AFP

MANCHESTER: Manchester City secured their place in the Cham-pions League quarter-finals yeserday, but did little to enhance their tag as favourites to win the competition as a much-changed side suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat by Basel.

Meanwhile, Juventus pro-duced a Champions League smash-and-grab raid as Paulo Dybala’s goal earned them a 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley to send the Italians through to the quarter-finals 4-3 on aggregate.

Son Heung-min’s first-half effort had put Tottenham in con-trol after they had drawn 2-2 in Turin last month and there was little sign of a Juve response until Gonzalo Higuain and Dybala struck in three second-half minutes.

Higuain poked in from close range to equalise in the 64th minute before fellow Argentine Dybala, who missed the first leg with an injury, curled past Hugo Lloris after bursting clear.

Despite losing for just the fourth time all season,

the runaway Premier League leaders still cruised through 5-2 on aggregate after doing the hard work in Switzerland three weeks ago.

City manager Pep Guardiola could afford the luxury of mak-ing six changes from Sunday’s dominant 1-0 win over Chelsea, but still saw his side extend their aggregate advantage early on when Gabriel Jesus tapped home after just eight minutes.

However, Mohamed Elyou-noussi exposed some slack City defending to smash in an equal-iser for the Swiss champions nine minutes later before Michael Lang rocketed home a spectac-ular winner 19 minutes from time.

City could have the Premier League mathematically wrapped up by the time they are next in Champions League action in early April.

And on this evidence they will need the likes of Sergio Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva to be well-rested and in-form if they are to deliver the dream of their Abu Dhabi own-ers by winning the European Cup for a first time as a number of

youngsters and fringe players failed to impress.

Leroy Sane was one of few regular starters retained in Guar-diola’s starting XI and continued

his supreme form by creating the opener.

Jesus hadn’t started since suffering knee ligament damage on New Years’ Eve, but had the

simplest of tasks to get back among the goals when Bernardo Silva latched onto Sane’s pass to produce a inch-perfect low cross for the Brazilian.

City should have gone even further in front as Silva’s shot from a dangerous Sane cut-back was blocked before Basel goal-keeper Tomas Vaclik made a fine block to deny Ilkay Gundogan his third goal of the tie.

However, a minute later Basel were level as Blas Riveros burst down the left and his deflected cross was dispatched powerfully past Claudio Bravo by Elyounoussi.

The Norwegian then had a great chance to put Basel in front on the half hour mark when he miscued horribly wide with just Bravo to beat after outmuscling Danilo.

Guardiola grew visibly frus-trated on the touchline as his side also started the second period slowly.

And they were punished when Elyounoussi’s low cross was blasted past Bravo at his near post from a narrow angle by Lang.

Substitute Brahim Diaz came closest to a reply but his low driven effort was turned behind by Vaclik to consign City to a first home defeat since December 2016.

SPORTThursday 8 March 2018

South Africa and Australia renew Test

rivalry

Paul and Harden fire as Rockets roll to sweet 16th

PAGE | 32-33 PAGE | 32-33 PAGE | 34Annual Contracts:

India hands massive hike in players’ feesInh

Draw against Al Hilal a ‘good result’, says coach LaudrupRIZWAN REHMAT THE PENINSULA

DOHA: QNB Stars League giants Al Rayyan produced a fighting 1-1 draw against Saudi rivals Al Hilal in their 2018 AFC Cham-pions League match on Tuesday, an away result that pleased coach Michael Laudrup (pictured).

In front of a packed stadium at King Saud Stadium in Riyad, Al Rayyan opened the scoring through midfielder Mohsine Moutouali’s early strike in the third minute. Al Hilal drew level when Abdullah Al Zori struck in the 58th minute to save the home team’s blushes in the Group D clash.

“The game was close and played with a lot of energy. In the first half, we played a great match and scored an early goal.

My team could have scored another goal in the first half. But it was a good result for our team since the match was outside our home,” Laudrup said.

“We played with a good team that played the AFC Cham-pions League final three months ago. I am happy with this result. It was a good result,” the popu-lar Dane added.

“The team played with Al Hilal last season and lost. We played with the best Gulf teams this season and we gave them a big scare. After this game we have a league match and then we get ready to meet Al Hilal in Doha for the return leg. It will be a difficult game but we look forward to coming next week,” Laudrup added.

“The match was close to the game and the team could have scored two goals in the first half.

In the second half, Al Hilal was the best and scored the equal-izer, and in the final minutes I was thinking about the last game sce-nario and losing the match in last m i n u t e , ” L a u d r u p admitted.

W h e n asked about Al Rayyan’s chances of qual i fy ing from Group D, Laudrup

said: “Everyone was gunning for Al Hilal and Al Ain. After three games, the results are close. I think Al Rayyan is on the right track to qualify for this group.”

Goal hero Moutouali said: “It feels to have scored a key goal in a very important match. I feel we deserved to win since we got many chances to score in the first half when we had scored that early goal.”

He added: “We played a big game against a strong oppo-nent who was playing in front of their own. The match was the same between the two teams. We had many chances and if we had scored, the result would have been completely different. But getting a point is a good thing. Now we have two games at home where we will prepare well to get the wins we seek.”

Moutouali said: “We have a strong desire to continue the good results in the next round of the AFC Champions League and Al Rayyan will do every-thing they can to qualify from this difficult group. This surely is the strongest among the groups.”

Al Rayyan defender Ahmed Al Mohammadi said: “It was a great match and we managed to get a point in what was a tough clash. We can get better results when we play at home. Our performance at King Saud Stadium has given us the confi-dence now.”

He added: “What delighted me was the fighting spirit we showed in the 90 minutes of tough football. That one point was important.”

Belmadi happy with win but says players battling fatigueTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Al Duhail coach Djamel Belmadi was pleased with his team’s 3-2 win over Lokomotiv Tashkent but said his players were affected by fatigue in the second half of their AFC Cham-pions League clash on Tuesday.

Youssef El-Arabi (9 and 19) and Youssef Msakni (25) saw Al Duhail race away to a 3-0 lead early in the first half at but the visitors fought back in the sec-ond when (Nivaldo 57) and Marat Bikmaev (59) at Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium.

“It was a good victory. We got three points. And after three matches, we have three wins

and we did not expect this,” Bel-madi said after the Group B match.

“I think the match pressure clearly showed how it effected the players physically, especially in the second half. We could have ended the match com-pletely in the first half but in the second, we gave them hope,” the Algerian said.

“They fought well but we deserved the victory and the points,” Belmadi said.

“The good results this team is achieving this season is a result of a big effort from all the club members and I hope we continue posting such victories in the upcoming matches at

home and in the AFC Champi-ons League,” Belmadi said.

“The championship is long and we still have many matches to go. We will try to prepare well for the upcoming matches. We seek positive results,” Belmadi said.

“We are in front (of our rivals) but we are still playing matches in the league. Then we have matches in the (AFC) Champions League also. The pressure will be big on the play-ers from a physical stand of point. The players will have to have the required recovery. We may even play a number of the new players so that we give rest to the key players,” he added.

Al Duhail’s Youssef Msakni kicks the ball ahead of Lokomotiv’s goalkeeper Ignaty Nesterov during the AFC Champions League football match at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha on Tuesday.

Manchester City’s Leroy Sane (centre) in action with Basel’s Michael Lang and Marek Suchy during the Champions League Round of 16 Second Leg match at Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain, yesterday.

den ts roll

Man City and Juventus in quarters

30 THURSDAY 8 MARCH 2018SPORT

Pilipinas Beton maintain unbeaten run in Inter Nations DivisionTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Pilipinas Beton comes from behind Qavana Balkan to remain unbeaten in the Inter Nations Division The Peninsula Sports DOHA: The Pilipinas Beton team came from behind to win 94-89 over Qavana Balkan in the Ooredoo Basketball Cup PIBAQ 25th Conference organised the Qatar Basketball Federation in cooperation with the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas Inc. and the Philippine Embassy in Qatar.

Qavana Balkan kept Pilipi-nas at bay for most of the game with their unpredictable ball rotation. Pilipinas was not able to counter Qavana Balkan’s offensive prowess as they rotated the ball in looking for the open shot.

The deadly perimeter shoot-ing of Andrija Stojancev made it even harder for Pilipinas to lock down the defense, as they had to stretch out to cover Qavana Bal-kan’s shooters.

