didn’t actually get a chance to watch him growing up but I read about his accomplishments, so it is pretty cool.”James has been enjoying a superb playoff , averaging 33.2 points, 9.8 re-bounds, 8.0 assists, and 2.6 steals per game coming into Wednesday.Those number are actually higher than his regular season totals of 26.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 8.7 assists, and 1.2 steals per game.James is seventh in regular-season scoring with 28,787 points while Ab-dul-Jabbar is first with 38,387 points.

Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs drives against Clint Capela of the Houston Rockets during Game Two of the NBA Western Conference Semi-Finals at AT&T Center in San Antonio on Wednesday.

Thomas draws inspiration from sister’s death

Reuters, Boston: Isaiah Thomas has been the Boston Celtics’ best player all season but the point guard has ramped up his production in the playoff s despite playing only days after his sister died in a car crash.Since the April 15 crash, Thomas has produced several inspiring performances, most recently a 53-point outing on Tuesday, a ca-reer high that gave the Eastern Conference’s top-seeded Celtics a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven semi-final series with the Wash-ington Wizards.Asked where he found the inspiration to play the best basketball of his career, Thomas did not hesitate.“It’s my sister, it’s her birthday today — happy birthday — she would have been 23 today,” he said on the court in Boston. “Everything I do is for her and she is watching over me, so that’s all her.”Thomas said basketball is a welcome distraction from the real world. “The only thing about it is that when I leave this gym, I hit reality and she’s not here. So that’s the tough part. But when I’m in this arena, I can lock in and I know everything I do is for her.”

His coaches and teammates said they were in awe of how Tho-mas has responded to adversity, including having a front tooth dislodged during the Game 1 win in the series, where he scored 33 points.The injury led to hours of dental surgery on Monday and Tues-day but did not sideline him for Tuesday’s game.“What else is there to say?” Celtic head coach Brad Stevens said after Tuesday’s win.“There’s a point today when he was not feeling good at all and was having a tough day, and I thought he was going to really have to gut this one out,” he said. “And he not only guts it out, he ends up with 50. Pretty impressive,” he said.Teammate Al Horford, who set key screens to free up the 5’ 9” (1.75m) guard late in the game, praised Thomas’ poise.“He’s just steady, steady, steady and just the credit goes to him,” he told reporters.“After going through all that he’s been going through with the tooth and everything I just don’t think a lot of guys would have even played this game.”

Olli Maatta #3 of the Pittsburgh Penguins collides with Tom Wilson #43 of the Washington Capitals in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff s at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) hits a home run against the Toronto Blue Jays in the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium. PICTURE: Noah K. Murray – USA TODAY Sports

SPORT6 Gulf Times

Friday, May 5, 2017

F1 star Alonso completes Indy 500 rookie test

MOTORSPORT

The 35-year-old Spaniard is skipping this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, a race he won in 2006 and 2007, to compete in the 101st Indianapolis 500

AFPChicago

Two-time Formula One cham-pion Fernando Alonso passed his Indianapolis 500 rookie orientation test programme on

Wednesday, taking about an hour to clear his way to drive in the May 28 race.

The 35-year-old Spaniard is skipping this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, a race he won in 2006 and 2007, to compete in the 101st Indianapolis 500.

Alonso made his fi rst IndyCar test runs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, get-ting his fi rst taste of the famed 2.5-mile (4km) oval.

“It was fun,” Alonso said. “At this mo-ment, everything looks good. Now it’s time to start the real thing.”

Alonso will make his IndyCar debut in an orange-painted, Honda-powered entry from McLaren, the team for which he drives in F1. The car was prepared and will be supported by Andretti Autosport, the IndyCar team owned by former F1 racer Michael Andretti.

“He gets it,” Andretti said. “He’s one of the best in the world and you can see why. He had a little bit of understeer in that run and he adjusted his line because of the understeer.

“He’s the real deal. I think he’s going to be really strong this month.”

Alonso needed only 51 laps to speed through three phases of work for new-comers, showing control and comfort at ever increasing speeds until he reached a competitive level in the open-wheel ve-hicle.

Alonso turned 10 laps between 205-210 mph, 15 from 210-215 mph and 15 above 215 mph to demonstrate his profi -ciency.

“I think it’s a good way to start, to build speed,” he said. “It was diffi cult at beginning to reach the minimum speed. The next stages felt good, not because of the speed but because of the laps. You’re able to fi ne-tune the lines: up-shift, downshift, which gears to use in the corner.”

A day after preparing in a racing simu-lator, Alonso said his confi dence grew with every lap. By the end of his day, Alonso had completed 110 laps with a top speed of 222.548mph (358.156km/hr).

“The simulator is quite realistic. You have the fi rst impression of how it’s going to be,” Alonso said. “But the real car is a unique feeling. When you have to go fl at out in the corner, it’s not the same.”

Neither is driving in traffi c, which will provide a much diff erent challenge on race day.

“Running alone is quite OK. We’ll see in the next weeks,” Alonso said. “So far a good experience. Now is the real deal.”

