basketball | page 5 formula 1 | page 6

Thursday, April 6, 2017Rajab 9, 1438 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Mercedes on red alert as Wolff backs Hamilton

Westbrook equals triple-double record

BASKETBALL | Page 5 FORMULA 1 | Page 6

FOOTBALL

Ibrahmovic back as a lion among pussycats for Manchester UnitedPage 3

Qatar’s al-Attiyah extends lead to almost two hours

ABU DHABI DESERT CHALLENGE

‘It was a good day for us. It’s not really high speed and we tried to take it easy without mistakes. We now have a big lead and we’ll try to reach the finish tomorrow’

LA blames Paris over Facebook ‘likes’ storyOLYMPICS

AFPAarhus, Denmark

Los Angeles yesterday accused rival Paris of being behind re-ports that the US city bought Facebook “likes” to artifi cially

boost its bid to secure the 2024 Games.Campaigning by the two cities is

reaching a peak ahead of an Interna-tional Olympic Committee decision on September 13 on which of the two will host the 2024 Olympics.

French radio station RTL said on Mon-day that the LA 2024 bid had used fringe internet companies to buy “likes”, so it could announce that it had become the fi rst Olympic bidder to attract more than one million Facebook fans.

Companies based in Pakistan, Bang-ladesh and Nepal are known to be used to buy social media “likes”.

“All Facebook advertising has been purchased directly through Facebook.

It’s no surprise that this story originat-ed from Paris,” LA 2024 spokesman Jeff

Millman told AFP in a statement.“LA 2024 is a global campaign as the

Olympic movement is global. There are Olympic stakeholders in every country.

“Bids advertise on traditional and social media, and all Facebook adver-tising has been purchased directly on Facebook.”

A report picked up by several media documented a sudden boost in fans on the LA 2024 Facebook page, increas-ing from just over 200,000 at the end of 2016 to more than a million in April.

At the start of the year most of the LA “likes” had come from the United States but since then fans from de-veloping countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have dramati-cally increased.

Millman said there was a logical ex-planation to the sudden spike in “likes” from far off countries.

“Facebook advertising is more ef-

fi cient in countries where there is less competition from other brands,” he said.

“Since the IOC’s international pro-motion period began on February 3, 2017, permitting bids to promote in-ternationally, our promotion has been directed primarily internationally, in-cluding Facebook advertising around the world.”

Over the same period, Paris also saw its fans grow threefold but 80 percent of its new Facebook “likes” came from France, with many of the rest from francophone countries such as Algeria and Tunisia.

Reports of the spike in LA’s social media popularity came as Los Angeles and Paris lobbied international sports leaders at the SportAccord convention in Denmark.

“We have done very little Facebook promotion in the United States since the international promotion period

began on February 3, 2017. There are no eligible IOC voters in the United States,” added Millman.

“All eligible IOC member voters live outside the United States, including Pakistan.”

The Paris bidders said yesterday they were hopeful of avoiding a spat on this issue.

“This competition must abide by the rules of fair play, it really has to be respectful,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told AFP.

“In politics or sport it is better to look after your own business rather than worry about your rival.

“What’s important for me is to show Paris in its best light and show why the 2024 Games should be held there.”

Yet on Tuesday, Paris paid for a front page advert on the international edition of the New York Times, drawing criti-cism from Los Angeles.

Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah in action yesterday

By Our CorrespondentQasr al Sarab

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-At-tiyah extended his advan-tage in the car category to 1hr 46min 03sec after the

fourth selective section of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge yesterday.

But the scene is set for a dramatic showdown in the motorcycle category over the closing stage on Thursday. Victory on stage four fell to the Mon-ster Energy Honda team rider Kevin Benavides, but the Argentinean lost his chance of taking the win with clutch issues on day three and a fas-cinating fi ve-way battle is in prospect over the closing kilometres between overnight leader Paulo Gonçalves, Austrian Matthias Walkner, Pierre Al-exandre Renet, Sam Sunderland and Pablo Quintanilla.

Gonçalves holds an advantage of 33.8 seconds over the Austrian, but both Sunderland and Quintanilla have favourable starting positions for the fi nal day.

Sunderland said: “I don’t really like to race like this. The strategy and try-ing to see what the others guys are do-ing. I’d rather it just be the fastest rider won. I’ve lost this race so many years by being the fastest dude. This year

I have been trying to get the strategy better. We will see how we go. I will have to ride as hard as I can to catch the time back. It may look easy on the paper but it’s far from it. You have to fi ght a lot and work hard.”

Leader Gonçalves was in deter-mined mood: “Today I do what I can. I catch the guys in front of me, so I am the leader overall on day four. We have a day more to race. I will to do my best. I know it is not going to be an easy start position for tomorrow. We have 220km still to go. The bike has been perfect. The stage is a little faster tomorrow than the last three days, but we also have a lot of dunes in the middle. In normal conditions the others have an advantage. We never know.”

“Very, very happy, because this vic-tory represents all the work I did since my crash,” said stage winner Bena-vides. “It’s a new start in my career. I take confi dence from this. After the penalty yesterday, I could not fi ght for the race but this is a great bonus.”

Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel are in cruise con-trol in the cars and won the stage from local driver Khalid al-Jafl a by 22min 41sec. “It was a good day for us. We don’t face any problems. Diffi cult dunes. It’s not really high speed and we try to take it easy with-

out mistakes. We now have a big lead and we try to reach the fi nish for to-morrow,” said Al-Attiyah.

Sheikh Khalid al-Qassimi’s debut in the new Abu Dhabi Racing Peuge-ot 3008 DKR ground to a halt, when the PH Sport car sustained a broken drive shaft before PC2 and the Emi-rati lost considerable time and any chance of pushing for the win. He maintained second overall.

Czech driver Martin Prokop was third to maintain a podium place and fellow countryman Miroslav Zaple-tal was third on the day. There were also excellent stage performances by fi fth-placed Mohammed Abu Issa and Ahmed al-Maqoodi.

Abu Issa holds fourth overall and Mark Powell has quietly been chip-ping away at the leader board and another superb performance by the Dubai-based Brit has seen him climb to an unoffi cial seventh overall in his Fast & Speed Buggy behind Kha-led al-Feraihi’s Nissan Patrol and seasoned veteran and experienced desert campaigner Yayha al-Helai.

Rafal Sonik lost his 2min 08.6sec lead in the quad category after tech-nical issues plagued his Honda TRX 700 after the fi rst passage control. The Pole’s delay left the door open for Peru’s Alexis Hernandez Ponce to claim the stage win and for Gua-

tamala’s Rodolfo Schippers to take a category lead of 1min 43.3sec into the fi nal stage. Kuwait’s Fahad al-Musallam is second and former leader Kamil Wisniewski holds third.

“One more day to go at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and it has lived up to all expectation in terms of unpredictability and excitement and we are faced with a fascinating fi nal day to decide the results,” said event founder and ATCUAE President Mo-hammed Ben Sulayem.

OVERALL STANDINGSCars 1. Nasser al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 14hr 43min2. Khalid al-Qassimi (ARE)/Khaled al-Kendi (ARE) Peugeot 3008 DKR 16hr 30min3. Martin Prokop (CZE)/Jan Tomanek (CZE) Ford F-150 Evo 17hr 04min4. Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT)/Xavier Panseri (FRA) Mini All4 Racing 17hr 56min

Bikes1. Paulo Gonçalves (PRT) Honda 450 CRF Rally 2. Matthias Walkner (AUT) KTM 450 Rally Factory3. Pierre Alexander Renet (FRA) Husq-varna 450 Rally

FOOTBALL2 Gulf Times

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Lekhwiya, Al Sadd eye victories in crucial tie

QATAR STARS LEAGUE

If Lekhwiya win and Al Sadd lose or draw, then the former will be declared champs

By Sports ReporterDoha

With only two more rounds left to play in the Qatar Stars League it’s now or never for the eight teams to end their

season in the best possible way. But all eyes will on two matches today, featuring the top two teams in the table.

Leaders Lekhwiya are only two points ahead of Al Sadd in the table and will be looking to secure three points against Al Ahli and keep their position at the top.

If Lekhwiya win and Al Sadd lose or draw against Al Sailiya, then the former will be declared champions as they would take a fi ve-point lead, with just one match remaining.

Ahead of the game, Lekhwiya manager Djamel Belmadi has insisted that the title race is not over, despite the league leaders comprehensively beating El Jaish 5-1 in their last match.

“Maybe we have one hand, but not two hands on the trophy. We have to focus on our own performance and just concen-trate on the game. We have two games left for this season and our aim is to win both games to achieve our target of lifting the league title,” Belmadi said

The Algerian coach also had a word for new signing Edgar Da Silva, who came off the bench to score on his debut for his side. “Edgar will have a key role to play for us in the league and the cup compe-titions. I hope he will improve game after game, he has shown plenty of desire in training. He made a good impact against El Jaish and he will give us another option towards the end of the season,” he said.

Belmadi also gave fi tness update on defender Chico Flores. “Chico is still not available for tomorrow and the Champi-

ons League match. We are taking it day by day with him at the moment with the injury to his calf.”

Lekhwiya are clear favourites against Al Ahli, who have only picked up one victory in the last fi ve QSL games. The Brigadeers have a huge task in hand, as Lekhwiya has lost just once in the league this season.

Meanwhile, Al Sadd know only a vic-tory against Al Sailiya can take the cham-pionship race to the fi nal round. Wolves boss Jesaldo Ferreira has suggested that the Sailiya match could be decisive for his side. “We still have two matches to play. We will not give up and fi ght till the last minute for the title. We have two tough games coming up. Now we are focusing against Al Sailiya, who are a strong team. The gap between games is short and this could be a decisive game in our season,” Ferreira said.

“The players believe in what we are trying to achieve, they believe that we can improve. We are all sharing in this goal of lifting the title for Al Sadd,” added the Portuguese coach.

Ferriera called for Al Sadd fans to come into the stadium and support their tem in the fi nal two games of the season. “I like to play in the stadium full of fans. The fans made an impact in the game against Al Rayyan. We will need the fans to sup-port the team in the last two games and in the Cup matches, because the club de-

serves to be cheered based on how we are playing at the moment,” he said,

Meanwhile, Al Sailiya will be aiming to upset the odds. Peregrines boss Sami Trabelsi said his side is up for the chal-lenge of facing a side chasing the QSL title. “It’s a special game when you play Sadd, they have had an exceptional sea-son. We need to be disciplined when we play Al Sadd, and we will have to step up

collectively when we play one of the best sides in Qatar. I am not worried that my side will not preform when we take on the top sides in the league, the motivation is there,” Trabelsi said.

QSL SCHEDULE6:20pm: Lekhwiya vs Al Ahli; Al Sadd vs Al

Sailiya.

8:30pm: Al Rayyan vs Al Arabi; Al Gharafa

vs El Jaish.

Qatar SC, Mesaimeer face off in Emir Cup Opener

Qatar Olympic Committee highlights strength and depth of emerging sporting talent

The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has introduced a new wave of talented athletes that are achieving success for Qatar on the international stage, dem-

onstrating the continued strength and depth of sports development in Qatar. Athletes repre-senting Team Qatar in gymnastics, beach vol-leyball, and at the recent GCC Women’s Games were amongst those celebrated at the QOC’s April media briefi ng.

