AGENCIES – BERGAMO, ITALY

Diogo Jota scored a hat-trick as Liverpool demolished Atalanta 5-0 in the Champions League yesterday to secure a third win in as many matches in Group D.

Portugal forward Jota struck twice in the first half in Bergamo before Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane added goals early in the second period. Jota completed his treble on 54 minutes.

Jurgen Klopp's side have a maximum nine points and are five clear of both Atalanta and Ajax, who won 2-1 at Danish Champions Midtjylland.

Meanwhile, Bayern Munich came from behind to crush RB Salzburg 6-2 with two goals from Robert Lewandowski on Tuesday, stretching their record winning run in the Champions League to 14 consecutive games and leading their group by five points after three games.

The Bavarians, who have

won five titles in 2020 including the Champions League, went behind after only four minutes when Mergim Berisha was left completely unmarked inside the box to beat goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Bayern instantly bounced back and Serge Gnabry had his shot cleared off the line before

their top scorer Lewandowski levelled with a 21st minute penalty.

Salzburg defender Rasmus Kristensen then turned a Thomas Mueller cross into his own net a minute before the break.

The hosts came close to an equaliser right after the restart

but Neuer got his fingertips to Enock Mwepu's shot to turn it wide. The Bayern keeper was beaten in the 66th minute, however, when Masaya Okugawa fired Salzburg level.

Despite a string of chances for the home side, it was Bayern who scored again in a strong finish with Jerome

Boateng powering in a header from Joshua Kimmich's corner in the 79th and Leroy Sane scoring with a perfectly curled shot four minutes later.

Lewandowski headed his second goal in the 88th and Lucas Hernandez drilled in a sixth in stoppage time to lift Bayern to nine points in Group A ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid.

Elsewhere, Substitute Rodrygo scored an 80th-minute winner as Real Madrid beat Inter Milan 3-2 to get its Champions League campaign back on track.

Meanwhile, Ferran Torres, Gabriel Jesus and Joao Cancelo were on target as Manchester City made it three wins out of three in group C with a 3-0 win over Olympiakos at the Etihad Stadium.

Earlier, in Kiev Striker Alassane Plea scored a hat-trick as Borussia Moenchengladbach crushed their hosts Schakhtar Donetsk 6-0 yesterday to take over from them at the top of their group .

THE PENINSULA – DOHA

Al Rayyan struck late with a magnif-icent brace from substitute Yacine Brahimi to clinch a 2-0 win over Al Ahli in their Ooredoo Cup Round 4 (Group B) match played at the Al Arabi Stadium yesterday.

The victory, their first in the group stage, increased Al Rayyan's points tally to four.

Al Ahli's third defeat in four matches meant they only have just one point which they earned after drawing 1-1 with Umm Salal in the third round.

Yesterday also it looked like the match was heading for a draw until the final few minutes before Algerian star Brahimi took advantage of an 85th minute penalty.

Brahimi converted the penalty and then produced a brilliant finish for his second goal of the match just a minute later.

Ivorian Yohan Boli received a long cross from the flank as early as the third minute, but the striker missed an easy tap into the net from close range when he took the shot on the volley.

In the next 10 minutes, two close chances went waste when Al Ahli’s

Hazem Shehata unleashed a powerful shot from the edge of the box and his shot kissed the crossbar and flew away.

Moments later, Al Rayyan’s Ibrahim Masoud also muffled a shot from close range as Al Ahli goalkeeper quickly moved in to kill the angle of

the shot. Soon after the first water break on the half-hour mark, Boli pro-duced a snap-header from close range, but his deflection was smartly blocked by Al Ahli goalkeeper Yazan Naim.

On the hour mark, Abdulrahman Al Harazi was benched and in walked Brahimi. In the 65th minute, Franck Kom produced a neat slip pass to Brahimi, who failed to outduel his marker within striking range of the Al Ahli goal.

Nine minutes later, Al Ahli skipper Omid Ebrahimi curled in a spectacular shot from the edge of the box, but Al Rayyan goalkeeper Saoud Al Hajri was alert to the situation and dived to his left to collect the ball.

Then came Brahimi’s goals. The penalty was awarded when he was brought down by Fahad Ahmed. The Algerian attacking midfielder scored his second goal with a surprise shot.

Meanwhile, Umm Salal defeated Al Kharaitiyat 2-1 at Al Khor Stadium, thanks to goals from Adnan Mustafa (64) and Elis Hamid (87). Ivan Mensah (61) scored Al Kharaitiyat's goal.

Al Arabi Stadium, Al Gharafa and Al Arabi were involved in a goalless draw in the third match of the day.

The result raided Al Gharafa's points tally to 10 at the top of the table in Group B while Al Arabi are second with eight points.

Today, Al Duhail face Qatar SC in the first Group A match of the day at

the Qatar SC Stadium. Al Sadd will meet Al Khor at the same venue in the day's second match while Al Sailiya and Al Wakrah face off at Al Khor Stadium in the final game of the round.