Indy 500 practice begins May 15 with

qualifying May 20-21, so Alonso must juggle F1 and Indy commitments, includ-ing next week’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Alonso has 32 wins and 97 podiums in F1, his most recent triumph coming at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. He won the F1

drivers championship in 2005 and 2006.Andretti, the son of former Indy

500 and F1 champion Mario Andretti, will field six cars in the race, includ-ing defending champion Alexander Rossi and son Marco Andretti, who

likes Alonso’s chances for success.“He’ll have to learn by fi re from a lot of

it,” said Marco Andretti of Alonso. “But he’s asking the right questions. He’ll be fi ne. He’s a race car driver. He’ll leave to-day pretty confi dent.”

Andretti sees spark in AlonsoBOTTOMLINE

ReutersIndianapolis

Mario Andretti sees the same spark in Fernando Alonso that drove him to

take on all comers at race tracks around the world and said he be-lieves the Spaniard is a threat to win the Indianapolis 500.

Alonso set the motor racing world abuzz last month when he said he had been granted clear-ance by his McLaren Formula One team to miss the Monaco Grand Prix and race in the 101st Indy 500 on May 28 in pursuit of the sport’s famed ‘Triple Crown’ — a Formula One title and Indy 500 and Le Mans wins.

While Graham Hill is the only driver to achieve the feat, An-dretti also stands alone as the only driver to win a Formula One world championship, an Indi-anapolis 500 and Daytona 500.

“I embraced the challenges that’s why I did it because I was curious,” Andretti told Reuters

before Alonso settled into the cockpit of an IndyCar for the fi rst time on Wednesday. “Some drivers are very happy specialis-ing. I wasn’t.

“I see the same spark in Alonso.“I commend him for doing

this. I know how he feels because this was always my challenge to go into somebody else’s sand-box and see if I could win at their own game.

“There’s nothing better than that.”

Despite Alonso having won 32 grands prix and two drivers championships, the 35-year-old was required to undergo In-dyCar’s rookie orientation pro-gram on Wednesday in order to get used to the unique envi-ronment of oval racing at the famed 2.5 mile (4km) Brickyard course.

“Here you have constant high speed on a super speedway and it is incredibly diff erent from what his (Alonso’s) specialty is

which is basically road racing,” added Andretti.

“It’s not that he is going to be foreign to 220 mph plus but what he is going to be foreign to is cor-nering at 220mph plus.

“That’s the part that obvious-ly he is going to have to deal with and learn how to approach it.”

McLaren will enter the race with a Honda-engined Indy car run by Andretti Autosport, owned by former McLaren driv-er Michael Andretti, who put together a detailed game plan for Alonso that began in a simulator.

Alonso impressed on Wednes-day as he quickly got up to speed with a fastest lap of 222.548 mph (356.825kph) but Andretti said there was still a lot for him to learn. “As you get closer to qual-ifying then he is going to have to start fl irting with the limit of the car. That’s when it gets precari-ous,” said Andretti.

“At these speeds when you’re fl irting with the limits of the car and ready to go then you have to have a pretty good feel. “That’s when you’ve got to watch so you

don’t get too spooked. “A lot of elements will come into play at that point.” The entire Indy-Car experience, which involves massive fan interaction with the drivers, is also likely to be a cul-ture shock for Alonso, who will also have the added distraction of spotters throughout the race.

Spotters, who are perched on the roof of the grandstands, pro-vide a running commentary to keep drivers appraised of poten-tial trouble spots and danger. “I think the toughest thing for him will be able to feel comfortable enough with a spotter in his ear,” said Andretti.

“To understand all of that and take advantage because he has never had a spotter in his ear when he is driving.

“It can be annoying.“As a driver, I would tell my

engineer you know what keep the comments down, just let me drive.

“I want just enough informa-tion. I didn’t want information overload. “Spotters sometime go blah, blah, blah.”

AFPLos Angeles

Oddsmakers favourite Classic Empire drew the number 14 post on Wednesday for the

143rd running of the Kentucky Derby, the leadoff race in Amer-ica’s Triple Crown thoroughbred horse racing series.

Classic Empire is a 4-1 favour-ite in the fi eld of 20 for tomor-row’s $2mn showdown of three-year-olds over 1 1.4 miles (2km) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

McCracken, a second-favour-ite at 5-1, will start just outside Classic Empire from the number 15 gate while another 5-1 horse, Always Dreaming, starts from the fi fth chute. Irish War Cry, at 6-1, departs from the 17th slot.

Only 12 horses have swept the Derby, Preakness and June’s Bel-mont Stakes in the same year to capture US fl at racing’s Triple Crown. The most recent of those was American Pharoah in 2015 to snap a drought that had lasted since 1978.

Classic Empire, owned by John Oxley and ridden by French jockey Julien Leparoux, won the Arkansas Derby on April 15,

passing three rivals in the last furlong for the victory to secure his fancied place in the Run for the Roses. After winning last year’s Breeders Cup Juvenile, Classic Empire was expected to be a Derby stalwart, but a dis-appointing third-place show-ing last February at the Holy Bull Stakes and an abscess on the colt’s front right hoof forced trainer Mark Casse to send the horse to Florida.

