Tuesday, August 17, 2021Muharram 9, 1443 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Coach Nagelsmann eyes his fi rst Bayern title

Medvedev towers over Opelka to win in Toronto

TENNIS TENNIS | Page 3 FOOTBALL FOOTBALL | Page 4

CRICKET

WI clinch one-wicket win as Pakistan see chances slip awayPage 2

India quicks star with bat and ball to beat England by 151 runs

Afghan star Khan agonising over family’s safety: Pietersen

Al-Tamimi survives scare to reach second round at British Open

CRICKET

FOCUS

SQUASH

Shami, Bumrah knocks set 272-run target; latter returns to take 3 wickets, Siraj scalps 4AFPLondon, England

India’s pacemen starred with both bat and ball yes-terday as Virat Kohli’s side thrashed England by 151

runs in the second Test at Lord’s.Victory gave India a 1-0 lead

in a fi ve-match series after just their third win in 19 Tests at the ‘home of cricket’ followed a rain-marred draw at Trent Bridge.

England, set 272 to win in a minimum of 60 overs on the last day, were dismissed for 120.

They were in dire straits at 1-2 after Jasprit Bumrah and Mo-hamed Shami removed openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley for nought apiece.

Fellow paceman Mohamed Siraj then followed up with 4-32 — a return that saw him end the match by bowling No 11 James Anderson.

Earlier, Shami, with 56 not out, and Bumrah (34 not out) both hit their highest Test scores and shared an unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 89, dur-ing India’s second innings 298-8 declared.

Bumrah then had Burns out for nought when the left-hander was caught off a leading edge at wide mid-off .

The struggling Sibley followed soon afterwards when he nicked a superb Shami leg-cutter to wick-etkeeper Rishabh Pant.

It was the fi rst time in 141 years of Test cricket in England that both home openers had been out for a duck in the same innings.

The recalled Haseeb Hameed, in on a pair, was dropped in the slips on four before his nine off 45 balls ended when lbw to an Ishant Sharma nip-backer, de-spite a review.

New batsman Jonny Bairstow, was out for just two when lbw to Ishant, although India had to re-view the original not out decision.

ROOT FALLS FOR 33And England’s 67-4 at tea be-came 67-5 three balls afterwards when England captain Joe Root, who made a superb 180 not out in the fi rst innings, fell for 33 when edged a Bumrah ball that angled in to opposing captain

Kohli at fi rst slip.Jos Buttler was dropped on

two in the slips by Kohli off Bumrah.

But at the other end Siraj struck twice in successive balls to leave England 67-5, with Moeen Ali caught by a gleeful Kohli before Sam Curran complete a king pair when edging to Pant.

New batsman Ollie Robin-son, in an England side without Ben Stokes, taking a break from all cricket due to mental health issues and fellow all-rounder Chris Woakes (heel injury), gamely resisted for 35 balls.

But Robinson was eventually lbw on review to Bumrah, who fi nished with fi ne fi gures of 3-33 in 15 overs.

His exit started collapse that saw England lost their last three wickets all on 120, with Buttler caught behind for 25 before An-derson fell.

India resumed yesterday on 181-6, a lead of 154.

Robinson struck with the new ball to have dangerman Pant caught behind for 22, with India now 194-7.

England fast bowler Mark Wood, entered the fray late after

suff ering a shoulder injury when hurtling into an advertising board diving headlong to save a boundary on Sunday.

But the express quick was un-able to add to his three-wicket haul.

With Shami and Bumrah scoring steadily, Root brought off -spinner Mooen Ali back into the attack.

Bumrah, however, was dropped on 22 by fi rst slip Root off Moeen.

Shami went to his second fi fty in 53 Tests in stylish fashion, driving successive Mooen deliv-

eries for four and six off to reach the landmark in just 57 balls.

This innings surpassed his 51 not out against England at Not-tingham’s Trent Bridge in 2014.

Bumrah also topped his high-est Test score for the second time this series after his 28 at Nottingham.

India opener K L Rahul was named player of the match for his fi rst-innings 129.

SCORECARDINDIA 1st Innings ...... 364 all outENGLAND 1st Innings 391 all outINDIA 2nd Innings (o/n 181-6)KL Rahul c Buttler b Wood ...........5R. Sharma c Mooen b Wood ...... 21C. Pujara c Root b Wood ............. 45V. Kohli c Buttler b Curran..........20A. Rahane c Buttler b Moeen .....61R. Pant c Buttler b Robinson ..... 22R. Jadeja b Moeen.............................3I. Sharma lbw b Robinson ........... 16M. Shami not out ............................ 56J. Bumrah not out .......................... 34Extras ......................(b2, lb12, nb1) 15Total ...(8 wkts, 109.3 ov) 298 decFall of wickets: 1-18 (Rahul), 2-27 (Rohit), 3-55 (Kohli), 4-155 (Pujara), 5-167 (Rahane), 6-175 (Jadeja), 7-194 (Pant), 8-209 (Ishant)Bowling: Anderson 25.3-6-53-0; Robinson 17-6-45-2 (1nb); Wood 18-4-51-3; Curran 18-3-42-1; Moeen 26-1-84-2; Root 5-0-9-0

ENGLAND 2nd InningsR. Burns c Siraj b Bumrah ............. 0D. Sibley c Pant b Shami ............... 0H. Hameed lbw b Ishant .................9J. Root c Kohli b Bumrah .............33J. Bairstow lbw b Ishant .................2J. Buttler c Pant b Siraj ................. 25M. Ali c Kohli b Siraj ........................ 13S. Curran c Pant b Siraj .................. 0O. Robinson lbw b Bumrah ...........9M. Wood not out ............................... 0J. Anderson b Siraj ........................... 0Extras ............. (b17, lb7, nb4, w1) 29Total .......... (all out, 51.5 overs) 120Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Burns), 2-1 (Sibley), 3-44 (Hameed), 4-67 (Bairstow), 5-67 (Root), 6-90 (Ali), 7-90 (Curran), 8-120 (Robinson), 9-120 (Buttler), 10-120 (Ander-son)Bowling: Bumrah 15-3-33-3 (2nb); Shami 10-5-13-1 (1nb); Jadeja 6-3-5-0 (1nb); Siraj 10.5-3-32-4 (1w); Ishant 10-3-13-2Result: India won by 151 runsSeries: India lead five-match series 1-0

By Sports ReporterDoha

Qatar’s Abdulla al-Tamimi survived a scare to enter the sec-ond round of the Brit-

ish Open in Hull, England, yes-terday.

