Monday, March 20, 2017Jumada II 21, 1438 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Defi ant Jones says All Blacks ‘there for the taking’ by Lions

Barnes and Curry help Warriors beat Bucks

NBA | Page 5 RUGBY | Page 6

TENNIS

Federer takes aim at fi ft h Indian Wells titlePage 7

Overall results saw Nakagami’s best of 2:00.187 take P1, just 0.053 ahead of Morbidelli followed by fastest in Jerez Marquez in P3

By Sports ReporterDoha

After a Day 1 that saw zero progress for the intermediate class as rain stopped play, Day 2 of the Offi cial Test at Losail

International Circuit in Qatar got un-derway with dry skies and good tem-peratures; the grid ready to get to work. The three sessions saw Tom Lüthi (CarXpert Interwetten) go fastest fi rst from Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS), with the EG0,0 Marc VDS rider hitting back in Session 2. The third outing of the day was topped by Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) – but with both Morbidelli and teammate Alex Marquez in close company at the top once again.

Overall results saw Nakagami’s best of 2:00.187 take P1, just 0.053 ahead of Morbidelli followed by fastest in Jerez Marquez in P3. Marquez also suff ered a small crash but made it back round to the pits after picking the bike up, ending the day on a 2:00.427. Hafi zh Syahrin (Petronas Raceline Malay-sia) had an impressive Day 2 to end up fourth on combined times – 0.584 off Nakagami on a 2:00.771.

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Miguel Olivei-ra was another who impressed once again as the new KTM chassis debuts in Moto2, going fi fth fastest with a 2:00.861 and a consistent force to be

reckoned with near the top. Teammate and reigning Moto3 World Champion Brad Binder, who is coming back from a broken arm, ended the second day a couple of seconds adrift as he continues to put in the laps. Lüthi took P6 ahead of Pons HP 40 rider Fabio Quartararo, the rookie impressive once again, with Xavi Vierge (Tech 3 Racing) rounding out the top eight.

Kiefer Racing’s Danny Kent was the fastest Suter in P9, with fellow Suter entrants Dynavolt Intact GP in close pursuit with Marcel Schrötter in P11. Axel Pons (RW Racing GP) split the two Suter machines in tenth, putting in a 2:01.252 in the second session as his fastest of the day.

FENATI QUICKEST IN QATARAfter cancellations on Day 1 following inclement weather, Day 2 of the second and fi nal Moto3 Offi cial Test at Losail International Circuit saw good weath-er return to allow full running for the lightweight class. Italian Moto3 vet-eran Romano Fenati (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers) took the top spot overall in a tight fi eld, putting in a best of 2:06.690 in Session 3, and proving the quickest man on track in each session of the day.

The closest competition came from Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Moto3), who set the second fastest lap in Session 2, a 2:06.729, closely fol-lowed by Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0) with a 2:06.749. RBA BOE Racing Team’s Gabriel Rodrigo was fourth, putting in a best of 2:06.957 as the last rider under the 2:07 barrier.

Martin suff ered a crash at T15, but with few consequences.

Livio Loi was next up in fi fth on com-bined standings on Day 2, with the Bel-gian Leopard Racing rider just ahead of Italian Nicolo Bulega (Sky Racing Team VR46) and Japanese rider Ayumu Sasa-ki (SIC Racing Team). Sasaki, although a Moto3 rookie at the track, fi rst raced at Qatar in the Asia Talent Cup.

New Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Nicco-lo Antonelli was P8, with second RBA BOE Racing Team rider Juanfran Gue-vara taking ninth on a 2:07.162 – with competition incredibly tight from P4 down.

Takaaki Nakagami in action during the Moto3 test at the Losail International Circuit.

Qatar’s Mashel al-Naimi in action at the Losail International Circuit.

Qatar’s Saeed Al Sulaiti in action.

Alex Marquez in action.

Italian Moto3 veteran Romano Fenati (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers) took the top spot overall in a tight fi eld, putting in a best of 2:06.690 in Session 3, and proving the quickest man on track in each session of the day. The closest competition came from Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Moto3), who set the second fastest lap in Session 2

Nakagami fastest as the sun sets on Day 2

MOTORSPORT

CRICKET2 Gulf Times

Monday, March 20, 2017

Pujara-Saha stand puts India on top

INDIA VS AUSTRALIA, 3RD TEST

‘Experience matters a lot. When I was batting, I thought we just wanted to get close to their total... I could have played more shots but I had to control myself’

AFPRanchi, India

Cheteshwar Pujara said yesterday the spinners should win the third Test for India after his double cen-tury and a marathon partnership

with centurion Wriddhiman Saha put the hosts on top against Australia.

After declaring their fi rst innings on 603 for nine late in the fi nal session on day four in Ranchi, the hosts rattled Australia with two strikes including the key scalp of David Warner (14). Ravin-dra Jadeja disposed of both Warner and nightwatchman Nathan Lyon (2) in an absorbing fi nal session of play.

The tourists, 152 behind on the fi rst in-nings, ended the day on 23-2.

Before bamboozling the Australian batsmen with his left-arm spin, Jadeja also scored an unbeaten 54.

“I am very confi dent our spinners (Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja) will bowl really well. There is rough, there are cracks (on the pitch),” said Pujara.

The day belonged to Pujara (202) and Saha (117), who put on 199 for the sev-enth wicket to frustrate an Australian bowling attack that failed to take a wicket in the fi rst two sessions.

Pujara recorded his third Test double-century in his 47th match and Saha posted a career-best Test knock to take India way past Australia’s fi rst innings score of 451.

Pujara, who resumed the day on 130, hit 21 boundaries in an otherwise sedate innings which lasted for 525 balls — the longest innings by an Indian Test player in terms of balls faced.

“I have the experience of scoring big runs in domestic cricket,” said Pujara, who recently scored a century during a 300-plus stand with Saha in the fi nal of a domestic competition.

“Experience matters a lot. When I was batting, I thought we just wanted to get

close to their total... I could have played more shots but I had to control myself.”

The 29-year-old — whose top Test score is 206 not out against England in 2012 — got to his double century with a fl ick to square leg off Nathan Lyon.

He pumped his fi st in a rare show of emotion as his teammates cheered from the balcony.

But he was out in Lyon’s next over, lob-bing a catch to midwicket.

He walked back to the pavilion to a standing ovation and a few handshakes from the opposition players.

Saha, who hit seven fours and a six, soon followed his overnight partner after falling to left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe.

“This is the best among the three (Test hundreds) I have,” Saha told reporters.

“We badly needed a partnership. Pu-jara has so much patience... he is always at the top of his game,” said Saha, adding that “every Indian bowler would be ef-fective” come day fi ve.

PLAN TO COMBAT JADEJA Jadeja came in at number nine and played a useful cameo, putting on 54 for the ninth wicket with Umesh Yadav (16). Pat Cummins claimed four wickets while left-arm spinner O’Keefe took three.

Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann said Steven Smith’s side has the mettle to last three sessions against the Indian spinners.

“Going to have to come up with a plan to combat Jadeja, but we’ve worked on that and you’ll probably see it tomorrow, I would think,” said Lehmann.

“Once the ball gets a little bit softer it plays pretty well so there’s no real de-mons in the track.

“It’s a case of obviously applying our-selves, much like Pujara and Saha did to-day. We’ve done a lot of practice in those conditions so I’m really confi dent they can do the job,” he added.

The four-match series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is tied 1-1.

Bangladesh pull off historic winSRI LANKA VS BANGLADESH, 2ND TEST

AFPColombo

Opener Tamim Iqbal top-scored with 82 as Bangladesh pulled off a historic four-wicket

win over Sri Lanka in the second Test in Colombo yesterday.

The rare win for Bangladesh — just their fourth away from home and fi rst against Sri Lanka in 18 attempts — meant the two-Test series was drawn after the visitors suff ered a 259-run loss in Galle.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina phoned the team to congratulate them as hun-dreds of fans marched through the capital Dhaka, waving fl ags and chanting in celebration.

With his team chasing a victory target of 191, teenager Mehedi Has-an hit the winning run after an anx-ious half-hour in the fi nal session of the fi fth day — getting Bangladesh across the line in 57.5 overs.

Tamim laid the groundwork with his 22nd Test fi fty, teaming up with Sabbir Rahman (41) for a third-wicket partnership of 109.

Sri Lanka struck in phases through spinners Dilruwan Per-era and skipper Rangana Herath, who grabbed three wickets each.

But the attack lacked the cut-ting edge to prevent Bangladesh from celebrating their 100th

Test match in style.Bangladesh began looking

nervous when Tamim — who faced 82 balls and hit seven fours and a six — hoisted a catch to Di-nesh Chandimal off Perera just before the tea break.

Perera then removed Sab-bir through a successful review, giving Sri Lanka an outside chance of victory.

Skipper Mushfi qur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan got Bangladesh through to tea with 35 runs still needed, but Perera got a lucky break soon after the resumption

when Shakib dragged a ball onto his stumps and was out for 15.

Mushfi qur remained unbeaten on 22 to get Bangladesh home in company with Mehedi, after some support from debutant Mosaddek Hossain, who made 13.

“Obviously I feel great,” Mushfi qur said.

“The boys really stepped up under pressure and there were lot of partnerships in the bowl-ing. I really enjoyed it. If you look at the last few series, we have played some good cricket.”

Herath said Sri Lanka would

go back to the drawing board af-ter suff ering their fi rst defeat of his captaincy.

“We have a lot of areas to im-prove, but this is not the time to talk about it. We will talk with the coaches,” he said.

Tamim was named man of the match while Shakib took the award for player of the series.

“This was a very important win. It wasn’t easy. We had to come back strong after the fi rst Test,” Shakib said.

IANSRanchi

Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann expects his wards to apply them-selves well during the fi -

nal of the third Test today and see out the tie, keeping all their prac-tice in similar conditions in mind.

Australia were reduced to 23/2 at stumps as Ravindra Jadeja sent opener David Warner and night-watchman Nathan Lyon back to the hut early. In the fi rst innings, India took a 152-run lead after amassing 603/9 declared in reply to Australia’s 451.

“We’ve got to cope with it as best we can and come up with a plan, and we’ve done a lot of practice in those conditions so I’m really confi dent they can do the job and see how they go. Be a great challenge for them,” Leh-mann told reporters at the end of the fourth day’s play.

“You’ve got to prepare for all scenarios here in India, as you’ve seen the wickets start to wear on day four, day fi ve, this has been a really traditional Indian wicket, a good wicket. It’s quite a chal-lenge. We were preparing in Du-bai and that’s what we did and now it’s putting it into practice,” the 47-year-old added.

Lehmann said the visitors have a plan to tackle Jadeja who bowled two excellent deliveries to get rid of Warner and Lyon.

“(It was) tough to lose those two wickets tonight, they were some good balls from them. It will be a good challenge for the group to put it into practice to-morrow and we’ve got to do that and to deliver on the big stage.”

“Once the ball gets a little bit softer, it plays pretty well. So there’s no real demons in the track. It’s a case of obviously ap-plying ourselves much like Pujara and Saha did today,” he said.