While recovery took longer than anticipated, the Arkansas Derby win secured Classic Em-pire as the horse to beat in Ken-tucky.

“We couldn’t be in a better place,” Casse said.

Todd Pletcher, trainer for Florida Derby winner Always Dreaming, hopes for another Derby win after Super Saver in 2010. He also trains 20-1 Tap-writ, who starts between Wood Memorial winner Irish War Cry and McCraken and 30-1 Patch, who leaves from the far outside post. Lookin at Lee (20-1) drew the rail, which has not produced a Kentucky Derby winner since Ferdinand in 1986.

Longshots in the fi eld are 50-1 Fast and Accurate, leaving from the third gate from the rail, and 50-1 Sonneteer, in the 12th slot.

Fancied Classic Empire draws post 14 for Kentucky Derby

HORSE RACING

Kiwi rugby league team have spine to test Australia

SPOTLIGHT

AFPSydney

Strengthened New Zea-land are bidding to end a losing four-match run against Australia while

England pit their World Cup muscle against the bruising Sa-moans in a Test extravaganza Down Under this weekend.

The Kiwis, who haven’t beaten the Kangaroos since 2015, fancy their chances in Friday’s match in Canberra buttressed by an all-star spine of New Zealand War-riors NRL quartet Kieran Foran, Shaun Johnson, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Issac Luke.

The New Zealanders, led by Melbourne Storm prop Jesse Bromwich, have plenty of for-wards fi repower with Dally M co-winner Jason Taumalolo, Russell Packer and Martin Tau-pau off the interchange bench.

While the Kangaroos have won 16 of the 18 mid-season Tests against the Kiwis since 1998 and are favourites, they are without experienced pair Greg Inglis and Matt Scott, who are injured, while superstar stand-off Johnathan Thurston has been battling a calf niggle.

“You just look at the results. When you’ve had a number of results go against you, it’s hard not to have that doubt there,” veteran Kiwi back-rower Simon Mannering said. “That’s defi -nitely a thing of the past. You put it to one side.

“In 2015 when we had a pretty consistent team and managed to get a result against a tough Aus-tralian team.

“Everyone is pretty famil-iar with each other and we have some combinations there with the (numbers) nine, six, seven and one all being at the same club (the Warriors).” Skipper Cam-eron Smith will become only the second player behind Darren Lockyer to play 50 Tests for the Kangaroos when the hooker lines up for his 34th consecutive Test.

“I pride myself on my resil-ience and making sure that I train hard and have myself physically and mentally prepared for every match I play, particularly the representative football,” Smith said. Third-ranked England are

making the long trip to Australia for a one-off Test against the fi fth-rated Samoa in Sydney on Saturday.

England’s Australian coach Wayne Bennett stirred de-bate about eligibility with his selection of Australian-born duo Chris McQueen and Chris Heighington in his squad to face the Pacifi c islanders.

But England and Canterbury Bulldogs forward James Graham has defended the call-ups.

“If you have got guys that want to represent their heritage or a part of where they’re from then I’m all for that and I’d ac-tively encourage that,” Graham said.

“We live in a very multicul-tural society, people travel, peo-ple are born and live in diff erent countries, so I’m all for them wanting to play for England.”

England are fi elding seven NRL-based players in their squad, including South Sydney’s powerhouse forward Sam Bur-gess, while among the 18-man Samoan squad 16 of them play at Australian clubs and the other two play their trade for the New Zealand Warriors.

In the countdown to October’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Papua New Guinea take on the Cook Islands and Tonga face seventh-ranked Fiji also in Sydney on Saturday.

2000 Grand National winner Papillon dead at 26

London: Papillon, the horse that gave Irish jockey Ruby Walsh his first Grand National win in 2000 at the first attempt, has died at the age of 26.Walsh, who also won the race at Aintree in 2005 with Hedge-hunter, was 20 at the time.

“It’s sad news but he gave me the greatest day of my racing life when he won the Grand National with Ruby on in 2000. That’s 17 years ago now but it doesn’t seem that long ago,” Walsh’s trainer and father Ted told racinguk.com.

NZ’s Simon Mannering

CRICKET7Gulf Times

Friday, May 5, 2017

Windies level series as Pakistan fallunder Gabriel’s spell

Ireland’s Porterfi eld puts Afghan adventure behind him

WI VS PAK, 2ND TEST

ENG VS IRE, 1ST ODI

Fast bowler takes a five-for as visitors are wrapped up for 81 on final day

AFPBridgetown, Barbados

Shannon Gabriel produced an outstanding eff ort of consist-ently fast bowling to lead the West Indies to a 106-run vic-

tory over Pakistan 80 minutes after lunch on the fi nal day of the second Test at Kensington Oval in Barbados yesterday.

Set a target of 188 after leg-spinner Yasir Shah’s seven for 94 wrapped up the home side’s second innings at 268 at the start of the day, the tourists were never in contention after the pace bar-rage on a deteriorating pitch led by Gabriel, whose innings fi gures of fi ve for 11 contributed to Pakistan’s demise for just 81 off 34.4 overs.