In a thrilling fi rst round match at the Allam Sports Centre, World No 38 al-Tamimi over-came USA’s World No 48 Shahja-han Khan 3-2.

Al-Tamimi took the fi rst two games of an entertaining aff air 11-8 and 11-7. Khan fought back well in the third, as the World No 48 forced al-Tamimi into a number of errors and took the game 11-4. Sensing an opportu-nity, Khan continued to press in the fourth, winning the game 12-10 to force al-Tamimi into a fi fth. Al-Tamimi, however, regained his composure well in the fi nal game, completing the match with an 11-6 victory.

He will take on Egyptian World No 17 Omar Mossad in the sec-ond round of the Platinum event on the Professional Squash As-sociation’s (PSA) World Tour.

The Qatari player is coming off a good run in the Manchester Open where he narrowly missed out on a chance to reach the last

four as he fell to Egyptian World No 5 and top seed Marwan El Shorbagy at the last-eight stage. He had also displayed his excel-lent form in the second round where he defeated the fi fth seed Colombian Miguel Rodriguez.

“I feel pretty relieved, (Khan) played unbelievably well today. In the fi rst two, I controlled the games a lot better but then he started picking more balls up as the match went on and I tried to go lower and lower, which was the wrong thing to do. I really had to push myself to 200mph in the fi fth, because although I get really fatigued, I know if I play at that pace I can win a few rallies in a row. I learned from the El Shorbagy game to make sure I played decent, longer rallies instead of just going for shots,” said al-Tamimi.

In the early match yesterday, former World No 9 Daryl Selby fell to wildcard Nick Wall in the opening round. He started strongly, winning the fi rst four points of the match, but Selby showed his experience to fi ght back to take the fi rst game and hold the advantage in the match. However, from that point, Wall was able to fi ght his way into the contest, and he went on to take the next three games, to secure victory on his fi rst appearance at the British Open.

Qatar’s Abdulla al-Tamimi (right) in action during the British Open squash first round match against Shahjahan Khan in Hull, England, yesterday. (Twitter/PSAWorldTour)

AFPLondon, England

Afghanistan’s T20 captain Rashid Khan is worried about the safety of his family back home says former Eng-

land star Kevin Pietersen after the Tali-ban brought a stunningly swift end to the 20-year war.

Khan is presently playing for Trent Rockets in English cricket’s Hundred competition but his chief concern is

the future of his family as he has been unable to get them out of the country.

Thousands of people have mobbed the city’s airport trying to fl ee.

President Ashraf Ghani fl ew out of the country on Sunday night as the in-surgents encircled the capital, capping a military victory that saw them cap-ture all cities in just 10 days.

Whilst the endgame was being played out in Afghanistan, 22-year-old Khan was taking 3-16 for Trent Rockets in their Hundred win over Manchester Originals on Sunday.

“We had a long chat here on the bound-ary talking about it and he’s worried,” Pi-etersen told Sky Sports. “He can’t get his family out of Afghanistan and there’s a lot of things happening for him.”

Pietersen said it was remarkable to see Khan perform as he did under the circumstances.

“For him to turn up and put on a per-formance like this under the pressure that he is currently under, for him to be able to forget that stuff and navigate his story and continue the momentum that he has — I think that’s probably one of

the most heart-warming stories of this Hundred so far,” said Pietersen.

Khan’s club captain Lewis Gregory echoed Pietersen’s remarks.

“He has done well all over the world and to do what he has done with what has been going on at home has been very special and the boys are right be-hind him,” said Gregory.

Another Afghan player Mohamed Nabi was playing in the Hundred for London Spirit but left last week to re-turn home to Afghanistan to be with his ailing mother.

India’s Jasprit Bumrah (centre) celebrates the wicket of England’s captain Joe Root (not pictured) with teammates on the fifth day of the second Test at Lord’s in London, England, yesterday. (AFP)

SPORTGulf Times Tuesday, August 17, 20212

Taaramae climbs to take overall lead

CYCLING

AFPKingston, Jamaica

West Indies scrambled a pul-sating one-wicket victory over Pakistan on Sunday as the visitors self-destructed

in the fi nal session of the fourth day when on course to take the fi rst Test of the two-match series at Sabina Park.

Defending a modest target of 168 af-ter they were dismissed in the morning session for 103, Shaheen Shah Afridi led the attack with fi gures of four for 50 in reducing the home side to 114 for seven at tea with only wicketkeeper-batsman Joshua da Silva and the tailenders left.

However, in scenes reminiscent of a similar one-wicket loss in the decid-ing Test of the 2000 series in Antigua, the Pakistanis lost the discipline in their bowling and composure in the fi eld.

Three catches were missed to allow Ke-mar Roach and last man Jayden Seales to take their team to the target with a last-wicket partnership of 17.

Roach, who was dropped twice, hit the winning runs off Hasan Ali to fi nish un-beaten on 30. Ironically, it was Hasan who missed a straightforward catch at deep square-leg off Shaheen which allowed Roach to eventually complete the job at the end alongside a jubilant Seales.

Seales was named man of the match for his match haul of eight for 125 which included fi ve for 55 in the second innings.

For the fast bowler, who is less than a month away from his 20th birthday, it was an historic achievement when he mopped up the Pakistan tail with the last three wickets to become the youngest-ever to take fi ve wickets in a Test innings for the West Indies. “I just decided to take it step by step, run by run,” said a relieved Roach minutes after completely what looked an unlikely task when he joined da Silva at the start of play after tea.

“This is easily the most important in-nings I have ever played and credit to Jayden as well for holding on with me at the end and for his fi ve-wicket haul today because he’s someone really special as a young fast bowler.”

Pakistan captain Babar Azam did well to hide his disappointment but could not avoid referencing the obvious costly er-rors when it mattered most.