CRICKET: THIRD ODI IN RAWALPINDI Zimbabwe: 278 for 6, Pakistan: 278 for 9 - Result: Zimbabwe win on Super Over (PAK 2-2; ZIM 3-0)

WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2020

Make helmets mandatory for batsmen, Indian legend Tendulkar urges ICCBe it a spinner or pacer, wearing a HELMET should be MANDATORY for batsmen at professional levels. Request @icc to take this up on priority.

Sport |10Sachin Tendulkar

Sport

YESTERDAY'S RESULTSGROUP STAGE

Lokomotiv Moscow 1-1 Atlético MadridShakhtar Donetsk 0-6 Borussia

MonchengladbachRed Bull Salzburg 2-6 FC Bayern

MunichReal Madrid 3-2 Internazionale

FC Porto 3-0 Olympique de MarseilleManchester City 3-0 Olympiacos

Atalanta 0-5 LiverpoolFC Midtjylland 1-2 Ajax

TODAY'S FIXTURES8:55pm Qatar timeFC Zenit vs SS Lazio

Basaksehir vs Manchester United11:00pm Qatar time

Chelsea vs Stade RennaisSevilla FC vs FC Krasnodar

Club Brugge vs Borussia DortmundFerencváros vs Juventus

FC Barcelona vs Dynamo KievRB Leipzig vs Paris Saint-Germain

Brahimi's late double powers Al Rayyan to 2-0 victory

YESTERDAY'S RESULTS - GROUP BAl Rayyan 2-0 Al Ahli

Al Gharafa 0-0 Al ArabiAl Kharaitiyat 1-2 Umm Salal

TODAY'S FIXTURES - GROUP A17:15 - Qatar SC StadiumAl Duhail vs Qatar SC

19:30 - Qatar SC StadiumAl Sadd vs Al Khor

19:30 - Al Khor StadiumAl Sailiya vs Al Wakrah

Al Rayyan's Yacine Brahimi (left) in action during yesterday's match.

Tuchel asks PSG to show collective strength

REUTERS – LEIPZIG

Paris Saint Germain coach Thomas Tuchel asked his team to show collective strength to make up for the absence of starting players including Kylian Mbappe and Neymar when the French champions face RB Leipzig in the Champions League today.

PSG face Leipzig away, after an opening defeat to Manchester United at the Parc des Princes and an away win at Istanbul Basaksehir, without their two top strikers as well as forward Mauro Icardi as they have been hit by a string of injuries. Mid-fielders Marco Verratti and Julian Draxler have also been ruled out.

“We’re missing several key players. We’re not happy about it but we’re not sad either. We’re going to try to cope without them and play as a team,” Tuchel told a news conference.

“We’ll try to make more efforts as a team, with a better collective mindset. We have to grow together in this situation. We’re going to find a starting 11 and we’re going to have to show that we can fight together. It’s necessary.”

Angel Di Maria is expected to start alongside Pablo Sarabia and Moise Kean, who has scored four goals in his last two appearances.

Earlier yesterday, PSG said that Mbappe would miss the game due to a hamstring problem.

Mbappe, 21, sustained the injury during Saturday’s 3-0

Ligue 1 victory against Nantes and was withdrawn towards the closing stages of

the match.

Jota fires hat-trick in big Liverpool winChampions League: Bayern crush Salzburg to make it 14 wins in a row

an Torres, ao Cancelo anchester

wins out of a 3-0 winthe Etihad

v Striker ed a hat-

ussia achsts -0

er

during Saturday’s 3-0 LiLLLLLLLLLL gue 1 victory

against Nantes and was withdrawn towards the closing stages of

the match.

PSG coach Thomas Tuchel

Liverpool’s Portuguese

striker Diogo Jota (right) scores past

Atalanta’s Italian goalkeeper

Marco Sportiello during the UEFA

Champions League match

at the Atalanta Stadium in Bergamo, yesterday.

Bayern Munich’s Corentin Tolisso in action with FC Salzburg’s Andre Ramalho during their Group A match yesterday.

11WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2020 SPORT

We need nothing here,

the Qatar Squash

Federation always does a

great job of making us

feel comfortable and

there is nothing else you

need other than thinking

about your squash.

World No.1

Ali Farag

AFP — PARIS

Stan Wawrinka said he is hoping to produce a “last push” in his career to chal-lenge for tennis’ biggest titles again, after beating Britain’s Dan Evans to reach the Paris Masters second round yesterday.

The 35-year-old won the last of his three Grand Slam titles at the 2016 US Open but was then hit by multiple injuries and is now ranked 20th in the world.

But the Swiss thinks he can still rediscover past glories in his final years on the ATP Tour.

“I’m close to the end of my career,” he said after

beating Evans 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).“But I also believe I have

one last push that I really want to, again, one more time push myself to the limit, make the sacrifice that you need to make to be at

my top, and I’m trying to do that. I’m going to try to even push it more during the off-season and see what next year brings.”

Wawrinka, whose only Masters title came in 2014

at Monte Carlo, has not won an ATP event for more than three years.