It equalled the lowest total ever in a Test innings at the venue set by In-dia, also in a losing eff ort chasing 120, against the West Indies in 1997 and leaves the series at 1-1 going into the fi nal Test in Dominica starting next Wednesday.

Troubled by injuries and no-balls throughout his comparatively brief career, the burly fast bowler earned the Man of the Match award with overall fi gures of nine for 92, the third-best by a West Indian against Pakistan.

Only wicketkeeper-batsman Sar-fraz Ahmed and fast bowler Mohamed Amir, who contributed 23 each, of-fered any resistance to Gabriel, Al-zarri Joseph (two for 42) and Jason Holder (three for 23), the West Indies captain having the satisfaction of tak-ing the fi nal wicket when Ahmed was caught by Roston Chase on the long-

on boundary to trigger the Caribbean side’s celebrations.

“We knew we had a chance once we got a lead over 150,” said Gabriel as he savoured the success. “I just concen-trated on bowling the right areas at pace and everything worked out for me and the team. This was a total team eff ort.”

Gabriel started the rout with the wicket of fi rst innings century-maker Azhar Ali as the opening batsman miscued an attempted pull for Shim-ron Hetmyer to take a diving catch at midwicket.

Joseph, sharing the new ball with Gabriel, struck in the very next over when Babar Azam fl icked at a leg-side delivery for wicketkeeper Shane Dow-rich to snare the chance and consign Pakistan’s brightest batting talent to the indignity of a “pair.”

Joseph should have also accounted for Ahmed Shehzad but the opening batsman, who enjoyed generous slices of luck in scoring 70 in the fi rst in-nings, was missed at fi rst slip edging an attempted drive.

That disappointment was replaced by even more jubilation in the West In-dies camp though, as Holder replaced Gabriel and immediately earned the prized scalp of Younis Khan. Adjudged LBW by on-fi eld umpire Richard Ket-tleborough, Younis challenged the de-cision only to have it confi rmed by the television replays.

With Joseph tiring, Gabriel was re-called into action to replace the gan-gling Antiguan and the burly Trinidad and Tobago tearaway responded with two critical wickets in the space of three deliveries.

Captain Misbah ul Haq was fi rst

ruled “not out” to vociferous appeals but replays following a challenge showed an inside-edge that lobbed to Shai Hope at gully and sent the Paki-stan captain back to the pavilion with-out scoring.

He was joined just a few minutes later by Asad Shafi q when the new batsman edged his second delivery for Powell to take the catch at fi rst slip at the third attempt.

“West Indies deserve all the credit for the way their bowlers performed today but I felt we let the match get away from us by letting them get so many runs in the second innings,” said Misbah.

“Our intention was to bat normally and put away the scoring opportuni-ties but they never really came early enough for us to get going.”

Pakistan were in danger of their lowest-ever total when Shehzad and Shadab Khan fell shortly after lunch at 36 for seven. However Ahmed and Amir took them past the ignominious low of 49 in a 42-run stand that only delayed the inevitable.

Gabriel was brought back into the attack to the break the partnership with the wicket of Amir and complet-ed a fi ve-wicket innings haul when he bowled Shah for the fourth duck of the innings.

It was then left to Holder to fi nish off the match with the wicket of Ahmed even if it meant denying Gabriel a fi rst ten-wicket match haul in Test cricket.

SCORECARDWEST INDIES 1st Innings 312PAKISTAN 1st Innings 393WEST INDIES 2nd Innings (o/n 264-9)K. Brathwaite c Younis Khan b Shah 43

K. Powell c wkpr Ahmed b Abbas 6S. Hetmyer b Amir 22S. Hope c Ali b Shah 90R. Chase c and b Shah 23V. Singh b Abbas 32S. Dowrich c Shafiq b Yasir 2J. Holder c Younis Khan b Shah 1D. Bishoo c Ali b Shah 20A. Joseph c Amir b Shah 7S. Gabriel not out 0Extras (b-16, lb-2, nb-1, w-3) 22Total (all out, 102.5 overs) 268Fall of wicket: 1-8 (Powell), 2-41 (Hetmyer), 3-97 (Brathwaite), 4-155 (Chase), 5-235 (Hope), 6-235 (Singh), 7-236 (Holder), 8-252 (Dowrich), 9-261 (Joseph), 10-268 (Bishoo)Bowling: M. Amir 21-8-44-1 (1w), M. Ab-bas 25-6-57-2 (2w), Y. Shah 39.5-12-94-7, S. Khan 17-0-55-0 (1nb)

Pakistan 2nd InningsA. Ali c Hetmyer b Gabriel 10A. Shehzad lbw Joseph 14B. Azam c wkpr Dowrich b Joseph 0Y. Khan lbw Holder 5Misbah ul Haq c Hope b Gabriel 0A. Shafiq c Powell b Gabriel 0S. Ahmed c Chase b Holder 23S. Khan c Dowrich b Holder 1 M. Amir c Singh b Gabriel 23Y. Shah b Gabriel 0M. Abbas not out 0Extras (b4, lb1, nb3) 8Total (all out; 34.4 overs) 81Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Ali), 2-11 (Azam), 3-27 (Younis Khan), 4-30 (Misbah), 5-30 (Shafiq), 6-35 (Shehzad), 7-36 (Shadab Khan), 8-78 (Amir), 9-81 (Shah), 10-81 (Ahmed)Bowling: S. Gabriel 11-4-11-5 (1nb), A. Joseph 12-1-42-2, J. Holder 11.4-4-23-3 (2nb)

AFPBristol, United Kingdom

Ireland captain William Porter-fi eld was confi dent yesterday his side’s recent defeats by Afghani-stan would have no lingering eff ect

on this week’s one-day internationals against England.