In the third quarters, Pilipinas Beton’s woes continued as they saw Qavana Balkan’s lead reach double digits as Adam Rickwood led his team in the offensive end. Pilipinas Beton barely closed the gap to sin-gle digit before the start of the fourth. It was then where Pilipinas veteran, Rodel Mallari asserted his advantage in the paint as they saw Qavana Balkan starting to feel the fatigue.

This enabled Pilipinas to slowly crawl Qavana Balkan’s back with only Miroslav Dobri-canin carrying the scoring load. With 3 minutes remaining and Qavana leading by 4, Pilipinas

Beton’s Niño Gelig launched back to back tries to grab the lead. A short stab by Albin Pjanic returned the favor to Qavana but Gelig unleashed another dagger three to up their lead to two as Qavana lose steam in the final minutes,

committing fouls on the other end, sending Pilipinas Beton to the stripe to solidify their lead until the end.

Rodel Mallari led Pilipinas with a double-double performance of 25 points and 10 rebounds along

with a block. While Adam Rick-wood paced Qavana with 22 markers.

The tournament is sponsored by Philippine Airlines, McDonald’s, Happy Journey Travels and Sea-son Restaurant.

Curtains come down on SOP shooting competitions

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The shooting competitions for girls schools at the 11th edition of Schools Olympic Program (SOP) came to an end at Lusail Shooting Range on Tues-day.

Lulwa Al Marri, Chairperson of the Qatar Wom-en’s Sport Committee honoured the winners.

In attendance was Al Anud Al Naimi.In 10m Air Rifle Event for girls preparatory

schools, Maha Al Saba from Ruqaya School claimed the first place ahead of Aysha Al Mohannadi from Al Khor School in the second place while Shahd Al Yafai finished third.

In Primary Schools event, Nour Al Mohannadi from Al Khor School led the standings. Hour Tayeb from Umm Ayman School took the silver medal while Mai Al Mohannadi from Al Khor School clinched the bronze medal.

Nour Tayeb claimed the gold medal of 10m Air Pistol event for Preparatory Schools. Maryam Al Yazidi and Hanan Al Abdullah occupied the second and third places respectively.

In Secondary Schools event, Zainab Tayeb grabbed the gold medal. Fatima Al Saadi from Nour Al Khaleej School took the second place and Mounira from Aysha bint Abi Bakr School finished third.

Bonallack, Patsy Hankins events kick off todayTHE PENINSULA DOHA: Exciting action is on the cards when the 12 men and 12 ladies from Europe will take on Asia-Pacific in the Bonallack and Patsy Hankins Trophies here today. Doha Golf Club, which recently played host to the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters on the European Tour, is the venue for both three-day matches, which start at 7:00 am.With temperatures in the early thirties, the hot, dry conditions are providing a firm and fast-playing surface for players. Although the course is open, approach shots from the rough can prove difficult to stop on the greens, but straight tee shots offer opportunities for birdie, a factor that will play a key part in the match play this week.The Patsy Hankins team is in good form; Eight of the 12 European players qualified for the matchplay rounds in last week’s Copa S M La Reina - Spanish International Ladies’ Amateur Championship. Swede, Frida Kinhult, will be full of confidence after winning the championship for the second year in a row.During the second practice day yesterday, the European Team fine-tuned it’s foursome and fourball pairings, which will be announced following the celebration of the opening ceremony this evening.

Al Shahaniya

promoted

to QNB Stars

League

QNA

DOHA: Al Shahaniya yester-day joined QNB Stars League officially, after Al Wakrah lost in front of Muaither SC in their match in the second division.

Al Shahaniya had fallen to second division last season, but the club has provided good performance this sea-son and qualified before the end of the competition.

It should be noted that Qatar Football Association regulations stipulates that the club coming in last position in first division will join the second division, while the club ranked 11th in the first division will play against the club ranked second in second division.

Al Duhail are leading in QNB Stars league followed by Al Sadd and Al Rayyan respectively.

The medal winners at the 11th edition of Schools Olympic Program (SOP) pose for a picture along with Lulwa Al Marri, Chairperson of the Qatar Women’s Sport Committee and Al Anud Al Naimi during the victory ceremony at Losail Shooting Range on Tuesday.

Qatar’s Giorgi Sakandelidze, silver medal winner, in the 120kg event at the 2018 Asian Wrestling Championships poses for a picture with Yousef Al Kazem, President of the Qatar Wrestling Federation (QWF) upon arrival in Doha yesterday. Sakandelidze lost to Davit Modzmanashvili of Uzbekistan in the final match.

Grand welcome for Qatar’s Giorgi Sakandelidze

31THURSDAY 8 MARCH 2018 SPORT

Cherif and Ahmed eye place in semis THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar’s leading team of Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan will need to overcome Canadian duo Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter if they are to continue their progress at the Katara Beach Volleyball Cup today.

The identity of the four teams that will contest the Katara Beach Volleyball Cup semi-finals will be known come the end of play after two rounds of matches at the Katara Village Amphitheatre.

Teams that won their pool have progressed directly to the quarter-finals in the afternoon, but the second and third will face off in the second round in the morning. The 4-Star Katara Beach Volleyball Cup is running from March 6 to 10, and is taking place at the Katara Cultural Village.

It is the fourth time that Doha has hosted an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tourna-ment, following competitions in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Cherif and Ahmed Tijan are seeded eighth, three places higher than the two Sam’s. It is their fourth tournament since they teamed up at the end of 2017, with a second round fin-ish at The Hague 4-Star tournament earlier in the year

their best finish. Number one seeds Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena will try to return to win-ning ways after a loss to their US compatriots left them to face the second round.

They will now take on Can-ada’s 14th-ranked Ben Saxton and Grant O’Gorman.

The Netherlands’ leading team of Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen will also need to go through the second round if they want to win second World Tour medals of 2018.

They will need to beat the

Kish Island 3-Star gold medal-lists Mariusz Prudel and Jakub Szalankiewicz if they are to add to their bronze from The Hague.

Meanwhile, Anders Mol and Christian Sorum are fast mak-ing a name for themselves as pair certainly enjoyed the open-ing day of the main draw recording two wins from two yesterday.

First off the Norwegian pair beat Canada’s Grant O’Gorman and Ben Saxton, and then defeated Paolo Nicolai and Dan-iele Lupo a week on from the

Italians winning silver at the 5-Star Fort Lauderdale Major.

“It was hard, really hard as they are a good team,” Mol said.

“They’ve just come from a second place finish in Fort Lauderdale. “We just had noth-ing to lose and put some pressure on them and did some good things out there.”

Mol is 20 and Sorum 22, but they have already packed a great deal into their young careers. They won European U22 gold in 2016 and followed up by win-ning silver in 2017.

A Qatari player in action on the opening day of main round at Katara yesterday.

Action on the first day of main round yesterday.

Sky third as BMC win Tirreno team time trialAFP

ROME: Chris Froome is nine seconds off the overall lead at the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race after BMC won yesterday’s opening team time-trial.

Italian Damiano Caruso will wear the first race leader’s blue jersey for the second year in a row as BMC beat Austral-ian outfit Mitchelton-Scott by four seconds on the 21.5km course in Lido Di Camaiore.

Froome’s under-fire Team Sky were third at nine seconds.

It’s only the second time four-time Tour de France win-ner Froome has competed at the week-long Italian race after finishing second to Italian Vincenzo Nibali in 2013.

He is using it as preparation for May’s Giro d’Italia, which this year will begin in Jerusalem.

Froome’s participation is in doubt as he is under investi-gation for having given an abnormal doping test result at last year’s Vuelta a Espana, which he won.

He tested for elevated levels of asthma medication salb-utamol, which can be taken legally in certain doses.

He is one of the favourites for overall victory at Tirreno-Adriatico, which ends on March 13.

Last month he began his season with a 10th-placed fin-ish at the five-day Ruta del Sol in Spain.

Poels closes on Paris-Nice leadAFP

SAINT ETIENNE: Wout Poels (pictured) made a statement of intent by winning yesterday’s individual time-trial at the Paris-Nice stage race as Luis Leon Sanchez retained the overall lead.

Poels, who was second overall at last month’s Ruta del Sol, is gearing up for a poten-tially pivotal role with Team Sky this year.