Commenting on Team Qatar’s talented ath-letes, Secretary General of the QOC, Dr Thani Abdulrahman al-Kuwari said: “The QOC is committed to working closely with each of our National Sport Federations to provide the highest level of support for all our athletes and ensure that they have everything they need to reach their full potential. We are very pleased to witness the number of talented athletes that continue to emerge across wide variety of sports and represent Team Qatar at the highest pos-sible level, particularly in women’s sport and para-sport.

“This demonstrates the progress that we con-tinue to make on the sporting fi eld and suggests a bright future for sporting excellence in Qatar. We are very proud of all our athletes and hope that their success will capture the attention of young people around the country and inspire them to take up sport at any level.”

Team Qatar’s female athletes excelled at the recent GCC Women’s Games hosted in Doha when they topped the medals table with a total of 60 medals – 21 gold, 20 silver and 19 bronze, ahead of Bahrain in second place with 40 medals and UAE in third place with 32 medals.

Over 350 athletes in total from across the GCC participated in 10 sports with 88 athletes repre-senting Team Qatar. The performance of Qatar’s athletes is a huge improvement from the last edition of the Games in 2014 when Qatar fi n-ished fourth in the medal’s table with 29 medals, including seven gold, eight silver, and 14 bronze medals.

Team Qatar’s gold medals came in a variety of sports including table tennis, chess, fencing,

athletics, shooting, taekwondo, handball and basketball. Gold medal-winning handball cap-tain, Sulaima al-Marri, who was voted Qatar’s best handball player in 2015 and 2017, said:

“Our success in the GCC Women’s Games inspired lots of new females in Qatar to want to play handball and to join the national team. During the tournament, we saw many players registering to join, which was amazing to see. It is also good to see the international media coverage of the event and show that there are females in Qatar playing sport and that we are playing at a high level. Handball is a great sport because it encourages girls to be social and ena-bles them to be strong, powerful and healthy.”

In March, Doha also hosted the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup for the tenth consecu-tive year. 240 gymnasts from 33 countries par-ticipated, including Team Qatar’s Ahmed al-

Dayani, Ahmed Nabil and Jenna Elkeky , who had the opportunity to compete against Olym-pic and World Champions and Doha’s Aspire Dome.

For 17-year-old Nabil, who is a current stu-dent at the Aspire Academy, the competition provided valuable international experience on his journey to qualifying for next year’s 2018 World Championships in Doha and the To-kyo 2020 Olympics. The 2016 Arab Gymnas-tics Champion is currently preparing for next month’s Asian Championships in Thailand.

He commented: “My experience at the Arab Junior Gymnastics Championships in Tunisia was great because I won my fi rst gold medal on my favourite apparatus. We were also there with our senior team and I was able to learn a lot from them during our training camp ahead of the competition. I have lots of competitions and training camps coming up to gain more experi-ence and work towards my dream of competing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”

Doha will be hosting further major interna-tional events in May when the Diamond League will be returning to Qatar Sports Club and the AVC Aspire Beach Tour will be hosted at the Aspire Park. Doha fi rst staged a major athletics event in 1997 with the Doha Grand Prix, which was elevated to the Super Grand Prix in 2005. Qatar will have a large team of athletes compet-ing across a variety of disciplines, headed by Olympic silver medallist Mutaz Barshim, Asian 100m record holder Femi Ogunode and new-comer Abderrahman Samba, who recently ran a world-lead time in the 400m hurdles.

The AVC Beach Tour will feature the best beach volleyball teams from 24 countries across Asia. This year’s AVC Beach Tour in Doha is the fi rst Master tournament – allowing the teams to gain more points versus the previously held Open tours. Team Qatar last year qualifi ed for the Olympic beach volleyball competition for the fi rst time ever at Rio 2016, and continue to compete strongly on the world-stage.

DRAWSPOTLIGHT

Rayyan take on Al Arabi in derby

FOCUS


Al Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup will be looking for a reaction from his side, when they take on

Al Arabi in a highly anticipated derby today. The Danish coach stressed that Rayyan’s game against local rivals is a must-win for his side. “It’s a game we want to win, especially after losing the previous match. We need to get back to winning again. We want to maintain our third position in the league, for AFC Champions League qualifi cation,” he said.

“Al Arabi need some points in the last two games so they will be looking to get a result. Our last two games are with teams involved with relegation fi ght, which will be a test for us,” added the Danish coach.

Laudrup revealed he will be without two players for the Arabi game. “I have not decided if we will make changes against Al Arabi with the Champions League in mind. Right now we have to focus on the game ahead. We will be without Tabata and Daniel Gomu against Al Arabi and that will be something we will have to cover,” he said.

Al Arabi, on the other hand, are in danger of being pulled into a relegation dog-fi ght if they are unable to get a result from their fi nal two games. Arabi boss Os-valdo Olivera said: “It’s a crucial

game for the team, we have to win. It’s been a short turnaround from the last match, so we are focused on the mental side of the game for our team. Al Rayyan are one of the best sides in Qatar and we need a result from the game.”

“I came here to help the club, and I have done the best that I can. We now need to come to-gether in these fi nal games and do the very best for Al Arabi, be-cause our situation is diffi cult,” added the Brazilian coach.

In another match, Al Gharafa will take on El Jaish. The Chee-tah’s will be looking to avoid their third straight defeat after they lost to Sailiya and Umm Salal in the last two rounds. El Jaish, who have confi rmed their Qatar Cup place, will be looking to erase the memory of a 5-1 de-feat to Lekhwiya last week.

Gharafa caretaker boss Habib Sidiq said: “We must learn from our mistakes and take this into our game against El Jaish, who are hurting after the defeat to Lekhwiya. They will be wanting to prove a point and we will have to be ready for this,” added the Tunisian coach.

Jaish coach admitted that it’s been tough preparing his side. “We have had diffi cult time pre-paring for this match after a big loss. We have to fi nish the sea-son on a high and we have tough games ahead against Al Sadd in the league and the semi-fi nal of the Qatar Cup. The important thing is to get over the defeat.”

The fi rst round draw of HH The Emir Cup 2016-17 took place in the Qatar Football Association’s (QFA) head-quarters yesterday. Qatar SC will

take on Mesaimeer in the opening match of Round 1 of the Emir Cup, while Al Markhiya will face Al Shamal in the other opening-round clash of the most popular football competition in the country.

The draw ceremony on Tuesday was con-ducted by Ali Homoud al-Naimi, QFA Head of Competitions. QFA competitions rep-resentative Fahad Rashid was also present as well as the representatives of the four clubs. The fi rst-round matches will be held on April 9 at Hamad Bin Khalifa Stadium also known as Al Ahli Stadium. If the two matches end in draw, no extra time will be played and the winner will be decided dur-ing a penalty shootout. The second stage of HH The Emir Cup will start on April 23, while the main draw ceremony will be held on April 17.

Ali Homoud al-Naimi said: “This is the fi rst time that we are organising two draw ceremonies for the two stages of the tour-nament. The second division matches, which are typically played in round 1 of the Emir Cup, will be played before the main draw ceremony takes place. This is due to the fact that the Qatargas League conclud-ed before the Qatar Stars League. As such second division teams are their best techni-cal conditions at this stage and it’s best to start their matches immediately after the end of the Qatargas League.”

Last year, in the fi nal Lekhwiya beat Al Sadd 4-2 in penalties after both sides drew 2-2 at the end of the regular time.

Qatar’s handball captain Suliama al-Marri.

Qatar's gymnast Ahmed Nabil.

Lekhwiya manager Djamel Belmadi insists that the title race is not over.

Al Sadd has suggested that the Sailiya match could be decisive for his side.

(played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):1. Lekhwiya 24 18 1 5 75 30 59

2. Al Sadd 24 17 1 6 73 20 57

3. Al Rayyan 24 14 5 5 48 25 47

4. El Jaish 24 13 5 6 43 36 45

5. Al Gharafa 24 11 9 4 40 40 37

6. Umm Salal 24 8 7 9 28 32 33

7. Kharaitiyat 24 8 12 4 23 32 28

8. Al Ahli 24 7 11 6 32 39 27

9. Al Sailiya 24 7 11 6 27 42 27

10. Al Arabi 24 8 13 3 37 53 27

11. Al Khor 24 6 12 6 25 35 24

12. Shahania 24 3 10 11 27 50 20

13. Muaither 24 4 15 5 21 46 17

14. Al Wakrah 24 2 14 8 26 45 14

POINTS TABLE

Al Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup said it's a must-win game for his side against Al Arabi.

AFPLondon

Zlatan Ibrahimovic marked his return from suspension with a 94th-minute penalty to earn

Manchester United a 1-1 draw against Everton at Old Traff ord on Tuesday.

A deliberate handball by Ash-ley Williams, who was sent off , allowed Ibrahimovic to cancel out Phil Jagielka’s opener and ex-tend United’s unbeaten run in the Premier League to 20 matches.

But it remained an unwelcome result for Jose Mourinho’s side, who have now drawn nine games at home this season and trail fourth-place Manchester City by four points.

“The performance from a football point of view was not good, but I am very pleased with the eff ort,” said Mourinho,

whose team had drawn 0-0 at home to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

“It is an amazing run of 20 matches unbeaten, but too many draws at home.

“We don’t kill off enough op-ponents and at the end of this season I think we will be pun-ished by that.”

Elsewhere, Leicester City’s resurgence under Craig Shake-speare continued as they beat bottom club Sunderland 2-0 to record a sixth successive win since the dismissal of manager Claudio Ranieri.

Ibrahimovic’s last-gasp spot-kick — his 27th goal of the season — meant United held on to fi fth place, three points above Arse-nal and Everton having played a game more than the former.

But the Europa League looks increasingly like their best hope of securing a return to the Champions League next season.

They face Belgian side Ander-lecht in a two-legged quarter-fi nal later this month, with the winners of the competition as-sured of a place at Europe’s top table.

United manager Mourinho welcomed top scorer Ibrahimov-ic and Ander Herrera back from suspension, while Paul Pogba returned to the bench following a hamstring injury. His side fell behind in the 22nd minute when Williams fl icked on Kevin Miral-las’s right-wing corner and cen-tre-back Jagielka held off Marcos Rojo to poke a volley between David de Gea’s legs.

Everton goalkeeper Joel Rob-les, much criticised after his side’s 3-1 derby loss at Liverpool, produced fl ying saves to repel a Daley Blind free-kick and a rasp-ing Herrera drive.

Pogba came on at half-time and headed against the bar from an Ashley Young free-kick, while

Ibrahimovic had a 71st-minute header chalked off for a marginal off side.

“With the VAR (video assist-ant referee), we win this game 2-1 because it’s not an off side,” Mourinho told BT Sport. But in the fourth minute of injury time, Williams was penalised for par-rying a shot from substitute Luke Shaw — brought in from the cold by Mourinho — and Ibrahimovic dispatched the penalty.

“It was really disappoint-ing not to get the win,” Everton manager Ronald Koeman told BBC Sport. “The penalty was the right decision, but it was really hard to take.”

Rooney could miss Sunday’s Premier League trip to basement side Sunderland due to an ankle problem, manager Jose Mour-inho has said.

Champions Leicester are now 10th, a healthy nine points above the bottom three, after sink-

ing Sunderland to record a fi fth league win in a row.

Substitute Islam Slimani opened the scoring with a 69th-minute header before the re-vitalised Jamie Vardy smashed in his sixth goal in seven games from Marc Albrighton’s pass.

Defeat completed a miserable few days for Sunderland man-ager David Moyes, who had to apologise after being caught on camera threatening to “slap” a female television reporter.