“We will have to come up with a plan to combat Jadeja but we’ve worked on that and you’ll probably

see it tomorrow, I would think.” Lehmann said the challenge

for his team is to get two good partnerships and get a hold of the game.

“They’ve got to believe in what they’re doing as a group and a couple of good balls like tonight that can happen in a game of cricket. For us, it’s a great chal-lenge. The challenge for our group is to put on a couple of partnerships and really get ahead of the game.”

“When you bowl 210 overs, I don’t think that’s happened too often and India do that well. They bat long periods of time here in India,” the former top or-der batsman opined.

“If anything, it heightens our fi rst innings where we needed to bat a little bit longer. But the bowlers worked really hard and I thought they were fantastic. Chopped and changed as best as they could in the conditions. We’ll see how they pull up and make a decision. But we’ll worry about tomorrow fi rst.”

Must apply Dubai lessons to save 3rd Test, says Lehmann

PLAN

Misbah wants life bans for fi xers

OPINION

AFPKarachi

Pakistan’s Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq yester-day called for life bans on anyone found guilty

of fi xing, adding that an inves-tigation into fi ve players threat-ened years of work to clean up the country’s image.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has provisionally sus-pended Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan, Shah-zaib Hasan and Nasir Jamshed on charges linked to spot-fi xing and failure to report approaches by bookmakers during the recently-held Pakistan Super League.

The case, which is being in-vestigated by a judicial commis-sion, has revived memories of a 2010 scandal that involved the national team and deprived it of three top players including pace-man Mohammad Amir, who has since made a comeback.

Misbah was appointed captain in the aftermath of that tainted series in England, and set about rebuilding the team with an ethos that emphasised discipline and integrity.

His team steadily climbed world rankings and rose briefl y to number one last year.

Speaking about the latest sus-pensions to reporters on Sunday, he said: “Obviously it’s disap-pointing and there should be a law that once you have done something wrong you should not return to this fi eld again.”

Pakistan’s rehabilitation on

the international circuit had ap-peared to be complete last year when Misbah led the team on its fi rst tour of England since the 2010 scandal, in a series praised for its sportsmanship.

The 42-year-old was subse-quently awarded the Interna-tional Cricket Council’s Spirit of Cricket award — testament to the high regard in which world cricket holds him.

“We did our best to clean the game up and the seven years of hard work and our image is now spoilt to a great extent. You can-not aff ord this again and again,” he said.

Earlier this month Misbah shelved plans to retire and will now lead his team in next month’s three-match Test series in the West Indies starting on April 22.

Pakistan are desperate for a turnaround after suff ering white-washes in their last two series.

“It will be a tough series and we will not take West Indies lightly because they gave us a tough time in all three Tests last year,” said Misbah of Pakistan’s 2-1 win in the United Arab Emirates.

“The conditions there will be tough and the ball will spin so you can’t relax,” he added.

Pakistan will play four Twen-ty20 and three one-day interna-tionals against West Indies be-fore the Tests.

India’s batsman Cheteshwar Pujara celebrates after scoring a double century during the fourth day of the third Test against Australiain Ranchi yesterday.

File picture of Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq

File picture of Australia’s captain Steve Smith (L) speaking to team coach Darren Lehmann.

Bangladesh players celebrate their victory over Sri Lanka.

India v Australia, Third Test scoreboard

Australia 1st innings 451 (S. Smith 178 not out, G. Maxwell 104; R. Jadeja 5-124, U. Yadav 3-106)

India 1st innings (overnight 360-6; Pujara 130 not out, Saha 18 not out)L. Rahul c Wade b Cummins 67M. Vijay st Wade b O’Keefe 82C. Pujara c Maxwell b Lyon 202V. Kohli c Smith b Cummins 6A. Rahane c Wade b Cummins 14K. Nair b Hazlewood 23R. Ashwin c Wade b Cummins 3W. Saha c Maxwell b O’Keefe 117R. Jadeja not out 54U. Yadav c Warner b O’Keefe 16I. Sharma not out 0Extras (b14, lb5) 19Total (9 wickets dec; 210 overs) 603Fall of wickets: 1-91 (Rahul), 2-193 (Vi-

jay), 3-225 (Kohli), 4-276 (Rahane), 5-320 (Nair), 6-328 (Ashwin), 7-527 (Pujara), 8-541 (Saha), 9-595 (Yadav)Bowling: Hazlewood 44-10-103-1, Cum-mins 39-10-106-4, O’Keefe 77-17-199-3, Lyon 46-2-163-1, Maxwell 4-0-13-0

Australia 2nd inningsD. Warner b Jadeja 14M. Renshaw not out 7N. Lyon b Jadeja 2Extras 0Total (2 wickets; 7.2 overs) 23Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Warner), 2-23 (Lyon)Bowling: Ashwin 4-0-17-0, Jadeja 3.2-1-6-2Still to bat: S. Smith, S. Marsh, P. Hands-comb, G. Maxwell, M. Wade, S. O’Keefe, P. Cummins, J. Hazlewood

“It’s disappointing and there should be a law that once you have done something wrong you should not return to this fi eld again”

Scoreboard

Sri Lanka 1st innings 338 (D. Chandimal 138, Mehedi Hasan 3-90)Bangladesh 1st innings 467 (Shakib Al Hasan 116; R. Herath 4-82, L. Sandakan 4-140)Sri Lanka 2nd innings (over-night 268-8)K’ratne c Soumya b Shakib 126U. Tharanga b Mehedi 26K. Mendis c M’fiqur b M’fizur 36Chandimal c M’fiqur b M’fizur 5A. Gunaratne lbw b Shakib 7D. de Silva c M’fiqur b M’fizur 0Dickwella c M’fiqur b Shakib 5D. Perera run out 50R. Herath lbw b Taijul 9Lakmal c M’ddek b Shakib 42L. Sandakan not out 0Extras (b4, lb8, w1) 13Total (all out; 113.2 overs) 319Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Tha-ranga), 2-143 (Mendis), 3-165 (Chandimal), 4-176 (Gunaratne), 5-177 (de Silva), 6-190 (Dickwel-la), 7-217 (Karunaratne), 8-238 (Herath), 9-318 (Perera), 10- 319 (Lakmal)

Bowling: Roy 16-4-36-0 (w1), Mehedi 24-0-71-1, Mustafizur 23-3-78-3, Shakib 36.2-9-74-4, Mosaddek 3-0-10-0, Taijul 11-1-38-1

Bangladesh 2nd inningsT Iqbal c Chandimal b Perera 82Sarkar c Tharanga b Herath 10Kayes c Gunaratne b Herath 0Sabbir Rahman lbw b Perera 41Shakib Al Hasan b Perera 15Mushfiqur Rahim not out 22Hossak c Dickwella b Herath 13Mehedi not out 2Extras (b4, lb1, w1) 6Total (six wickets) 191Fall of wickets: 1-22 (Soumya), 2-22 (Imrul) , 3-131 (Tamim), 4-143 (Sabbir), 5-162 (Shakib), 6-189 (Mosaddek)Did not bat: Taijul Islam, Mus-tafizur Rahman, Subashis RoyBowling: Perera 22-1-59-3, Her-ath 24.5-2-75-3, de Silva 2-0-7-0, Sandakan 6-1-34-0, Lakmal 2-0-7-0 (w1), Gunaratne 1-0-4-0Bangladesh won by 4 wkts.

City’s Aguero leveller keeps Liverpool at bay

PREMIER LEAGUE

Tottenham close gap on Chelsea to 10 points; Manchester United win 3-1 at Middlesbrough

AFP London

Pep Guardiola’s problems mounted as Manchester City were held to a 1-1 draw by Liverpool, while Tottenham beat South-ampton 2-1 to keep in touch with runaway

leaders Chelsea yesterday.Manchester United extended their unbeaten

league run to 18 games as a 3-1 victory at relega-tion-threatened Middlesbrough took them up to fi fth place. Guardiola was criticised after his side crashed out of the Champions League against Mo-naco in midweek and the Spaniard suff ered anoth-er blow as City’s slender hopes of catching Premier League leaders Chelsea were eff ectively ended at Eastlands. City defender Gael Clichy gifted Liv-erpool a 51st minute penalty when he was beaten to a high ball by Roberto Firmino and compounded his mistake by fouling the Liverpool forward in the area. Former City star James Milner, jeered by his old club’s fans, stepped up to hammer the spot-kick past Willy Caballero.

Guardiola’s side equalised in the 69th minute when Kevin De Bruyne whipped in an excellent cross and Sergio Aguero slotted home for his 25th goal of the season. But, despite chances aplenty in the closing stages of a thrilling clash, there was no winner for third placed City, who are now 12 points

behind Chelsea and stay just one point ahead of fourth placed Liverpool.

At White Hart Lane, Tottenham proved they can thrive without leading scorer Harry Kane and closed the gap on Chelsea to 10 points. Kane was ruled out for up to six weeks after suff ering an an-kle injury in last weekend’s FA cup quarter-fi nal victory over Millwall. But Mauricio Pochettino’s men still looked formidable as Danish winger Christian Eriksen drilled home with a fi ne fi nish in the 14th minute. Dele Alli won a 33rd minute pen-alty after being fouled by Southampton’s Steven Davis and the Tottenham midfi elder picked him-self up to convert the spot-kick.

Seven minutes after the interval, Ryan Ber-trand’s left wing cross should have been cleared by Spurs centre-back Toby Alderweireld, but James Ward-Prowse fi nished well at the far post.

With 10 games remaining, Tottenham’s chances of overhauling Chelsea’s lead are slim, but victory strengthened their position in the fi ght to guaran-tee a top four fi nish by extending the gap to fi fth place to seven points. “It was diffi cult. In the end we were better and deserved to win,” Pochettino said. “It is another victory, we keep our position in second and we are happy.”

At the Riverside Stadium, Marouane Fellaini scored his fi rst league goal for 15 months to put United ahead after 30 minutes. Jesse Lingard add-ed a stunning second in the 62nd minute before

Rudy Gestede got one back for Middlesbrough in the 77th minute.

Antonio Valencia grabbed a stoppage-time third after an embarrassing mistake by former United keeper Victor Valdes. United’s latest victory made them the fi rst club to record 600 Premier League wins and put them within four points of the top four in the race to qualify for the Champions League. Middlesbrough remain second-bottom, fi ve points adrift of safety after an 11th league game without victory as caretaker manager Steve Agnew tasted defeat in his fi rst match following the de-parture of Aitor Karanka.

Gestede initially appeared to bite defender Eric Bailly in a stoppage time melee on the edge of the visitors’ area. Replays showed there was no contact as the pair engaged in an angry clinch, but punches appeared to be thrown afterwards in the players’ tunnel as both sides left the pitch.