“This is the beauty of Test cricket. Our bowlers were really good especially Shaheen and Abbas,” said the skipper, omitting to mention the three wickets taken by Hasan in the push for victory.

“Had we taken those catches the result could have been diff erent.”

A topsy-turvy day started with Paki-stan losing their last fi ve wickets for 35 runs to leave the West Indies with what looked a tricky target. Notwithstand-ing Seales’ success with the ball, the key wicket of Babar was claimed by Kyle Mayers.

The all-rounder had little else to cheer on the day before the dramatic victory was achieved as he endured the indignity of a ‘pair’ with the frailties of the West Indies batting once again exposed either side of a 68-run fourth-wicket partner-ship between Jermaine Blackwood and Roston Chase.

Blackwood top-scored with 55 and Chase reached 22, his dismissal to Faheem Ashraf in mid-afternoon tilting the balance of the contest once again Pa-

kistan’s way. Ironically, given the rash of errors in the fi eld which were to follow in the fi nal session, the tourists claimed four wickets in the post-lunch period, three of them taken by Imran Butt at second slip.

His eff ort to dismiss Blackwood was particularly impressive, emphasising his confi dence and sure hands in diving in front opening partner Abid Ali at fi rst slip to snare the chance.

Pakistan’s missed opportunities were a disservice to the outstanding eff ort of Shaheen, who fi nished with eight wickets in the match.

He set the West Indies on the back foot at the start of the chase with the wickets of Kieran Powell, captain Kraigg Brathwaite and Nkrumah Bonner, re-turning in the fi nal session to account for da Silva and break a stubborn partnership with Roach. Yet it was all in vain with Pa-kistan having only themselves to blame as they look toward the second and fi nal Test at the same venue starting on Friday.

SCOREBOARD Pakistan 1st Innings ................................... 217West Indies 1st Innings .............................. 253

Pakistan 2nd Innings (overnight 160-5)I. Butt lbw b Roach ............................................0A. Ali c Holder b Seales ...............................34A. Ali b Roach ...................................................23B. Azam c Holder b Mayers .......................55F. Alam c da Silva b Seales ...........................0M. Rizwan c da Silva b Holder ................ 30F. Ashraf c da Silva b Roach ..................... 20Y. Shah c da Silva b Seales ............................ 4H. Ali c Roach b Seales..................................28S. Afridi lbw b Seales........................................0M. Abbas not out ................................................ 1Extras (b4, lb2, nb2) ........................................ 8Total (83.4 overs, all out) ........................203Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Imran Butt), 2-56 (Azhar Ali), 3-65 (Abid Ali), 4-65 (Fawad Alam), 5-121 (Mohamed Rizwan), 6-168 (Faheem Ashraf), 7-170 (Babar Azam), 8-180 (Yasir Shah), 9-192 (Shaheen Shah Afridi), 10-203 (Hasan Ali)Bowling: K. Roach 19-8-30-3, J. Seales 15.4-3-55-5 (1nb), K. Mayers 15-5-33-1, J. Holder 18-6-36-1 (1nb), J. Warrican 7-2-28-0, R. Chase 6-1-12-0, K. Brathwaite 3-1-3-0West Indies 2nd Innings (target 168)K. Brathwaite c Rizwan b Afridi ..................2K. Powell lbw b Afridi....................................... 4N. Bonner b Afridi ...............................................5R. Chase c Butt b Ashraf ..............................22J. Blackwood c Butt b Ali .............................55K. Mayers c Butt b Ashraf ..............................0J. Holder b Ali......................................................16J. da Silva c Rizwan b Afridi.........................13K. Roach not out ............................................. 30J. Warrican c Rizwan b Ali ............................. 6J. Seales not out ..................................................2Extras (b2, lb10, nb1) .....................................13Total (56.5 overs, 9 wkts) .........................168Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Powell), 2-15 (Brathwaite), 3-16 (Bonner), 4-84 (Chase), 5-92 (Mayers), 6-111 (Blackwood), 7-114 (Holder), 8-142 (da Silva), 9-151 (Warrican)Bowling: Mohamed Abbas 12-5-27-0, Shaheen Shah Afridi 17-4-50-4 (1nb), Hasan Ali 16.5-5-37-3, Faheem Ashraf 8-1-29-2, Yasir Shah 3-0-13-0.Result: West Indies won by 1 wicket.

WI clinch one-wicket win as Pakistan see chances slip away

CRICKET

‘I JUST DECIDED TO TAKE IT STEP BY STEP, RUN BY RUN’

AFPEspinosa de los Monteros, Spain

Rein Taaramae broke free from the remnants of a long breakaway to win the fi rst moun-

taintop fi nish in the Vuelta a Es-pana yesterday to take the overall race lead.

The 34-year-old Estonian, who rides for Intermarche-Wanty Gobert, pulled away on the steep ascent of Picon Blanco at the end of a 202.8km run from Santo Domingo to clinch his sec-ond career Vuelta stage 10 years after the fi rst. Asked if he was surprised, Taaramae said he had been planned the victory with team director Valerio Piva.

“Yesterday evening we spoke and we said we would try to win the stage and try to take leader’s jersey,” he said. Taaramae had won two stages on major Tours, one on the Vuelta in 2011 and one on the Giro d’Italia fi ve years lat-er but had never held the overall lead. “It’s very big,” he said.

“I don’t have that many years left to try to do this. I dream a lot about a leader’s jersey in a big Tour at least for some days Today I did it. I’m very happy.”

Most of the race favourites, including Vuelta champion Pri-moz Roglic, fi nished 1min 48sec back, but Ineos’ Ecuadorian Ol-ympic gold medallist Richard Carapaz could not keep up and lost a minute to his main rivals.

Taaramae took the overall lead from Jumbo-Visma’s Slov-enian Roglic. The Estonian leads Frenchman Kenny Elissonde of Trek-Sagafredo, who fi nished third yesterday, by 25 seconds, with Roglic third another fi ve seconds back. Taaramae was part of a seven man-break that escaped after 17 kilometres and built a lead of more than eight

minutes. By the time they hit the stage-ending climb, a short but brutal 7.6km ascent with gradi-ents as steep as 18 percent, the lead had been halved.