“I’m just grateful for the club’s support,” Moyes said. “As far as I’m concerned the matter’s fi nished.” Sunderland lie eight points from safety with eight games of the season remaining.

George Boyd struck as Burnley boosted their survival hopes by beating Stoke City 1-0, while goals from M’Baye Niang and skipper Troy Deeney earned Watford a 2-0 home win over West Brom.

‘We don’t kill off enough opponents and I think we will be punished by that’

Ibra saves United, Leicester surge on

EPL

Ibrahimovic back as a lion among pussycats for UnitedReutersLondon

In a TV interview before Tuesday’s match between Manchester United and Everton at Old Traff ord,

Zlatan Ibrahimovic had been asked if he was the best striker in the Premier League.

“Lions don’t compare to humans,” he smiled to his BT Sport questioner in quite per-fect Zlatan fashion, suggesting that the very idea there could be a better marksman than him out there was laughable.

Then as if it to prove his point, he picked up where he left off before a three-match suspension, scoring the goal in the 93rd minute that once again bailed out United, help-ing them eke out a 1-1 draw. He roared after his strike from the penalty spot just about kept United clinging on in fi fth place in the race for the top four Champions League spots.

He had also had what ap-peared to most eyes — cer-tainly to United manager Jose Mourinho’s — a perfectly good headed goal disallowed for the most marginal of off sides. The point is that, once again, he had delivered, a preening lion among ordinary tabbies.

It was his 27th goal of the season in all competitions, in-cluding his 16th in the league. What, it was hard not to pon-der again, would Mourinho and United have done without his predatory instincts this term?

The worry for United is that the Swede himself may be be-ginning to wonder about all the under-achievement going on around him as he ponders whether he wants to extend his contract at Old Traff ord next season.

There have already been media reports that he will join LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer. Asked in that same in-terview about whether there were enough lions like him in the United squad, Ibrahimovic did not exactly off er a whole-hearted vote of support to his colleagues with his response that “the table does not lie, the team is where it is because it is what it is.”

He refl ected that he could not remember when he last fi nished second in his gar-landed club career because it was so long ago at Milan, which sounded like a veiled warn-ing from a man who is used to nothing but winning. The draw here leaves United’s chances of a top-four place looking bleak as they lie four points behind fourth-placed City.

Their best route of earning guaranteed Champions League football next season appears to be a Europa League triumph.

“It’s going to be very diffi -cult. I would say mathemati-cally possible (to make the top four) but now we depend on our opponents. Can Chelsea help us tomorrow (when they face Manchester City)? We hope so,” Mourinho said.

“But it’s an amazing unbeat-en run we’ve had (of 20 league games) but too many draws at home (nine in the league) and that’s why we are in the posi-tion we are. We don’t score enough goals, we don’t kill opponents. “If we believe the door we have to focus on is the Europa League door, we have to go for it.” Yet Mourinho knows one lion who will not let him down. “In an extreme situation of pressure in the 93rd minute when we got that penalty, Zla-tan wanted to take the respon-sibility,” he said, admiringly.

FOCUS

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times


ReutersLondon

Manchester United manager Jose Mour-inho said full back Luke Shaw used “his

body with my brain” during his side’s 1-1 draw with Everton on Tuesday and has urged the Eng-land international to develop a better understanding of the game.

Shaw, who was criticised for showing lack of commitment by Mourinho last weekend, was re-called to the squad for the Engal-ish Premier League clash against the Merseyside club at Old Traff ord.

The 21-year-old was intro-duced from the bench in the second half with Manchester United trailing and his stoppage-time shot led to the penalty that Zlatan Ibrahimovic slotted home to earn a share of the points.

“He (Shaw) had a good per-formance but it was his body with my brain,” Mourinho told the British media.

“He was in front of me and I was making every decision for

him.“The communication was

possible because we were very close. I was thinking for him, when to close inside, when to open, when to press the oppo-nent, I was making every deci-sion for him.”

Shaw, a highly rated teen-ager when he joined United at the start of 2014-15 season, was making just his 16th appearance of the season after dropping down the pecking order under the Portuguese manager.

Mourinho said he wanted Shaw to accelerate his learning process to fulfi l his potential at the club.

“At this level we need the fantastic body he has to play football, the very good techni-cal ability he has, but he cannot play with my understanding of the game,” the 54-year-old added.

“He must accelerate the proc-ess because he is 21 years old and that is old enough to have a bet-ter understanding of the game.”

Fifth-placed United are on a 20-game unbeaten league run going into their visit to bottom side Sunderland on Sunday.

Mourinho urges Shaw to develop football brainSPOTLIGHT

Manchester United’s Luke Shaw speaks with manager Jose Mourinho. (Reuters)

Manchester United’s Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic (R) vies with Everton’s English midfielder Ross Barkley during their English Premier League match at Old Traff ord in Man-chester, north west England. (AFP)

Lazio into Italian Cup fi nal despite Roma defeat

Lazio reached the Italian Cup final on Tuesday despite losing 3-2 in the second leg to bitter city rivals Roma, advancing 4-2 on aggregate.A double from Egyptian Mohamed Salah on 66 and 90 minutes added to Stephan El Shaarawy’s goal two minutes before the break to give Roma victory on the night.But Lazio scored in either half through Serbian midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (37) and Italian forward Ciro Immobile (56) to book a third final in five years after beating Roma in 2013 for the title and losing to Juventus two years ago. Simone Inzaghi’s Lazio are fourth in Serie A and still in the running for Champions League football next season despite a chaotic start to the season when Marcelo Bielsa spent just two days in charge. The six-time winners will meet either Napoli or Juventus in the final with the Turin giants leading 3-1 after the first leg.Meanwhile Genoa striker Mauricio Pinilla has been banned for five matches for striking the referee during Sunday’s 5-0 home defeat by Atalanta, the Serie A disciplinary committee said. The Chile international was sent off in the second half after pick-ing up two yellow cards in quick succession, the first for a tackle and the second for his protests against the decisions of referee Claudio Gavillucci. Pinilla insulted the referee verbally and made an arm gesture at the off icial after being shown the first yellow card, the disciplinary committee said. It said that after the referee sent him off , Pinilla slapped the of-ficial’s arm and right hand and directed threatening words at him while being barely restrained by his teammates and rivals.

Liverpool fi ned over approach for Stoke starletLiverpool were hit with an acad-emy transfer ban and ordered to pay £100,000 ($124,000, 117,000 euros) after admitting their part in the ‘tapping up’ of a promising Stoke youngster.The Premier League club won’t be able to sign any academy players who have been regis-tered with a Premier League or Football League team in the last 18 months.Although the ban is for two years, the second 12 months has been suspended for a three-year period and will only be acti-vated in the event of any further similar breach by the club.A brief statement from Liver-pool said: “The club accepts the sanction.”The case involves forbidden inducements off ered to a 12-year-old at Stoke and whom Liverpool accept they spoke to before they should have and also paid for him and some of his family to attend a game at Anfield.Liverpool also off ered to pay the player’s school fees, which

were being paid by Stoke at this time, but this was a breach of newly-introduced regulations which state a benefit can only be off ered if it is applicable to all youngsters across the club’s academy and this was not the case.It is understood Liverpool of-fered to pay these fees because Stoke were already doing so and had every intention of signing the youngster until the Premier League stepped in as result of their interpretation of rule 299.1 and specifically relating to the payment of the player’s school fees. The regis-tration process and Liverpool’s transparency and openness on the school fees issues is what has ultimately led to the investi-gation and sanction. Meanwhile Klopp has said his Liverpool team must be prepared to play ugly football to secure Champions League qualification following the injury to productive forward Sadio Mane ahead of clash against Bournemouth.

AFPBerlin

Runaway Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich had their 20-match un-beaten run in all com-

petitions ended at Hoff enheim on Tuesday as Andrej Kramaric’s winner sealed the hosts’ historic 1-0 victory.

Bayern’s run came to an end a week before their mouth-wa-tering Champions League home leg quarter-fi nal against Real Madrid.

This was Bayern’s fi rst loss since going down 3-2 at Russia’s Rostov in a Champions League group game last November. It was also only their second de-feat in 27 German league games having also stumbled at Borussia Dortmund, but they still hold a 13-point lead in the table.

“Of course, we shouldn’t have allowed that to happen,” fumed Bayern’s captain-for-the-night Arjen Robben.

“It was better in the second half, but the ball wouldn’t go in.

“Our lead (in the table) is still big, but that was an unnecessary defeat.”

Second-placed RB Leipzig can now trim Bayern’s massive lead at Mainz on Wednesday.

This was Hoff enheim’s fi rst win over Bayern at the 18th at-tempt.

Having earned a 1-1 draw in Munich last November, this is another feather in the cap for Hoff enheim’s 29-year-old coach Julian Nagelsmann.

“It always sounds good to beat Bayern, we went close in the fi rst match, it was a good bit of work for us,” said Nagelsmann, Germany’s coach of the year for 2016.

“Kramaric had a great game, he scored with the worse chance in the fi rst half for us.

“I said we had to be brave, which we had, but we also played the better football.”

With a busy run of fi xtures ap-proaching, Bayern coach Carlo Ancelotti rotated his squad, but still started with 10 internation-als. Bayern host Dortmund in the Bundesliga on Saturday, then Real next Wednesday.

With Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer recovering from minor foot surgery, reserve shot-stopper Sven Ulreich, the only uncapped player in the starting team, again deputised.

Captain Philipp Lahm, Jer-ome Boateng and Franck Ribery started on the bench. Playmaker Thiago Alcantara was rested while Thomas Mueller was side-lined by an ankle injury.

Hoff enheim took advantage of Bayern’s changes by dominating the opening half and took a de-served lead on 21 minutes.

A poor clearance from Bayern defender Mats Hummels was

snapped up by ex-Leicester City striker Kramaric who slammed his shot past Ulreich.

Bayern’s striker Robert

Lewandowski hit the crossbar just before the break after Kings-ley Coman whipped in a cross.

With time running out,

Lewandowski forced Hoff enhe-im goalkeeper Oliver Baumann into a superb diving save as they hunted the equaliser.

Hoff enheim strengthen their hold on third place and are set to make their Champions League debut next season.