“I think in general my form has been going okay. It’s been going well. I’m playing well,” he added. “I still need to work on many, many aspects.”

Wawrinka will face either Frenchman Gilles Simon or the US’ Tommy Paul next.

Former Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic also booked a second-round place, beating Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-2, while Richard Gasquet won a match for the first time since the US Open by edging out Taylor Fritz in three sets.

Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka returns the ball to Britain’s Dan Evans during their men’s singles first round match, yesterday.

Wawrinka ready for ‘last push’ in career

Second RoundMarin Cilic (CRO) bt Corentin Moutet (FRA) -- walkover

First RoundYoshihito Nishioka (JPN) bt Pablo Andujar (ESP) 5-7, 6-4, 6-2

Stan Wawrinka (SUI x12) bt Dan Evans (GBR) 6-3, 7-6 (7/3)

Richard Gasquet (FRA) bt Taylor Fritz (USA) 6-0, 3-6, 6-3

Lorenzo Sonego (ITA) bt Alexander Bublik (KAZ) 6-1, 6-4

Kevin Anderson (RSA) bt Laslo Djere (SRB) 5-2 -- retired

Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) bt Tennys Sandgren (USA) 2-6, 6-4,

7-6 (7/4)

Milos Raonic (CAN x10) bt Aljaz Bedene (SLO) 6-3, 6-2

ATP PARIS MASTERS RESULTS

Qatar Classic: Farag storms into last 16 as Al Tamimi crashes outFAWAD HUSSAIN THE PENINSULA

World No.1 Ali Farag kicked off his title defence at the Qatar Classic Squash Championship with a straight-game victory as home favourite Abdulla Al Tamimi crashed out in the second round of PSA Platinum event at Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, yesterday.

Reigning world champion Tarek Momen, the third seeded Egyptian, also joined compatriot Farag in today’s last-16 stage after a commanding victory over countryman Youssef Soliman.

Farag, who regained his top spot in November’s world rankings, looked well composed as he begun his campaign against England’s Richie Fallows, who defeated Paki-stan’s Tayyab Aslam in the first round.

He faced resistance in the first two games from the Eng-lishman with scores going neck and neck but the second seeded Egyptian remained clinical to take 2-0 lead. The 28-year-old completely dominated the third game to seal an emphatic 11-9, 11-8, 11-3 victory in 28 minutes.

“This is a unique court in a good way in that it takes the ball in very easily, so any bad shot and you’re penalised immedi-ately,” Farag said yesterday after his win.

“All credit to Richie he played really well. In the first two I couldn’t really find my range and in the third I was happy I was able to find the corners I was intending to,” he added.

The World No.1 will now take on Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng, who defeated England’s Declan James earlier yesterday.

“Another guy I’ve never played before up next. What a promising talent he is, World Junior champion and has been knocking on the door for a while now,” Farag said of the Malaysian star.

Errors, injury end Al Tamimi’s run

Al Tamimi headed into yes-terday’s match with a 3-0 advantage over Peru’s World No.7 Diego Elias in their pre-vious head-to-head meetings, but the top Qatari player made many errors before injury even-tually ended his dream of lifting the title as Elias won the match 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 in 43 minutes.

The World No.30 Qatari could have easily won the first game had he not struck tins on eight occasions as Elias took the lead.

Al Tamimi doubled the deficit after repeating more mis-takes in the second game before coming with an improved show in the third.

However, Al Tamimi suf-fered from hamstring strain when Elias was leading 9-8, just to return to complete the match after a three-minute treatment, with Peruvian winning the remaining two points

comfortably. “We’ve played (together) all of our lives,” said the World No.7 after the match.

“I think the first time we played I was 14 and he was 16. We played a couple of times in juniors and he beat me there also. It’s the first time I’ve beat him here. He (Al Tamimi) is really hard to play, he has so many different shots from the front and I never know what he’s going to do. It’s really hard for me, we’re really good friends too, so I’m really sad for what happened and I hope he has a quick recovery,” Elias added.

The Peru star will meet Colombia’s World No.9 Miguel Rodriguez, who outclassed America’s Shahjahan Khan 11-3, 11-3, 11-6 for a place in the quarter-finals. Willstrop faces Momen in

third round Momen, who clinched the

world title in Doha last year, had a slow start yesterday but later on he gained rhythm to oust

talented Soliman 13-11, 9-11, 11-1, 11-5 in 56 minutes. Soliman, a World No. 28, gave his best of the match in second game but an experienced Momen proved too good for him in the next two games as he booked the third round clash with former World No.1 James Willstrop.

“James (Willstrop), as eve-ryone knows is a former World No.1 and his skills are just incredible and out of this world. I always enjoy watching him and he is still competing at a really high level,” said Momen after his win.

“He’s more than capable of toppling any top player on a good day, so I have to be careful and be on my toes. I know tomorrow won’t be an easy match but I’m going to enjoy it against a really good player,” he said.