As the breakaway group shrunk to three men, so did the lead but as Taaramae battled with Elissonde and Joe Dom-browski, an American with Team UAE, it became clear one of them would win. “When I saw we were going to do it, then I had ques-tions: ‘how good are Joe Dom-browski and Kenny Elissonde?’” said Taaramae.

“Kenny and Joe I know they’re really peak quality. I did not know if I could beat them, but I believed it because I have already done it many times.”

“When I won a stage in Giro, Joey was third. He was up there with me and now we are fi ghting again with each other. So I be-lieved in myself.”

Today, stage 4 will take the peloton from El Burgo de Osma to Molina de Aragon on a fl at stage which should suit the sprinters.

Adlyn, Mashal of New Vision Badminton Sport win U-11 titlesAdlyn Mary Sojan and Mashal Sahibjan of New Vision Badminton Sport (NVBS) won the Under-11 girl’s and boy’s titles respectively in LSA Open Badminton Tournament held at Middle East International School, Doha, Qatar on Sunday.In the under-11 girl’s category, Adlyn beat Aeryn Elizabeth in straight sets 21-15 and 28-26, emerging on top after a close fight in the second set. Adlyn, also reached the semi-finals of Under-13 girls but lost 8-21, 22-20 & 19-21 in a keenly contested three-set contest to Anusree, the Under-13 and 15 winner. In the boy’s Under-11 section, Mashal Sahibjan, beat Srihari Vinod in straight sets 21-8 and 21-7.Another NVBS trainee Riya Kurian lost to current Qatar champion, Anus-ree in both the categories under-13 & under-15 going down 10-21, 23-21 & 19-21 in Under-15 Category and 13-21,

21-10 & 7-21 in Under-13 CategoryTrisha of NVBS finished the runner-up in Under-9 girl’s category after losing to Nevaeh Serah Arun 9-21, 10-21.In under-9 boy’s category, Jonah Joby of NVBS played a tough and thrilling match but lost the decider to Jayden Mathew going down by a score of 21-18, 19-21, 19-21.Chief coach of NVBS, Manoj Sahibjan complimented the players for contin-uing training during pandemic situa-tion and lauded their success in the tournament. “All these achievements of NVBS players is the result of their hard work, even in this pandemic situation, and also to their mindset by not stopping their badminton train-ing,” Manoj said.He said the kids need exposure in various locals and internationals tournaments and emphasised on the need to take part in the vari-ous tournaments happening in the

home countries. “Parents should allow their children to participate in district championships, state ranking tournaments and national ranking tournaments in their home countries. It is very much important, because then only District & State Badminton Association and Federation will get to know about the players. Also, the player can get to know their oppo-nent players and they will understand each other about opponent players game, that create confidence for players to play the next tournament,” he said.The experienced coach, who has earlier worked in India and Maldives, said parents need to make sacrifices if they want their children to achieve success on the badminton court. “Parents who undergo diff iculties and are willing to go out of their way can help children to get experience and exposure. This is the right way

and step by step procedure for the development and growth of players in badminton. There is no shortcut for reaching great heights,” he added.Mano said NVBS is planning to take part in various international tourna-ments and one such tournament in Maldives is on the cards. “NVBS is creating a new tournament platform for the players by making them participate in tournaments conducted in diff erent countries. Currently I am in a discussion with the President of Maldives Badminton Association, Moosa Nashid for taking the first step by conducting a club wise tournament in Maldives. Hope-fully we will make it happen after travel restrictions are eased,” Mano said. “Our ultimate aim and mission of NVBS is to bring our players to an international level. Our unity is our victory, that is the reason behind all our results” said Manoj.

Jayden Seales (left) and Kemar Roach (second from left) of West Indies celebrate winning on Day 4 of the 1st Test against Pakistan at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica. (AFP)

Spurs coach Nuno impatient for transfer window to shutAFPLondon

Harry Kane is in Totten-ham’s squad for their Europa Conference League tie this week as

Nuno Espirito Santo admits he cannot wait for the transfer win-dow to close and end speculation over the striker’s future.

Manchester City are keen to sign England captain Kane and were reported to have tabled a bid of £100 million ($139 million) in June. Kane – who has three years remaining on his contract – stayed away from Tottenham’s 1-0 victory over champions City in their Premier League opener on Sunday. However, The Times claims it is expected Kane will remain for one more season due to City’s reluctance to meet Tot-tenham chairman Daniel Levy’s reported asking price of £160 million. The 28-year-old yester-day was named in Tottenham’s strong 25-man squad for the Eu-ropa Conference League play-off against Pacos de Ferreira.

“We have our squad, we have our Spurs players,” Nuno told the BBC yesterday. “We have to commit them but we have to know that 31st of August is

sometimes not in your hands. “All the managers in the Premier League have the same feeling that I have – trying to fi nish the window and settle down.”

Nuno said he expected Kane to remain at the north London club, though he added he has enough experience to know Spurs should keep their options open regard-ing a move for a replacement.

“Harry is (training) with us, he worked on Sunday morning and he’s getting ready to help the team,” he said. “We don’t expect (something to happen before the transfer deadline but) we have to be ready to act if necessary be-cause until the 31st (of August) anything can happen in football.”

Kane has made no secret of his desire to play for a club that can deliver silverware after years of frustration at Tottenham.

Kane’s goals and a highly ef-fective partnership with South Korean Son Heung-min have taken Tottenham close to win-ning trophies. But they lost the 2019 Champions League fi nal to Liverpool and last season’s League Cup fi nal against City. Tottenham – whose last major trophy was the 2008 League Cup – have failed to qualify for Cham-pions League football this season after fi nishing seventh last term.