RESULTSManchester City 1 (Aguero 69) Liverpool 1 (Milner

51-pen); Middlesbrough 1 (Gestede 77) Manchester

United 3 (Fellaini 30, Lingard 62, Valencia 90+3);

Tottenham 2 (Eriksen 14, Alli 33-pen) Southampton 1

(Ward-Prowse 52)

Played Saturday: Bournemouth 2 (Mawson 31-og,

Afobe 72) Swansea 0; Crystal Palace 1 (Deeney 68-og)

Watford 0; Everton 4 (Calvert-Lewin 9, Valencia 78,

Lukaku 90+1, 90+4) Hull 0; Stoke 1 (Walters 38-pen)

Chelsea 2 (Willian 13, Cahill 87); Sunderland 0 Burnley

0; West Brom 3 (Dawson 12, 75, Robson-Kanu 55)

Arsenal 1 (Sanchez 15); West Ham 2 (Lanzini 20, Ayew

63) Leicester 3 (Mahrez 5, Huth 7, Vardy 38)

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Monday, March 20, 2017

Bayern go 13 points clear as Mueller caps milestone

BUNDESLIGA

AFPBerlin

Bayern Munich extended their Bundes-liga lead to 13 points as Thomas Muel-ler capped his 250th league appearance with a rare goal in yesterday’s 1-0 victory

at Borussia Moenchengladbach. After second-placed RB Leipzig crashed to a 3-0 win at Wer-der Bremen on Saturday, Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern took the chance to go further ahead in the table as they edge ever closer to a fi fth straight league title. This was Bayern’s sixth straight win in all competitions in a dominant display as they creat-ed 18 shots on goal, to Gladbach’s 14, and enjoyed nearly 70% possession.

Thiago Alcantara was the architect for Muel-ler’s winner, fl icking his pass over the Gladbach defence for the Germany star to fi re home his 93rd Bundesliga goal on 63 minutes.

It was only Mueller’s second league goal this season — having scored 20 in 2015/16 — and his fi rst since December, but he has turned provider this season with 11 assists in the league. Bay-ern created numerous chances before Mueller’s breakthrough as Arjen Robben hit the post in the fi rst-half and Robert Lewandowski forced Glad-

bach goalkeeper Yann Sommer into a point-blank save with a header.

Lewandowski endured a frustrating afternoon and could not add to his 21 league goals in his race to be Germany’s top-scorer with Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has 23. The only down side for Ancelotti was Xabi Alonso’s yellow card, his fi fth of the season, for a foul on Andre Hahn which means the defensive midfi eld-er is suspended for Bayern’s next game at Augs-burg on April 1.

The hosts, who drop to 10th after the defeat, piled on the pressure at the end and had their chances to sneak a point as Swiss striker Josip Dr-mic was only denied by good defending by Bay-ern’s Javi Martinez.

RESULTSMainz 0 Schalke 04 1 (Kolasinac 50); Borussia

Moenchengladbach 0 Bayern Munich 1 (Mueller 63)

Played Saturday: Wolfsburg 1 (Gomez 45+1) Darm-

stadt 0; Cologne 4 (Osako 6, Modeste 35, 37, 63)

Hertha Berlin 2 (Ibisevic 50, Brooks 69); Augsburg

1 (Stafylidis 38) Freiburg 1 (Niederlechner 30-pen);

Werder Bremen 3 (Junuzovic 34, Grillitsch 59, Kainz

90) RB Leipzig 0; Hoff enheim 1 (Wagner 62) Bayer

Leverkusen 0; E. Frankfurt 0 Hamburg 0

Played Friday: Borussia Dortmund 1 (Aubameyang

14) Ingolstadt 0

Griezmann’s stunning free-kick sees Atletico close on SevillaAFPMadrid

Antoine Griezmann teed up Diego Godin’s opener and then struck a stunning free-kick as Atletico Ma-drid compounded a week for Sevilla

to forget in a 3-1 win on Sunday. Koke added Atletico’s third before Joaquin Correa regis-tered a consolation for Sevilla.

Sevilla were dumped out of the Champi-ons League by Atletico’s quarter-fi nal oppo-nents Leicester City on Wednesday and have seen their lead over Atletico in third place in La Liga now whittled down to two points. A third straight league win moves Diego Sime-one’s men seven points clear of Real Sociedad and Villarreal in the battle for fourth.

“We have won three vital points, which changes our objective,” said Atletico cap-tain Gabi. “The challenge for fourth is now a long way off , we are going for third.” And the Atletico fans also celebrated the return of Fernando Torres for the fi rst time since he was knocked unconscious in a sickening head clash at Deportivo la Coruna on March 2.

Defeat realistically ends Sevilla’s already fading shot at the title as they fall eight points behind leaders Real Madrid. And coach Jorge Sampaoli claimed he has to rediscover the “real Sevilla” during the international break after four games without a win.

“Logically the league is now a long way off . Now we have to look at the possibility of automatically qualifying for the Champi-ons League,” said the Argentine. “It is nor-mal when you don’t achieve what you want, which is to win, there is frustration and bit-terness. We have come from a very hard blow to take and now we have to fi nd solutions and the real Sevilla.”

Kevin Gameiro was handed a start ahead of Torres as the French international also re-turned from injury and was inches away from opening the scoring against his old club 13 minutes in. Gameiro was played in by Yan-

nick Carrasco’s fi ne through ball and his well-measured chip was turned onto the underside of the bar by Sergio Rico.

In a familiar failing from their defeat at Leicester in midweek, Sevilla conceded the opener to a centre-back from a set-piece as Griezmann’s clipped free-kick found Godin unmarked to power a header past Rico eight minutes before half-time. Atletico had a se-ries of chances to make the game safe at the start of the second period.

Firstly, Griezmann fi red into the side-net-ting after a brilliant team move tore the Se-villa defence apart.

Rico then rushed from his line to smother the ball as Gameiro bore down on goal. How-ever, Atletico fi nally doubled their advantage in spectacular style just after the hour mark as Griezmann crashed a free-kick in off the underside of the bar for his 22nd goal of the season. The home fans then got the moment they wanted as Torres was handed a hero’s welcome as he replaced Gameiro. It was Koke who added the third, though, as he gratefully

tapped into an empty net after Rico had par-ried Juanfran’s driven cross.

Torres passed up two chances to mark his return with a goal as he fi rstly volleyed straight at Rico before the Spanish interna-tional blocked his attempted chip. From the latter chance Sevilla broke down the other end to bag a consolation as Joaquin Correa slotted between Oblak’s legs from a narrow angle. However, it was too little, too late in a terrible week for Sevilla. And Koke should have compounded their misery when he too fi red too close to Rico with just the keeper to beat a minute from time.

RESULTSLeganes 0 Malaga 0; Atletico Madrid 3 (Godin 37,

Griezmann 60, Koke 77) Sevilla 1 (Correa 85)

Played Saturday: Eibar 1 (Kike 20) Espanyol 1

(Jurado 50); Athletic Bilbao 1 (Aduriz 65) Real

Madrid 2 (Benzema 25, Casemiro 68); Alaves 1

(Deyverson 44) Real Sociedad 0; Real Betis 2

(Navarro 4, Ruben Castro 28) Osasuna 0

Friday: Las Palmas 1 (Boateng 10) Villarreal 0

LA LIGA

(played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):Chelsea 28 22 3 3 59 21 69

Tottenham 28 17 8 3 55 21 59

Man City 28 17 6 5 54 30 57

Liverpool 29 16 8 5 61 36 56

Man Utd 27 14 10 3 42 23 52

Arsenal 27 15 5 7 56 34 50

Everton 29 14 8 7 51 30 50

West Brom 29 12 7 10 39 38 43

Stoke 29 9 9 11 33 42 36

Southampton 27 9 6 12 33 36 33

Bournemouth 29 9 6 14 42 54 33

West Ham 29 9 6 14 40 52 33

Burnley 29 9 5 15 31 42 32

Watford 28 8 7 13 33 48 31

Leicester 28 8 6 14 33 47 30

Crystal Palace 28 8 4 16 36 46 28

Swansea 29 8 3 18 36 63 27

Hull 29 6 6 17 26 58 24

Middlesbrough 28 4 10 14 20 33 22

Sunderland 28 5 5 18 24 50 20

POINTS TABLE

Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero scores a goal against Liverpool during a Premier League match at Etihad Stadium in Manchester yesterday. (Reuters)

Bayern Munich’s Thomas Mueller (centre) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal during the Bundesliga match against Borussia Moenchengladbach yesterday. (AFP)

Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann and Sevilla’s Clement Lenglet vie for the ball. (Reuters)

Mourinho refuses to discuss tunnel spatBy Louise TaylorThe Guardian

Jose Mourinho refused to answer questions about an unseemly altercation in the tunnel at the Riverside

following a bad-tempered end to Manchester United’s 3-1 win at Middlesbrough. Stewards were called to separate the warring players as a spat between Mid-dlesbrough’s Rudy Gestede and United’s Eric Bailly continued beyond the fi nal whistle with a bout of push and shove.

A suddenly silent Mourinho walked out of his post-match press conference when asked about it. Steve Agnew, Middles-brough’s interim manager, was more forthcoming but, perhaps conveniently, claimed to have seen and heard nothing of the fallout after the Middlesbrough striker whispered something in his marker’s ear, briefl y giving rise to erroneous suggestions he had bitten Bailly.

Agnew succeeds the sacked Aitor Karanka, a close friend of Mourinho’s who assisted him at Real Madrid, and he suff ered the indignity of the Portuguese ne-glecting to shake his hand at the fi nal whistle. That fi nally took place when Agnew caught up with the United manager in the tunnel.

Mourinho also appeared to exchange harsh words with Stewart Downing, a player inex-tricably linked to Karanka’s exit, during the game, but the United manager subsequently denied speaking to the former England winger. A win secured with goals from Marouane Fellaini, Jesse Lingard and Antonio Valencia lifted United to fi fth, while Gest-ede scored a much-improved Boro’s fi rst goal in fi ve games and more than eight hours of Premier League football.

“A big win,” Mourinho said. “It was very important in keep-ing us alive in the fourth-posi-tion race. I would prefer to win the Europa League than fi nish in the top four because it would give us prestige, a trophy and Champions League football but maybe we can do both. Today was a massive victory for us.”

Agnew was encouraged by a performance during which Boro briefl y threatened to force a draw. “Our attitude and applica-tion was fi rst class,” he said.

FOCUS

FOOTBALL4 Gulf Times

Monday, March 20, 2017

Allegri erupts as Cuadrado saves Juventus blushes

SERIE A

Lazio’s Champions League hopes were dented by a scoreless draw at Cagliari that left Inzaghi’s men in fourth

AFPMilan

A fi rst-half header from Juan Cuadrado delivered a 1-0 win for a jittery Ju-ventus at Sampdoria yesterday during which infuriated coach Massimiliano

Allegri kicked kit bags on the touchline.Juve’s 24th league win of the campaign moved

the champions 10 points clear of Napoli after their earlier 3-2 win at Empoli, while Roma could restore an eight-point defi cit with a home win against Sassuolo in a late match last night.