Earlier, England’s Willstrop defeated Scotsman Greg Lobban 11-7, 13-15, 11-7, 11-7 to march into the last 16 stage.

It took Willstrop – the current World No. 18 – 59 minutes to dispatch Lobban, who produced a good fightback after dropping the first game.

The World No.22 saved two game balls in the second and leveled the match with some good lengths. But Willstrop, a regular visitor in Doha with 17 appearances in Qatar Classic, denied Lobban further success to keep hopes alive of his first title in the event since 2005.

“I feel alright and quite fit. We’ve been training all week and it’s just exciting to be on the court now,” said Willstrop.

“It’s a bit of a sad situation right now everywhere but we’re enormously grateful and we’re pleased. I’m in a good frame of mind and feeling good,” he said.

In what was expected to be a thriller, Welshman Joel Makin – World No. 10 - eased past Egypt’s World No.11 Mohamed Abouelghar in straight games with a 11-7, 11-3, 11-6 score-line in only 33 minutes.

Makin will meet Frenchman Lucas Serme in the last 16.

Serme made a brilliant fightback against Englishman Tom Richards, marking a 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 win to advance.

Round 2 Results

Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-0 Declan James (ENG)

13-11, 11-7, 11-8 (42m)Lucas Serme (FRA) 3-1

Tom Richards (Eng) 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 (57m)

[8] Joel Makin (Wal) 3-0 Mohamed Abouelghar

(EGY) 11-7, 11-3, 11-6 (33m)

Miguel Rodriguez (Col) 3-0 Shahjahan Khan (USA)11-3, 11-3, 11-6 (44m)

James Willstrop (ENG) 3-1 Greg Lobban (SCO)

11-7, 13-15, 11-7, 11-7 (59m)[2] Ali Farag (EGY) 3-0 Richie Fallows (ENG) 11-9, 11-8, 11-3 (28m)

[5] Diego Elias (PER) 3-0 Abdulla Al Tamimi (QAT)

11-9, 11-4, 11-8 (43m)[3] Tarek Momen (EGY) 3-1

Youssef Soliman (EGY) 13-11, 9-11, 11-1, 11-5

(56m)

Round 3 Fixtures

Today11.00 [6] Marwan

ElShorbagy (EGY) v Raphael Kandra (GER)11.45 Fares Dessouky

(EGY) v Borja Golan (ESP)13.30 [4] Paul Coll (NZ) v Gregoire Marche (FRA)

14.15 [8] Joel Makin (WAL) v Lucas Serme (FRA)

16.00 [2] Ali Farag (EGY) v Eain Yow Ng (MAS)16.45 [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY) v

Youssef Ibrahim (EGY)18.30 James Willstrop (ENG) v Tarek Momen

(EGY)19.15 [5] Diego Elias (PER) v Miguel Rodriguez (COL)

World champion Momen books last 16 clash with Willstrop

World No.1 Ali Farag (foreground) in action against England’s Richie Fallows during their second round match, yesterday.

Peru’s Diego Elias plays a backhand shot against Qatar's Abdulla Al Tamimi.

World champion Tarek Momen in action against Youssef Soliman, yesterday.

AFP – LONDON

England’s Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes and Sam Curran will be rested from the one-day inter-national leg of the 50-over world champions’ tour of South Africa, it was announced yesterday.

But with the 2021 T20 World Cup on the horizon, the three players were all included in the squad for the three Twenty20s, which start later this month, ahead of the three-match ODI series.

Players will be confined to bio-secure bubbles during the tour as they were during the English international season.

Archer, Stokes and Curran have all been in a new bubble while taking part in the Indian Premier League tournament, which is being staged in the United Arab Emirates due to the coronavirus.

Fast bowler Archer, a hero of last year’s World Cup final win, spent 87 days in the England bubble.

Star all-rounder Stokes missed a chunk of the English season to spend time with his ill father in New Zealand but left-arm seamer Curran appeared in both red and white-ball internationals.

England national selector Ed Smith, defending the decision to rest the trio, pointed

out how the side’s improved white-ball form had coincided with more players being allowed to participate in the IPL.

“If you look at the com-mitment shown to England by those three players -- Curran, Archer and Stokes -- and their big per-formances in an England shirt, I d on ’ t t h i n k anyone could question their commitment to the cause,” Smith said.

“Clearly multi-format players, who also play franchise cricket, so the players we’re t a l k i n g about -- (Jos) Buttler, S t o k e s , Archer and Curran -- are people who need

some rest and we, as selectors, are very mindful of that.

“We’re going to take those opportunities to give them a break when we believe it’s in England’s best interests and that’s what we’re doing for the second leg of this South Africa

tour.”

Smith said Covid-19 pro-tocols had changed the concept of rest.

Archer, speaking last week, said he was counting down the days until he was “free again” after spending so much of the past few months in a bubble.

Reece Topley, whose career has been blighted by injury, is in both 15-man squads, with fellow left-arm quick David Willey ruled out by a back problem.