FOOTBALL

Team Intermarche Wanty Gobert’s Estonian rider Rein Taaramae celebrates at the finish line after winning the 3rd stage of 2021 La Vuelta. (AFP)

Doubts over Afghan-Pakistan cricket series aft er Taliban takeover

As off icials scramble to find out whether Afghanistan’s cricketers are safe, Sri Lanka’s national board said yesterday it is going ahead with arrangements to host a T20 series between Afghanistan and Pakistan.No off icial was able to guarantee how-ever that the three Twenty20 matches would start on September 1 after the Taliban swept to power.The team are also scheduled to play in the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in October which could also now be in doubt. The Taliban govern-ment that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001 frowned upon organised sport. Star spin bowler and T20 captain Rashid Khan and all rounder Mohamed Nabi are currently playing The Hundred tournament in England. Both made pleas for peace in their country before the Taliban takeover.But most other national players are in Afghanistan.“Eff orts are being made to check their whereabouts,” said an international cricket off icial, speaking on condition of anonymity.Sri Lanka’s cricket board said it was still

hoping to host Afghanistan and Pakistan for the three matches in an empty stadium at Hambantota.The series was originally to be held in Dubai but was shifted to Sri Lanka be-cause it clashed with the Indian Premier League which also starts in September in the UAE.“We have told them that we are ready to host the tournament,” Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Mohan de Silva told AFP. “All the preparations are underway.”“But, given the current situation in Kabul, we don’t know if they will be able to go ahead. We are awaiting a response from them.”De Silva said that because of coronavi-rus precautions, the two teams should be in Sri Lanka by next week to begin the matches in September.The Afghanistan Cricket Board website said its national squad met top off icials on August 7 and were told that they would be “rewarded handsomely” for a good performance against Pakistan.In its latest post dated August 9, the board said it had appointed former Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait as the national team bowling coach.

SPORT3Gulf Times

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Medvedev towers over Opelka to winToronto Masters

TENNIS

AFPToronto

Daniil Medvedev neu-tralised the attack of American serving giant Reilly Opelka on Sun-

day, dominating 6-4, 6-3 to win the ATP Toronto Masters.

The world number two Rus-sian needed just 87 minutes, lim-iting his 2.11m opponent to just eight aces and breaking him three times while saving all four break points he faced.

Medvedev, aided by 34 un-forced errors from Opelka, be-came the fi rst Russian to win a Canadian trophy since Marat Safi n 21 years ago. The winner was playing a fi fth career fi nal at the Masters 1000 level.

“When I was starting I could barely have dreamed of a Masters fi nal,” he said. “Now I’ve played fi ve of them and won four. I’m just happy,” he added.

“I want to achieve more, I want to play better.”

In a lively start, Opelka exert-ed early pressure on Medvedev, striking the ball with great power as he stepped inside the baseline to move 0/40 ahead on the Rus-sian’s serve in the fourth game. However, Opelka was unable to take his chances, with Medvedev making fi ve straight fi rst serves to hold.

It was then Medvedev who broke fi rst, hammering his back-hand down the line past Opelka on return to lead 3-2. Medvedev played consistently as he hit his fl at backhand to great eff ect, causing Opelka problems, who won just 6/13 points at the net to clinch the fi rst set in 38 minutes.

In the second set, Medvedev continued to stand deep behind the baseline during rallies as he soaked up pressure, forcing Opelka into errors.

The American struggled to

hit through Medvedev, with the Russian winning nine points in a row, breaking again to seize con-trol. Medvedev raised his level in the key moments, fending off another break point at 3-2 when Opelka pushed a drop shot wide. Medvedev dominated the longer rallies in the second set, hitting with great depth as he sealed his victory.

Medvedev, who will be the top seed at next week’s Cincinnati Masters, the fi nal major tuneup for the US Open that starts Au-gust 30, had praise for Opelka, the US number one who is ranked 32nd in the world. “It was a great week for him, he fought to the end,” Medvedev said. Playing a fi rst Masters fi nal is never easy. My fi rst was in Canada (Mon-treal, 2019) and I won just three games,” he recalled of a title tilt against Rafael Nadal.

Opelka said he was outplayed from the start by the top seed.

“Daniil played great, as ex-pected. He was fl awless. I had one chance to break early and I don’t think that would have changed much.

“It was a little windy and a lit-tle bit swirlier out there, so it was really tough to be consistently powerful. Even when I hit some big shots, he countered well.

“It was very tough to disrupt him at all.”

Medvedev said he went into the match with a plan to combat Opelka’s big delivery.

“The goal was to get as many balls back as possible, not go for crazy shots, make him move and make him doubt,” Medvedev said. “The more balls you put back the more pressure you put on the opponent.”

Medvedev, Opelka and their teams were due to take a private plane laid on by organisers in or-der to reach next week’s Cincin-nati Masters, 660 kilometres away, later in the evening.

‘I WANT TO ACHIEVE MORE, I WANT TO PLAY BETTER’

Kisner wins six-way playoff for Wyndham titleAFPWashington

American Kevin Kisner, win-less in fi ve prior US PGA playoff s, birdied the second extra hole on Sunday to win

a record-tying six-man playoff and capture the Wyndham Champion-ship.

Kisner collected his fourth career PGA victory, his fi rst since the 2019 WGC Match Play and fi rst stroke-play triumph since 2017 at Colonial. “It’s a crazy way to break the no-wins-in-playoff streak, but it was an awesome week,” Kisner said.

“Every time you win out here, it’s hard, and you never know when it’s going to happen again so you’ve got to cherish every time.”

World number 52 Kisner birdied four of the fi rst six holes and added birdies at 16 and 17 to shoot four-under 66 in the fi nal round to make the playoff , in which Scott missed a birdie putt on the fi rst extra hole that everyone parred, setting the stage for Kisner’s winning birdie.

“It was one of those putts you dream about having, four feet right edge, just get it going, so I wasn’t too consumed with the pressure on my

putt,” Kisner said. “I was pretty calm all day. I was actually a little more amped up early on than coming down the stretch. That’s what’s crazy about humans and pressure, you never know when you’re going to be feeling it or how you’re going to react.”

South Korea’s Kim Si-Woo, Aus-tralian Adam Scott, Canada’s Roger Sloan, South African Branden Grace and Americans Kisner and Kevin Na fi nished 72 holes deadlocked on 15-under par 265 at Sedgefi eld Coun-try Club in Greensboro, North Caro-lina.