The Irish were beaten 7-2 by fellow Test aspirants Afghanistan across three formats in India during a tour that end-ed last month.

But Porterfi eld said Afghanistan’s teenage leg-spinner Rashid Khan, now starring in the Indian Premier League, had eff ectively been all that separated the two teams.

“There was one diff erence in the sides and that was Rashid Khan,” Por-terfi eld told reporters at Bristol, the venue for today’s fi rst of two ODIs against England.

“If he played for either side, that side wins. We’ve seen what he can do and what he’s doing out in India at the

minute. He’s a good bowler and he’s just burst on (the scene). He’s fresh and it takes a little while to negate that.

“When we did, we won.”Conditions in Bristol may not be

so spin friendly and Porterfi eld said: We’ve just got to keep the same attitude that we had throughout the six weeks in India.

“We didn’t get the results necessarily we wanted but how we approached the games and how we went into them, was really pleasing.”

Today’s match will see Ireland play England in England for the fi rst time, with Sunday’s concluding match of the short series taking place at Lord’s.

For Ireland, who famously beat Eng-land in Bangalore at the 2007 World Cup thanks to a whirlwind hundred from Kevin O’Brien, it is another landmark oc-casion on the road to Test status, which could be granted by the International Cricket Council next month.

“We’ve played them (England) a few times in Ireland and in world tourna-ments,” said opening batsman Porter-

fi eld. “But to play them in England is obviously going to be special.

“Any Irish-English sporting occa-sion is a great event. But ultimately it comes down to how we approach the game and not what the occasion is.”

With Test status in sight, Porterfi eld denied there was extra pressure on Ire-land.

“Any time we are playing, that kind of external pressure is always lingering there anyway,” he said.

“We always want to put in big per-formances because we know where Irish cricket wants to go.”

‘GOOD MATES’Porterfi eld has known England’s Dub-lin-born one-day captain Eoin Morgan since they were schoolboy cricketers in Ireland and the pair have remained friends.

The 32-year-old Porterfi eld tried to play down the impact of their latest meeting by saying: “It’s special for Irish cricket, who’s fl icking the coin, doesn’t really matter.”

“He (Morgan) did a lot of things for Irish cricket when he was there and he’s moved on and he’s done really well for himself.

“We played Under-13s together. I think he was 11 and I was 12. We chat a lot, we are pretty good mates.”

Today’s match will see Porterfi eld playing at a ground he knows well from his three years with Bristol-based county Gloucestershire.

Ireland coach John Bracewell also had a spell in charge of Gloucestershire and Porterfi eld, who joined rival Eng-lish county Warwickshire in 2010, said: “It’s a great little ground and it’s nice to be back.

“That will make it slightly easier, knowing the dimensions, what hap-pens with the wind, things like that, it can help.”

Refl ecting on his time with Glouces-tershire, he added: “I just really enjoyed it. It was my fi rst taste of county crick-et, walking into a professional set-up.

“I’ll always be grateful to Gloucester-shire for giving me that opportunity.”

Delhi push Gujarat out of play-off s race

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

IANSNew Delhi

Delhi Daredevils rode on some clinical hitting from Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson to thrash Gujarat Lions by seven

wickets in a high-scoring Indian Pre-mier League (IPL) match at the Feroze-shah Kotla here yesterday.

Chasing a mammoth 209, the left-right combo of Pant (97) and Samson (61) plundered the Gujarat bowlers all over the park to raise a 143-run stand of mere 63 balls to overhaul the target with 15 balls to spare.

With this win, sixth-placed Delhi kept their hopes of qualifying for the play-off s while Gujarat, languishing in the penultimate spot, are already out of the race.

It was a steady start for Delhi as San-ju Samson and skipper Karun Nair (12) scored 24 runs in three overs but on the fi fth delivery of the third over, Nair was sent back to the pavilion by medium pacer Pradeep Sangwan.

Trying to pull a short delivery Nair found an edge that perfectly landed in wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik gloves.

The fall of wicket brought in Pant, who along with Samson created havoc among Gujarat’s bowlers.

Both batsmen added 143 runs for second wicket in just 10.3 overs before Samson was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja in the 14th over.

Samson’s 31-ball innings comprised seven sixes.

Unperturbed by the fall of Samson’s wicket, Pant continued to beat the leather but with three runs short of his century, Pant was sent packing by Basil Thampi.

Pant, who slammed six boundaries and nine sixes in his 43 ball innings, got a nick and wicketkeeper Karthik made no mistake to grab the ball.