But, days after sealing a mouthwatering Cham-pions League quarter-fi nal match-up with Bar-celona following a 1-0 win over Porto, it was a far from trademark Juventus performance at the Luigi Ferraris stadium. Cuadrado rose to meet a great delivery from Kwadwo Asamoah after just seven minutes to put Juve ahead, but after losing playmaker Paulo Dybala to injury early on the Tu-rin giants laboured for the remainder.

Allegri played down injury concerns to Dybala. “He felt his fl exor muscle tighten at the back (of his leg),” Allegri said. “We’ve been watching it for the past few days, but it shouldn’t be a concern.”

Injuries in midfi eld and defence forced Al-legri to ring the changes, Claudio Marchisio and Alex Sandro joining defenders Giorgio Chiellini on the bench while Leonardo Bonucci was rested to avoid a ban ahead of an upcoming clash with Napoli. Asamoah started at left-back, and the Ghanaian seized the day with a great delivery that Cuadrado rose to head confi dently past Christian Puggioni. Stepping in for suspended Samp ‘keep-er Emiliano Viviani, Puggioni made amends by stopping Gonzalo Higuain from close range after the Argentine pounced on a Karol Linetty error.

But the 27th minute loss of Dybala, who hit the winner from the spot over Porto on Tuesday, due to a muscle problem upset Juve’s plans. Bruno Fernandes’ volley tested Gianluigi Buff on in the Juve net while at the other end Puggioni fl ew to fi ngertip Pjaca’s angled drive around the post on the stroke of half-time.

If Allegri hoped for improvement, he was to be left disappointed by a messy second half.

Former Juve striker Fabio Quagliarella tested Buff on fi ve minutes after the interval, and at the other end Higuain was off side when he volleyed over over from six yards. Allegri’s nerves were frayed when Asamoah panicked while under

pressure in the area, Samp regaining possession for a cross that saw Buff on forced into action at his far post.

On the counter, Luis Muriel cut inside Dan-iele Rugani to unselfi shly slip through for Patrik Schlick, who tripped as he battled for possession with Asamoah. The errors were piling up for Juve in attack too, Higuain collecting Pjaca’s ball from

the left only to overhit his pass for Cuadrado.Cuadrado was replaced moments later by

Mario Lemina, whose fi rst task was to head clear a dangerous Quagliarella ball into the area. Al-legri was growing more frustrated, and erupted 12 minutes from the end when Dani Alves came off worst in a fair challenge with Vasco Regini.

A promising Lemina counter forced a corner,

but Samp pressing saw Juve pushed back into their own area, where Asamoah had to scramble to recover under more pressure after momentarily losing possession. Tired-looking and ineff ective, Higuain was subbed fi ve minutes from the end, Stephan Lichtsteiner coming on to move to the right of midfi eld.

It was Samp who fi nished on a high, although

Quagliarella fi red his overhead kick over the bar before Muriel was dispossessed from behind by Asamoah as he went on a promising run.

Elsewhere, Lazio’s Champions League hopes were dented by a scoreless draw at Cagliari that left Simone Inzaghi’s men in fourth but now fi ve points behind Roma and six behind Napoli. In-ter, held 2-2 at Torino on Saturday, sit fi fth at two points behind Lazio but on the same points (55) as Atalanta, who cruised to a 3-0 home win against Pescara.

RESULTSEmpoli 2 (El Kaddouri 70, Maccarone 82-pen)

Napoli 3 (Insigne 19, 38-pen, Mertens 24); Atalanta

3 (Gomez 14, 90+3, Grassi 69) Pescara 0; Bologna

4 (Verdi 61, Dzemaili 72, 90, Di Francesco 90+3)

Chievo 1 (Castro 40); Cagliari 0 Lazio 0; Crotone 0

Fiorentina 1 (Kalinic 90); Sampdoria 0 Juventus 1

(Cuadrado 7)

On Saturday: Torino 2 (Baselli 33, Acquah 59) Inter

Milan 2 (Kondogbia 27, Candreva 62); AC Milan 1

(Fernandez 33) Genoa 0

Mbappe keeps Monaco on title trailAFPParis

A dazzling double from teenage sen-sation Kylian Mbappe gave Mona-co a 3-0 win at Caen yesterday as the French Ligue 1 leaders opened a

six-point gap on Paris Saint-Germain. Mo-naco now have 71 points with eight games to play although Paris can close to within three points if they beat Lyon late last night.

Early season pace-setters Nice have 64 points after a 1-1 draw at Nantes on Satur-day. Four days after edging Manchester City into the Champions League quarter-fi nals, Mbappe, who scored in both legs of the City win, ran Caen ragged. Caen coach Patrice Ga-rande said after the game Monaco had been better in every department, but singled out Mbappe for special praise.

The 18-year-old Mbappe got off the mark on 13 minutes when, after a swift exchange of passes, he ran through the defence into the box and sent the ‘keeper the wrong way with a low hard shot. Two days after being called up into the France squad for the fi rst time, Mbappe proceeded to torment the Caen back-line into giving away a penalty convert-ed by Fabinho on 49 minutes to make it 2-0.

He then headed the third off the underside of the bar late in the game for Monaco’s 87th goal of the league season. Next up for rampant Monaco is a date with Paris Saint Germain at the Stade de France in the League Cup fi nal on April 1.

Several players were rested by Leonardo Jardim, including Portuguese star Bernardo

Silva and midweek goal hero Tiemoué Bakay-oko, for the long trip to Normandy. On Sat-urday, Mario Balotelli endured a frustrating afternoon as Nice dropped two vital points in their draw at mid-table Nantes. However, the south coast side still look set for at least a Champions League qualifying spot next sea-son by fi nishing third.

RESULTSCaen 0 Monaco 3 (Mbappe 13, 81, Fabinho

81-pen)

Played Saturday: Bordeaux 5 (Rolan 25, 76,

Sankhare 29, Vada 32-pen, Malcom 90+2)

Montpellier 1 (Boudebouz 47-pen); Nancy 2

(Faitout Maouassa 28, I. Dia 42-pen) Lorient

3 (Moukandjo Bile 66, Lautoa 87, Mvuemba

90+4); Toulouse 0 Rennes 0; Angers 3 (Mamba

63, Mangani 68, Diedhiou 83) Guingamp 0;

Nantes 1 (Sala 22) Nice 1 (Seri 28)

Played Friday: Metz 1 (Cioni 46-og) Bastia 0;

Lille 0 Marseille 0

LIGUE 1

PAULINHO AND MAARAFIE BACK FROM INJURY FOR AL ARABI

Doha: Al Arabi’s Brazilian striker Paulinho and midfielder Abdulla Maarafie returned ahead of the clash against Al Shahania in Round 24 of the QSL. Both players joined the team training sessions fol-lowing their long absence due to injury. The return of Paulinho is very crucial for Arabi’s front line, while Abdulla Maarafie is one of the young and most influential players for his team.

Arabi training sessions was attended by all the players except captain Boualem Khokhi, who joined the Qatar team. Also missing were Omar al-Emadi and Abdulhadi Salah, who are part of the Qa-tar under-23 team. The team technical staff led by the head coach Oswaldo Oliviera seeks to benefit of the current QSL stoppage pe-riod in order to improve the fitness level in preparation for the final rounds of the QSL. Al Arabi will face Al Shahania next, followed by Al Rayyan and Umm Salal in their final match. Al Arabi are eight in the table with 27 points.

UMM SALAL REGAINS AIESH, AHNASH & SAGBOUmm Salal have announced that captain Jawad Ahnash is ready to join the team for their upcoming match against Al Gharafa, follow-ing his absence for three weeks due to head injury.

Also Bahraini player Faouzi Aiesh will return to the team follow-ing his absence since Al Sadd fixture due to automatic suspension (fourth yellow card). The team will also regain the services of Ivorian striker Sagbo after he missed the previous match due to injury.

In the meantime, striker Ismail Mahmoud has begun to run for the first time since his knee surgery three months ago. The club announced that Mohamed al Sayed Jeddo will join the team after two weeks following his recovery from injury. Umm Salal will play friendly game versus one of the Military Units teams today as they attempt to get in shape following the international break.

Qatar senior team beat their under-23 counterparts 2-1 in a friendly match yesterday. Qatar coach Jorge Fossati brought together senior and U-23 players ahead of the side’s 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches this month. Qatar play Iran in Doha on Thursday and Uzbekistan in away clash on March 28. Last week, Qatar lost to Azerbaijan 2-1 in a friendly at Al Sadd Stadium.

QATAR SENIOR TEAM WIN FRIENDLY

Juventus’ Juan Cuadrado (left) celebrates with teammates after scoring against Sampdoria during a Serie A match in Genoa, Italy. (Reuters)

(played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):Juventus 29 24 1 4 59 19 73

Napoli 29 19 6 4 68 32 63

Roma 28 20 2 6 61 25 62

Lazio 29 17 6 6 50 30 57

Inter Milan 29 17 4 8 55 31 55

Atalanta 29 17 4 8 46 33 55

AC Milan 29 16 5 8 42 32 53

Fiorentina 29 13 9 7 46 37 48

Sampdoria 29 11 8 10 34 34 41

Torino 29 10 10 9 54 48 40

Chievo 29 11 5 13 34 41 38

Bologna 29 9 7 13 29 42 34

Udinese 28 9 7 12 32 37 33

Cagliari 29 9 6 14 36 58 32

Sassuolo 28 9 4 15 35 43 31

Genoa 29 7 8 14 30 43 29

Empoli 29 5 7 17 17 46 22

Palermo 28 3 6 19 23 56 15

Crotone 29 3 5 21 21 49 14

Pescara 29 2 6 21 29 65 12

Note: 1st-2nd: Automatic Champions League

qualification; 3rd: Champions League qualifying

round; 4th & 5th: Europa League qualification

18th-20th: Relegated

POINTS TABLE

Caen’s Damien Da Silva (left) fouls Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe Lottin during the French Ligue 1 match at the Michel d’Ornano stadium, in Caen, northwestern France. (AFP)

Curry’s sharpshooting leads to Bucks rout

NBA

Warriors star Curry scored a game-high 28 points on 9-for-13 shooting

ReutersOakland, California

Matt Barnes contributed seven points and two assists to a second-quarter explosion that took the Golden State Warriors to past the Milwaukee Bucks 117-92 in the NBA on

Saturday night. Stephen Curry scored a game-high 28 points on 9-for-13 shooting as the Warriors shot 60% in completing a perfect 3-0 homestand.

The Warriors (55-14) moved 2 1/2 games ahead of San Antonio (52-16), a loser Saturday at Memphis, in the race for top seeding in the Western Conference playoff s.

CLIPPERS 108, CAVALIERS 78Blake Griffi n scored 23 points and collected eight re-bounds in three quarters, as the Los Angeles Clippers snapped a three-game losing streak with a victory over the short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday at Staples Center.

DeAndre Jordan had 13 points and 17 rebounds and JJ Redick scored 16 points for the Clippers (41-29), who have a half-game lead over the Oklahoma City Thun-der for the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference. Jamal Crawford also had 13 points while Chris Paul was held to fi ve points on 0 of 8 shooting. Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue decided to sit LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love against the Clippers to rest them. However, all three are expected to play against the Los Angeles Lakers.