Woo fi red a bogey-free six-under 64 while Scott shot 65 and the others closed with 66s to match the biggest playoff fi eld in US PGA history from 2001 at Riviera and the 1994 Byron Nelson tournament. Kisner’s playoff futility began at the 2015 Heritage and included extra-hole defeats at the 2015 Greenbrier Classic and Players Championship, the 2017 Zurich Clas-sic and last year’s RSM Classic.

Missing the playoff by one stroke were Americans Webb Simpson, Kevin Streelman and Russell Henley, who led after each of the fi rst three rounds.

Henley, who shared the lead after the fi rst three rounds in June’s US Open only to fi nish level 13th, made

bogeys on four of the last eight holes. He missed a 25-foot birdie putt on 18 to win and a four-foot par putt to miss the playoff , ending hopes of his fi rst victory since the 2017 Houston Open.

“Two three-putts on the back nine got me,” Henley said.

“I hit both those putts on 18 how I wanted. I hit the second putt right where I was looking and it broke... just disappointed. It stings pretty bad.”

The tournament was the fi nal event of the 2020-21 regular season with the top 125 players in points securing tour rights for 2021-22 and advanc-ing to next week’s fi rst FedEx Cup playoff event. Sloan and Americans Scott Piercy and Chesson Hadley all jumped into the fi nal top 125 based on this week’s results.

England’s Justin Rose, the 2016 Ol-ympic champion and 2013 US Open winner who is fully exempt for next season, fi nished 126th in points.Had-ley fi red a 62 with an ace at the par-3 16th to edge Rose, who closed with a bogey and lost out to Hadley on a Fe-dEx Cup spot when Grace, in the fi nal group, birdied the 18th hole from just outside 28 feet to make the playoff . “It’s not nice when it’s not in your hands, but obviously it was in my hands up 18. I didn’t do a very good

job of that,” Rose said. “Couldn’t be a worse result really on the day.”

Leading scores after final round (x-won at 2nd playoff hole, USA un-less noted)265-x-Kevin Kisner 65-68-66-66, Kim Si-woo (KOR) 66-68-67-64, Adam Scott (AUS) 66-70-64-65, Roger Sloan (CAN) 71-64-64-66, Kevin Na 68-64-67-66, Branden Grace (RSA) 66-69-64-66266-Webb Simpson 65-65-70-66, Kevin Streelman 66-66-68-66, Russell Henley 62-64-69-71267-Nick Taylor (CAN) 65-71-67-64, Brendon Todd 69-67-65-66, Adam Hadwin (CAN) 64-71-66-66, Justin Rose (ENG) 66-65-69-67, Rory Sab-batini (SVK) 66-64-69-68268-Brian Stuard 65-66-72-65, Sepp Straka (AUT) 66-71-67-64, Denny Mc-Carthy 65-69-69-65, Jhonattan Vegas (VEN) 65-68-72-63, Chesson Hadley 68-69-69-62, Harry Higgs 70-67-65-66, Kang Sung (KOR) 64-69-68-67, Scott Piercy 64-66-69-69, Tyler Mc-Cumber 65-67-66-70269-Russell Knox (SCO) 74-63-68-64, Lee Kyoung-hoon (KOR) 67-68-67-67, Jason Dufner 71-65-70-63, Im Sung-jae (KOR) 66-68-67-68, Ben Taylor (ENG) 68-68-65-68.

GOLF

Organisers bar spectators from Tokyo Paralympics over coronavirus

AFPTokyo

Spectators will be barred from the Tokyo Para-lympics over corona-virus fears, organisers

said yesterday, as Japan battles record infections despite emer-gency measures in several parts of the country.

The decision for the Paral-ympics, which open on August 24, had been widely expected and follows similar rules in place for the Olympics.

The Games come with Ja-pan facing a new wave of virus cases and states of emergency in place in six regions.

“More stringent measures will be taken for competitions to be held in these prefectures, including no spectators,” or-ganisers said in a joint state-ment with local and national governments and the Interna-tional Paralympic Committee.

The statement said an ex-ception would be made to allow some school children to attend under a special programme.

But organisers emphasised children would only partici-pate with “safety measures” and “where local authorities or school administrations request this in response to the wishes of parents and others”.

“We hope that we can give dreams and hopes to as many children as possible through the Games,” Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hashimoto told report-ers. Virus cases are surging across Japan, with over 20,000 new daily infections recorded in recent days, driven by the more contagious Delta variant.

Tokyo and fi ve other areas are currently under a state of emergency that bans alcohol sales by bars and restaurants and limits their opening hours. The measure also caps event attendance at 5,000 people, or 50 percent capacity, whichever is less. The government is ex-pected to expand emergency measures to seven more regions today, and extend the curbs al-ready in place until mid-Sep-tember, several weeks beyond their current timeframe.

Japan’s government has in-sisted the Paralympics will be

held safely, and that it remains committed to hosting them, but it is under growing pressure over the virus. Just 37 percent of Japan’s population is fully vaccinated, though the initially slow rollout has sped up.

But the Delta variant has moved faster and emergency measures increasingly appear insuffi cient. Around 4,400 ath-letes are expected to take part in the Paralympics, and like their Olympic counterparts they will face daily testing and restric-tions on their movement.

Despite the surge in virus cases in Japan during the Ol-ympics, Games offi cials said there was no evidence of a link to the massive sporting event.

Cases had been rising before the Games began, and a state of emergency was already in place in Tokyo as the Olympics opened. Olympic organisers have reported 540 positive cas-es among athletes, offi cials and media, most of them among Japan-based employees and contractors.

Another three people have tested positive within 14 days of leaving Japan, all of them media, according to organisers.

And at least 31 people as-sociated with the Paralympic Games have tested positive so far, with other cases reported among teams that arrived early for training camps.

International Paralympic Committee chief Andrew Par-sons warned last week that participants should not let down their guard.

“While it is encouraging that the Olympic Games were de-livered safely and successfully, those attending the Paralympic Games should not get compla-cent,” he said. “We cannot ignore the current case numbers in Ja-pan and Tokyo, and I urge every single stakeholder for the Paral-ympic Games to be vigilant.”