The Dutchman could find himself leading the team at May’s Giro d’Italia or the Tour de France in July if reigning champion Chris Froome is banned over an abnormal dop-ing test result he gave at last year’s Vuelta a Espana.

“I hope it will be sorted out as quickly as possible, espe-cially for Chris,” said Poels.

“I’m concentrating on the Giro, to help Chris at the Giro.” Poels finished the hilly 18.4km fourth stage from La Fouillouse to Saint-Etienne in 25min 33sec to beat Spaniard Marc Soler by 11sec with France’s Julian Alap-hilippe a further five seconds back.

“It’s my first win in the

World Tour in a TT so I’m really happy with that,” Poels said.

Poels is now second over-all at 15sec behind Sanchez, who was part of Tuesday’s suc-cessful breakaway. Alaphilippe is third at 26sec.

Sky have won Paris-Nice in five of the last six years and reigning champion Sergio Henao was ninth on the day, 33sec behind Poels and now sits ninth overall at 48sec.

He and Poels are joint lead-ers for Sky in the race.

Ning, Shiwen rally to enter main round in DohaARMSTRONG VAS THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Playing in the qualification stage is always a tricky affair for players who have shared the top spot in the World Rankings and even more complicated if the opponent happens to be a rookie.

Chinese duo of Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen, the two ladies who for most part of the past three years and more have shared top spot, were stretched to the limit in the qualification tournament of the 2018 ITTF World Tour Platinum Qatar Open in Doha yesterday.

Both of them where vying for a place in the main draw, which begins today, in the end the collective experience of playing on the Tour came handy as the two made it past the initial group stage to the main draw.

Lack of international inactivity for the past six months, combined with a new method of assessing ranking, meant the Chinese duo have dropped down the list and were does forced to com-pete in the preliminary stages.

Both were tested. Ning needed five games to beat Japan’s Miyuu Kihara 12-14, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9, 13-11, by a similar margin, Shiwen accounted for Singa-pore’s Lin Ye 8-11, 11-6, 12-10, 14-12, 11-9. Away from the two Chinese play-ers, one player who caught the eye

turned out to be a 13-year-old Miyuu Kihara from Japan.

Against Ning she played more like a 23 year old; in the fourth game she led 9-7 before the reigning Olympic and World champion recovered, Miyuu Kihara electing for “Time Out” at 9-all. In the fifth game, she challenged again, Ding Ning forced to take a “Time Out” when ahead 10-9.

“I think it must be ten years since I’ve had to play in a qualification event; it is such a new situation for me. It’s difficult to focus, difficult to motivate yourself. Miyuu played very well; it’s good for the sport that we have such good young players emerging. She opened up well, good at playing the first attack. Today if I compare by level with last year at the World Championships,

I would say it’s just over 50 per cent,” Ning said. Meanwhile, Banika Batra gave Indian supporters something to cheer about after Harmeet Desai, Sou-myajit Ghosh, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sanil Shetty suffered defeated in the men’s qualification tournament.

Guided by national coach, Massi-miliano Costantini, she beat Canada’s Zhang Mo in a gruelling seven games contest 8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-2, 13-15, 11-7. It was not the most exhilarating

contest ever witnessed, it was one than needed patience and resolve; Zhang Mo uses short pimpled rubber on the forehand, for Batra it is long pimples on the backhand.

“Mouma Das, my team-mate uses exactly the same combination on her racket as Zhang Mo, so I am used to playing against that style of play,” she said.

“The difference between the two players is that Mouma plays much

faster from the forehand than Zhang Mo, against me today Zhang Mo played slowly and that caused me problems,” she added. Choi Hyojoo overcame Japan’s Yui Hamamoto in what was very much the recovery of the day, she fought back from a three games to nil deficit to emerge victorious 12-14, 8-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-7, 11-4). Similarly, Ng Wing Nam accounted for Chinese Tai-pei’s Cheng Hsien-Tzu (11-8, 10-12, 11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 13-11, 11-5.

I think it must be ten years

since I’ve had to play in

a qualification event; it

is such a new situation

for me. It’s difficult to

focus, difficult to motivate

yourself, says Ning

Action from qualification stage matches in Doha yesterday.

32 THURSDAY 8 MARCH 2018SPORT 33THURSDAY 8 MARCH 2018 SPORT

Injured Taylor hits 181 as NZ down EnglandAFP

DUNEDIN: Injury-hit Ross Taylor played through the pain to score a remarkable unbeaten 181 and seal a series-levelling win for New Zealand in the fourth one-day international against England yesterday.

Taylor limped through much of his innings in Dunedin after aggravating a thigh injury, but batted on to compile a career-best innings and make it 2-2 in the series with one to play.

New Zealand ended on 339 for five in reply to England’s 335 for nine, winning by five wick-ets and taking the five-match series to a crunch decider in Christchurch on Saturday.

Taylor scored 17 fours and six sixes as New Zealand reached the target with three balls to spare, wincing with pain after every shot in the latter half of his innings.

“It’s still sinking in,” he said after tearfully leaving the field to a standing ovation, revealing team medics gave him the option of retiring hurt due to the pain.

“I was glad I made the deci-sion to stay out there and swing.” New Zealand captain Kane Wil-liamson rated Taylor’s innings as “one of the great one-day knocks” and said he hoped the batsman would be fit for the decider.

“Ross’s knock was just sen-sational, he’s kind of been batting like that all year,” he said.

“Hopefully his injuries are minor and we can see him in the next game.” - England collapse - Taylor’s heroics in scoring his 19th ODI century overshadowed a fine batting performance from England, marred by a late col-lapse that cost them dearly.

Jonny Bairstow blazed his way to 138 off 106 balls and Joe Root grafted out a hard-fought 102 before England self-destructed late in their innings.

England captain Eoin Mor-gan had no explanation for the collapse but was confident his side’s deep batting line-up would not fail so spectacularly again.

“It isn’t ideal. Normally one of us (batsmen) comes off, so it is a first,” he said.

“We won’t look into it too much at the moment if he hap-pens consistently we’ll have to do something.” New Zealand’s chase started disastrously when openers Martin Guptill and Colin Munro both went for ducks.

Kane Williamson and Tay-lor rebuilt with an 84-run partnership before England’s star all-rounder Ben Stokes dis-missed the New Zealand captain at 45 in the 17th over.

Taylor and Tom Latham then combined for a 187-run partner-ship, with Latham contributing 71. Taylor’s injury came when he was on 109 and had to dive to avoid a run-out, inflaming the

thigh strain that forced him out of the previous match in the series. Unable to run freely, he concentrated on hitting bound-aries, taking New Zealand to the position where they needed 80 off the final 10 overs.

England slowed New Zea-land’s momentum with Latham’s dismissal and Colin de Grand-homme’s departure on 23.

Henry Nicholls looked nervy when he came to the crease but worked well to give Taylor most of the strike.

With three runs needed off the final over, Nicholls faced two dot balls then smashed Tom Cur-ran for six to seal the win.

England should have put the match beyond reach after Bairstow and Root had them at 267 for 1 in the 38th over.

But Bairstow’s departure sparked a collapse that saw six wickets go for 21 runs, ending their hopes of setting a monster total on the small University Oval ground.

A late cameo of 22 off 10 balls from Curran added a degree of difficulty to the target but also showed New Zealand’s batsmen that there were runs in the pitch.

Ish Sodhi led the Black Caps’ fightback with the ball, taking four for 58, while Colin Munro and Trent Boult took two wick-ets apiece.

New Zealand’s Ross Taylor (left) walks

from the field with team-mate Henry

Nicholls after their win during their

fourth ODI in Dunedin yesterday.

South Africa and Australia renew rivalry after tempestuous first TestREUTERS

PORT ELIZABETH: South Africa and Australia resume their battle, while looking to temper hostilities and histri-onics, in the second Test of the four-match series at St George’s Park tomorrow, just four days after the visi-tors won the opener by 118 runs.

It was a result that maintained Australia’s long-standing Test domi-nance on South African soil but was overshadowed by spats both on and off the field that have left the partici-pation of Australian vice-captain David Warner in doubt.

The feisty opener is to answer an International Cricket Council (ICC) charge for a staircase scuffle with wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock after they traded barbs out in the middle and continued the conflict on the way to the changing rooms.