Warwickshire paceman Olly Stone, Lancashire batsman Liam Livingstone and Somerset all-rounder Lewis Gregory have a chance to impress during the

ODIs in the absence of Stokes, Archer and

Curran.But England

Test captain Joe Root and fellow

World Cup-winner Chris Woakes were both left out of the T20 squad.

England’s matches in South Africa will be staged at Boland Park in

Paarl and Newlands, in Cape Town.

Newlands will stage both the opening T 2 0 o n November 20 and the first O D I o n December 4.

AFP – RAWALPINDI

Paceman Blessing Muzarabani took career best figures of 5-49 as Zimbabwe beat Pakistan in a thrilling super over finish in the third and final one-day international yesterday.

The actual match finished in a tie after Pakistan skipper Babar Azam hit the final delivery of the 50th over from Richard Ngarava for a boundary to level the scores at 278.

But man-of-the-match Muzarabani dismissed Iftikhar Ahmed and Khushdil Shah for two runs on four balls in the super over which Zimbabwe scored off just three balls without any loss.

Despite the defeat Pakistan won the three-match series 2-1.

Azam, who finished with a run-a-ball 125 with 13 bound-aries and a six, led Pakistan’s fightback and stood firm after Pakistan were set a daunting 279-run target.

He added a match turning 100 for the seventh wicket with Wahab Riaz who made 52.

With 28 needed Riaz held out off Muzarabani, Babar took the fight by smashing a six in the 49th over to reduce the target to 13 off the final over.

When he finally got the strike off the last ball, Pakistan needed five which resulted in a boundary.

Muzarabani’s previous best figures of 4-47 came against Afghanistan at Bulawayo two years ago.

The series gives Pakistan 20 points and Zimbabwe ten in the One-Day Super League, the qualification process for 2023 World Cup in India.

Pakistan won the first match by 26 runs and the second by six wickets, also in Rawalpindi.

Zimbabwe’s total of 278-6 was built around a fighting unbeaten 118 by Sean Williams who helped his team recover from paceman Mohammad Hasnain’s best figures of 5-26.

The win broke Zimbabwe’s sequence of ten consecutive defeats and gave them only their fifth win over Pakistan in 62 ODIs.

Zimbabwe’s pace trio of Muzarabani, Ngarava (2-62) and Donald Tiripano (2-39) left Pakistan snaring at defeat with the score at 6-151.

Debutant Khushdil scored 33 and added 63 for the sixth wicket with Azam.

Earlier, Williams’s 135-ball knock for his fourth ODI hundred lifted Zimbabwe from a precarious 22-3 after they won the toss and batted.

It was 20-year-old paceman Hasnain who shook the tourists by removing

Zimbabwe skipper Chamu Chibhabha (nought), Craig Ervine (one) and Brian Chari (nine) in his first four overs of hostile fast bowling.

Williams added an inval-uable 84 runs for the fourth wicket with Brendon Taylor (56) and another 75 for the fifth with Wesley Madhevere (33) to stage a fightback.

Dropped three times on 73, 75 and 81, Williams finally reached his hundred with a couple off paceman Wahab Riaz, much to the jubilation of the Zimbabwe dressing room.

He hit 13 boundaries and a six in his knock.

Taylor, who scored a century in the first game on Friday, hit eight boundaries before falling to a miscued cut off Hasnain.

Hasnain, who had five wickets in his first five matches, had Madhevere caught off his

own bowling to improve on his previous best of 2-52 against Australia in Dubai last year.

Williams and Sikander Raza -- who made a 36-ball 45 -- cut loose in the final overs adding

96 runs for sixth wicket, piling on 46 in the last five overs.

The teams will now play three Twenty20 internationals on November 7, 8 and 10 -- all in Rawalpindi.

10 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2020SPORT

TWENTY20 SQUADEoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos

Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood

ODI SQUADEoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom

Curran, Lewis Gregory, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Olly Stone, Reece Topley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Reserves across both formats: Jake Ball, Tom Banton, Tom Helm.

Muzarabani stars as Zimbabwe beat Pakistan in super over thriller

England rest Archer, Stokes for ODIs against South Africa

Make helmets mandatory for batsmen, Tendulkar urges ICCAFP – DUBAI

Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar yesterday urged cricket’s world body to make helmets “mandatory” for batsmen at all times during a match.

Tendulkar was reacting to an Indian Premier League incident when Sun-risers Hyderabad batsman Vijay Shankar took a blow on the helmet by a throw from Kings XI Punjab’s Nicholas Pooran.

“The game has become faster but is

it getting safer? Recently we witnessed an incident which could’ve been nasty,” Tendulkar wrote on Twitter with a video link of the action.

“Be it a spinner or pacer, wearing a HELMET should be MANDATORY for batsmen at professional levels. Request @icc to take this up on priority.”

Batsmen usually wear a helmet when facing a fast bowler but take the head gear off when a spinner comes on to bowl.

Shankar fell to the ground after

taking the hit but escaped injury in the IPL league game last month.