ROCKETS 109, NUGGETS 105James Harden had 40 points, 10 rebounds and 10 as-sists, notching his 19th triple-double in the Rockets’ victory. Harden has 11 games of 40 or more points and did it this time after scoring 41 on Friday. Clint Capela had 16 points for the Rockets (48-22), who won despite a season-low in 3-point attempts (24) and makes (fi ve). Gary Harris had 17 points, Nikola Jokic 16 and Jameer Nelson 15 points and 11 assist for the Nuggets, who now lead Portland by 1 1/2 games for the No. 8 seed.

GRIZZLIES 104, SPURS 96Mike Conley scored 19 points, Zach Randolph added 18 and Marc Gasol fi nished with 16 as Memphis extended its winning streak to four games. The Grizzlies (40-30) led for all but 48 seconds in the second half to hand the Spurs (52-16) their ninth road loss this season. San An-tonio, which had won 11 of its previous 13 games, got 22 points from Kawhi Leonard and 21 from LaMarcus Aldridge.

BULLS 95, JAZZ 86Jimmy Butler scored 23 points and distributed seven as-sists to help Chicago end a two-game losing streak.

Bobby Portis scored 22 points in 30 minutes off the bench for the Bulls. Rookie Denzel Valentine joined Por-tis off the bench to post his fi rst career double-double, with 11 points and 12 rebounds. George Hill led the Jazz with 18 points to go along with seven rebounds. Gordon Hayward added 14 points on 5-for-16 shooting. Utah (43-27) lost for the second straight game and the third time in the past fi ve contests. The Jazz were swept by the Bulls in a two-game season series.

TRAIL BLAZERS 113, HAWKS 97The Trail Blazers snapped a fi ve-game losing streak to the Atlanta Hawks as they continued their quest to over-take the Nuggets for the fi nal playoff spot in the Western Conference. Portland led by 23 points just 10 minutes into the game and rolled to victory behind 27 points from Damian Lillard and 22 from fellow guard CJ McCollum.

The Trail Blazers, who are 7-2 in March, made 13 of their fi rst 15 from the fl oor and shot 76.2% in the fi rst quarter to 16% for the Hawks (37-32) while going up 40-18. Ersan Ilyasova, starting for the Hawks (37-32) in place of Paul Millsap, had 23 points. Millsap experienced left knee tightness warming up and was a late scratch.

HORNETS 98, WIZARDS 93Cody Zeller scored 19 points on 8of-10 shooting, and the Hornets snapped a three-game losing streak.

The Hornets trailed at halftime but built the lead up to as many as nine midway through the fourth quarter and then held on down the stretch.

The Wizards got as close as three in the fi nal 20 sec-onds, but the Hornets’ Marvin Williams hit two free throws with 9.6 seconds left and two more with 7.3 sec-onds left. John Wall led the Wizards with 19 points and

eight assists, but he was just 5 of 16 from the fi eld.

THUNDER 110, KINGS 94Thunder guard Russell Westbrook scored 28 points to go along with 10 assists and eight rebounds, leaving him two rebounds shy of his 36th triple-double. Doug Mc-Dermott came off the bench to score 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting for the Thunder, which won its fi fth straight game. Georgios Papagiannis led the Kings with 14 points and 11 boards.

SPORT5Gulf Times

Monday, March 20, 2017

Talbot helps Edmonton Oilers to third consecutive win

US eliminates Dominicans to reach semi-fi nal

NHL

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC

AFPSan Diego

The United States upset defending champion Dominican Republic 6-3 on Saturday to reach the

semi-fi nals of the World Baseball Classic where they will face two-time winners Japan. Giancarlo Stanton hit a tie-breaking two-run homer in the fourth inning for the Americans who reached the semi-fi nals of the interna-tional elite tournament for the fi rst time since 2009.

“We beat a great team and held down a great lineup. These guys were ready to play. Tonight we were the better team,” said US manager Jim Leyland. Andrew McCutchen added two-run dou-ble in the eighth at Petco Park and the US avenged a fi rst-round loss to the Dominicans.

“It was good for us to show up and get this win tonight,” said McCutchen. The US advanced to face Japan Tuesday Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Puerto Rico meets the Netherlands in the fi rst semi-fi nal today.

Puerto Rico and Japan, both 6-0, are the only unbeaten teams in the tournament. “I am looking forward to it (playing Japan).I am looking forward to getting the win,” said McCutchen. The Do-minican Republic, the reigning champs after winning all eight of its games in 2013, took a 2-0 lead in the fi rst inning Saturday but could not keep pace with the US.

They overcame a 5-0 defi -cit to beat the US 7-5 in fi rst-round play last week. Domini-can Republic’s Manny Machado reached on an error by Brandon Crawford with one out in the fi rst inning and scored on a Robinson Cano double off Danny Duff y.

Carlos Santana singled in Cano. The Americans made their

move a short time later as Stan-ton and Jonathan Lucroy singled to open the third inning. Stanton scored on Ian Kinsler’s forceout at second.

Christian Yelich’s two-out double tied the game 2-2. Craw-ford singled with two outs in the fourth inning before Stanton hammered a pitch into the sec-ond balcony down the left-fi eld line for a 4-2 lead. Sam Dyson got fi ve outs, and Luke Gregerson pitched the ninth for a save.

The Dominican Republic left runners on fi rst and second with one out in the fi rst inning and runners on second and third with no outs in both the second and fi fth innings. In the early game, Kennys Vargas smacked a two-run home run as unde-feated Puerto Rico, already as-sured a semi-fi nal berth, routed Venezuela 13-2. Puerto Rico’s Francisco Lindor, who sat out the contest in advance of Monday’s matchup, declined to declare his squad the team to beat.

“We haven’t beaten everybody yet so I don’t want to say we’re the best team in the world,” Lin-dor said. “We haven’t won any-thing yet. We’re a confi dent team and we’re playing really well.”

Venezuela pulled within 5-2 in the sixth inning when Rougned Odor smashed a two-run homer over the centrefi eld wall. But Puerto Rico broke open the con-test with fi ve runs in the seventh, Mike Aviles smacking a two-run single and scoring on Rene Riv-era’s double.

Angel Pagan added a run-scoring single and Carlos Correa drove in a run with a bases-load-ed sacrifi ce fl y.

An error by Venezuelan third baseman Jose Altuve in the eighth allowed another run to score and Puerto Rico completed its scoring on Vargas’ ninth-in-ning blast.

ReutersEdmonton, Alberta

Vancouver Canucks came to Edmon-ton on a fi ve-game losing streak and were 18 points behind the Oilers in the standings, but it didn’t seem to mat-

ter much when the puck dropped. They gave the Oilers all they could handle and then some but still fell on Saturday at Rogers Place at the Na-tional Hockey League on Saturday.

After Connor McDavid broke open a scoreless tie late in the second period, the Oilers couldn’t exhale until Mark Letestu scored on a power play with 4:38 left. Cam Talbot, appearing in his 11th straight game, posted his sixth shutout of the season. The win lifted Edmonton (38-24-9) out of the fi rst wild-card spot and past the Cal-gary Flames in the Pacifi c Division playoff race.

DUCKS 2, SHARKS 1The Anaheim Ducks appear determined to make it a race for the Pacifi c Division. Never mind that the visitors played the night before while the hosts were idle. The Ducks came into a sold-out SAP Center and dictated play en route to victory over the San Jose Sharks.

Anaheim moved to within four points of San Jose after completing a 3-0-2 series domina-tion. Backup goaltender Jonathan Bernier con-tinued his stellar work with injured John Gib-son on the sideline. He made 33 saves while his teammates provided just enough support.

CANADIENS 4, SENATORS 3Alexander Radulov’s shootout goal gave Mon-treal a 4-3 victory over Ottawa in a battle for fi rst place at Canadian Tire Centre on Satur-

day night. The victory allowed Montreal to in-crease its lead to two points over Ottawa atop the Atlantic Division. Andrew Shaw, Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher scored for the Canadiens. Carey Price made 28 saves. Derick Brassard, Ryan Dzingel and Erik Karlsson each had goals for the Senators. Craig Anderson, who missed the previous two games with a lower-body injury, stopped 29 shots. Danault and Gal-lagher scored 31 seconds apart in the third pe-riod to give Montreal a 3-2 lead. Karlsson tied

the game with 4:57 left in regulation.

CAPITALS 5, LIGHTNING 3Justin Williams and John Carlson scored third-period goals to break a tie as Washington be-came the fi rst team to clinch a playoff berth. TJ Oshie registered a hat trick and added an assist and Nicklas Backstrom had four assists for the Capitals. Braden Holtby stopped 26 shots as the fi rst-place Capitals maintained their two-point lead over Columbus in the Metropolitan Divi-

sion. Nikita Kucherov had two goals and Alex Killorn scored for the fi rst time in a month for Tampa Bay, which lost in regulation in consecu-tive games for the fi rst time since Jan. 31-Feb. 2. Andrei Vasilevskiy fi nished with 30 saves.

BLACKHAWKS 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1 (OT)Ryan Hartman scored at 4:43 of overtime to lift Chicago to its fourth straight victory. John Hay-den scored his fi rst NHL goal for the fi rst-place Blackhawks, who increased their lead to fi ve points over Minnesota in the Central Division.

Corey Crawford stopped 25 shots for Chicago. Auston Matthews scored for Toronto, which maintained its one-point lead for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Fred-erik Andersen made 37 saves and kept the Maple Leafs in the game.

RANGERS 3, WILD 2Oscar Lindberg had a goal and an assist, and Antti Raanta made 25 saves as New York won for the seventh time in its last eight road games. Brady Skjei also scored, and Jimmy Vesey re-corded the winning goal late in the second pe-riod for the Rangers, who lead the NHL with 26 road victories. They have won 19 of their past 23 away from home. Eric Staal and Matt Dumba scored for Minnesota, which has lost a season-high four games in a row. Devan Dubnyk stopped 27 shots for the Wild.

BLUE JACKETS 3, ISLANDERS 2 (OT)Cam Atkinson scored 1:19 into overtime to give Columbus a victory over New York. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson also scored for the Blue Jackets, who won their third straight game. Joonas Korpisalo made 20 saves for sec-ond-place Columbus, which took a one-point

lead on Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan.Travis Hamonic and John Tavares scored for

the Islanders, who lost for the fourth time in fi ve games (1-3-1).

HURRICANES 4, PREDATORS 2Jeff Skinner scored twice and Eddie Lack stopped 27 shots to win consecutive games for the fi rst time this season as Carolina defeated Nashville. The Hurricanes improved to 4-0-2 over their last six games, while the Predators saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.

Lack, playing in only his 14th game as Cam Ward’s backup, was coming off a 3-1 victory on Thursday against the Minnesota Wild in which he stopped 31 shots, earning him another start from coach Bill Peters.