The bowling of Mitchell Starc and a strong batting performance by the tail in their first innings proved the dif-ference between the sides in Durban, where the wicket was slower than anticipated but made for a gripping contest.

Much the same is predicted for Port Elizabeth with Starc ominously warning that Australia’s bowlers could do better.

“The reversing ball is going all right this season but there’s maybe a little bit of work to do with the new ball and getting a few more early wickets,” he said.

South Africa were poor in the opening innings but put up a good fight in the second, where they were set a mammoth 417-run chase and fleet-ingly looked capable of achieving it

before their resistance crumbled.“We would have liked to start the

series on a positive note. There are quite a bit of learning opportunities for us to take going forward,” South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said.

“We will need to take a lot more responsibility with the bat. We didn’t have a great start with the bat but saw

great character from the young guys which started their series off well.”

The 23-year-old Aiden Markram was the only centurion in the Test, his 143 confirming his potential at the top of the order for the home team.

Meanwhile, Australia wicket-keeper Tim Paine has suggested South Africa are not being truthful with their

version of events in the build-up to the confrontation between David Warner and Quinton de Kock in the first Test in Durban.

South Africa team manager Mohammed Moosajee said on Mon-day that Warner had engaged in a personal verbal attack against De Kock on the pitch that involved members

of his family. “That’s completely false. At no stage was Quinton’s family men-tioned, that’s 100 percent false,” Paine told reporters of the events preceding a flare-up that occurred as the teams left the field for tea on Sunday’s fourth day.

“I don’t know how their team manager can hear from where he’s

sitting but from where I was, which was right near the whole time, there was nothing we said that was inappropriate.”

Warner was seen on CCTV foot-age needing to be restrained by team mates on a stairwell as he launched a verbal volley in the direction of De Kock, who according to local media reports had responded to sledging with a comment about the opener’s wife.

The Australian vice-captain has been charged with a Level 2 offence by the ICC, which could see him miss the second Test in Port Elizabeth that starts on Friday. Australia lead the four-Test series after recording a 118-run win in Durban.

De Kock faces a Level 1 charge, which carries the maximum sanction of a fine.

Australia have long had a reputa-tion for attempting to unsettle opposition players with words as well as actions, but Paine says there was a line the team would not cross.

“Our stuff is the way we’ve always played our cricket,” he said.

“Certainly it’s hard, and we like to make them feel uncomfortable out there.

“But we don’t cross the line and bring people’s wives and family into the cricket game. And we’ll continue to do that for as long as we play.”

Warner is no stranger to contro-versy and was nicknamed ‘Bull’ early in his career, a moniker that fittingly captured his rampaging batting and tendency to rack up violations for ill-tempered episodes during play.

He was suspended in 2013 for punching England batsman Joe Root in a bar.

Australia will go into the second Test with a 1-0 lead in the series.

Following is a factbox on the second Test match between

South Africa and Australia, which starts tomorrow:

WHERE? St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth -

Capacity: 19,000 The venue hosted the first Test outside of

Australia and England in March 1889 when the English beat

South Africa by eight wickets.

In 1896, England’s George Lohmann took 7-38 in South Afri-

ca’s first innings and 8-7 in the second as the home side were

skittled out for 30 runs. South Africa won by 231 runs the last

time they hosted Australia at the venue just over four years

ago.

The previous 28 Tests at the venue have seen South Africa win

12 times, the latest by an innings and 120 runs in a day and

half against Zimbabwe in December in the first four-day Test,

which was also the first day-night Test in South Africa.

WHEN? March 9-13. Play starts at 1000 local time (0800

GMT)

SOUTH AFRICA (World ranking: second) Squad - Faf du Ples-

sis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock,

Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen,

Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder,

Lungisani Ngidi, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada.

Coach: Ottis Gibson

AUSTRALIA (World ranking: third) Squad - Steve Smith (cap-

tain), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb,

Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon,

Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Jhye Richardson,

Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc, David Warner.

Coach: Darren Lehmann

MATCH OFFICIALS Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka),

Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand) TV umpire: Sundarama Ravi

(India) Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)

HISTORY: Previous South Africa vs Australia Tests in Port

Elizabeth Matches: 6 South Africa wins: 3 Australia wins: 3

Year Winner Margin 1950 Australia innings and 259 runs 1958

Australia 8 wickets 1967 South Africa 7 wickets 1970 South

Africa 323 runs 1997 Australia 2 wickets 2014 SA 231 runs

CURRENT TOUR First Test: Australia beat South Africa by 118

runs at Kingsmead, Durban

Remaining Tests: Third Test March 22-26 (0800) Newlands,

Cape Town Fourth Test March 30-April 3 (0800) Wanderers,

Johannesburg

FACTBOX: SECOND TEST

EnglandJ Roy c Santner b Sodhi .........................................42

J Bairstow c Southee b Munro ............................138

J Root c Latham b Southee ................................ 102

J Buttler c and b Sodhi .............................................0

E Morgan c Munro b Boult ........................................5

B Stokes c Nicholls b Sodhi ......................................1

M Ali c Southee b Sodhi ...........................................3

C Woakes c Boult b Munro ......................................3

A Rashid b Boult .......................................................11

T Curran (not out) ................................................... 22

M Wood (not out).......................................................3

Extras: (LB1, W4) ....................................................5

Total: (9 wkts) .......................................335Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-267, 3-267, 4-274, 5-276,

6-280, 7-288, 8-305, 9-313

Bowling: Southee 10-0-87-1 (1w), Boult 10-0-56-2

(1w), de Grandhomme 2-0-23-0 (1w), Santner 10-0-57-

0, Sodhi 10-1-58-4 (1w), Munro 8-0-53-2

New Zealand:M Guptill c Stokes b Woakes ................................... 0

C Munro lbw Wood ...................................................0

K Williamson c Buttler b Stokes ........................... 45

R Taylor (not out) ..................................................181

T Latham c Ali b Curran .......................................... 71

C de Grandhomme c Woakes b Curran ..............23

H Nicholls (not out) ................................................. 13

Extras: (LB4, W2) ...................................................6

Total: (5 wkts) ...................................... 339Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-2, 3-86, 4-273, 5-303

Bowling: Woakes 8-2-42-1 , Wood 8-0-65-1 (1w),

Rashid 10-0-74-0, Curran 8.3-0-57-2, Stokes 7-0-45-1

(1w), Ali 8-0-52-0

Result: New Zealand win by five wickets

SCOREBOARD

Annual Contracts: India hands massive hike in players’ feesREUTERS/IANS

NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has introduced a new A+ category in the retainer fee structure for it’s top players, who will receive a huge pay increase under the new Annual Contracts for the 2017-18 season.

The retainer structure now features four categories - Grade A+, Grade A, Grade B and Grade C - compared to three in previ-ous years.

The uppermost category fea-tures five players - skipper Virat Kohli, opening batsmen Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, pacemen Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah - who have been put on a retainer worth 70m Indian rupees ($1.1m).

The amount is a significant increase from last year, where players in the uppermost ‘A’ cat-egory were handed retainers of 20m Indian rupees.

“The CoA (Committee of Administrators) was of the view that the performance and posi-tion of Indian Cricket needs to be recognised with the fee struc-ture comparable to the best in the world,” the BCCI said in a statement yesterday.

Last year, senior players expressed dissatisfaction with the pay rises they received, lead-ing Vinod Rai, head of the Supreme Court-appointed CoA, to announce that a further hike would be considered for the cur-rent season.

The world’s richest cricket board handed seven players Grade A contracts this season, including former captain M.S. Dhoni, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and batsman Ajinkya Rahane, who will receive 50m Indian rupees each.

Top Indian cricketers also receive a match fee for each

international appearance and many benefit from playing in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL).

Grade B players, including fast bowler Ishant Sharma and all-rounder Hardik Pandya, will earn 30m Indian rupees each while Grade C players will receive 10 million Indian rupees each.

The CoA, which supervises the operations of the BCCI, said that it had sanctioned the crea-tion of a Players Revenue/ Compensation Equalization Fund (PR/CEF) to insulate player compensation.

The BCCI will contribute approximately 1.25bn Indian rupees per annum to the fund.

Meanwhile, Delhi Daredev-ils yesterday named veteran batsman Gautam Gambhir as their captain for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The 36-year-old top-order batsman returned to the Delhi franchise after a seven-season stint with Kolkata Knight

Riders, who won two IPL titles, in 2012 and 2014, under the cap-taincy of the former India star.