‘Our lead (in the table) is still big, but that was an unnecessary defeat’

Hoff enheim end Bayern’s 20-match unbeaten run

BUNDESLIGA

FOOTBALL

Gulf Times Thursday, April 6, 20174

FOCUS

Tuchel defends Aubameyang aft er mask fi ascoPierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s recent mask-wearing exploits landed him in hot water with Borussia Dortmund’s bosses, but his coach Thomas Tuchel has leapt to the defence of the Gabon hot-shot.“Such a sensitive human being like Auba is aff ected when so much is said and written about him - even if he has himself to blame,” said Tuchel. “The goal in this situation, with it’s background, was very important for us and Auba.”The goal Tuchel refered to was Aubam-eyang’s 25th in as many league matches which sealed Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Hamburg to make him the Bundesliga top-scorer, one ahead of Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski.Tuchel made Aubameyang captain for the night against Hamburg with regular skipper Marcel Schmelzer injured.The striker set up Shinji Kagawa for Dort-mund’s second, then netted his own goal just before the final whistle with an ice-cold finish after rounding Hamburg’s goalkeeper.Being handed the captain’s armband was a show of faith after Dortmund’s goal machine once again fell off side with Borussia’s senior bosses on Saturday -- the “situation” and

“background” Tuchel was referring to.He donned a red-and-orange wrestling mask for his goal celebration in the 1-1 Ruhr derby draw at Schalke.The problem is sportswear giants Puma own a five percent share in Dortmund and Au-bameyang wore the same mask in an advert for private sponsor Nike.Puma has called on Dortmund to take ac-tion, especially after Aubameyang had the Nike logo shaved into his hair last month -- which had already landed him in trouble with Borussia’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.To make matters worse, Aubameyang picked up a yellow card in Gelsenkirchen for his masked celebration -- his third of the sea-son - and two more would see him banned for one league match.The flamboyant striker has donned masks in the past to celebrate goals -- a spiderman headpiece in 2014 and a Batman one in 2015.- Schmelzer criticism - But while the superhero masks can be ex-cused as harmless fun, the Nike one is part of a clear marketing strategy and German daily Bild claims the club will fine Aubam-eyang at least 50,000 euros ($53,317).His team-mates are also not amused by

the off -field disruption the mask caused ahead of next Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg at home to Monaco and Saturday’s Bundesliga clash at leaders Bayern Munich.“We thought within the team that he’d come up with something for the derby, but the way it happened is, of course, stupid. No one had a clue,” Dortmund captain Marcel Schmelzer told German daily Bild.“We had already spoken to him, the club will talk to him once more and make it clear internally. Auba is already aware.“We know what we have in him and he knows what he has with us.“It’s important that we don’t lose the ‘we’ feeling and Auba knows that - 100 percent,” Schmelzer added.Dortmund were in grave danger of con-ceding an equaliser against Hamburg on Tuesday until Aubameyang helped turn the game with an assist for Kagawa on 81 minutes before his injury time goal.“I’m torn in how to sum up the game,” said Tuchel.“We had many clear chances, but also played negligently - it was a rollercoaster ride.”

Ceferin warns clubs that ‘money does not rule’

FOCUS

ReutersHelsinki

UEFA president Ale-ksander Ceferin told Europe’s top football clubs yesterday that

“money does not rule” and warned its biggest leagues that he would not give in to black-mail as he promised to reshape the game in the region.

The Slovenian also reiter-ated in his opening speech at the UEFA Congress that he would not allow the creation of a closed “Super League”, which some of the region’s biggest clubs have discussed.

Ceferin was elected last September, shortly after UEFA announced changes to the fl ag-ship Champions League com-petition to give more slots to clubs from bigger leagues and cut the number allocated to smaller ones. The changes were implemented after the biggest clubs had discussed forming a breakaway Super League.

European football faces a huge disparity between the top leagues such as England’s Pre-mier League and Germany’s Bundesliga and the smallest ones, which struggle with poor revenues, falling attendances and fi nancial diffi culties.

Ceferin promised to distrib-ute 1mn euros to each of UEFA’s 55 member associations as a “solidarity payment” following strong fi nancial results from national team competitions such as UEFA EURO 2016.

“UEFA is not here to accu-mulate wealth while (football associations) struggle to de-velop football in the furthest reaches of (their) territories.”

He said UEFA would sit down with the clubs, leagues and players to develop a “strategic vision” for European football over the next fi ve years.

“This fi ve-year plan will not be forced on you, it will not come out of the blue, as may have happened in the past,” he told the UEFA Congress.

“It will not be drafted by some anonymous bureaucrat and his paper-pushers hidden away on the shores of Lake Ge-

neva.” The Switzerland-based UEFA should not be afraid of stakeholders, Ceferin said, and issued stark warnings to clubs and leagues alike.

“To some clubs I should say...there will be no closed league. It’s as simple as that. That is not in line with our val-ues and ideas,” he said.

“We will never give in to the blackmail of those who think they can manipulate small leagues...because they think they are all powerful because of the astronomical values they generate.”

“We will work together to rectify the imbalances as much as possible — problems and imbalances for which you are also responsibly,” he added. “Sharing must not be consid-ered a dirty word.”

The Congress later approved measures restricting the presi-dent and executive commit-tee members to a maximum of three four-year terms each.

It also decided that venues for the Champions League and Europa League fi nals would be selected through what Ceferin described as a “fully objective manner through a transparent bidding procedure”.

Ceferin added: “Surprising at it may seem, it was not al-ways the case in the past.”

Six new members were voted onto UEFA’s executive com-mittee, including former Po-land forward Zbigniew Boniek and Football Association of Ireland chief John Delaney.

Delaney was elected one day after members of Ireland’s women’s soccer team threat-ened to boycott their next in-ternational match over what they described as “humiliat-ing” working conditions.

India soccer coach Stephen Constantine is confi-dent he has the nucleus of a side that will qualify for the 2019 Asian Cup and be competitive for the next five years. India, who have reached the Asian Cup finals on three previous occasions, have been drawn in Group A of the last round of qualifiers. The AFC decision to increase the number of finalists from 16 to 24 has given the country a better chance of qualifying and they began their campaign on a strong note with a 1-0 win in Myanmar last week. Constantine has spoken of giving opportunities to youngsters to create a bigger pool of talent and has handed debuts to about 30 players in the last two years. “I believe we have the nucleus of the squad. The average age of the side is 24. “We have a team that will take us hopefully to the Asian Cup and beyond for the next four-five years. We’re on the right track,” Constantine said.

Footballers in Gabon are being treated as slaves through the systematic late payment of salaries, the head of the country’s players union told AFP. Remy Ebanega’s outburst came in the wake of a damning Fifpro report which revealed that 95.6 percent of players from teams in Ga-bon have been paid late at some point.“It’s slavery,” said Ebanega, a former Gabon in-ternational and current president of the players union. “If it’s not slavery what is it? When some-one works for you for eleven months and then you just don’t pay them - this is the reality in 90 percent of the clubs here. “The club presidents have so much influence on the players, and the players are in turn afraid to speak out.”At the root of endemic late payments is clubs banking on state subsidies that were far from guaranteed, coupled with a shortfall in self-financing, Ebanega said.

An injury-time winner from Hirving Lozano saw Mexican side Pachuca snatch a 3-1 victory over FC Dallas on Tuesday to fire the Liga MX outfit into the final of the CONCACAF Champions League. Major League Soccer’s Dallas looked to have forced extra-time after Cristian Colman scored in the 86th minute to level the game at 3-3 on aggregate.But the Mexicans grabbed a dramatic victory in the final minute of time added on Lozano lofted a chipped pass into the Dallas penalty area with the intention of picking out Victor Guzman.Guzman was unable to get on the end of the pass however and it bounced through a crowd-ed defence past Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz.It was a cruel defensive lapse from Dallas, who had battled gamely as they attempted to defend a 2-1 lead from the first leg.

The Spanish football Federation (RFEF) launched a formal investigation yesterday over suspicions of match-fixing in third division side Eldense’s 12-0 defeat to Barcelona B on Saturday. “This disciplinary body considers the initiation of disciplinary actions pertinent to discover the nature and scope of the events and, if necessary, the corresponding sanctions if justified,” the RFEF said in a statement. The federation’s competition committee will “initiate an extraordinary disciplinary procedure on Club Deportivo Eldense, as well as on each and every one of the players, coaches and delegates of the club”, the statement continued. Five members of the club, including coach Filippo di Pierro, two players, another member of the coach-ing staff and an Italian investor, who recently became Eldense’s major shareholder, have been arrested by police on suspicion of corruption.

The United States Soccer Federation and the country’s women footballers agreed a new long-term labour deal yesterday, ending a dispute that had raised the prospect of strike action. Both sides signed a collective bargaining agreement through to 2021, US Soccer and the US Women’s National Team Players Associa-tion (WNTPA) said in a joint statement. “We are pleased to announce that US Soccer and the US Women’s National Team Players Association have ratified a new collective bargaining agree-ment which will continue to build the women’s program in the US, grow the game of soccer worldwide, and improve the professional lives of players on and off the field,” the statement said. “We are proud of the hard work and commit-ment to thoughtful dialogue reflected through this process and look forward to strengthening our partnership moving forward.”

India coach confident he has established core group

Gabon players union boss blasts late pay ‘slavery’

Injury-time winner sinks Dallas in CONCACAF CL

Spanish federation launches match-fixing investigation

US soccer, women’s team settle labour dispute

Monaco down Lille to reach semi-fi nalsAFPParis

Valere Germain hit a brace as Monaco bounced back from their League Cup fi -

nal disappointment to surge into the French Cup semi-fi nals with a 2-1 win over 10-man Lille on Tuesday.

The principality club are still looking for a fi rst trophy since 2003 after capitulating in Sat-urday’s clash with Paris Saint-Germain in Lyon, losing 4-1. But they are still top of Ligue 1 — albeit with PSG breathing hard down their necks — and made light work of visiting Lille at a sparse Louis II Stadium de-spite fi elding a weakened side.

Striker Radamel Falcao and starlets Kylian Mbappe and Tiemoue Bakayoko were all named on the bench. Mo-naco took the lead in the 35th minute when striker and cap-tain-for-the-night Germain rifl ed high into the roof of the net and fi ve minutes later Lille were in deeper trouble when

Carlens Arcus was sent off for hauling down Jorge as the Bra-zilian had a run at goal.

The prolifi c Monaco — who have hit 87 goals in the French league already this season — made it 2-0 against fel-low Ligue 1 side Lille just be-fore the break when Germain struck again, this time from close range. Lille pulled a con-solation goal back through An-war El Ghazi deep into stop-page time.

FRENCH CUP

Hoff enheim took advan-tage of Bayern’s changes by dominating the opening half and took a deserved lead on 21 minutes

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin gives a speech during the 41st Ordinary UEFA Congress in Helsinki. (AFP)

Hoff enheim’s Andrej Kramaric (R) reacts after scoring goal against Bayern Munich. (Reuters)

Monaco’s Valere Germain in action against Lille. (AFP)

SPORT5Gulf Times


AFPLos Angeles

Russell Westbrook tied Oscar Robertson’s record for most triple-doubles in an NBA season on Tuesday, his 41st triple-dou-

ble of the campaign fuelling the Okla-homa City Thunder’s 110-79 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Westbrook drained a three-pointer just before halftime to fi nish the fi rst half with 12 points.

Minutes into the third period he notched his 10th rebound and within seconds had delivered a 10th assist on Taj Gibson’s bas-ket that put the Thunder up 67-42.

Fans in Oklahoma City went wild, and chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” rang out for Westbrook, who raised an arm in acknowledgement as the feat was recog-nized by the arena announcer when play was stopped.

“It’s something I could never have dreams of growing up,” said Westbrook, who can break the record Robertson set in the 1961-62 season on Wednesday night against the Grizzlies in Memphis.

“To be able to be on this stage with this group of guys, it’s unbelievable and a blessing.”

Westbrook fi nished the game with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists and the

playoff -bound Thunder snapped a two-game skid.

“It was a special night,” Westbrook said. “Something I’ll defi nitely never forget. I am truly honored to do it here in Oklahoma City.”

With a seventh straight triple-dou-ble, Westbrook matched his career-high streak fashioned earlier this season.

Westbrook’s 41 triple-doubles this season are more than 10 NBA teams have amassed in their club histories.

Cavaliers great LeBron James took his career tally of triple-doubles to 54 on Tuesday with his 12th of the season, scoring 18 points with 11 rebounds and 11 assists in Cleveland’s 122-102 victory over the Orlando Magic.

The reigning champion Cavs limbered up for a Wednesday duel with the Boston Celtics for the Eastern Conference lead.