With pace of the game perfectly set by the former batsmen, middle-order batsmen Shreyas Iyer (14) and Corey Anderson (18) then completed the pro-ceeding comfortably without any hic-cups.

For Gujarat, Sangwan, Thampi and Jadeja took one wicket each.

Earlier, put in to bat, crafty knocks by skipper Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik helped Gujarat post a challeng-ing 208 for 7 against Delhi.

Raina (77) and Karthik (65) came to the crease when the visitors were reel-

ing at 10/2 in the second over. But sen-sible innings from the duo helped Gu-jarat to get out of troubled waters.

Gujarat got off to a poor start as they lost swash-buckling openers Dwayne Smith (9) and Brendon McCullum (1) in the second over of the innings.

McCullum was the fi rst one to de-part. The New Zealand batsman got an outside edge off pacer Kagiso Rabada and Rishabh Pant then completed the rest of the formality by taking a superb catch.

Off the very next ball, Shabaz Na-deem did a brilliant job in the fi eld, coming up with an accurate direct throw to dismiss Smith.

With the visitors reeling at 10 for 2, incoming batsmen Raina and Karthik then stepped up to tackle the situa-tion and thrashed the Delhi bowlers all around the park.

The duo forged a brilliant 133-run partnership for the third wicket before Raina was run out by Rabada in the 14th over. A slight miscommunication be-tween Karthik and Raina helped Delhi break the partnership.

In-form batsman Aaron Finch (27) then joined Karthik and both batsmen tried to rev up the innings. But soon Karthik was sent back to the pavilion by pacer Pat Cummins.

While trying to play over mid-off , Karthik mistimed the ball and Correy Anderson took a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss the Delhi wicketkeep-er.

With the score at 158 for 4 in 15 overs, middle-order batsman Ishan Kishan (4), who joined Finch, failed to click as he was also dismissed by Cummins in the 18th over.

With two overs remaining, Finch played some good strokes and he was also supported by Ravindra Jadeja (18) but just when things seemed good for the visitors, Finch was caught at fi ne leg. Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant took a diving catch off Rabada to dismiss the Australian batsman.

James Faulkner was also dismissed in the last over by Corey Anderson. But then Jadeja fi nished off the things in style by slamming two huge sixes in the last two deliveries of the fi nal over.

For Delhi, pacers Rabada and Cum-mins scalped two wickets each.

BRIEF SCORES: Gujarat Lions 208 for 7 (Raina 77, Karthik 65; Rabada 2-27) lose to Delhi Daredevils 214 for 3 (Pant 97, Samson 61) by seven wickets

Delhi Daredevils’ Rishabh Pant (foreground) in action during their Indian Premier League match against Gujarat Lions in New Delhi yesterday. (AFP)

Ireland’s William Porterfield (right) takes part during nets yesterday ahead of their match against England in Bristol. (Reuters)

West Indies’ Shannon Gabriel (second from right) celebrates the wicket of Pakistan’s Azhar Ali (left) with his teammates on Day Five of the second Test at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, yesterday. (AFP)

Friday, May 5, 2017

GULF TIMES SPORT

Lukasek helms Djahab to smashing win

Nam Tae-hee powersLekhwiya into semis

Al-Attiyah in lead aft er Dead Sea super special stage

HORSE RACING FOOTBALL / EMIR CUP

MIDDLE EAST RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Jalmoud, Rasi and Littlemissblakeney win other cup races

AgenciesDead Sea, Jordan

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah and French navigator Mat-thieu Baumel cruised into a lead of 11.3 seconds at the

FIA Jordan Rally after the opening two-kilometre Samarah super special stage on the shores of the Dead Sea yesterday evening.

The late arrival of his support truck meant that the 10-time winner of the Hashemite Kingdom’s premier mo-tor sporting event had been unable to test his new Ford Fiesta R5 Evo 2 until after scrutineering yesterday morning. It was, therefore, a cautious Qatari who carded the fastest time of 1min 51.5sec over a stage that was held in near dark-ness adjacent to the ceremonial start.

“We made a little test today, may-be 35km, with the car on a section of gravel track that was used in the WRC from the old Turki stage and the car felt great,” said al-Attiyah. “I need to fi nish this rally. The championship is short and the problems in Qatar mean that maximum points are important here. I have been driving Fords for many years,

so I know the cars well. This car has a little more power.”

The best of the rest and the leader in MERC 2 was Jordanian driver Marouf Abu Samra at the wheel of his Mitsubi-shi Lancer Evolution IX. Khaled Juma fi nished third, 3.1 seconds behind, and Kuwait’s Meshari al-Thefi ri and Saudi Arabia’s Rakan al-Rashed rounded off the top fi ve.

Asem Aref was given the honour of running fi rst on the road in his little Re-nault Clio, and he and navigator Musa Djiyerian carded the target time of 3min 05.7sec.

Cars were fl agged away from the start ramp by Prince Feisal al-Hussein, chairman of Jordan Motorsport.

“We have looked at the entry and I guess we should be targeting second place and at least a place on the podi-um,” said Abu Samra.

“I intend to be careful, take no risks and make sure that we give ourselves the chance of a good fi nish. I consid-ered using the Skoda, but it was impos-sible to get a part I needed to ensure I could use it.”