Gambhir asserted that he is looking forward to working with Delhi coach and legendary Aus-tralian captain Ricky Ponting.

“It is a huge honour to once again captain Delhi. There are nerves as well as excitement as I return to the side where my IPL career started. To get this responsibility is a way for me to give back to the sport in the city,” Gambhir said.

“I firmly believe that with the players currently involved we have the makings of a very good side. The potential of this group of players is immense and if we play to our potential, we can go

all the way. It is now up to us to turn that potential into consist-ent performances,” the former India opener added.

“It is also going to be great to work in unison with Ricky, an absolute champion himself.”

Delhi have not made the play-offs in the last five editions and having handed the captaincy to Gambhir, who won twice with KKR, the expectations are high.

“One man can’t change any-thing. As a captain, you can lead the way with your performance but the whole team members have to perform. I believe a cap-tain is as good as his team. The captain can set the right envi-ronment for everybody to perform.”

Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan gets a place in newly-introduced Grade A+.

Uppermost Category

S1.1mPlayers included in newly-introduced Grade A+ will get richer by a whopping $1.1m in a year. These players include skipper Virat Kohli, opening batsmen Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, pacemen Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah

Afghanistan’s Nabi signs for LeicestershireAFP

LONDON: English county side Leicestershire yesterday announced the signing of Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi as an over-seas player for Twenty20 matches.

The 33-year-old has a strike rate of nearly 140 in 60 T20 internationals and has chipped in with 61 wickets at an average of 24.80.

Nabi recently played for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League and will represent SunRisers Hydera-bad in the upcoming Indian Premier League.

The off-spinner has underlined his white-ball ability in 93 one-day interna-tionals, claiming 96 scalps with an economy rate of 4.27.

“I have heard a lot of good things about the Foxes,” said Nabi, who also has an ODI century and 11 ODI half-cen-turies to his name.

“I am looking forward to working with (head coach) Paul Nixon and joining a pro-fessional and ambitious county with a good track record in T20.” he added.

I am looking forward to working with head coach Paul Nixon and joining a professional and ambitious county with a good track record in T20, says Nabi

Angry Warner fined for Durban staircase incident, De Kock contests chargeAP

DURBAN: Australia vice-captain David Warner escaped a ban yesterday after pleading guilty to bringing cricket into disrepute for his confrontation with South Africa’s Quinton de Kock in a stadium staircase during the first cricket test in Durban over the weekend.

Warner was fined 75 percent of his match fee, the International Cricket Council said, and received three demerit points for his role in the incident at Kingsmead stadium during a break in play on day four of the open-ing Test on Sunday. Warner admitted the level two offense, which can carry up to four demerit points and which would lead to a ban. But with only three demerit points, the opening batsman is free to play in the second Test starting tomorrow in Port Elizabeth.

Warner was involved in a heated argument with de Kock on a staircase leading to the dressing rooms as play-ers came off for the tea break on the fourth day in Durban. During the confrontation, which was caught on a stadium security camera, an angry Warner had to be restrained by a number of his teammates as he directed comments at de Kock.

The incident was the result of on-field verbals between the teams during play, which then spilled over as

players made their way to their respective dressing rooms. The sledging between the teams got out of hand when Warner and de Kock started making personal comments about each other’s family members, according to the team captains. De Kock was charged with a less serious level one offense related to bringing the game into disrepute but is contesting the charge, the South Africa team said.

The charges were levelled by on-field umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Sundaram Ravi, third umpire Chris Gaf-faney, and fourth umpire Allahudiean Palekar.

Australia leads the four-test series 1-0 following a commanding 118-run win in Durban in a match under-mined by a series of heated on-field incidents.

Australia spin bowler Nathan Lyon had already pleaded guilty to a charge for his celebration of South Africa batsman AB de Villiers’ run out. In the celebration, Lyon intentionally dropped the ball onto de Villiers, who was lying sprawled on the ground after being run out.

Warner, after playing a part in that same run out, cel-ebrated with a taunting tirade at the other South Africa batsman at the crease, Aiden Markram. Australia quick bowler Mitchell Starc and South Africa batsman Theunis de Bruyn had a series of verbal exchanges during one over later in the day.

Australia’s

batsman

David

Warner

escaped a

ban and will

be available

for second

Test.

Former Aussie Test opener Cowan retiresAFP

SYDNEY: Former Australia Test opener Ed Cowan announced his retirement from professional cricket Wednesday, leaving the game with more than 10,000 runs and 25 centuries to his name.

The 35-year-old made his Test debut in the Box-ing Day clash with India in 2011, but hasn’t added to his 18 appearances since his last outing in 2013. He averaged 31.28.

He pulled the pin after a poor 2017/18 season with New South Wales.

“I have loved the game from my earliest days and feel incredibly lucky to still do so,” he said.

“At this stage I will continue to play Premier Cricket with Sydney University for the remainder of this season and beyond as we aim for successive titles.”

Pakistan Super League Multan Sultan’s Sohaib Maqsood hits a boundary against Quetta Gladiators

during their Pakistan Super League (PSL) match in Dubai yesterday. Right:

Quetta Gladiators’ spinner Mohammad Nawaz celebrates a prize wicket of

former Sri Lanka captain and Multan Sultan’s opener Kumar Sangakkara’s

wicket. Gladiators won the toss and elected to field first.

34 THURSDAY 8 MARCH 2018SPORT

Paul and Harden fire as Rockets roll to sweet 16thAFP

LOS ANGELES: Chris Paul scored 25 points as the Houston Rockets overpowered Russell Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder to tighten their grip on the Western Conference with a 16th straight victory on Tuesday.

Paul produced a scintillating display of shooting which included five three-pointers to help the Rockets bring up their 50th win of the season, a 122-112 victory.

Houston now lead the West at 50-13, one game ahead of the Golden State Warriors who defeated the Brooklyn Nets 114-101 on Tuesday.

The Thunder, meanwhile, remain firmly in the battle for one of the lower-seeded playoff spots, lying seventh at 37-29.

Against the Rockets, the tal-ismanic figure of Westbrook once again led the way for the Thunder with 32 points while Carmelo Anthony finished with 23.

Paul George had 17 points while New Zealand’s Steven Adams chipped in with 16.

Houston’s greater depth in offense, however, was to prove decisive, with seven players cracking double digits.

MVP hopeful James Harden was happy to take a backseat to Paul, but still managed to come up with 23 points, 11 assists and five rebounds.

Harden meanwhile warned against complacency as the Rockets targeted a strong finish to the regular season.

“We’ve still got a long away to go, especially these last 20 games or whatever we’ve got left,” he said.

“Every single game is going to be a different challenge that we’re going to face.”

Thunder coach Billy Dono-van bemoaned his team’s

tendency to concede cheap turnovers.

“We turned the ball over too much, both halves,” Donovan said. “We need to do a better job of taking care of the basketball.

“I thought the difference in the game was the three-point line and the free-throw line. We didn’t get there enough and probably put them there too many times.”

In Oakland, Stephen Curry scored 34 points as Golden State eased past Brooklyn at the Ora-cle Arena. Kevin Durant had 19 points with Klay Thompson 18 and Draymond Green 16 to

maintain the reigning NBA champions’ pursuit of Houston.

In Los Angeles, Anthony Davis exploded for 41 points as New Orleans edged the Clippers 126-121 to claim a ninth straight win. The Pelicans improved to 37-26 with the result.

In the Eastern Conference on Tuesday, DeMar DeRozan led the scoring as the Toronto Raptors notched a fifth consecutive vic-tory to remain firmly on top of the standings with a 106-90 romp against the Atlanta Hawks.

The Raptors improved to 46-17 with the win, helped by Jonas Valanciunas contributing

15 points and CJ Miles 14 off the bench. Serge Ibaka and Delon Wright also made double figures with 10 points apiece.

John Collins and Kent Baze-more each made 14 points for the Hawks, but the visitors were unable to prevent a sixth defeat in eight games. Atlanta remain rooted to the foot of the Eastern Conference with a 20-45 record.

In Charlotte, Robert Coving-ton led an all-round scoring display from the Philadelphia 76ers in a 128-114 defeat of the Hornets.