Their victory pulled them level with the Celtics atop the East.

Cleveland, coming off a double-over-time home victory over the Indiana Pac-ers on Sunday, got off to a slow start and trailed 55-53 at halftime.

The Cavaliers produced nine three-pointers as they seized control in the third quarter.

J.R. Smith made four of his fi ve three-pointers in the third and Kyle Korver made two of his three from beyond the arc in the third.

“No one can survive that,” Magic coach Frank Vogel said.

Kevin Love led Cleveland with 28 points and 11 rebounds.

Kyrie Irving added 24 points and Smith scored 19.

Korver, back in action after a four-game absence with a left foot injury, scored 11 off the bench.

While James downplayed the signifi -cance of yesterday’s showdown with the Celtics, Love said it would be a good test with the playoff s fast approaching.

“It will be good for us,” Love said. “I think it will get us even more prepared, even more locked-in, win or lose.”

There were wins for the top two teams in the West as the Golden State Warriors

cruised to a 121-107 victory over the Min-nesota Timberwolves while the San An-tonio Spurs battled to a 95-89 overtime victory over the Grizzlies.

Klay Thompson poured in 41 points for the Warriors, who won their 12th straight game. Thompson’s second 40-point game of the season featured seven three-pointers in 14 attempts.

Stephen Curry drained three three-pointers on his way to 19 points and handed out a game-high nine assists.

The Spurs and Grizzlies were tied 86-86 with 2:15 to play in overtime before Pau Gasol and Patty Mills nailed three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to put the Spurs ahead for good.

Kawhi Leonard made three free throws in the fi nal minute to seal it, fi nishing with 32 points and 12 rebounds.

The lead had changed hands three times in a frantic fi nal minute of regu-lation, with San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge, fed by a crisp inbounds pass from Gasol, scoring with 1.6 seconds re-maining to force overtime.

Elsewhere in the West, the Portland Trail Blazers were left clinging to a half-game lead over the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and fi nal playoff seed after they were domi-nated 106-87 by the Utah Jazz.

The Nuggets pulled off a crucial 134-131 victory in New Orleans that eliminat-ed the Pelicans from playoff contention.

Giants get 1st 2017 win behind outfi eld sub Gorkys Hernandez

MLB

MCTPhoenix

One beauty and chal-lenge of baseball is the incessant need to ad-just to the unexpected.

In a perfect world, that does not happen in Game 2. Who said this is a perfect world?

The Giants earned their first victory of the season Tuesday night, 8-4 over the Diamond-backs, with regular leadoff hitter and center field Denard Span on the bench nursing a tight hip and Johnny Cueto done after five innings of shim-mying, hitting and sprinting into his teammates’ hearts.

So in stepped an understudy at the plate and the bullpen to save the night.

Gorkys Hernandez started in place of Span and drove in four runs with a single and double, matching his RBI total with the Giants last year. He hit a two-run single off starter Patrick Corbin in the second and a two-run double against Randall Del-gado in a fi ve-run fi fth.

“I’ve said this so many times,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Bench players play such a big role during the season. They’ve got to deliver for you. They help you rest your guys, and when someone can’t go, you can put a guy in and it softens the blow of

losing a regular.”Hunter Pence and Joe Panik

had three hits apiece, with Panik adding inspired defense and baserunning. Eduardo Nuñez continued to impress with his speed and bat as well. He is 5-for-9 in the series.

Chris Marrero hit a sacrifi ce fl y in his fi rst big-league game since June 2013. Brandon Craw-ford hit the Giants’ fi rst non-Madison Bumgarner homer of

the year, and relievers Cory Ge-arrin, George Kontos, Derek Law and Hunter Strickland retired 12 of their 15 hitters over four scoreless innings.

There were so many places to look on a 15-hit night for the Gi-ants. Cueto is invariably a good place to start. He stunned the Diamondbacks in the second inning by feigning bunt, pull-ing the bat back on his own and chopping a butcher-boy single

past charging fi rst baseman Paul Goldschmidt. That set up Hern-andez’s bloop two-run single.

Cueto topped himself in the fi fth when he reached on an error and motored from fi rst to home on Hernandez’s two-run dou-ble, looking nothing like a stocky pitcher and making his team-mates smile even as they feared for his legs.

“I’m happy he’s good,” Panik said. “He’s probably in better

shape than a lot of guys in here. He takes the cake.”

Cueto got a paternal lecture from Nuñez upon returning to the dugout.

“Nuñez told me, ‘Slow down. It’s the second game of the sea-son,’” Cueto said through trans-lator Erwin Higueros. “But my instincts took over.”

Bochy is erring on the side of caution with his starters the fi rst time through the rotation and pulled Cueto after fi ve innings and 94 pitches with an 8-4 lead.

A bullpen should be able to protect a four-run lead, but given the way the Giants lost the opener, Tuesday’s quartet of re-lievers eased some minds.

“It’s unfortunate what hap-pened on Opening Day,” Kontos said. “I think our guys were a little amped and left their pitches up. We came out today and showed what we’re capable of doing.”

So did Hernandez, who got the start because Span devel-oped a sore left hip after the opener. Span said he awoke sore Monday and still wasn’t right. He was unsure if he’ll be able to play Wednesday.

RESULTSYankees 5 Rays 0; Rockies 6 Brewers 5; Indians 4 Rangers 3; Mariners 1 Astros 2; Cubs 2 Cardi-nals 1; Giants 8 Diamondbacks 4;Angels 7 Athletics 6; Padres 4 Dodgers 0

MCTLos Angeles

On Sunday the Los Angeles Kings were knocked out of the playoff race. On Mon-

day, the players learned they might not be going to the Olym-pics either.

So on Tuesday they found themselves trying to pick up the pieces of both their earli-est postseason elimination since 2009 and what could be the fi rst Winter Olympics without NHL players in two decades.

“I’m disappointed,” captain Anze Kopitar said before the Kings’ 6-4 victory over the Ed-monton Oilers.

“Unfortunate,” added de-fenseman Drew Doughty.

They were speaking of the NHL’s decision not to pause next season’s schedule to allow play-ers to participate in the 2018 Ol-ympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. But the sentiments could just as easily have been applied to the way this NHL season is end-ing, with the Kings playing for nothing but pride in their fi nal four games.

“You play hard. You try to win games, bottom line,” Kopitar said. “We’re not going to go out there and just tank it. There’s some stuff that each and every individual has to work on. And I guess there’s no better time to do it.”

The team got an early start on next year against the Oilers and the off ensive eff ort they turned in was better than many of the 78 that preceded it, with Trevor Lewis and Tanner Pearson scor-ing third-period goals to snap a 3-3 tie and hand the playoff -bound Oilers their 11th loss in as many games at the Staples Cent-er, dating to November 2011.

Nick Shore added a goal and three assists, rookie Jonny Brodzinski had two second-period assists for his fi rst NHL points, and the Kings had their fi rst six-goal game since Feb. 9.

And Doughty, like Kopitar, said the game proved the Kings are going to do more than just

play out the schedule, which closes with games against three more playoff teams in Calgary, Chicago and the Ducks.

“Even though we know we’re out, we’ve got a lot to prove,” Doughty added. “No one’s going to take a night off . We take a lot of pride playing for the Los Angeles Kings.

“We have a lot of character, a lot of experience. So we’re never going to lay down.”

They didn’t exactly stand up to Edmonton in the fi rst period, with Milan Lucic bouncing a pow-er-play goal off goalie Jonathan Quick 2{ minutes after the open-ing faceoff . League scoring leader Connor McDavid set up the goal, dashing past defenseman Derek Forbort on the right wing to pick up his 66th assist.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins dou-bled the lead less than nine min-utes later, chopping in a feed from Jordan Eberle from the edge of the crease at the left post.

The Kings erased the defi -cit with second-period goals by Shore, Dustin Brown and Nic Dowd. The lead lasted only 76 seconds, though, before Nu-gent-Hopkins split Doughty and Forbort on a breakaway to tie it – a tie Lewis broke less than two minutes into the fi nal period.

Pearson then scored what ap-peared to be an insurance goal off a turnover in the Oiler zone with 10 minutes to play, only to see Edmonton pull with a goal again on Darnell Nurse’s slap shot from the blue line with 6:12 remaining.

The Kings closed the scoring on an empty-net goal by Doughty.

Kings get consolation win against Oilers

NHL

If Winter Olympics won’t work for NHL, move hockey to Summer Games

OPINION

MCTChicago

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman recently spoke at a City Club of Chicago event and was

greeted so warmly that he said, “I’m not used to hearing all this clapping. There’s generally a dif-ferent sound that resonates.”

Bettman certainly hears a lot of boos, especially from hockey fans. With Monday’s announce-ment that the NHL will not send its players to the 2018 Winter Olympics, he can expect to hear even more. But make no mistake: Bettman is just the messenger for the 31 NHL owners, who have a litany of issues with sending their players to a tournament halfway around the world.

Included in owners’ concerns are the fact they receive little to no fi nancial gain from sending their assets (read: players) to the Games while also putting them at risk of injury. But the main reason owners are leery of NHL players participating in the Ol-ympics is that the league has to shut down for three weeks in the middle of its season.

“We just disappear,” Bettman said.

With that as the stumbling block, there is a solution: Move ice hockey to the Summer Games.

Now, as unappealing as that might be to some players who just grinded through an NHL season, it would solve the prob-lem of a midseason shutdown. And it would allow some players to do what they yearn for almost as much – if not more in some cases – as winning a Stanley Cup: Capture a gold medal while wearing their country’s uniform.

There is a precedent. Ice hockey was a sport at the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp, Belgium (and, no, Jaromir Jagr didn’t score the winning goal in that gold-medal game) before shifting to the Winter Olympics in 1924.

The NBA has no problem sending its players to the Sum-mer Games despite a schedule very similar to the NHL’s.

While it may not be the ideal situation, playing a hockey game at a venue adjacent to a sand vol-leyball match at the Summer Games is a solution to the NHL/Olympics conundrum.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) reacts as it announced that he has tied the season triple double record in action against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Action during the match between Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings during the third period at Staples Center.

Arizona Diamondbacks center fielder A.J. Pollock (C) beats a throw to San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford (35) to steal second base during the seventh inning at Chase Field.

Results(home team in CAPS)

GOLDEN STATE 121 Minnesota 107

SACRAMENTO 98 Dallas 87

UTAH 106 Portland 87

SAN ANTONIO 95 Memphis 89 (OT)

Denver 134 NEW ORLEANS 131

OKLAHOMA CITY 110 Milwaukee 79

NY KNICKS 100 Chicago 91

Brooklyn 141 PHILADELPHIA 118

WASHINGTON 118 Charlotte 111

CLEVELAND 122 Orlando 102

INDIANA 108 Toronto 90

SPOTLIGHT

ALMOST THERERussell Westbrook tied Oscar Robertson’s record for most triple-doubles in a season

ResultsLightning 0 Bruins 4

Flyers 0 Devils 1

Blue Jackets 1 Penguins 4

Red Wings 0 Senators 2

Capitals 4 Maple Leafs 1

Jets 5 Blues 2

Hurricanes 3 Wild 5

Islanders 2 Predators 1

Coyotes 2 Stars 3

Blackhawks 3 Avalanche 4

Flames 1 Ducks 3

Canucks 1 Sharks 3

Oilers 4 Kings 6

SPORT

Gulf Times Thursday, April 6, 20176

Johnson favoured, McIlroy fancied for Masters glory

Qatar Superstock, Qatar Touring Car Championship at Losail this weekend

Williams upbeataft er revenue growth

Mercedes on red alert as Wolff backs Hamilton

GOLF FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

FORMULA 1

‘Obviously this year, with Dustin winning three times, he’s the form player right now’AFPAugusta, United States

Top-ranked Dustin Johnson is fa-voured to capture the 81st Mas-ters but plenty of golfers see Rory McIlroy as a green-jacket threat

when the year’s fi rst major championship begins today.