The decision to bar specta-tors has the backing of a ma-jority of Japanese, according to a poll published by the Kyodo news agency earlier yesterday.

A total of 64.7 percent of respondents said the event should be held without fans, with 19 percent of those sur-veyed saying the Games should be cancelled.

FOCUS

Djokovic clocks 334 weeks at number one in ATP rankingsNovak Djokovic, who has won all three majors this year and has his eyes firmly set on complet-ing the sweep with another success at the US Open, remains comfortably at number one in the ATP rankings, released yes-terday. The Serb has now spent a record 334 weeks in top spot, well ahead of next-best Roger Federer, who managed 310 and is now down at number nine and faces several months out of ac-

tion while he undergoes further knee surgery. Federer said on Sunday he “will be out for many months”, a decision which casts further doubt on his future in tennis at the age of 40.“I will be on crutches for many weeks and out of the game for many months,” 20-time Grand Slam title winner Federer said in a video posted on his Instagram account. Daniil Medvedev remains at number two after his

victory in Toronto on Sunday while the man he beat in the final, the American Reilly Opelka, climbed nine places to 23.Norwegian Casper Ruud contin-ues to knock on the door of the Top 10, moving up one place to 11, shadowed by the Pole Hubert Hurkacz, who beat Federer in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.

ATP rankings1. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 12,113 pts

2. Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 10,6203. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 8,3504. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 7,8155. Alexander Zverev (GER) 7,2636. Dominic Thiem (AUT) 7,0057. Andrey Rublev (RUS) 6,0058. Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 5,5339. Roger Federer (SUI) 4,21510. Denis Shapovalov (CAN) 3,62511. Casper Ruud (NOR) 3,350 (+1)12. Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 3,288 (+1)

13. Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) 3,260 (-2)14. Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 2,98015. Jannik Sinner (ITA) 2,74516. Roberto Bautista (ESP) 2,720 (+1)17. Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 2,693 (-1)18. Alex De Minaur (AUS) 2,60019. David Goff in (BEL) 2,51320. Cristian Garín (CHI) 2,510 (AFP)

CEO of Tokyo 2020 Toshiro Muto (left) and President of Tokyo 2020 Seiko Hashimoto during a press conference in Tokyo yesterday. (Reuters)

Daniil Medvedev (also above) of Russia poses with the trophy after defeating Reilly Opelka of the United States (not pictured) in the finals of the National Bank Open at Aviva Centre in toronto. (USA TODAY Sports)

Kevin Kisner poses with the Sam Snead Cup after winning the Wyndham Championship at Greensboro in North Carolina, USA. (USA TODAY Sports)

Nagelsmann eyes his 1st Bayern title

Bordeaux’s Kalu collapses before 2-2 draw at Marseille

Nine out of 12 Super League clubs retain ECA membership

Sheikh Mohamed’s Heelywa opens account in Spain

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT

GERMAN SUPER CUP LIGUE 1

FOOTBALL

HORSE RACING

Bavarians are also yet to win a match under their new coach

AgenciesSan Sebastian, Spain

Carrying the colours of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalifa al-Thani, three-year-old Arabian fi lly Heelywa

broke her maiden, taking the Premio Sheikh Mansoor Festival Maiden in San Sebastian, Spain, on Sunday.

It was Francois Rohaut-trained bay fi lly’s second start, having fi nished third on her debut at La Teste De Buch, France, last month.

Heelywa was placed mid-division and travelled strongly through the early stages of the 2,000m contest under jockey Valentin Seguy.

Early pacesetter Dabba De Monlau looked like stealing fi rst run on the fi eld as they turned into the home straight. Both Al Jasrah, carrying the colours of His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khali-fa al-Thani, and Heelywa closed strongly inside the fi nal 200m, heading Dabba De Monlau as the duo led to the line. Heelywa produced one fi nal eff ort and got the bet-ter of Al Jasrah, who is trained by Didier

Guillemin and was ridden by Alexandre Gavilan, in the fi nal strides, winning by half-a-length. Dabba De Monlau held on well for third under R. Ferreira Sousa for

trainer M Molist Comas.Bred by Sheikh Mohamed’s Al Sha-

hania Stud, Heelywa is by Shadwell Arabian stallion No Risk Al Maury. Her

dam Al Shahania Aseala was unraced and has produced Al Afreata, fourth

in the Group One Qatar Arabian Tro-phy Des Pouliches at Saint Cloud, and

Sayaad, a winner on debut in Pompa-dour, France.

Valentin Seguy (second from right) rides Heelywa to victory in the Premio Sheikh Mansoor Festival Maiden in San Sebastian on Sunday. (San Sebastian Racecourse)

Osama al-Dafea’s Bayareq wins well in PolandAgenciesWarsaw, Poland

French-bred Arabian Bayareq car-ried the colours of owner Osama Omer al-Dafea to success when

taking the second race at Stuzewiec Racecourse, Poland, on Sunday.The three-year-old trained by Macie Kacprzyk improved on a recent second place at Warsaw and took the 1,600m contest by one-and-a-half lengths under a good ride from jockey Konrad Mazur. Raayat Al Majd finished second, with Bashar Ibn Sayf a further four lengths back in third. Bred by Amjad al-Jumaliy, Bayareq is by the Umm Qarn Purebred Arabian stallion and five-time Group 1 PA

winner Majd Al Arab, who stands at Haras du Grand Courgeon in France.

Bayareq is out of Wahash, a daughter of top racehorse and stallion Djendel.

Konrad Mazur rides Bayareq to victory at Stuzewiec Racecourse in Poland on Sunday. (JDG)

Qatari doubles team wins gold at Arab table tennis

Qatar’s Ahmed al-Mohannadi and Mohamed Abdel Wahab in action during the men’s doubles final at the Arab Table Tennis Championships in Amman, Jordan, yesterday. The Qatari duo beat Bahrain’s Mohamed Saleh and Ilyas Ilyasi 3-0 (15-13, 11-6, 11-3) in the final. Qatari contingent added five more medals yesterday to the tally, taking Al Annabi’s total to 12 medals in the tournament. The doubles teams of Abdulaziz al-Abdullah and Mohamed al-Sulaiti, and Ahmed Jabbar and Abdullah Abdelwahab won a silver medal each in the under-11 and under-19 youth categories respectively. Sultan al-Kuwari and Ahmed Eid added a third silver. Maryam Ali and Shawq al-Abdullah won a bronze in the girls under-15 competition, while Khaled al-Yafei and Ruwad al-Nasser bagged a bronze in the under-15 category.