Head injuries in the game were back in focus after Australian batsman Phil Hughes’ tragic death in 2014 due a hit on the neck just below the helmet.

The International Cricket Council has since improved helmet standards with equipment companies adding extra pro-tection in the neck area to prevent serious injuries.

Tendulkar, 47, also recalled a blow to current India coach Ravi Shastri

during an exhibition game in his playing days.

“@RaviShastriOfc , this also reminded me of the time when you got hit after top edging a full toss bowled by Mr. (Sunil) Gavaskar during an exhibition game,” Ten-dulkar tweeted.

“That could’ve been a grave injury too but thankfully wasn’t!” Tendulkar, whose word still holds weight in the cricketing world, made his debut for India aged just 16 in 1989 and broke almost every batting record before retiring in 2013.

Australia’s Watson set to end career after IPL heartache REUTERS – DUBAI

Australian all-rounder Shane Watson retired from all forms of cricket yesterday, drawing the curtain on an injury-plagued career which he managed to extend by rein-venting himself as a jour-neyman Twenty20 specialist.

Watson ended his test career in 2015 and quit inter-national cricket the next year, surrendering in his battle against a litany of injuries that bedevilled his career.

He quit Big Bash League last year but played this year's Indian Premier League where his team Chennai Super Kings failed to make the play-off.

"It really does feel like the right time now that I've played my last game of cricket ever for my beloved CSK..." the popular blond said in a video on his YouTube channel.

"To think that I'm finishing my playing days as a 39-year-old, after all of my injury set-backs that I had along the way, I feel so ridiculously fortunate," said Watson who made 14 in his last outing against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.

For an injury-prone player, Watson played 59 tests, 190 one-dayers and 58 Twenty20 matches in his 14 years in inter-national cricket.

The brevity of 20-overs cricket suited the all-rounder who played franchise cricket in Australia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies.

He helped Rajasthan Royals win the inaugural IPL title in 2008, when he was adjudged player of the tournament, and also won the 2018 crown with Chennai.

ZIMBABWEB. Chari b Hasnain ............................................9C. Chibhabha c Ahmed b Hasnain ..................0C. Ervine c Rizwan b Hasnain ...........................1B. Taylor c Khushdil b Hasnain .....................56S. Williams not out ....................................... 118W. Madhevere c and b Hasnain ....................33Sikandar Raza b Riaz ......................................45D. Tiripano not out .............................................1Extras: (lb5, nb1, w9) ................................... 15Total: (50 overs; for six wkts) ...........278Did not bat: R. Ngarava, B. Muzarabani, T. ChisoroFall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-22, 4-106, 5-181, 6-277Bowling: Afridi 10-1-42-0 (w3), Hasnain 10-3-26-5 (1w), Musa 10-0-80-0 (2w), Riaz 10-0-65-1 (2w), Ahmed 10-0-60-0PAKISTANImam-ul-Haq b Muzarabani ............................4

Fakhar Zaman lbw b Ngarava ........................ 2Babar Azam c Taylor b Muzarabani ...........125Haider Ali lbw b Ngarava ............................... 13Mohammad Rizwan b Tiripano ....................10Iftikhar Ahmed b Tiripano ............................. 18Khushdil Shah c Taylor b Muzarabani .......... 33Wahab Riaz c Williams b Muzarabani .........52Shaheen Shah Afridi c Raza b Muzarabani ... 2Musa Khan not out ...........................................9Mohammad Hasnain not out .......................... 3Extras: (lb1, nb1, w5) ...................................... 7Total: (50 overs, for nine wkts) .........278Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-6, 3-20, 4-51, 5-88, 6-151, 7-251, 8-266, 9-266Bowling: Muzarabani 10-1-49-5 (w3), Ngarava 9-0-62-2, Chisoro 7-0-48-0, Tiripano 7-0-39-2 (2w) Raza 10-0-42-0 (1nb), Williams 7-0-37-0RESULT: Match tied, Zimbabwe win on Super OverSUPER OVER: Pakistan 2-2; Zimbabwe 3-0

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Warner, Saha power SRH into IPL play-offsIANS – SHARJAH

Openers David Warner and Wrid-dhiman Saha yesterday took S u n R i s e r s Hyderabad (SRH) to an emphatic 10-wicket win over Mumbai Indians (MI) and took their team to a third-place finish on the Indian Premier League (IPL) points table.

Captain Warner (85 runs off 58 balls) and Saha’s (58 not out off 45) 151-run opening partnership helped their team chase down a target of 150 without losing a wicket. MI scored 149 for eight wkts in 20 overs and SRH made 151 without loss in 17.1 overs.

Warner scored the winning four off the first ball of the 18th over. It was his 10th four of the innings in which he also hit one six. Saha hit seven fours and one six.

Saha provided the acceler-ation in the first three overs, racing to 21 off 13 balls after which Warner caught up with him. The pair went neck and neck, before Warner pushed up after the 12th over. This is the first time since 2011 that MI have fallen to a 10-wicket loss.