Covington scored 22 points for the Sixers, one of

seven players to finish in double figures for the visitors, who improved to 35-28 and remain sixth in the standings. Dario Saric had 19 points while Joel Embiid snared 18. Australian star Ben Simmons got 16 points with 13 assists and eight rebounds. Char-lotte fell to 28-37 in the defeat.

In Washington, Bradley Beal had 30 points while Markieff Morris exerted his influence as the Wizards maintained their playoff push, winning 117-113 over the Miami Heat. Morris had 16 points with 13 rebounds to help the Wizards improve to 37-28.

NHL: Marchand’s hat-trick, overtime goal lift BruinsREUTERS

MIAMI: Brad Marchand completed his third career hat trick 34 seconds into overtime and finished with five points on the evening to send the Boston Bruins past the Detroit Red Wings 6-5 on Tuesday night in Boston.

Marchand now leads the team with 28 goals on the sea-son and recorded his 11th career regular-season overtime goal, moving him into first all-time in Bruins history.

Torey Krug (13 goals) scored twice, Jake DeBrusk (14) added a goal and Anton Khudobin made 30 saves as Boston earned its fourth straight victory.

Anthony Mantha (23 goals) lit the lamp twice and Frans Nielsen (14), Martin Frk (11) and Mike Green (7) each had goals for Detroit, which lost its fourth straight.

Jets 3, Rangers 0 Patrik Laine recorded his

fourth career hat trick as Win-nipeg blanked New York at Madison Square Garden.

He surpassed his total from his rookie season by upping his season total to 38 goals. He also extended his points streak to nine games. He has 13 goals and six assists during the streak.

Laine also recorded his 14th multi-point game this season and eighth during this streak.

Devils 6, Canadiens 4 Travis Zajac scored a pair of

first-period power-play goals in

a three-point game and Taylor Hall continued his torrid scor-ing streak as the New Jersey Devils scored four times in the opening frame en route to a 6-4 victory over the Montreal Cana-diens on Tuesday night in New Jersey.

Hall collected two assists, which officially gives him a 19-game point streak. He’s hit the scoresheet in 26 straight games played - a three-game hiatus due to a knee injury breaking up the run - in which

he’s collected 18 goals and 38 points.

Goalie Keith Kinkaid made 29 saves in the win at Pruden-tial Center, which snaps New Jersey’s three-game losing skid, on a night his teammates pro-vided an offensive onslaught.

Blue Jackets 4, Golden Knights 1

Joonas Korpisalo had 37 saves and Pierre-Luc Dubois and Artemi Panarin each had a goal and two assists to lead host Columbus over Pacific

Division-leading Vegas. Defensemen Zach Werenski and Ian Cole also scored for Colum-bus, which won despite getting outshot, 38-21. Korpisalo, filling in for starter Sergei Bobrovsky who was ill, snapped a personal three-game losing streak.

Erik Haula scored for the lone goal for Vegas, which lost for the fourth time in five games. Marc-Andre Fleury fin-ished with 17 saves, suffering just his ninth loss in 34 games (22-9-3).

Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson (43) and Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Kesler (17) battle for the puck in the second period of their NHL hockey game at Honda Center on Tuesday.

Darvish excels in Cubs’ spring training debutAP

MESA, ARIZONA: If Yu Darvish was tipping his pitches in the World Series last year, he seems to have fixed it.

Darvish threw two hitless innings in his spring training debut for the Chicago Cubs, fac-ing his former teammates on the Los Angeles Dodgers.

When last on the mound, Darvish was chased by Houston after getting just five outs in both Games 3 and 7 of the World Series. Darvish said he was moved to lose 15 pounds “because of what hap-pened in the World Series.” Darvish was concerned about the possible impact of the weight loss on his velocity but those worries seemed unwarranted on Tuesday.

“It was right up there,” he said of his velocity, speaking through a translator. “Glad it’s 95.” There was speculation that the Astros had figured out what sort of pitches Darvish was about to throw.

“They could simply be a good, strong team,” Darvish said, adding he has considered “various things to keep consist-ency and mix up pitches and throw from the same slot.” Darvish struck out four, includ-ing Corey Seager, Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig in the opening inning. The Japanese star allowed one run when Chris

Taylor walked leading off the game and circled the bases on a pair of wild pitches around a stolen base.

Signed to a $126 million, six-year deal, Darvish says he’s enjoying wearing the new uniform.

“Everybody is happy here,” he said. “I certainly feel com-fortable being a Cub.” Darvish also has warm feelings toward the Dodgers.

“Every one of them is great. I don’t want to hit any batters. I have that in mind,” he said He joked with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, saying he would beat the Dodgers.

“I only said I’m going to beat them in spring training,” Darvish said. “After the first three batters, I think I was able to command my fastball, slider and curve. really well,” he said.

Darvish is coming off a World Series in which he twice was hit hard by the champion Houston Astros, including a rough outing in Game 7 at Dodger Stadium.

Chicago’s Ben Zobrist says Darvish “adds fear” to oppos-ing batting orders because of his different pitches.

“It’s like, ‘Oh, we have to deal with Darvish? We just dealt with (Jon) Lester and (Kyle) Hendricks.’ He can take a hit-ter who thinks he’s hot and make him not very quickly.”

Davis, Lillard

hot names in

MVP discussion

AP

MIAMI: With the Houston Rockets on top of the NBA and James Harden on top of the scoring race, he may be running away with the MVP vote.

Anthony Davis and Dam-ian Lillard might have something to say about that.

With stellar play steering their sizzling teams, they have at least entered their names in the conversation with a lit-tle more than a month left in the regular season.

Harden has been runner-up to Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook in recent years, but it’s looked like his time this season. With more than 31 points and nearly nine assists per game - third in the league in that category - for a team with the league’s best record, it’s hard to imagine needing to look elsewhere.

“What Harden and Hou-ston is doing right now, he’s the MVP of the league right now,” Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas said on NBA TV.

Davis and Lillard could deserve some thought.

Davis has carried New Orleans with dominant bas-ketball since DeMarcus Cousins was lost for the sea-son last month. The Western Conference player of the month for February opened March by winning player of the week, largely on the strength of a 53-point, 18-rebound, five-block effort that rallied the Peli-cans from a 17-point deficit to a victory over Phoenix on February 26.

Then he went for 41 points and 13 rebounds Tues-day in his first game this week, hitting the tiebreaking shot as the Pelicans beat the Clippers in Los Angeles.

He’s second in the league in scoring and blocks, and eighth in rebounds.

Houston Rockets center Clint Capela (15) dunks the ball in front of Oklahoma City Thunder forward Carmelo Anthony (7) during the first quarter of their NBA game at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Tuesday.

35THURSDAY 8 MARCH 2018 SPORT

Sauber test driver Tatiana and Danica defend women in F1AP

MONTMELO, SPAIN: Tatiana Calderon (right) was announced as Sauber’s test driver on Tues-day and quickly had to defend women’s presence in Formula One.

The 24-year-old Colombian spoke a day after Carmen Jorda, a former development driver in F1 and a member of FIA’s Women in Motorsport Commis-sion, reportedly said women can’t compete equally with men because F1 is too physically demanding.

According to ESPN, Jorda said women should try racing in a series like Formula E, which uses electric cars.

“I don’t think there is a phys-ical barrier,” Calderon told Spanish media during presea-son testing near Barcelona. “Obviously women and men are different and we have a little less muscle mass, but I can make up for that with training.”

Calderon is the first woman to become a test driver in F1 since Susie Wolff drove for Wil-liams in 2015.

“Wolff has already shown that there is no physical barrier,” Calderon said. “I hope to show that we can compete.”

There was widespread reac-tion to Jorda’s comments, with

former NASCAR and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick (far right, above) saying she didn’t agree with the notion that women are at a disadvantage in racing.

“I don’t buy into that,” Patrick said in a phone interview. “We are in a competition of rep-etition and staying calm and loosening up the death grip on the wheel, and staying focused and using your mind. These are the things that help you with endurance: Keeping a level head, keeping relaxed and having gen-eral fitness. If we were going for Olympic lifting, how strong can you possibly be? Then women would not win because that’s not how our bodies are built. But that’s not the game of racing.”

Former F1 champion Jenson Button also criticised Carmen’s comments.

“Oh Carmen, you’re not helping proper female racing drivers with this comment,” he said in a tweet. “Ask @DanicaP-atrick about being (strong) enough to drive a race car! She’d kick my butt in the gym & she’s probably as strong as any driver on the F1 Grid right now. Physi-cal barrier is not your issue Carmen.”