ReutersMunich, Germany

Bayern Munich’s new coach Julian Nagels-mann is looking for his fi rst win in his sixth

game in charge when the Ger-man champions face Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup today.

The Bavarians dropped points in their season-opening 1-1 draw at Borussia Moencheng-ladbach on Friday after failing also to win any of their four pre-season matches.

“It is normal that we need time with the late pre-season preparation,” Nagelsmann told reporters yesterday. “You could see against Gladbach that we have room for improvement.”

Nagelsmann, who joined from RB Leipzig, has been under in-stant pressure and another sli-pup, this time against Dortmund and with the fi rst title of the sea-son on off er, could complicate matters for the 34-year-old.

“It would be nice to win the

fi rst title with the fi rst win,” said Nagelsmann, who succeeded Hansi Flick.

“This is an important game, against an opponent who start-

ed well in the league this season. We will of course try to fi nally get a win. Hopefully it will work tomorrow.”

Dortmund on Saturday

crushed Eintracht Frankfurt 5-2 in their own Bundesliga opener, with striker Erling Haaland scoring two goals and setting up another three, as they de-stroyed the Frankfurt defence with lightning-quick counter attacks.

The Norwegian forward had scored a hat-trick in their Ger-man Cup fi rst round earlier this month.

“They have had a brilliant start to their season,” Nagels-mann said. “What will be im-portant is to control the space in front of our defence line. If we lose possession we need to im-mediately counter-press.”

Bayern are chasing a record-extending 10th consecutive league crown.

“We have to avoid deep passes behind the defensive line. We will try to win balls in our op-ponent’s half and try to counter attack ourselves,” Nagelsmann said.

“Soccer is team work so we will try to work as a team to-morrow. Especially in defending against Haaland.”

In this July 7, 2021, picture, Bayern Munich’s head coach Julian Nagelsmann gestures during a training session in Munich. (AFP)

AgenciesMarseille, France

Girondins de Bordeaux striker Samuel Kalu collapsed in the sixth minute of their Ligue 1

match at Olympique de Marseille on Sunday and was substituted after briefl y returning to the pitch.

Amid searing temperatures at the Stade Velodrome, medics car-rying a stretcher rushed to attend Kalu, but the player was able to get up and walk off the pitch with the help of his teammates, holding an ice pack against his head.

The Nigeria international re-sumed playing several moments later but appeared groggy and was substituted in the 14th minute.

The stadium went silent dur-ing the incident, which brought back memories of Christian Eriksen’s collapse at Euro 2020 in June when the Denmark mid-fi elder suff ered a heart attack.

Eriksen’s life was saved when CPR was administered to him on the pitch and his heart was re-started with a defi brillator before

he was taken to hospital, where he recovered after undergoing heart surgery.

Marseille took a 2-0 lead into the break with goals from Cengiz Under and a solo eff ort by Dimitri Payet before halftime substitute Timothee Tembele pulled one back and Remy Oudin, who re-placed Kalu, levelled with a fi rst-time shot in the 57th minute.

“According to the doctor, it was just a dizzy spell,” said Ou-din. “He is to take more tests. It gave us a bit of a chill and it’s still quite shocking.

“We inevitably thought about what happened with Eriksen, the whole team and everyone was scared. We’re happy for Kalu, everything is fi ne and that’s the most important thing.”

ReutersLondon, England

The European Club Asso-ciation (ECA) yesterday confi rmed that nine of the 12 clubs who pro-

posed a new breakaway Super League have retained their ECA membership after the collapse of the ESL project, but Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus remain out.

The three teams not accepted back into the body that repre-sents interests of professional

clubs in European soccer’s UEFA, still retain hope of rekindling the project, which spectacularly failed to get off the ground in April.

The nine clubs now admitted back into the ECA can therefore still have an infl uence on the di-rection of European football in the future.

“The ECA Executive Board took into consideration the clubs’ ac-knowledgement that the so-called European Super League project was not in the interests of the wid-er football community and their publicly communicated decisions

to abandon said ESL Project com-pletely,” a statement read.

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi replaced Ju-ventus chairman Andrea Agnelli as chief of the ECA in April after the Italian stepped down to as-sume a role of the proposed new breakaway league’s chairman.

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus released a statement on July 30, confi rming their in-tention to still go ahead with the Super League after a court ruled that UEFA terminate disciplinary proceedings against founding members of the project.

Bordeaux and Marseille players call for the medic after Bordeaux’s Samuel Kalu had collapsed during the match on Sunday. (AFP)

Barca can escape fi nancial hole in 18 months, president says

FC Barcelona can reverse their poor financial situation within a year

and a half, president Joan Laporta told a news conference yesterday, after saying the club ended last year 451mn euros ($531mn) in the red.“I reckon that in a couple of years the club will be healthy,” he told reporters, adding that the team have many potential spon-sorship deals open to them.

With their finances in dire straits after years of wage infla-tion and expensive transfers, the club could not aff ord to renew its contract with star striker Lionel Messi, leading to his shock departure to Paris St Germain last week.Still, Laporta said he was optimis-tic for the future, stressing that the club had many options open to it, including some 17 investors interested in Barca Studios,

which groups together the club’s audiovisual businesses and serves as a hub for events.“We have a lot of proposals and this is obviously encouraging, our morale is very high,” he said.Barca’s previous management had contracted investment bank Goldman Sachs to seek potential investors for the club’s commercial arm but none of the proposals were satisfactory, Laporta said.

The club’s debts total 1.35bn eu-ros, 673mn of which are owed to banks, Laporta said.Goldman had agreed to lend 1bn euros to private equity firm CVC’s planned multibillion euro investment in Spain’s top soc-cer league, LaLiga, a deal which Barcelona opted out.Rivals Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao too voted against the proposal at a general assembly last Thursday. (Reuters)