Khaled and Emad Juma are com-peting in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolu-tion and younger brother Khaled has

replaced Emad in the driving seat. “I started rallying as a driver in the Jordan Rally in 1992 and switched to co-driv-ing in 2002. I can pass on that experi-ence to my younger brother now,” said 50-year-old Imad, who fi nished second on the opening round of this year’s Na-tional series after the duo won the se-ries in 2016.

Seven of the nine cars in the FIA event were permitted to start with ad-visory messages issued by rally offi cials in connection with the lack of suitable protective roll cage padding, as per 2017 FIA appendix J of the technical regula-tions.

There were three other minor issues (tinted windows, no external trigger and no external circuit breaker) that contravened appendix J, but all nine cars were permitted to start by rally stewards.

Ziad Miqdad dropped down into the National Rally to join Ahmad Shaban, Salamah al-Gammaz and Nasser Khanfar – all four are driving Mitsubi-shi Lancers.

Today, teams will tackle two loops of fi ve stages in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas. Runs through Panorama, Syagha, Rama, Bahath and Suwayma

start at 09.09hrs and will be repeated in the afternoon from 13.03hrs after a return to the Dead Sea Service Park at midday.

STANDINGS1. Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah (QAT)/Mat-thieu Baumel (FRA) Ford Fiesta R5 Evo2 1min 51.5sec2. Marouf Abu Samra (JOR)/Malek Hariri (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2min 02.8sec3. Khaled Juma (JOR)/Emad Juma (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 2min 05.9sec4. Meshari al-Thefiri (KWT)/Nasser al-Kuwari (QAT) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 2min 08.3sec5. Rakan al-Rashed (SAU)/Jarkko Kal-liolepo (FIN) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2min 14.1sec6. Salem al-Thefiri (KWT)/Ahmed al-Khatib (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 2min 19.8sec7. Ihab al-Shorafa (JOR)/Yousef Juma (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2min 41.6sec8. Essam al-Nejadi (KWT)/Anwar al-Sharrah (KWT) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2min 44.3sec9. Asem Aref (JOR)/Musa Djiyerian (JOR) Renault Clio 3min 05.7sec

By Sports ReporterDoha

Al Jeryan Stud’s Djahab was unstop-pable in a smashing Club Breeders Trophy victory at the Qatar Rac-ing and Equestrian Club turf track

yesterday.Tomas Lukasek gave Hadi al-Ramzani’s

ward a go-ahead two furlongs out in the seven-furlong race for three-year-old Pure-bred Arabians, and the she blitzed away for a massive 14-length victory.

Hassan al-Matwi-trained Raqee, ridden by JP Guillambert, was a comfortable sec-ond, 11 lengths ahead of Ibrahim al-Malki-trained Qaswarah, ridden by Saleem Golam.

In Abu Dhalouf Cup, a Thoroughbred Handicap event for fi llies and mares rated 76-90, al-Malki-trained Littlemissblak-eney did well under Golam to hold her own against Jassim Ghazali-trained Hillside Dream for her fi rst Qatar win.

Golam, who had won four races on Wednesday, had his mount settle behind Injaaz Stud’s Ventura Shadow, who had an-other al-Malki charge, Fadak, for company at the front.

On to the home stretch in the seven fur-long race, Golam found a gap between the two early leaders and went through to take the advantage but Tadgh O’Shea had Hill-side Dream surge forward and alongside Lit-tlemissblakeney.

The latter, however, held by a head, to win the penultimate race of the day.

Al Shahania Stud’s Rasi won The Late Saeed Bin Ahmed Al Kuwari Cup, a Pure-bred Arabian Conditions event, by smallest of margins, edging out Hamad al-Jehani-trained Lucky Sand at the post by a short head for a win.

Ghazali’s ward, who fi nished outside the top four only once in Qatar since December 2014, stayed midfi eld for the bulk of the race even as Mekhbatt and Carab set the pace up front.

In the fi nal two furlongs, Rasi moved into contention alongside Lucky Sand and Mes-sine De Sinuhe, trained by Ghazali’s son, Mohamed.

Eventually, Rasi did enough to win for the third time this season, while Julian Smart’s She’ris edged out Messine De Sinuhe by a neck for a top three fi nish.

Umm Qarn’s Jalmoud raced to his fi rst ca-

reer win on his second outing ever with Jean Baptiste Hamel guiding the colt, trained by Alban de Mieulle, to victory in the Umm Bab Cup, a mile-long race for three-year-old Local Thoroughbreds.

Al-Malki-trained Mister Lal was sec-ond under Golam, ahead of early leader Queen Maouya, with Almotasem al-Balushi astride.

Osama al-Dhafa’s Black Treacle fi rst win this season was with jockey Marco Monteriso, who guided the six-year-old to victory in the Class 6 Thoroughbred Handi-cap event for horses rated 46-60.

The gelding had fi nished away from the top in his last couple of races, but yesterday he did well to edge out Injaaz Stud’s Hatch-et Harry at the post, while Alberto Sanna helmed Deborah Mountain-trained Angel Of The Night to third.