A showdown of global greats at the 7,435-yard Augusta National sees John-son arrive on a three-tournament win streak and second-ranked McIlroy, a four-time major champion, seeking a Masters crown to complete a career grand slam.

“I’ve done all the preparation I can. It’s just about going out on the golf course and getting it done,” said McIlroy, mind-ful of 2011 when a back-nine Sunday col-lapse saw him squander the Masters lead.

“Having a chance to win a few years ago and not giving myself a chance since... internally that’s not good enough. I want to give a better account of myself at this tournament and on this golf course and I feel like I can.”

Third-ranked Jason Day makes an emotional start two weeks after with-drawing from an event to be with his mother as she battled lung cancer while Jordan Spieth tries to bounce back from a back-nine collapse in last year’s fi nal round when on the verge of a second con-secutive Masters title.

And fi ve-time major winner Phil Mick-elson, two months shy of his 47th birth-day, will try to replace Jack Nicklaus as the oldest champion in Masters history.

Forecasts for heavy rain yesterday to soften the course add to the drama that one of golf’s great stages annually pro-duces.

“If it’s soft, obviously it will defi nitely help,” long-driving Johnson said. “With the forecast, wind on Thursday and Fri-day, the course will play very diffi cult.

“It’s going to be tough to hit the greens. You’re going to really have to be careful where you hit it and just try to make pars.”

That will make a strong start even more imperative than usual.

“It’s always important to get off to a de-cent start but especially here. You don’t want to feel like you’re playing catch up on this course, because you feel like the more you force the issue, the more things can go wrong,” McIlroy said.

“You start to shoot at a few pins... leave yourself in spots you don’t really want to. Then you can run up numbers pretty quickly. You don’t need to come out and shoot 65 the fi rst day but you’re better off shooting something under par.”

MOMENT OF BRILLIANCEJohnson enters Augusta after wins at

Riviera in February to jump atop the rankings and last month at WGC Mexico and Match-Play events.

“Obviously this year, with Dustin win-ning three times, he’s the form player right now,” McIlroy said.

Johnson won his fi rst major title at last year’s US Open while McIlroy followed his 2011 Masters heartache by winning the US Open two months later.

“It’s never over,” McIlroy said. “If I’m four or fi ve behind going into the back

nine, it’s never over. You can never give up, because it takes either a lapse of con-centration from someone else or a mo-ment of brilliance from yourself to turn things around.”

McIlroy played 27 holes at Augusta two weeks ago, 54 more last week and 18 more so far this week.

“I’ve realised the more I get comforta-ble with this golf course, the environment and the surroundings, the better,” he said.

McIlroy has made a believer out of 81-year-old South African legend Gary Player.

“My choice this week — Rory McIlroy,” Player said. “He made a mess of it one year. He has gotten that out of his system and he’s playing really well.”

Spieth, never worse than second in three career Masters starts, cited McIlroy as an intimidating leaderboard presence.

“When you’re paired up, he has been there and you don’t feel like you have that major championship winning edge,” Spi-eth said. “That would be somewhat of an edge if it would be mano a mano.

“I don’t say I’ve won the Masters and he hasn’t. Trust me, he’s certainly ca-pable of it and he’ll win at least one. I think if you ask every single player, that wouldn’t be a question.”

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his shot from the 14th tee during a practice round prior to the start of the 2017 MastersTournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, yesterday. (AFP)

Dustin Johnson of the United States

AFPShanghai

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has backed Lewis Hamilton to exact swift revenge at Sun-day’s Chinese Grand Prix af-

ter a chastening defeat in Formula One’s season opener in Australia.

Sebastian Vettel’s comprehensive vic-tory for Ferrari has put Mercedes on red alert ahead of the Shanghai race weekend but Wolff insists Hamilton has the steel to strike right back after fi nishing second in Melbourne.

“Lewis is the best Lewis that I’ve seen in the last four years — both on and off the track,” said the Austrian. “He’s become a pillar of this team and he proved that in Melbourne.

“You need to be careful to manage your own expectations.

“If you think you are going to cruise to victory in the future, based on a track record of success, you’ll be proven wrong very quickly. You need to put the fi nger in the wound, identify your weaknesses and then respond.”

Hamilton, who busied himself with a spot of scuba diving this week, has pre-viously won four times in China but the triple world champion will be mindful of his sluggish start to the 2016 cam-paign.

Former teammate Nico Rosberg reeled off four straight victories before the Brit-on fi nally hit his stride in Monaco in the

sixth race of the year.Rosberg’s hot start helped the Ger-

man pip Hamilton to the world title be-fore sensationally walking away from the sport.

Valtteri Bottas replaced Rosberg and the Finnish driver took third in Australia on his debut for the Silver Arrows.

But Ferrari have shown impressive early pace, with 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen taking fourth and all the signs point to another tight battle between the two top teams in China.

A buzzing Vettel, who romped to four successive world titles with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013, will fancy his chances of further getting under Hamilton’s skin.

NO ILLUSIONSWolff is under no illusions about the threat posed by Ferrari.

“There are still many areas where we can be better,” he said. “It’s not a case of looking at the competition for inspiration but of getting our own homework done to maximise our performance.”

Bottas, meanwhile, tweeted photos of himself running bare-chested along a beach in Bali to prepare for this week and will be hoping to make a splash in Shang-hai, although the smart money will be on Vettel and Hamilton.

Also clear from the early skirmishes is that Red Bull have lost their fi zz as young Dutch driver Max Verstappen took fi fth with Daniel Ricciardo enduring a week-end that nightmares are made of.

The Aussie spun into a wall in qualify-ing and ground to a halt during the race on lap 29, dealing a blow to Red Bull, who were expected to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari.

Verstappen complained the Red Bulls lacked power, grip and downforce and team mechanics will be racing to solve the car’s balance issues before the weekend.

But if Ferrari’s victory in Australia gave Formula One fans cause for optimism after three years of crushing Mercedes dominance, the wider cars and fatter tyres of 2017 appear to have made over-taking harder.

Hamilton grumbled about being un-able to pass Verstappen despite having fresher tyres and was by no means alone in expressing concerns about the in-creased dirty air caused by the new aero-dynamics.

The Shanghai circuit should provide a more accurate guide than Melbourne’s street circuit, however, while Mercedes will hope a fourth successive Chinese victory heralds the resumption of normal service.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (centre) holds the winner’s trophy with second-placed Mer-cedes driver Lewis Hamilton (left) and third-placed Valtteri Bottas on the podium for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne last month. (AFP)


The fourth round of Qa-tar Superstock 600 and third round Qatar Tour-ing Car Championship

will take place this weekend at the Losail International Circuit.

Mishal al-Naimi (115) leads the championship by fi ve points, ahead of Saeed al-Sulaiti, who won the last race of the cham-pionship. As in the previous rounds, a tough battle between them is expected to continue.

The second race of the third round was cancelled due to weather conditions during the MotoGP weekend and that is the race that will take place tomor-row.

Al-Sulaiti, who took part as wild card in Moto2 two weeks ago, said he still faced a hand surgery due to his crash.

“The hand is not really good, as I have an old surgery and I had a big impact during the crash. According to my doctor, I have to do a surgery but I can wait until the end of the championship,” he said.

“It is going to be a bit hard to have three races in the same weekend, but it is the same for everybody and this round is go-ing to be an important one be-cause we are in the middle of the championship and it will be cru-cial to get some valuable points. The gap is only 5 points and I will try and do my best to keep win-ning and close this gap.”

Al-Naimi had some problems

with his bike during the last race and hopes that he can fi nd a good setup for this weekend.

“In the last round, my lap times were slow. I hope that for this weekend, the bike will be better and I can be faster and try to increase the gap on Saeed,” al-Naimi said.

Nasser al-Malki is third in the standings with 80 points and Ali al-Shammari fourth with 61 points.

Tomorrow, the track activity will start at 10:00 with the Free Practice 1 and the Free Practice 2 will be at 13:15. Superpole 1 is scheduled for 15:45 and Super-pole 2 for 16:10.

The second race of Round 3 will be at 17:45.

On Saturday, the Race 1 of Round 4 will start at 11:30 and Race 2 at 14:30.

The third round of the Qatar Touring Car Championship will also take place this weekend, with only one point separat-ing Abdulla al-Khelaifi (57) and Mansour al-Hajri.

“After the break, I am really looking forward for another ex-citing race with the other partic-ipants. I have to work very hard and try not to make any mistake as Mansour and Omran (Karama) are very hard competitors and they are improving in every race,” said al-Khelaifi .

The QTCC Practice will be tomorrow at 14:30 and the races are scheduled for Saturday at 13:00 and 16:00.

Entrance is free for all the fans at the grandstand and at the Pad-dock.

ReutersLondon

Former world champions Williams expressed op-timism for Formula One’s future under the sport’s

new owners Liberty Media after the team reported a profi t and increased revenues for 2016 yes-terday.

The British-based team, who last won a race in 2012, fi nished fi fth last year after ending the previous two seasons in third place overall.

Williams said group revenue had increased from 125.6mn pounds ($156.25mn) in 2015 to 167.4mn last year. The Formula One side accounted for 116.7mn, compared to a previous 101.5mn.

Group earnings before inter-est, tax, depreciation and am-ortisation (EBITDA) improved from a loss of 3.3mn in 2015 to a profi t of 15.5mn.

Income from the sport’s com-mercial rights holder is paid a year in arrears.

“Our team continues to at-tract support from some of the world’s leading companies and brands, and we are very optimis-tic about the overall potential for the sport, under Liberty Media’s

stewardship,” commented chief executive Mike O’Driscoll.

US-based Liberty took control in January, replacing CVC Capi-tal Partners as commercial rights holders and appointing Chase Carey to run the business instead of 86-year-old Briton Bernie Ec-clestone.

Formula One teams currently have individual deals with the commercial rights holder that expire in 2020.

Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull receive tens of mil-lions of dollars to refl ect past success and their importance to the sport, money that is paid re-gardless of current performance. Williams also get a ‘heritage bo-nus’.

Liberty has said it wants to see a more level playing fi eld, with a more competitive grid that would give smaller teams a chance.

Williams have 18-year-old Canadian rookie Lance Stroll in their lineup this season along with Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa after Finland’s Valtteri Bottas moved to champions Mercedes.

Bottas, who scored 85 points to Massa’s 53 last year, has replaced the now-retired 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg.

Mashel al-Naimi (right) is on top of the standings with 115 points, five ahead of Saeed al-Sulaiti (left).

Williams driver Lance Stroll (right) poses for a selfie during apromotional event in Shanghai yesterday. (Reuters)

Hyderabad begin title defence with easy win over Bangalore

IPL

Brisk half-centuries from Henriques and Yuvraj spearheaded the Sunrisers to a formidable total of 207 for four

AgenciesHyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Chal-lengers Bangalore by a comfortable 35-run margin in yesterday’s opening fi x-ture of the 2017 Indian Premier League

at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad.