In separate comments after a Formula E test in Mexico City last week, Jorda said her goal as a member of FIA’s commission is to get more women into racing.

“I’ve been racing since I was

11 and a lot has changed,” she told channel 3iMexico. “It’s not a sport only for men, it’s also for women. We obviously support all women in the sport.”

Jorda, who was appointed a development driver for F1 team Lotus in 2015, has been an advo-cate of an all-female racing championship, but Calderon dis-agreed. “We don’t need that,” Calderon said. “I really think women can do really well.”

Calderon, who started rac-ing at age 9, was Sauber’s development driver last season.

“I have been able to substan-tially expand and develop my skills as a race driver, and I am convinced that I will be doing so

throughout this year,” she said. “I look forward to this season, and will give my all to demon-strate my capabilities.”

Sauber said Calderon “will be completing simulator train-ing sessions and coaching with engineers” during race week-ends and at the team’s headquarters in Switzerland. Calderon competed in the GP3 series that last two seasons, and will remain in the development series along with her role as Sau-ber’s test driver.

Before Wolff, the last woman to participate in an F1 race week-end was Italian Giovanna Amati with Brabham in 1992, but she failed to qualify for a race in three attempts.

Golf: Woods, Spieth among strong field at ValsparREUTERS

NEW YORK: Tiger Woods will continue his preparation for the US Masters when he makes his Valspar Champi-onship debut this week in Palm Harbor, Florida, as part of an impressive field that includes world number four Jordan Spieth.

Among the other high-profile names competing at Innisbrook Resort’s Copper-head Course, which boasts narrow fairways, tough greens and the infamous “Snake Pit”, are four-times major winner Rory McIlroy, Masters champion Sergio Garcia and world number five Justin Rose.

For Woods, who returned to competition this year fol-lowing spinal fusion surgery last April and is seemingly pain free and surprising many with his level of play, the event will mark his fourth PGA Tour start of the year.

The 14-times major champion, whose 12th-place finish at the Honda Classic two weeks ago was his most promising result since 2015, now returns after a week off hoping to gain more momen-tum ahead of the April 5-8 Masters at Augusta National, where he is a four-times winner.

Woods will tee off in Thursday’s opening round alongside Spieth and Swed-ish world number 14 Henrik Stenson.

While Spieth, Rose, Gar-cia and McIlroy are among the top draws in this week’s field, none have triumphed on the PGA Tour this year. And with only a handful of tournaments left before the Masters each would surely enjoy a timely boost of momentum before the year’s first major.

World number 71 Bill Haas will be making his fist start since he was a passen-ger in a fatal car crash three weeks ago that took the life of a friend.

Sharma accepts Masters inviteREUTERS

AUGUSTA: India’s Shub-hankar Sharma, fresh off an impressive outing in his PGA Tour debut that made the golfing world take notice, has accepted an invitation to compete in the US Masters, organisers said yesterday.

Sharma, who led last week’s WGC-Mexico Cham-pionship after three rounds before finishing in a share of ninth, will become the fourth Indian player to compete in the year’s first major, follow-ing Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal and Anirban Lahiri.

“Golf is a global game, and throughout our history we have extended invitations to deserving international players not otherwise qual-ified,” Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, said in a statement.

“As his results have proven, Shubhankar Sharma is a remarkable young player, and we look forward to welcom-ing him to Augusta National in April.”

The 21-year-old Indian, who is ranked 66th in the world, has won twice in the past four months, at the Euro-pean Tour’s Joburg Open in December and the Maybank Championship in February.

The Masters will be played from April 5-8.

England’s Danny Care, Owen Farrell, George Ford and Alex Lozowski during training at Pennyhill Park, Bagshot, Britain.

Jones would be on shortlist if Cheika quits after 2019REUTERS

SYDNEY: England coach Eddie Jones would be on any shortlist for the Wallabies job if Michael Cheika fails to win the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, according to Rugby Australia’s (RA) high performance manager.

Cheika, who guided the Wallabies to the 2015 World Cup final, has already said he would walk away from the role if they do not go one better and win the Webb Ellis trophy in Yokohama next November. While RA have not started preparing for that possibil-ity yet, high performance manager Ben Whitaker said Jones, who coached the Wallabies from 2001-05, would be on any list he was instructed to draw up as a contingency.

“I can’t speak on behalf of the board, but if I’m tasked with pulling together a list of potential candidates, is Eddie Jones on there, yeah he is,” Whitaker told Australia’s Fox Sports. “Quite obviously. Where that goes in terms of the process that we run, well, that will be determined.”

Whitaker said Jones’ record as coach of England, they have won 24 of their 26 games since he succeeded Stuart Lancaster fol-lowing their pool stage exit at the 2015 World Cup, simply put him in the conversation.

“You appreciate the skills he’s got as a head coach,” Whitaker said. “And if he’s willing and able -- things you’d have to work out -- he’d be on the list, probably another dozen would be too.”

Securing the 58-year-old’s signature for a return home, how-ever, would require a number of factors to fall into place.

Jones recently signed a contract extension with the Rugby Football Union until 2021, which involves him mentoring his suc-cessor for a year before he steps down. The contract, however, includes a break clause based on England’s performance in Japan.

He has also been mooted as a possible British and Irish Lions coach for their 2021 tour of South Africa, which could require a sabbatical from his England duties, something the RFU said they would allow.

England’s Hughes seeks ‘big start’ in France Six Nations clashAFP

LONDON: Nathan Hughes says England will be looking for a “big start” against France in the Six Nations on Satur-day, desperate to bounce back from the defeat to Scot-land that ended their Grand Slam hopes.

The Wasps No.8, who returned from injury in the loss in Edinburgh, believes England need to come out of the blocks strongly against Les Bleus if they are to secure back-to-back wins in the French capital following their 2016 victory.

The defending Six Nations champions are second in the table after their shock 25-13 defeat against Scotland, with Grand Slam-chasing Ireland favourites to win the tourna-ment. Captain Dylan Hartley is a doubt for the game in Paris while Jack Nowell and Sam Underhill have been ruled out.

“Our mentality this week is to have a big start,” said Hughes, who was born in Fiji. “With France they’ve got big boys so if we can move them around in the early part of the game then that’ll be a big bonus for us, and (if we can) keep the scoreboard ticking. If we can create that big mountain for them to climb I think it will be quite hard for them to get back.”

There is rain forecast at the Stade de France this weekend for the clash between England and fifth-placed France, which Hughes said could be a factor.

“The weather is going to dictate the game so if it’s going to be a wet one then our forwards need to muscle up on their forwards and carry us around. We’re not going to make the weather change the way we want to play, we still want to play expansive, run-ning rugby and for us to do that we need to be connected.”

Scotland stick with Calcutta Cup winning formulaREUTERS

LONDON: Blair Kinghorn will make a first start for Scotland as he was chosen yesterday to replace the injured Tommy Seymour at wing in coach Gregor Townsend’s only change to his side to take on Ireland in the Six Nations on Saturday.

Seymour has not recovered from a back injury suffered in Scotland’s Calcutta Cup success over England at Murrayfield two weeks ago when they beat the auld enemy 25-13.

The 21-year-old Kinghorn debuted as a substitute in the match. It was no surprise that Townsend stuck with a winning combination after Scotland scored a second successive win in this year’s competition and are now looking to derail Ireland’s hopes of a Grand Slam when they play in Dublin.

Scotland added 10 players to their squad on Monday includ-ing the return from injury of a

number of stalwarts like Richie Gray and Zander Fagerson, but only hooker Fraser Brown made it into the match 23.

“We were delighted with the result against England and back-ing up our win against France with an improved performance,” said Townsend in a statement.“The intent we showed in attack and defence in the first half was very encouraging and we continued to work hard in the second-half.”

Team:15-Stuart Hogg, 14-Blair

Kinghorn, 13-Huw Jones, 12-Pete Horne, 11-Sean Maitland, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Greig Laidlaw, 8-Ryan Wilson, 7-Hamish Watson, 6-John Barclay (captain), 5-Jonny Gray, 4-Grant Gilchrist, 3-Simon Berghan, 2-Stuart McInally, 1-Gordon Reid

Replacements: 16-Fraser Brown, 17-Jamie Bhatti, 18-WP Nel, 19-Tim Swinson, 20-David Denton, 21-Ali Price, 22-Nick Grigg, 23-Lee Jones.