In the two maiden races that started the race day, Yousef Bentaher-trained Montaser and Zuhair Mohsen’s Founder registered their fi rst career win respectively.

Montaser shed his maiden status under Gerald Avranche’s ride in the six-furlong Local Thoroughbred Maiden Plate event, while Marvin Suerland guided Founder to his fi rst career win in 12 starts in the Class 6 Thoroughbred Maiden Plate event.

RESULTSRace 1: 1. Montaser (Gerald Avranche), 2. Mu-saiter Bu Thaila (Saleem Golam), 3. Zurich Bu Thaila (Jean Baptiste Hamel), 4. Al Thakhira

(Alberto Sanna). Won by: 2 ½, 2 ½, ½. Owner: Ali bin Saeed Aljafali al-Nuaimi. Trainer: Yousef Bentaher.Race 2: 1. Founder (Marvin Suerland), 2. China Club (Tomas Lukasek), 3. Pale En-chantment (Anas al-Seyabi), 4. King of Doha (Alberto Sanna). Won by: 1 ¾, ¾, 1. Owner: Zu-hair Mohsen Zuhair. Trainer: Zuhair Mohsen.Race 3: 1. Black Treacle (Marco Monteriso), 2. Hatchet Harry (JP Guillambert), 3. Angel Of The Night (Alberto Sanna), 4. Soebroto (Marvin Suerland). Won by: Nk, 3 ½, 1 ½. Owner: Osama Omar al-Dhafea. Trainer: Osama al-Dhafa.Race 4: 1. Jalmoud (Jean Baptiste Hamel), 2. Mister Lal (Saleem Golam), 3. Queen Maouya (Almotasem al-Balushi), 4. Al Watan (Gerald Avranche). Won by: ¾, 5, ¾. Owner: Umm Qarn. Trainer: Alban de Mieulle.Race 5: 1. Rasi (Tadgh O’Shea), 2. Lucky Sand (Gerald Avranche), 3. She’ris (Alberto Sanna), 4. Messine De Sinuhe (Almotasem al-Balushi). Won by: Shd, ½, Nk. Owner: Al Shahania Stud. Trainer: Jassim Ghazali.Race 6: 1. Littlemissblakeney (Saleem Golam), 2. Hillside Dream (Tadgh O’Shea), 3. Tea Leaf (Jean Baptiste Hamel), 4. Second Life (Abdulla Faisal). Won by: Hd, 1 ¼, 1 ½. Owner: Hassan Ali Abdulmalik. Trainer: Ibrahim al-Malki.Race 7: 1. Djahab (Tomas Lukasek), 2. Raqee (JP Guillambert), 3. Qaswarah (Saleem Golam), 4. Samhan Al Shajaa (Tadgh O’Shea). Won by: 14, 11, 1 1/4. Owner: Al Jeryan Stud. Trainer: Hadi al-Ramzani.

By Sports ReporterDoha

A brace by Nam Tae-hee powered Qatar Stars League champions Le-khwiya to a 3-1 win over

Al Khor in the quarter-fi nals of the Emir Cup yesterday.

Nam has been chiefl y instru-mental in Lekhwiya’s success over the years and the Korean sensation showed he still had enough reserves of energy as the hectic domestic season ap-proaches its fi nal straight.

Lekhwiya, who will now take on Al Rayyan in the last four of Qatar’s most lucrative tourna-ment, thus stayed on course for a treble, having also won the sea-son-opening Sheikh Jassim Cup last year.

Al Khor just about managed to avoid relegation from the Qatar Stars League and were no match for Djamel Belmadi’s men even though they looked a trifl e off colour.

They missed several chances before Nam found the net from the centre of the box with a low volley just two minutes into the second half after the fi rst session had ended goalless.

Nam, who also helped Le-khwiya qualify for the last 16 of the Asian Champions League, was simply in a class of his own as he tormented Al Khor with his sublime skills.

One such moment of magic fetched Lekhwiya their second goal when his perfectly weighted lob from just outside the penalty area found Yousef Msakni in the 57th minute.

The Tunisian calmly collected the ball and lobbed it over the

onrushing goalkeeper Baba Dji-bril’s head before half-volleying it into the net.

Al Khor pressed hard to stay relevant and were given a lifeline in the 76th minute when Kuwaiti striker Sultan al-Enezi struck from close after several attempts by Lekhwiya to clear the ball

from the box proved futile.That was the best they could

do, but they still had no respite from Nam as he took advantage of the Al Khor defence to move forward in search of the equalizer and scored from a long-ranger in stoppage time to seal the out-come of the match.

Lekhwiya’s Nam Tae-hee (right) in action against Al Khor during their Emir Cup quarter-final yesterday. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil

Lekhwiya’s Yousef Msakni (left) celebrates his goal with teammates yesterday.

Winners of The Late Saeed Bin Ahmed Al Kuwari Cup pose after Al Shahania Stud’s Rasi won the race yesterday. PICTURES: Juhaim

Tomas Lukasek rides Al Jeryan Stud’s Djahab to victory in the Club Breeders Trophy.

Prince Feisal al-Hussein flags Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah at Jordan Rally start.