BLUES 3, COYOTES 0Alex Pietrangelo, Scottie Upshall and David Perron scored and Jake Allen made 31 saves for his fourth shutout this season as St. Louis con-tinued its mastery of Arizona. It was the Blues’ seventh victory in their last eight games, their ninth straight victory over the Coyotes and St. Louis earned at least one point in 13 consecutive meetings with Arizona (11-0-1).

The Blues climbed past Nashville into third place in the Central Division. Mike Smith made 37 saves for the Coyotes, but fell to 4-13 in his career against St. Louis.

RED WINGS 5, AVALANCHE 1Tomas Tatar scored twice to reach the 20-goal plateau for the third time in four seasons for De-troit, which scored four goals in the third period to sink Colorado. Tatar broke a 1-1 tie at 5:20 of the fi nal period on a 2-on-1 break.

Mirza Teletovic of the Milwaukee Bucks is fouled by Stephen Curry (left) of the Golden State Warriors during the NBA game at Oracle in Oakland, California. on Saturday. (AFP)

Vancouver Canucks’ Richard Bachman (centre) and Luca Sbisa (left) try to stop Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid from scoring during the NHL game in Edmonton, Alberta. (USA TODAY Sports)

Dominican Republic outfielder Nelson Cruz (right) is forced out at second base by United States’ Ian Kinsler during the 2017 World Baseball Classic at Petco Park in San Diego. (USA TODAY Sports)

AFPDublin

Eddie Jones said New Zea-land were “there for the taking” after his England side’s bid to better the

All Blacks’ record winning streak ended with a defeat by Ireland in Dublin.

Ireland, who had also ended New Zealand’s run, won 13-9 at a rainswept Lansdowne Road on Saturday to deny England a 19th successive Test win and prevent them becoming the fi rst side in the Six Nations era to win back-to-back Grand Slams.

Irish lock Iain Henderson scored the only try of the match, although England’s defeat came after they had already retained the Six Nations title.

The British and Irish Lions travel to New Zealand for a three-Test series in June and July.

England, by contrast, are not scheduled to face the world champions until 2018, although reports this week suggested of-fi cials were looking at re-ar-ranging the Twickenham fi xture calendar to set up a November 4 clash between the international game’s two top-ranked teams.

“I expect at least 15 of our guys to go on the Lions tour, I’d be disappointed if we don’t have that many guys in,” said Jones after suff ering his fi rst defeat in 18 Tests as England coach.

“And I think they’ll have a massive shout (of winning a fi rst series in New Zealand since 1971). New Zealand, as Ireland have shown, are there for the taking,” the Australian added in a reference to Ireland’s 40-29 win in Chicago in November that stopped the All Blacks’ run at 18 victories in a row.

“I can can’t wait for us to play them either. We’re very keen to play them, I’ve had a discussion with Ian (Ritchie, the chief exec-utive of England’s Rugby Football Union) and we’re raring to go.”

However, with the Lions squad not announced until April 19, Jones added: “There’s a lot of discussions to go.”

Before the match, Jones had suggested Ireland might play a ‘kick and clap’ game. Ireland, understandably took issue with the implication they had a limit-ed approach. But in classic ‘Irish’ rainswept conditions, it was the hosts who produced the superior

wet-weather rugby. “Ireland played superbly and they were too good for us on the day,” said Jones. “We’re all human beings, we’re not perfect, and that’s why world records fi nish at 18 games because it’s hard to keep going.

“They used the conditions su-perbly, we probably didn’t.”

‘World Cup pressure’

Meanwhile Jones dismissed talk the loss had lifted a weight from England’s shoulders, say-ing: “No, I think it’s fantastic having the pressure to perform.

“To win the World Cup you’ve got to win seven in a row, you’ve got to cope with that pressure.

“That was like a World Cup fi nal today and we weren’t good enough.”

Jones, appointed after Eng-land’s World Cup fl op on home soil two years ago, has long made it clear his ultimate goal is to win

the 2019 edition in Japan. “We’re 14 months into a four-

year project,” he said. “Full credit to Ireland, they

were brilliantly coached and executed their plan well. We’ll have more setbacks as we move towards the World Cup,” he added after England were denied a Grand Slam in Dublin for the third time since 2001.

Both Ireland and England were captained by potential Lions skippers in hookers Rory Best and Dylan Hartley respectively.

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, asked whether his fellow New Zealander Warren Gatland, the Lions boss, should pick Best as captain of the combined side, re-plied: “My choice doesn’t count for anything, so I don’t really ex-press it. I’m incredibly proud of him (Best) and the way he leads the team. I’m delighted he’s our leader.”

‘To win the World Cup you’ve got to win seven in a row, you’ve got to cope with that pressure’

Defi ant Jones says All Blacks ‘there for the taking’ by Lions

RUGBY

SPORT

Gulf Times Monday, March 20, 20176

Spotlight on referee aft er farcical fi nale in France

FOCUS

England head coach Eddie Jones. (Reuters)

Lions captain won’t be certain of Test place, warns Gatland

British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland has warned his captain for the tour of New Zealand won’t be assured of a place in the Test side. Gatland, the Lions’ coach on their victorious tour of Australia four years go, will take charge of the combined side again for a three-Test series against world champions New Zealand in June and July after once more being seconded from his ‘day job’ in charge of Wales. The New Zealander is due to reveal his squad and skipper on April 19. Conventional rugby wisdom has it that a Lions captain must first be a nailed-on certainty for the Test side. That has led to specu-lation that in addition to the four Home Nations captains, Wales’s Sam Warburton, the Lions captain in 2013 but no longer skipper of Wales, and England goal-kicking centre Owen Farrell could be con-sidered for the honour given their likely inclusion in the Test team. But Gatland appears to be contemplating the possibility of a ‘tour captain’ instead as the Lions seek just a second series win in New Zealand to go alongside their 1971 success. “I think the captaincy is a great honour, but whoever the captain is going to be there’ll be no guarantee he plays in the Tests,” Gatland told BBC Radio Five Live yesterday. “His form has to be good enough. I think whoever that person is has to rise to that, the message to that person is it’s a great honour to captain the Lions but your form has to be good enough to be selected for the Tests.”

ReutersParis

Referee Wayne Barnes was the focus of criti-cism after France’s astonishing 20-18

victory over Wales on Satur-day, which ended with 20 min-utes added time, a disputed substitution and fi erce debate about the offi cial’s failure to award a penalty try.

The clock showed 99 min-utes and 55 seconds when France’s replacement fl anker Damien Chouly touched the ball down after nine penalty scrums and Camille Lopez slotted over the conversion to seal victory for the hosts.

France felt the game should have been brought to a close sooner with a penalty try as Wales were repeatedly penal-ised at the scrum, while the visitors focussed their ire on a substitution they said dam-aged the game’s integrity.

In failing to award a penalty try, France coach Guy Noves claimed the English referee fell into a trap of his own mak-ing, while lock Yoann Maestri lashed out at the offi cial.

“We were refereed like a small team and it’s very pain-ful. Barnes told me that we were not dominant enough in the scrum. But the Welsh were rigging every scrum,” Maestri said.

“They were letting them-selves get turned. It’s down to the referee to spot it.”

Maestri added that Barnes’s failure to award a penalty try showed he had lost control.

“It was verging on nuclear warfare on the sidelines and the referee didn’t react,” he

said. France forwards coach Yannick Bru, however, was pleased his players did not let frustration get the better of them.

“I knew that Barnes, whom I’ve gotten to know over time, would not award a penalty try. But my players did not make any mistake,” he said.

“We were more stubborn that Mr Barnes.”

Wales were equally upset in the aftermath, however, accusing the French of mak-ing an unlawful substitution, which coach Rob Howley said brought the game’s integrity into disrepute.

Starter Rabah Slimani was allowed back on as replace-ment prop Uini Atonio was taken off for a head injury as-sessment. Howley said he believes the substitution was planned.

“What happened in the last moments of that game shouldn’t ever happen again,” said Howley.

“One of the coaches had a word with their doctor and within a minute of that their tighthead went off . The evi-dence suggests that it’s not in the integrity of our game.”

Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones said: “I would not use that word (cheating) but I think there will have to be someone looking at it. They’ll have to review that,” said Jones.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) yesterday announced a new tournament structure, with increased prize money, as it looks to raise the sport’s profile and ramp up revenues.The new tour series, which features six levels, will kick off next year and run until 2021, with at least a mn dollars in prize money up for grabs in each of its top four events.Federation president Poul-Erik Høyer announced the changes following a BWF council meeting in Kuala Lumpur, saying, “the time is right for badminton to soar even higher”.“Our key goals are to showcase our sport at a high level of presentation and competitiveness, to increase television coverage for the sport and to increase the star quality and popularity of the top players globally”, he added.The Level 1 end-of-season finale to be played in China will fea-ture $1.5 mn in prize money, while the three Level 2 events — in China, England and Indonesia — will carry million-dollar prize funds, a BWF statement said.There will be five Level 3 events with $700,000 prize money, seven Level 4 tournaments with $350,000 to be won and 11 in level 5 ($150,000). The tour will involve an estimated total of 37 events, including Level 6 which will be an open category where BWF member associations can apply for sanctioning.The sport has struggled to gain visibility in recent years, losing out to more glamorous rivals such as NBA basketball, football and tennis. An ill-advised push to ‘sex up’ the sport’s image saw the BWF ask women players to wear skirts, a proposal which was finally shelved in 2012 following howls of protest.New scoring, new advertising and even new shuttlecocks and court colours have also been considered as badminton looks to shed its staid image and stand out in the digital age.

Prize money boost as new badminton tour unveiled

Referee Wayne Barnes gestures during France-Wales match in Saint-Denis. (AFP)

Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) president Ali Ghanim al-Kuwari (R) and Sportivo CEO Uros Stanic shake hands after signing the Qatar national teams kits sponsorship agreement at the QVA headquarters yesterday. Sportivo will supply Mikasa playing kits to the Qatar senior, junior, youth and beach volleyball national teams for four years.

QVA and Sportivo sign sponsorship agreementRacing scrap merger with Stade Francais

AFPParis

A controversial merger be-tween French clubs Racing 92 and Stade Francais that sparked outrage from top in-

ternational players, fans and offi cials has been scrapped, Racing 92 presi-dent Jacky Lorenzetti said yesterday.

Billionaire businessman Loren-zetti and Stade Francais counterpart Thomas Savare announced the plan for the merger of the two Top 14 Paris region rivals on Monday, triggering anger from the city administration, rugby offi cials and their own play-ers who said they had not been con-sulted.

Racing 92 and Stade Francais, winners of the last two Top 14 titles, are two of the most formidable clubs in the French championship and the merger from next season came as a lightning bolt for European rugby.

Elite stars feared for their careers following the announcement of the bombshell plan that entailed a loss of half the playing staff of the combined clubs. Opposition was so strong and came from so many quarters that Lorenzetti said he and Savare had been forced to rethink the deal.

“I renounce the plan for a rap-prochement with Stade Francais,

in agreement with Thomas Savare the merger will not take place,” said Lorenzetti in a statement.