Chasing a hefty 208-run target, Bangalore slumped to a desperately insuffi cient response of 172 all out in 19.4 overs – and a poor 35-run defeat. While the big-hitting Chris Gayle and sidekick Mandeep Singh’s alliance of 52 prom-ised plenty through the opening throes of the pursuit, Hyderabad’s bowlers ultimately had the fi nal say in front of an appreciative home crowd.

Each of the Royal Challengers’ top fi ve bats-men reached 24 or more, but not one was able to move beyond Gayle’s 32. The Sunrisers unit’s ability to complement seam with spin was large-ly eff ective, despite the veteran Ashish Nehra’s costly three overs for 40 runs. Afghanistan slow bowler Rashid Khan did the burgeoning cricket nation proud by producing a telling haul of two for 36 in four overs.

All-rounder Stuart Binny was dropped twice for his 11 – both teams’ fi elding, in general, was poor. Visiting captain Shane Watson, who scored an unremarkable 22, arguably arrived at the crease to late. He must bat higher than fi fth position, come Saturday’s clash against the Del-hi Daredevils at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

Defending champions Sunrisers rode on a solid top order contribution to post a com-manding 207/4. Opener Shikhar Dhawan (40) and one-down Moises Henriques (52) made up for the early loss of skipper David Warner (14) with a 74-run second-wicket stand after being sent in to bat.

Veteran batsman Yuvraj Singh (62), then joined the run feast and together with Australian all-rounder Henriques brought up another 58-run stand for the third wicket to take the hosts past the 150-run mark by the 15th over. Earlier, Rajasthan left-arm pacer Aniket Choudhary could not have asked for better IPL debut when he induced Warner with some swing to be com-fortably caught by Mandeep Singh at backward point. The southpaw’s eight-ball knock was

laced with two fours and a six.Thereafter, it was Dhawan and Henriques all

the way, taking SRH past 50 in just fi ve overs, as the visitors found it tough to handle the left-right combination. Dhawan, who has been out of the India selectors’ radar for quite a part of the domestic season, unsettled the RCB bowlers

with his 31-ball knock comprising fi ve fours, in-cluding four from RCB skipper Shane Watson’s fi rst over.

RCB had to wait until the 11th over to get their second wicket when Dhawan failed to clear the long-on boundary off Stuart Binny to be caught by Sachin Baby. Henriques, on the other hand,

started with a fl ashy four and lost no time to settle down. The Aussie all-rounder helped SRH continue the momentum even after the fall of Dhawan and together with Yuvraj blasted the bowlers all over the park. Yuvraj, who was dropped on 26 off Choudhary, took full advan-tage of the life, rushing to his fastest IPL half

century in just 23 balls. The 35-year-old’s 27-ball knock, comprising seven boundaries and three massive sixes, provided the much-needed impetus to the defending champions who left from where they left off in the last edition.

He, however, fell to England quick Tymal Mills after failing to connect a fast good length delivery in the penultimate over of the innings. Deepak Hooda and Ben Cutting, then provided the fi nishing touch with some lusty blows to take the home side past the 200-run mark.

SCOREBOARDSUNRISERS HYDERABAD INNINGSDA Warner c Mandeep Singh b Choudhary 14

S Dhawan c Baby b Binny 40

MC Henriques c Baby b Chahal 52

Yuvraj Singh b Mills 62

DJ Hooda not out 16

BCJ Cutting not out 16

Extras (lb1, w5, nb1) 7

Total (for 4 wickets; 20 overs) 207Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Warner, 1.4 ov), 2-93 (Dhawan,

10.3 ov), 3-151 (Henriques, 15.2 ov), 4-190 (Yuvraj

Singh, 18.4 ov)

Bowling: T Mills 4-0-31-1, A Choudhary 4-0-55-1, Y

Chahal 4-0-22-1, S Aravind 3-0-36-0, S Watson 3-0-

41-0, T Head 1-0-11-0, S Binny 1-0-10-1

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE INNINGSC Gayle c Warner b Hooda 32

Mandeep b Rashid 24

T Head c Yuvraj b Rashid 30

K Jadhav run out (Cutting) 31

S Watson c Henriques b Nehra 22

S Baby c Henriques b Bipul 1

S Binny c Yuvraj b Kumar 11

S Aravind b Nehra 0

T Mills c Warner b Kumar 6

Y Chahal run out (sub Jordan) 3

A Choudhary not out 6

Extras (lb1, w4, nb1) 6

Total (all out in 19.4 overs) 172Fall of wickets: 1-52 (Mandeep, 5.4 ov), 2-60 (Gayle,

6.3 ov), 3-116 (Jadhav, 11.4 ov), 4-126 (Head, 12.5 ov),

5-128 (Baby, 13.4 ov), 6-154 (Binny, 16.5 ov), 7-156

(Watson, 17.3 ov), 8-156 (Aravind, 17.4 ov), 9-164

(Mills, 18.5 ov)

Bowling: A Nehra 4-0-42-2, B Kumar 4-0-27-2, B

Cutting 3.4-0-35-0, Rashid Khan 4-0-36-2, D Hooda

1-0-7-1, M Henriques 2-0-20-0, Bipul Sharma 1-0-4-1.

Man of the match: Yuvraj Singh

CRICKET7Gulf Times


Pak call up teenage leggie Shahdab ‘Next generation’ excite England’s CookAFP

Lahore

Pakistani selectors yesterday named young leg-spinner SHADAB KHAN in a 16-man squad for their three-match Test series in the West

Indies, rewarding him for his strong Twen-ty20 performance.

Shadab, 18, who rose to fame in the second edition of the Pakistan Super League in Feb-ruary-March, took 10 wickets in Pakistan’s 3-1 T20 series victory against the West In-dies last week. Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq said Shadab’s inclusion highlights the policy of introducing fresh blood.

“The Test team has been selected keeping in mind the conditions in the West Indies and the recent performances of players dur-ing the domestic and international season,” Inzamam said. Misbah-ul-Haq will lead Pa-kistan in the Tests, which follow the three-match one-day series starting in Guyana tomorrow.

Inzamam said Shadab had performed better than predicted. “Everyone felt that Shadab has performed beyond expectations so we thought he should also be used for the fi ve-day format,” he said.

Uncapped medium paceman Moham-mad Abbas, 27, won selection thanks to his performance in domestic matches, having taken 61 and 71 wickets in the last two home seasons respectively. Middle-order bats-man Usman Salahuddin, 26, was selected for the fi rst time in a Test team after failing in the two one-day internationals on the

tour of West Indies in 2011.But wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Ak-

mal, who scored 1,035 in the country’s pre-mier fi rst-class tournament and Asif Zakir — 853 runs in the same tournament — were overlooked. Openers Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood staged comebacks in the Test side but there was no place for Mohammad Hafeez, who was also overlooked for Paki-stan’s last two Test series in New Zealand

and Australia. The fi rst Test starts in Jamaica on April 21, the second in Barbados on April 30 and the third in Dominica on May 10.

SQUAD: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Ahmed

Shehzad, Azhar Ali, Shan Masood, Babar Azam,

Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Usman Salahud-

din, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Shadab Khan,

Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asghar, Wahab

Riaz, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas.

AFPLondon

Former Test captain Alastair Cook is relish-ing playing alongside the ‘next generation’ of Eng-

land leaders as he bids to secure his place in the 2017/18 Ashes squad for Australia.

Opening batsman Cook, Eng-land’s all-time leading Test run-scorer, resigned as skipper in February after a 4-0 series loss in India late last year following 17 series in charge. Joe Root suc-ceeded Cook with dynamic all-rounder Ben Stokes his deputy.

“It’s a very exciting time,” Cook told Sky Sports yesterday. “It’s kind of the next generation of leaders, obviously with Ben as well, pushing that team forward. I hope I can score enough runs to justify my place at the top of the order.”

The 32-year-old Essex left-hander enjoyed arguably both his greatest personal cricket success and disappointment in Austral-ia. During England’s victorious 2010/11 Ashes tour under An-drew Strauss he scored a mam-moth 766 runs, including three

hundreds, at an average of 127.66.But as captain Cook presided

over England’s 5-0 series loss in 2013/14, where he managed just 246 runs at 24.60. “As players you’d love to get on that plane and be part of an Ashes squad,” said Cook, who also led England to home Ashes series wins in 2013 and 2015.

“I’ve had some pretty dark moments as a player (in Aus-tralia) but also a very special tour in 2010/11, which is repeatable. There’s no doubt we can win that series. Australia at home will be favourites — they’re a very hard side to beat at home — but if you look through our team now there’s a lot of strength there.”

Cook is convinced he quit the captaincy at the right time after the India whitewash.

“I was pretty clear, leaving that tour, that my race was run as captain,” he said. “I felt the team needed a change of voice, a change of direction. We lost too many games (in 2016) for the tal-ent we’ve got in that side. When you start those questions nag-ging, as soon as your mind is not quite on it, it is time to be honest with yourself.”

Cook had hoped to play in

Essex’s County Championship opener against Lancashire start-ing tomorrow.

But earlier yesterday England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said he had been ruled out of the match with a hip injury.

His absence is understood to be a precaution against aggravat-ing an injury which is not thought to be serious at this stage. The match would have seen Cook and Lancashire paceman James An-derson, England’s leading Test run-scorer and wicket-taker re-spectively, in opposition.

Cook will now have to wait un-til Essex’s match against Somer-set at Taunton next week to make his debut for the season.

“Cook has been receiving treatment for the problem for several weeks. A scan this week has ruled out serious injury, but he will undertake an injection in the upcoming days to help set-tle his symptoms,” said an ECB statement.

No longer involved in interna-tional limited-overs cricket, Test specialists such as Cook are not due to represent England again until the opening match of the South Africa series at Lord’s on July 6.

FOCUS SPOTLIGHT

Kohli Misbah and Younis get Wisden honoursLondon: India captain Virat Kohli has been named as the Leading Cricketer in the World in the 2017 edition of the respected Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, — ‘cricket’s bible’ — published this week.

Meanwhile Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan were named as two of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.

According to editor Lawrence Booth, Kohli had “the year of his dreams” in 2016, “averaging more with the bat in each of the three formats than anyone: 75 in Tests, 92 in one-day internationals and 106 in Twenty20 internationals”.

Under Kohli, India won series trophies in all three formats against England in 2016/17. Booth said the star batsman’s 235 in the fourth Test against England at Mumbai confirmed him as the “spiritual

successor to Sachin Tendulkar”.Kohli is the third Indian to win an award

that has only been in existence since 2003 and is designed to recognise achievement in all forms of the international game in the previous calendar year. Dynamic opener Virender Sehwag won twice, in 2008 and 2009, with Tendulkar himself awarded the title in 2010. The 2017 women’s award was won by Australia’s Ellyse Perry.

While the Leading Cricketer of the Year award is a relatively new concept by the standards of Wisden — a British-based publication which has appeared every year since 1864, with not even the First and Second World Wars halting its print run — the Five Cricketers of the Year is a tradition that dates back 128 years.

The usual criteria for inclusion in that

award, which can only be won once in a player’s career, is the impact a player had on the preceding English season. Veteran batsmen Misbah and Younis were both honoured in the context of their perform-ances during Pakistan’s 2-2 Test series draw in England — a result that saw Pakistan, under Misbah’s captaincy, briefly rise to number one in the world Test rankings.