Earlier, Kieron Pollard’s late charge helped MI reach close to

the 150-run mark after Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma and Shahbaz Nadeem starved the batsmen of runs in the middle overs. MI scored 51 runs in the last five overs, most of them courtesy Pollard, who scored 41 off 25 balls. He hit two fours and four sixes in his innings before falling to his West Indies teammate Jason Holder.

Holder put up yet another influential performance with the ball for SRH in the ‘death’ overs, dismissing Nathan Coulter-Nile as well and conceding just 25 runs in his four overs.

Brief scores: MI 149/8 (Kieron Pollard 41, Suryakumar Yadav 36; Sandeep Sharma 3/34) SRH 151/0 in 17.1 overs (David Warner 85 not out, Wrid-dhiman Sahah 58 not out; Dhawal Kulkarni 0/22)

David Warner of SunRisers Hyderabad in action.

PIC: TWITTER/@SUNRISERS

09WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2020 SPORT

Twilight Payment wins Melbourne Cup with no fans in the standsAP - MELBOURNE

The race that stops a nation also saw tens of thousands of spectators prevented from attending one of the biggest single-day sporting events in Australia.

But like a familiar refrain in 2020, blame COVID-19.

Irish-bred Twilight Payment, ridden by Jye McNeil and trained by Irishman Joseph O’Brien, gave Australian owner Lloyd Williams his seventh win in the Melbourne Cup.

Twilight Payment led virtually the entire race in the 3,200-meter (2-mile) classic at Flemington.

Tiger Moth was second by about half a length and Britain’s Prince of Arran placed third for the third consecutive year.

Tiger Moth was trained by Joseph O’Brien’s father, Aidan. The younger O’Brien won his first Melbourne Cup in 2017 when Rekindling beat Johannes Vermeer, trained by his father.

“Just too many emotions, a very good moment,” McNeil said after crossing the line in first.

“All my family watching from home, unfortunately they couldn’t be here. But I’m not worried about the empty grand-stands at all. This has been a dream of mine since Day One.”

The race was marred by a horse - 2019 Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck - breaking down early in the race and having to be euthanized. It was the seventh horse since 2013 to be put down after racing in the Melbourne Cup.

Anthony Van Dyck, ridden by veteran jockey Hugh Bowman, broke down at the 400-meter mark and had to be euthanized.

Tiger Moth’s stablemate had carried

top weight. Anthony Van Dyck raced 19 times in five countries and collected five other wins to go alongside his English Derby triumph.

“It is with sadness that we confirm that Anthony Van Dyck had to be humanely euthanized after sustaining a fractured fetlock,” Racing Victoria spokesman Jamie Stier said.

“The horse received immediate vet-erinary care, however, he was unable to be saved due to the nature of the injury sustained. Our sympathies are extended to the owners of Anthony Van Dyck, trainer Aidan O’Brien and all his staff who cared for the horse and are greatly sad-dened by their loss.”

Bowman was not injured in the accident.

In another setback for the race, jockey Kerrin McEvoy was fined A$50,000 ($35,600) for breaching Australian rac-ing’s whip rules while riding runner-up Tiger Moth. Stewards found McEvoy struck the Irish stayer 13 times before the 100-meter mark and 21 times overall.

The three-time Melbourne Cup-winning jockey pleaded guilty and he will also serve a 13-meeting suspension for the breach. Under Australian racing rules, jockeys are not allowed to strike their mounts more than five times before reaching the 100-meter mark.

It was the first time in the race first held in 1861 that the Melbourne Cup was held without spectators.

Flemington often attracts a crowd of up to 100,000 for the event.

But Melbourne is only just coming out of lockdown following a spike in second-wave COVID-19 infections in Victoria state and the easing of restrictions didn’t extend to large crowd sizes.

So the Flemington race course was restricted to jockeys, trainers and essential track workers on Tuesday.

McNeil increased the pace from the 1,000-meter mark and sent his mount out to a clear advantage late in the race.

From there, McNeil said he was con-fident Twilight Payment could keep the momentum going despite Tiger Moth and Prince Of Arran closing hard.

“I was confident. I was trying not to use the whip too many times,” said McNeil, a winner in his first Melbourne Cup ride.

Melbourne Cup’s grim toll grows with Anthony Van Dyck deathREUTERS - MELBOURNE

The death of Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck cast a pall over the Melbourne Cup yesterday, angering animal rights activists while high-lighting the growing toll of Australia’s most prestigious horse race meeting.

Carrying top weight in the gruelling two-mile handicap, the Aidan O’Brien-trained horse broke down with 350 metres to run on a hot afternoon at Flemington Racecourse and was put down by vets soon after Twilight Payment’s victory.

The five-year-old stallion was the second horse prepared by master trainer O’Brien and owned by breeding giant Coolmore Stud to be euthanised after pulling up lame in the “race that stops the nation.”

Coolmore’s The Cliffsof-moher broke down early in the 2018 race and was put down on the track after vets found the horse had broken a shoulder.