“I heard and understood the strong reservations expressed in re-sponse to this project.

“In any case, the social, political, cultural, human, and sporting con-ditions were not in place. Perhaps we had the right plan too soon, only the future will tell.”

Stade Francais fans launched pro-tests while players called a strike, re-fusing to train or play against Castres on Saturday, resulting in the match being postponed while Racing’s Sat-urday game against Montpellier was also called off .

The French Rugby Federation was openly hostile to the merger, say-ing in a statement it was “shocked to learn via the media” that France would lose one of its most historic rugby clubs.

Lorenzetti admitted that he had failed to do the groundwork in ex-plaining his plan.

“I did not appreciate to what ex-tent it was a top priority to explain and share my vision and to present the details of the plan even among the Racing 92 staff ,” he said.

Savare said it would make “no sense” to go ahead with the merger given the strength of the opposition to it.

But he was unrepentant about the project itself, saying the merger of the two clubs was the correct path to take and one “fi ercely shared” by him and Lorenzetti.

“We are convinced, both ot us, that it is the right thing to do,” he said.

Racing and Stade Francais were among the fi rst clubs created when rugby union was introduced to France in the 19th century. Racing won the fi rst championship fi nal against Stade in 1892. Stade got their revenge the following year

Racing were languishing in France’s second division when Lorenzetti bought them in 2006. Savare took over Stade Francais in 2011 when they were threatened with bankruptcy and relegation.

Both clubs have spent hundreds of millions of euros on redevelop-ing and acquiring new players since 2010.

Stade Francais’s Jean Bouin sta-dium, owned by the city of Paris, was redeveloped in 2013 and reopened with capacity increased from 13,000 to 20,000.

Racing are building a new 220 million-euro 32,000-seat stadium in the La Defense business district. It should have opened in January but this has been put back to the end of the year.

SPOTLIGHT

AFPIndian Wells, United States

Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka set up an all-Swiss showdown for the ATP Indian Wells

Masters title on Saturday with straight-sets semi-fi nal victories.

Federer, who won his 18th Grand Slam title at the Austral-ian Open, subdued 17th-seeded American Jack Sock 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) to earn a crack at a record-equalling fi fth Indian Wells title.

US Open champion Wawrin-ka, past the quarter-fi nals in the California desert for the fi rst time, knocked out Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-2.

Federer went into his clash with Sock well-rested after ailing Aussie Nick Kyrgios pulled out of their highly anticipated quarter-fi nal. Federer, who had trounced old foe Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-3 in the fourth round, picked up right where he left off as he raced through the fi rst set in 21 minutes.

But Sock, winner of two titles already this year at Auckland and Delray Beach, raised his game in the second set, saving a break point in the seventh game as it went on serve to the tiebreaker.

The American energized US fans on Stadium Court when he zinged a backhand winner past Federer for a 3-1 lead in the de-cider.

But Federer won six of the next seven points, including the last three, as he sealed the contest on his fi rst opportunity.

“I think I defi nitely played great in the fi rst set, came out and really saw the ball well,” Fe-derer said.

“I think Jack didn’t have his best fi rst set, but I found a way to take advantage of that quickly, hardly made any mistakes and was able to press.

“The second set was more like what I expected the fi rst set to be. It was hard to break and re-turn well off Jack’s heavy serve. I maybe dropped my level just a bit, as well, as he lifted his.

“I had to rely a lot on my second serve. I’m happy it was there. Things got a bit more complicated, but it was defi nite-ly a good feeling to get through in two sets.”

Sock said he had little to regret in the loss to the player he con-siders the greatest of all time.

“I didn’t play my service games really the way I wanted to in the fi rst,” said the 24-year-old, who was in the fi rst Masters semi-fi -nal of his career. “But I gave my-self chances in the second.

“The room for error is so lit-tle,” he said of the challenge posed by Federer.

“Especially on his serve, he doesn’t give you anything.”

Federer hasn’t been broken in the tournament, and in fact has faced just one break point, against Nadal.

The closest Sock got was a deuce in the eighth game of the second set, and Federer quickly dispersed the whiff of danger with two forehand winners.

Federer has won 19 of 22 ca-reer meetings with Wawrinka, including a semi-fi nal win at the Australian Open in January.

Wawrinka’s path to the fi nal,

just his fourth at the elite Mas-ters level, included a close shave against lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka in the fourth round and a third-set tiebreaker against rising Austrian talent Dominic Thiem in the quarter-fi nals.

Against Spain’s 23rd-ranked Carreno Busta, however, it was clear sailing for the three-time Grand Slam champion, who didn’t face a break point in the 64 minute match.

One break of Carreno Busta’s serve was enough to give him the fi rst set, and Wawrinka earned a hard-won break for a 2-1 lead in the second with a blistering forehand on his fi fth break point of the game that Carreno Busta had no hope of getting back.

Another break in the seventh game left Wawrinka to serve it out, and he punctuated the con-test with a love game.

‘The room for error is so little. Especially on his serve, he doesn’t give you anything’

Federer, Wawrinka to meet in all-Swiss Indian Wells fi nal

TENNIS

Golovkin edges Jacobs by decision to defend titlesAFPNew York

Gennady Golovkin earned a unanimous decision over Daniel Jacobs on Saturday to

retain his middleweight belts but not before boxing’s knock-out king was taken the distance for the fi rst time.

Golovkin was forced to go 12 rounds as Jacobs gave the middleweight superstar all he could handle in front of a boisterous crowd of 19,000 at Madison Square Garden.

Golovkin retained his WBC and WBO belts as two of box-ing’s pre-eminent punchers put on an entertaining show against the best opponents of their respective careers.

“I couldn’t destroy him,” said Golovkin. “He is a very clean, very good fi ghter. It is my fi rst test for 12 rounds.”

Judges Don Trella and Steve Weisfeld both scored the fi ght 115-112 and Max DeLuca had it 114-113 for Golovkin.

Cancer survivor Jacobs was an underdog going in but he used his 10-pound weight and reach to his advantage and possibly provided the blue-print for Canelo Alvarez to use against the 35-year-old Kaza-kh in a future title fi ght.

Golovkin, who improved to 37-0, fl oored Jacobs early in the fourth round with two rapid fi re overhand rights to record the only knockdown of the fi ght. Golovkin denied suggestions that he should have thrown more punches in the early rounds.

“This is sport. I am a boxer, I am not a killer. I respect his game,” Golovkin said.

Golovkin had won 33 of his previous 36 fi ghts by knockout as his 23 fi ght knockout streak, which dated back to 2008, came to a halt. He has a 92 % knockout rate, the best ratio of any middleweight in boxing history.

Golovkin’s IBF title was not on the line because Jacobs declined to attend the Satur-day morning weigh in. Jacobs needed to be within 10 pounds of Friday’s offi cial weigh-in weight or lose the chance to fi ght for the IBF title.

The 30-year-old Jacobs de-cided the extra weight in the ring was more important than fi ghting for all of Golovkin’s titles and the gamble almost paid off . He dropped to 32-2, with 29 knockouts.

“At times I stood toe-to-toe with him to see what the power was like, what everybody was talking about, and it wasn’t that bad,” Jacobs said.

Cancer survivor

Jacobs is nicknamed “Mira-cle Man” after his career was almost ended in 2011 because of osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He made a full recovery but spent 19 months out of the sport while battling

and recovering from cancer.Jacobs felt he won the fi ght

but said the judge’s favoured the champion.

“Daniel Jacobs got X-ed out,” he said. “I won the fi ght by at least two rounds.”

On the undercard, Thai-land’s Srisaket Sor Rungvisai captured the WBC super fl y-weight title with a stunning majority decision over unbeat-en champion Roman Gonzalez.

The former star Muay Thai fi ghter, who once worked as garbage man to help fi nance his early boxing career, contin-ued his amazing victory run by handing Gonzalez the fi rst loss of his career.

Srisaket has now won 41 or his last 42 fi ghts as he im-proves to 42-4 overall with one drawn and 38 knockouts.

“He is one of the best fi ght-ers but the reason I won is be-cause I have all the help and encouragement from the peo-ple of Thailand,” Srisaket said.

Nicaragua’s Gonzalez, who goes by the nickname “Choc-olatito”, is considered one of the best pound-for-pound fi ghters in the world and was a heavy favourite going into the 12-round fi ght.

He suff ered a couple of cuts over his right eye which bleed profusely throughout much of the fi ght and hampered his vi-sion. Gonzalez, who dropped to 46-1, immediately left the ring without making any com-ments. Former WBC champion Srisaket’s only loss since 2010 came three years ago when he fell to Mexico’s Carlos Cuadras.

In the fi nal round, the worn-out Thai southpaw was booed because he spent much of it ei-ther running away or clutching and grabbing Gonzalez in the centre of the ring.

Gonzalez, in his 16th world title fi ght, became a world champion in his fourth weight division in September by tak-ing a unanimous decision vic-tory over Cuadras.

Gonzalez lost Saturday’s fi ght despite landing 441 punches compared to just 284 punches landed for Srisaket.

BOXING

Gennady Golovkin celebrates after defeating Daniel Jacobs at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (AFP)

SPORT7Gulf Times

Monday, March 20, 2017

ReutersOrlando

Charley Hoff man sank a 70-foot birdie at the fi -nal hole to tie Kevin Kis-ner for the third-round

lead at the Arnold Palmer Invita-tional in Florida on Saturday.

Hoff man read a big left-to-right break perfectly, his ball curling into the centre of the cup on the same green at Bay Hill in Orlando where Tiger Woods holed so many clutch putts to clinch his eight victories in the event. Hoff man carded one-under-par 71, while Kisner fi red a 68 to tie it up at 11-under 205 with one round left.

The two Americans have a three-shot lead over English-men Tyrrell Hatton and Mat-thew Fitzpatrick and Australian Marc Leishman. World number three Rory McIlroy (65) soared to the edge of contention, the day’s equal best score lifting the Northern Irishman within fi ve shots of the lead.

Halfway leader Hoff man made a demoralising start with two

straight bogeys, and further bo-geys at the 14th and 15th holes left him in danger of falling off the leaderboard.

“I knew I needed a good fi n-ish to run down Kisner,” he told PGATour.com after turning his fortunes around with birdies at the fi nal three holes. He has

birdied the par-four 18th all three rounds. “Hopefully I don’t need a birdie tomorrow but at least the feelings are good go-ing into it,” he said. Co-leader Kisner said he had learned that protecting a lead rarely works against the best players in the world. McIlroy is among those

chasing the leaders. “I just played better, holed some putts,” said the man who needs to win next month’s Masters to com-plete the career grand slam of all four major championships.