England all-rounder Chris Woakes, who enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2016 that included 26 wickets at 16 apiece in four Tests against Pakistan, was also one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year. Middlesex’s Toby Roland-Jones, whose hat-trick against Yorkshire at Lord’s sealed the County Championship title for the London club, and Northamptonshire batsman Ben Duckett, completed the quintet.

Alastair Cook resigned as skipper after a 4-0 series loss in India late last year following 17 series in charge.

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Yuvraj Singh made 62 from just 27 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore during the Indian Premier League in Hyderabad. (AFP)


GULF TIMES SPORT

Little trouble as Topsy Turvy clinches Mesaimeer Cup

Al Arabi quell Khor, Shamal also win DRFC to host rugby camps

HORSE RACING

BOTTOMLINE SPOTLIGHT

Golam rides Ibrahim al-Malki’s ward to victory in feature; Bentley and Sanna pick up two wins each


Doha RFC (DRFC) is set to play host to two Haka Rugby Global camps in April for chil-dren, boys and girls, between the ages of 8 and 18.

The three-day camps, which are coming to the Mid-dle East for the fi rst time, will be led by founders Regan Sue and Troy Nathan, and are designed to showcase the best of New Zealand rugby, as well as Maori culture.

DRFC’s director of Rugby Brook Tremayne said, “We are delighted to welcome Haka Rugby Global to Doha – and the Middle East – for the fi rst time. Rugby is a growing sport in Qatar, and this represents a unique opportunity to help continue developing it at a grass-roots level. The camps will work on a range of skills and techniques, as well as off er fun and educational team building activities, so we really want to encourage members of the community to sign up.”

Sue, founder and ex-professional rugby player, said, “Our vision is to use Maori culture and sport as a tool to create future leaders, as the main focus of Haka Rugby Global is to help develop young men and women.”

Sue added: “We chose Qatar specifi cally as we be-lieve that we can help grow, what already has over the last few years become, an increasingly popular sport in the region. It is also a chance for us to learn more about the country, and about the culture. This will be a won-derful learning experience for both us and the players.”

Haka Rugby Global was founded in 2016 and, alongside the camps, it runs an international academy and special-ises in rugby recruitment. This year, it will host 50 camps in 22 countries, reaching over 40,000 children.

The camps, which are open to registration, will take place from 17 – 19 April and from 20 – 22 April at DRFC, and is open to all abilities.


Ibrahim al-Malki-trained Topsy Turvy had a fi ne strike rate in Qatar, winning fi ve times in 11 starts coming into yesterday’s feature race at the Qatar Racing and Equestrian

Club.The run continued as the fi ve-year-old reg-

istered his sixth victory with Saleem Golam guiding the Sheikh Faisal bin Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani-owned gelding to an impressive win in the Mesaimeer Cup, a Thoroughbred Handicap race for horses rated 80-100, on dirt yesterday.

Coming off Gate 9, Golam wasted little time in moving his mount up to the front, with Emaad and Pearl Bridge for company.

Golam had his ride pull away coming off the back straight and was hardly threatened closer to the post, despite a pursuit by Khalifa bin Sheail al-Kuwari-owned duo Stevie’s Wonder and Generalship.

Mohamed Jassim Ghazali’s ward Stevie’s Wonder, ridden by Harry Bentley, and JP Guil-lambert-helmed Generalship, trained by Ghaz-ali’s father and Champion Trainer Jassim, fi n-ished second and third respectively.

Third Order had not troubled the frontrun-ners in his three starts in Qatar on turf. But his fi rst ride with Kelly Harrison on QREC’s dirt track saw the Jassim Ghazali-trained three-year-old pick up his second victory overall.

In the Class 4 Thoroughbred Handicap for horses rated 66-80, Harrison, who came out of retirement earlier this year after a four-year hiatus, helmed her mount well to fi nish ahead of Mohamed Hussain-saddled Succeed and Excel, ridden by Adnan Hawa, and Anas al-Seyabi’s mount Broadway Icon. The win was Harrison’s third this season.

Champion Jockey Bentley rode his second winner on the day, riding Mohamed Jassim Ghazali-schooled Al Muraqabah to victory in the Class 5 Thoroughbred Handicap event for fi llies and mares rated 56-70.

Al Muraqabah had registered her fi rst career win last week in a six-furlong maiden event but switched to a longer trip in amazing style, blitz-ing through to a fi ve-length victory ahead of the 12-horse fi eld over 1700m yesterday.

The fi nish meant that the three-year-old fi lly fi nished in the top two for the fourth-straight run.

Eduardo Pedroza rode al-Malki’s Dariga to a second-place fi nish, while the owner-trainer-jockey trio of Hassan Ali Abdulmalik, Deborah Mountain and Faleh Bughanaim had to settle for a third place fi nish for the second time yesterday with Angel Of the Night edging out Owaida al-Hajri trained Sugar Strand by half a length.

Coming into yesterday’s 1700m run, Haddaj Dukhan, despite having won twice earlier this season, had never won on dirt.

That changed when Alberto Sanna, second in the Jockeys’ Championship behind Bentley, coming into yesterday’s 42nd race meeting, picked up his second consecutive win on the day, guiding the fi ve-year-old colt, owned by Mansoor al-Shahwani, to a victory in the Lo-cal Purebred Arabian Handicap event for horses rated 80 & below.

The Majd Al Arab colt fi nished half a length

ahead of Sheikh Khalifa bin Mohamed bin Kha-lifa al-Thani-owned Namroud, who had raced to a respectable third over the same course and distance last month.

Guillambert was astride Mohamed Jassim Ghazali-trained Mujahidah, who fi nished third, the fi lly’s third top-three fi nish since her only career win in December 2015.

Hadi al-Ramzani-schooled Al Nehayy raced to his second straight win at the QREC when Sanna guided the fi ve-year-old to victory in the Class 4 Thoroughbred Handicap event for hors-es rated 80 & below.

Al Nehayy had edged out Ras Abrouq by a neck a month ago in an 1850m turf handicap for victory, and yesterday did well under Sanna to fi nish a comfortable two and a half lengths

ahead of Jassim Ghazali’s Crisscrossed for his third career win.

Qatari jockey Bughanaim was astride Moun-tain-saddled Technicolour, who fi nished third in the nine-furlong run.

In the fi rst two races of the day, Umm Qarn’s Barra and Khalifa bin Sheail al-Kuwari’s Midaa-wi shed their maiden status.

Running in the Purebred Arabian Maiden Plate, Alban de Mieulle’s charge Barra was guided by Jean Baptiste Hamel to his fi rst career victory, while Bentley helmed Jassim Ghazali-schooled Midaawi to victory in the six-furlong sprint.

RESULTSRace 1: 1. Barra (Jean Baptiste Hamel), 2. Stam Al Naif (Adnan Hawa), 3. Fahdah Al Naif (Gerald

Avranche), 4. Sahara Sand (Faleh Bughanaim). Won by: 1 1/2, 4, 3. Owner: Umm Qarn. Trainer: Alban de Mieulle.Race 2: 1. Midaawi (Harry Bentley), 2. Cap Nord (Jesus Rosales), 3. China Club (Tomas Lukasek), 4. Atlantic Sea (Rashid al-Marri). Won by: Nk, 3/4, 1/2. Owner: Khalifa bin Sheail al-Kuwari. Trainer: Jassim Ghazali.Race 3: 1. Al Nehayy (Alberto Sanna), 2. Criss-crossed (Harry Bentley), 3. Technicolour (Faleh Bughanaim), 4. Makinson Lane (Jean Baptiste Hamel). Won by: 2 1/2, 1 3/4, 2. Owner: Ali Yousef al-Kubaisi. Trainer: Hadi al-Ramzani.Race 4: 1. Haddaj Dukhan (Alberto Sanna), 2. Namroud (Richard Mullen), 3. Mujahidah (JP Guillambert), 4. Anwaar (Harry Bentley). Won by: 1/2, 1 1/4, 3/4. Owner: Mansoor Misfer al-

Shahwani. Trainer: Mansoor al-Shahwani.Race 5: 1. Al Muraqabah (Harry Bentley), 2. Dariga (Eduardo Pedroza), 3. Angel Of The Night (Faleh Bughanaim), 4. Sugar Strand (Alberto San-na). Won by: 5, 2, 1/2. Owner: Khalifa bin Sheail al-Kuwari. Trainer: Mohamed Jassim Ghazali.Race 6: 1. Third Order (Kelly Harrison), 2. Suc-ceed and Excel (Adnan Hawa), 3. Broadway Icon (Anas al-Seyabi), 4. Hi Holy (Marco Monteriso). Won by: 3/4, 5, 1 1/2. Owner: Sheail bin Khalifa al-Kuwari. Trainer: Jassim Ghazali.Race 7: 1. Topsy Turvy (Saleem Golam), 2. Ste-vie’s Wonder (Harry Bentley), 3. Generalship (JP Guillambert), 4. Upholland (Marvin Suerland). Won by: 2 1/2, Nk, 4. Owner: Sheikh Faisal bin Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani. Trainer: Ibrahim al-Malki.


Adamu Saaka and Osaro Adaka were the stars as Al Arabi quelled a mid-match

challenge from Al Khor to clinch an 88-79 win in their Emir Cup clash at the Al Gharafa Club yesterday.

In yet another tense contest following two thrilling games on the opening day on Mon-day, Al Arabi had to summon their last reserves of strength after Al Khor threatened to take the match away from them.

The match began with Al Khor matching Al Arabi point for point as the teams tied 10-10 after the fi rst fi ve minutes.

But as the match pro-gressed, Al Arabi inched ahead and took fi rst quarter honours by taking a 21-18 lead.

However, they failed to take full advantage of the situation as Al Khor fought back with 16 points in the second quarter to grab a fi ve-point advantage (44-39) at the halfway stage.

Al Khor continued to at-tack relentlessly and enjoyed an eight-point lead (52-44) after fi ve minutes in the third quarter, but lost some of their steam after that.

It was at this moment that Al Arabi turned the tide, even-tually winning the third quar-ter 56-54 and then producing a 32-point eff ort in the fi nal period to put the issue beyond doubt.

Saaka nailed four three-pointers out of six attempts, also grabbing nine rebounds and seven assists and proved the key player for his team.

For Al Khor, Gary Layton scored 36, while Demetrius Haymon and Shawky Mo-hamed had 20 and 11, respec-tively.

In the second match of the day, Al Shamal scored 26 points in the fi nal quarter to beat Qatar Sports Club 80-70.

Al Shamal just about kept their nose ahead after every quarter but accelerated in the fi nal fi ve minutes with 19 points, while restricting their rivals to just eight.

Mohamed Harat was the top-scorer for his side with 29, while Saleh Elhag Ali and Nikola Vasojevic had 20 and 18, respectively.

For Qatar Sports Club, Ed-ward Justice scored 30 with Ibou Sarr providing valuable support with 22.

On Saturday, El Jaish will play Al Ahli at 5pm followed by a match between Al Rayyan and Al Sadd at 7pm.

Owner Sheikh Faisal bin Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani and trainer Ibrahim al-Malki lift their trophies after Topsy Turvy won the Mesaimeer Cup yesterday. PICTURES: Juhaim

Saleem Golam rides Topsy Turvy to victory at Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club yesterday. Action from the Al Sabiq Race yesterday.

Action from the Emir Cup basketball match between Al Arabi and Al Khor yesterday. PICTURES: Shemeer Rasheed Action from the match between Al Shamal and Qatar SC.

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