36THURSDAY 8 MARCH 2018 SPORTThe Queen’s Club

Championships is one of my

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Atletico Madrid vsLokomotiv Moscow

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CSKA Moscow vsOlympique Lyonnais

FOOTBALLGrigor Dimitrov The Bulgarian is

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2018 Asian Games: Qatar to fight for medals in IndonesiaRIZWAN REHMAT THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Buoyed by heart-warming performances in recent times, Qatar is eyeing medal-winning efforts from their ‘well trained’ female athletes at this year’s Asian Games to be held in Indonesia.

Last year, hosts Qatar topped the GCC Women’s Games medals tally by accumulating 60 medals (21 gold, 20 silver and 19 bronze).

“For this year’s Asian Games, we are looking for medals. God Willing, we will do well and win medals. Hopefully in athletics,” Lolwa Al Marri, Chairperson of the Qatar Women’s Sports Com-mittee (QWSC), said in an exclu-sive chat with The Peninsula.

“We have extended our girls the right amount of preparation in terms of facilities and training camps. We are hopeful we will get medals. The coaches have prepared them really well,” she added.

Excerpts from a Q&A session with the QWSC Chairperson:

Question: Please tell us something about your plans for the Asian Games this year?

We will take part in basket-ball (3x3), athletics, shooting and table tennis. We will have a big number of girls going to Indo-nesia. We have sent our list of athletes to the Qatar Olympic Committee. They will finalise the final number soon. We will have 3 or 4 teams from Qatar. For this Asian Games, we are looking for medals. God Willing, we will do well and win medals. Hopefully in athletics. We have extended our girls the right amount of preparation in terms of facilities and training camps. We are hopeful we will get medals. The coaches have prepared them really well.

Question: Last year Qatar topped the medals chart at the GCC Women’s Games. How do

you look back on that?It was the fifth edition of the

GCC Women’s Games and it was the first time Qatar won the first spot. We had hoped our athletes would do well on home soil but we had worked very hard. In sports you cannot guarantee suc-cess even if you work hard but it was a pleasant surprise to do so well. Our great performance showed that Qatar has done the right thing by investing so heavily in women’s sports.

Question: How was the visit of the Bayern Munich women’s team in January?

Actually last year we saw a number of exchange pro-grammes involving the Qatar national sports teams. Before that we had the British military team in Doha. Then Bayern Munich also camped in Doha for their winter break. That week was full of fun activities.

Question: How do you view the performance of your girls considering these are top teams visiting Doha?

Our girls are young. Mostly they are U-14 but to play against the Bayern Munich women’s team was a life-time opportu-nity to mix with the top players. They were very happy and excited. Bayern Munich were here with their top side. We were happy to see our girls play with them. Maybe two or three are above U-14 but the rest of our team members are U-14.

Question: By hosting such teams, do you think you are helping Qatar girls get the nec-essary exposure?

Absolutely. Bayern Munich’s men’s team has been coming to Doha for the last eight seasons for their winter camps. Clearly Doha is the best venue for them during their winter time. We just offered a friendly match and they (the Bayern Munich women’s

team) were happy to make Doha their winter camp destination. Despite the huge difference between the ages of their players and ours, the game was good to watch.

Question: Could you tell us something about your regular season activities?

We start in September every year. We start our season aiming to go to the young kids to improve our grass-roots activi-ties. We seek to create good players from a young age.

Quality is more important than quantity. Previously we would focus on team sports. Now we focus on individual sports also.

Question: Is it difficult to convince parents to send their girls to take up sports?

No, this issue has been easily solved. Now if you come to our matches and competitions, you will see entire families cheering their kids. We have ways to reach out to the kids. We follow the Qatar Schools Olympic Pro-gramme as we send our coaches

to semi-finals and finals of these events to scout for kids who are good at sports. We also have sports festival activities and we invite schools to feature in those. Then our coaches get to work and spot talented kids. We have coaches from overseas assisting us. We also have plans to help kids who need help for their aca-demic careers. We don’t want kids to have their education affected in any way. We have all bases covered.

Question: Do you have long-term plans for your athletes?

Yes, we have short-term goals and long-term plans. We prepare our athletes for regional events, the Asian Games, the Youth Olympic Games and then the Olympic Games. We have the Youth Olympic Games in October. We are hoping to get our shooting and track and field athletes to the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. We will know about it soon. The most impor-tant goal for any athlete is to reach the Olympics and do well at the Games. We have competed at the Olympic Games and we want to continue in this way. That’s a realistic goal.

Afghan female powerlifters flex their musclesAFP

KABUL: Inside the Afghani-stan Powerlifting Federation’s cramped gym, Rasheda Parhiz lies on a bench wearing a tunic over sweat-pants and holding a 70-kilo-gram (150-pound) weighted bar above her scarf-covered head.

The 40-year-old began powerlifting several years ago to help lose weight -- she used to weigh 120kg and hid her ample frame under a burqa. Now a fitter 82kg, Parhiz’s ability to lift 100kg has brought the mother of three trophies and medals in local and regional competi-tions, which she keeps in a plastic shopping bag in her mud-brick home.

“We are too lazy to dust them,” says her 22-year-old daughter Lema, explaining why they are not displayed in the living room window next to tea sets and thermos.

“Who’s interested?” Parhiz asks modestly.

Several times a week Afghanistan’s female power-lifting team squeezes into a small carpeted room in Kabul where they pump iron.

Lifting weights heavier than themselves, the women are also flexing their muscles in a deeply conservative and patriarchal country where sport has long been the domain of men.

The Afghan Olympic Committee started the feder-ation seven years ago but it has struggled to attract women, who are often dis-couraged from playing sport on the grounds of protecting their virtue.

Powerlifting is a branch of weightlifting using the squat, bench press and dead-lift techniques but without any moves which lift the weight vertically overhead.

There are 20 women on the national team compared with more than 100 in the men’s squad, which also receives more official sup-port, says Totakhail Shahpor, who has been the women’s coach for the past three years after his predecessor absconded during a compe-tition in Canada.

To keep them motivated Shahpor pushes the women to take part in competitions even though each of them only receive 1,000 afghanis (less than $15) a month -- barely enough to cover trans-port costs.

Ahmadi, 25, is the most successful member of the women’s team, winning four gold medals at competitions in Uzbekistan, India and Kazakhstan, Shahpor says proudly.

Despite the taboos around female sport, the women claim they enjoy the backing, even encouragement, of their fathers or husbands to do powerlifting. “My husband is happy... he is proud of me and pushing me,” says Parhiz.

Football: Stage set for ACFT quarter-finalsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The 6th Asian Commu-nities Football Tournament (ACFT) quarter-finals are set to take place today and tomorrow.

The matches today will see Jordan take on Indonesia and Sri Lanka take on Nepal at 8pm and 9:20pm respectively and will take place in Doha Stadium.

The matches tomorrow will

see India take on Bangladesh and Malaysia take on Lebanon. Matches will take place at 8pm and 9:20pm and will be held at Al Markhiya Sports Club. The teams have qual-ified to the quarter-finals stage after earning the highest number of points in their groups.

Jordan has secured first place in Group A for collecting 15 points in total in the group stage, while India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia have

come in second, third, and fourth place after collecting 10, 10, and 6 points respectively.

Group B’s top spot sees Leb-anon leading the group after collecting 13 points in total.

The second, third and fourth place teams include Nepal (13 points), Bangladesh (7) and Indo-nesia (7). The semi-finals are scheduled to take place on Fri-day 16 March at Al Markhiya Sports

Club, while the 3rd place decider match and final will take place on 23 March and 30 March respec-tively. The ACFT is organised by the Qatar Football Association (QFA) and initially featured the partici-pation of six teams during its’ first edition. Following the success of the first edition, the tournament drew lots of interest from the var-ious communities in Qatar who were eager to take part in the

tournament, and thus resulted in a significant increase in the number of participating teams year after year. This year, twelve Asian com-munity teams are participating for the grand prize.

The ACFT is a community tour-nament which brings together various Asian communities resid-ing in Qatar, and encourages them to play more football in a fun com-petitive environment.

Lolwa Al Marri, Chairperson of Qatar Women’s Sports Committee.