Leading scores 205 — Kevin Kisner 70-67-68, Charley Hoff man 68-66-71208 — Tyrell Hatton (ENG) 72-69-67, Marc Leishman (AUS) 71-66-71, Matthew Fitzpatrick (ENG) 67-69-72209 — Adam Hadwin (CAN) 70-70-69, Lucas Glover 68-69-72210 — Rory McIlroy (NIR) 74-71-65, Kyle Stanley 73-68-69, Greg Chalmers (AUS) 69-72-69211 — Rickie Fowler 74-72-65, Justin Rose (ENG) 71-70-70, Paul Casey (ENG) 68-72-71, Harold Varner 70-70-71212 — Billy Horschel 72-73-67, Martin Kaymer (GER) 73-71-68, Cameron Smith (AUS) 74-69-69, Francesco Molinari (ITA) 70-68-74213 — Pat Perez 74-70-69, Michael Kim 72-71-70, Russell Henley 72-71-70, Keegan Bradley 71-71-71, Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 67-68-78.

Hoff man, Kisner lead by three shots at Bay HillGOLF

Home Swede home for Arizona gal NordqvistSweden’s Anna Nordqvist set a tournament course record with an 11-under 61 Saturday to take a two-stroke lead after the third round of the LPGA Tour’s Founders Cup. The score also tied her career best round score which she shot in the third round of the Mobile Bay Classic in 2013. The previous best tournament round score was a 62. Nordqvist, who was born in Eskilstuna outside of Stockholm, said she enjoys playing on the western United States.“I always say I’m a west coast girl and people remind me I’m from Sweden,” she said.Nordqvist went out in the afternoon at the Wildfire Golf Club and started quickly with a five-under par, 31 on her first nine holes. She played college golf in Arizona so feels at home on this course.“They always say that home is where the heart is, and my heart is definitely still here,” said Nordqvist. “Even though I live in Florida now, this definitely feels like home. I have family and friends here, or seem like family.“So I was staying with friends this week. It’s just been a fun week. It’s been busy first week back in the US, but just always feel special coming back here. I wish I could more often. Definitely, have a big smile on my face this week.” Nordqvist reached 21-under par 195 and has a two-stroke lead over opening round playing partners, Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand and American Stacy Lewis.

“Yeah, I had a great first two days with Stacy and Ariya. I think we were 36-under par as a group for the first two days. Someone seemed to be birdieing almost every hole,” said Nordqvist. Ariya had three straight birdies on the back nine to finish with a bogey free 66 score. “I’m starting to make some putts today,” Ariya said. “I missed a pretty short one, but today is good.”Ariya said Sunday will be a mental struggle.“I’m going to be really want to commit with every shot I hit tomorrow.” Lewis recorded seven birdies and one bogey cruis-ing to a six-under par in round three. “Making those two birdies coming in was huge. With the way this golf course is playing, two back is not a big deal,” she said.

Leading scores after third round 195 — Anna Nordqvist (SWE) 67-67-61197 — Ariya Jutanugarn (THA) 64-67-66, Stacy Lewis 64-67-66198 — Ryu So-Yeon (KOR) 69-65-64, Angel Yin 68-66-65, Chun In-Gee (KOR) 64-69-66200 — Lydia Ko (NZL) 68-69-63, Nelly Korda 66-70-64, Park In-Bee (KOR) 67-66-67, Vicky Hurst 65-67-68201 — Beth Allen 68-68-65, Jacqui Concolino 70-64-67, Caroline Masson (GER) 68-66-67, Karine Icher (FRA) 68-65-68, Park Sung-Hyun (KOR) 67-66-68.

Charley Hoff man of the United States reacts after putting for birdie on the 18th green during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented By MasterCard at Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, Florida. (Getty Images/AFP)

Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka celebrates his victory over Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in their BNP Paribas Open semi-final.

Roger Federer of Switzerland serves against Jack Sock of the United States during their BNP Paribas Open semi-final at Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California. (Getty Images/AFP)

Monday, March 20, 2017

GULF TIMES SPORT

Justice and Giama were the stars for QSC with 26 and 23 points respectively

Bahrain’s Nasser Yacoub defeated compatriot Adnan Mubarak in a playoff to win the Qatar Senior Open at the Doha Golf Club on Saturday. Yacoub and Mubarak were tied on five-over par forcing the playoff in which the former triumphed. Qatar’s Abdulaziz al-Boainin was placed third. The ladies event was won by Tasnim Kazi, while Teresa Joe Gow and Beth San Jose finished second and third respectively. Fahad Nasser al-Naimi, the Secretary General of Qatar Golf Association (QGA) and Mohamed Faisal al-Naimi, Executive Director, crowned the winners. The two-day championship brought together 120 golfers from the GCC nations, other parts of Asia besides expatriates in Qatar. The Qatar Golf Association and Doha Golf Club thanked Ammico Contracting, the main sponsors of the tournament, as well as Gulf Lights, QALCO, JJ Infrastructure and AL Mohhana for their continuous support.

Bahrain’s Nasser Yacoub, Tasnim Kazi win Qatar Senior Open

Qatar Sports Club win thriller, Arabi sail past Al Sadd

By Sports ReporterDoha

Edward Justice scored 26 points and Ibrahim Giama contributed 23 as Qatar Sports Club edged out Al Ahli 81-78 to win their

opening match in the Qatar Cup bas-ketball tournament last evening.

In a see-saw battle at the Al Gharafa Sports Club, it was Al Ahli who grabbed the early initiative, taking a 14-10 lead after the first five minutes.

Qatar Sports Club kept snapping at their rivals’ heels but Al Ahli stilled edged the first quarter 22-19, and also the second, 40-39.

However, in a dramatic turn of events, Qatar Sports Club worked up some sen-sational form in the third quarter, scor-ing 16 points in the first five minutes to suddenly find themselves leading 55-44.

The Qatar Sports Club defence ad-mirably kept the Al Ahli team at a safe distance, allowing their rivals to score only four points in the bargain.

But the second five minutes of the third quarter again saw a turnaround with Al Ahli scoring 15 points against Qatar Sports Club’s nine.

But that didn’t prevent Qatar Sports Club from taking a three-point advan-tage (71-68) advantage into the final

quarter, in which they scored 17 points to clinch the match.

The highlight of the match was some great shooting from Giama, who scored 21 of his 23 points from the three-point mark.

Qatar Sports Club scored 19 points from turnovers while Al Ahli had just 9. Qatar Sports Club also excelled with second chance points, scoring 13, while Al Ahli could only manage four.

For Al Ahli, Aleksander Metro-vik top-scored with 19, Abdulrahman al-Muftah had 18 and Omar Ahmed chipped in with 16.

In the second match of the day, Al Arabi thrashed Al Sadd 80-58 with Adako Osaro (20), Adaamu Saaka (19), Souleye Ndour (15) and Momar Talla (11) excelling for the winners.

Al Arabi were off to a dominating start, leading 25-13 after the first quar-ter and then wrapping up the second period 43-25.

They continued to pile more misery on Al Sadd and were 66-39 ahead at the end of the third quarter before com-pleting the rout.

For Al Sadd, Mohamed Ouiri scored 19 points, while Faris Sadikovic, Ashraf Abuissa and Oumar Seck chipped in with 10 points apiece.

On Wednesday, El Jaish play Al Gharafa while Al Rayyan take on Al Wakrah.

BASKETBALL

By Sports ReporterDoha

The main rounds of the 2017 Qatar ITF Junior Open will begin at Kha-lifa Tennis and Squash

Complex today. To conclude on March 25, the

event is organised by the Qatar Tennis, Squash and Badminton Federation (QTSBF) in co-op-eration with the International Tennis Federation.

Around 100 players from Great Britain, Switzerland, In-dia, Turkey, Italy, Poland, Bah-rain and hosts Qatar will partici-pate in the event.

Qatar will be represented by Rayyan al-Jefairi, Abdulrah-man al-Ghazal and Mubarak Shanan.

QTSBF Secretary General Tariq Zainal said: “The ITF tour-nament comes in light of our plan to provide the Qatari play-ers with all possible opportuni-ties to compete with interna-tional players and to participate

in more international tourna-ments.

“The ITF event will also en-able the Qatari players improve their world ranking.”

Meanwhile, the QTSBF Junior Open is continuing at the Khalifa Tennis and Squash Complex.

Qatar’s Ghanim al-Sualiti qualifi ed to the semi-fi nals of boys’ under-12 category after beating Gan Wajed in 7-5 6-4.

In the boys’ under-18 cat-egory, Hamad al-Qasimi made it to the semi-fi nals after beating Carl Samwal Cruz 6-2 6-0 in the quarter-fi nals.

In the semi-fi nals, al-Qassi-mi will take on Mohamed Aziz Elaiwa who eased past Clemant Harmon in straight sets. Ab-dulrahman al-Ghazal reached the semi-fi nals of the same cat-egory following his 6-0 6-2 over Yousef Essa to set a showdown with Mohamed Amin Elaiwa who defeated Hassan al-Obaidli.

Khadija Qassama claimed the girls’ under-10 title (orange stage) after beating Jawhara al-Thani 2-1 fi nal match.

Qatar ITF Junior Open to begin today

TENNIS

By Sports ReporterDoha

The Qatar Stars League has announced the venues and kick-off times of the matches

in rounds 24 and 25 to be played in early April. The fi xtures of round 26 will be announced later.

The participation of Al Rayy-an and Lekhwiya in the AFC Champions League 2017 was also taken into consideration while preparing the schedule.

Round 24 fi xtures will be played on April 1 and 2. The teams have been divided into two groups: those competing for the top four and those strug-gling to avoid relegation.

On April 1, four games will be played at 6.20pm. These matches are Al Ahli versus Al Kharaitiyat at Al Ahli Stadium, Al Arabi versus Al Shahania at Al Arabi Stadium, Al Wakrah versus Al Khor at Al Wakrah

Stadium and Muaither versus Al Sailiyah at the Al Gharafa Sta-dium. On Sunday, April 2, three games are to be played. They are Al Gharafa versus Umm Salal at 6.20pm at the Al Gharafa Sta-dium, Lekhwiya versus El Jaish at 8.30pm at Lekhwiya Stadi-um and the highly anticipated Al Sadd versus Al Rayyan at 8.30pm at the Al Sadd Stadium.

The Round 25 fi xtures will be held April 6 and 7. On April 6 four games will be played. They are Lekhwiya versus Al Ahli at 6.20pm at Lekhwiya Sta-dium, Al Sadd versus Al Sailiya at 6.20pm at Al Sadd Stadium, Al Rayyan versus Al Arabi at 8.30pm at Al Sadd Stadium and Al Gharafa versus El Jaish at 8.30pm at Al Gharafa Stadium.

On Friday, April 7, all matches will begin at 6.20pm. They are Al Khor versus Al Shahania at Al Khor Stadium, Al Wakrah versus Umm Salal at Al Wakrah Stadium and Muaither versus Al Kharaitiyat at Al Gharafa Sta-dium.

QSL announces round 24 and 25 fi xtures

FOOTBALL

Al Ahli’s Abdulrahman al-Muftah (in green and white) and Qatar Sports Club’s Kaid Zubovic battle for the ball during their Qatar Cup clash yesterday. At bottom, Al Arabi’s Osaro Adako dunks against Al Sadd. PICTURES: Shaji T