Melbourne Cup day has proved a lethal undertaking for runners in recent years, with seven horses killed due to com-plications since 2013.

Most have been prepared by European trainers for owners who spend small fortunes on bringing horses to run on the relatively firm turf of Australian

racetracks for big prizes during the marquee spring meetings.

The Chris Waller-trained Regal Monarch was euthanised after falling in race four in 2017, while British stayer Red Cadeaux was put down two weeks after falling and breaking a leg in the 2015 Melbourne Cup. The 2014 race claimed the lives of two runners in favourite Admire Rakti and seventh-placed Araldo, while French mare Verema died after breaking her leg in the back straight of the 2013 edition.

“His final moments would have been so painful and terri-fying,” animal rights group Animals Australia said on social media of Anthony Van Dyck.

“No animal deserves to suffer like this for gambling money... RIP Anthony Van Dyck.”

Racing Victoria’s integrity chief Jamie Stier said Anthony Van Dyck had been “humanely euthanised after sustaining a fractured fetlock” during the race.

“The horse received imme-diate veterinary care, however he was unable to be saved due to the nature of the injury sus-tained,” Stier added.

Racing Victoria also said its integrity team would prepare a “fatality report” to give “con-sideration to the circumstances

of the incident and any potential learnings to assist in the prevention of similar injuries in the future.”

No crowd was present at Flemington yesterday, with COVID-19-related social dis-tancing rules limiting the race-track to essential staff and officials.

Yet attendances have fallen in recent years amid concerns over the treatment of thorough-breds and growing protests from animal rights groups.

Last year’s Melbourne Cup drew 81,000, its smallest crowd in over 20 years, following a state media investigation into the mistreatment of retired racehorses and reports of hun-dreds of thoroughbreds being slaughtered at an abbatoir in northeastern Queensland state.

The week-long Melbourne Cup Carnival, which includes three other major race meetings at Flemington, drew 276,000 last year, well down from a record of 418,000 in 2006 and continuing a steady decline in recent years.

“Melbourne Cup is beginning to feel like Groundhog Day,” said Animal Justice Party’s Andy Meddick, a lawmaker in Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital. “Almost every year, a horse breaks down and is killed.

Irish horse Anthony Van Dyck is seen with jockey Hugh Bowman heading to the barriers for the start of the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne yesterday.

Jockey Jye McNeil holds the Lexus Melbourne Cup after riding Twilight Payment to victory in race 7, The Lexus Melbourne Cup, during Melbourne Cup Day at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.

Twilight Payment ridden by Jye McNeil (front left) heading to victory in front of empty grandstands in the Melbourne Cup at the

Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne yesterday.

USA Rugby urged to bid for World Cup by top executiveAP - NEW YORK

USA Rugby is in better shape as it emerges from bankruptcy and should bid to host an upcoming World Cup to provide “a great growth engine for the sport,” rugby’s leading executive said yesterday.

World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper (pictured right) strongly urged US rugby leaders to put together a can-didacy for either the 2027 or 2031 tour-naments, which would enable a sport beset by financial concerns amid a pandemic a better chance to break into a largely untapped market in North America.

“There is no commercial market like the United States,” Gosper said in a video call.

“That doesn’t mean it’s an easy market to break into, but it would appear it needs the force of something as substantial as a Rugby World Cup to really realize their potential,” he said.

USA Rugby filed for Chapter 11

bankruptcy in March - soon after the coronavirus outbreak - following years of increased training expenditures, sponsor pull-back and losses from a poorly attended Wales-South Africa test in Washington last year.

With the help of funding from World Rugby, the federation is getting back on its feet and is conducting a fea-sibility study to determine whether to bid for the 2027 or 2031 World Cup.

A ’27 tournament would place it between a soccer World Cup partly staged in the United States in 2026 and the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

The process of talking to pro-spective nations will begin in February, with the formal candidate process starting three months later.

“They are definitely rebounding well in terms of their governance struc-tures,” Gosper said, “and they certainly have ambition around that Rugby World Cup area.

“I think things are well set up and well-structured, and certainly coming out of the challenges they had

financially, they are much more fit for purpose to be a strong force going forward.”

Gosper was speaking exactly a year since the final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which was held in Japan as World Rugby sought to give the sport a bigger presence in Asia.

He said the 2019 tournament helped Japan go from being rugby’s “No. 7 broadcast market to being No.

3 - and not that far behind the broadcast markets of the UK and France.”

Brazil and China are other markets World Rugby wants to break into, but the United States has long held a special status in the eyes of the world governing body.

Rugby 7s events have been well-attended, including the 2018 World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, while NBC aired 221 hours of rugby in 2019 - seven times more than it did in 2014.

“I think the (World Rugby) council would recognize that if they were able to put together an attractive bid, which I think is possible,” Gosper said, “that would provide a great growth engine for the sport, in all areas - not just Rugby World Cup but all other prop-erties, to national leagues and other international competitions.”

Central to Bill Beaumont’s re-election as chairman of World Rugby this year was his appetite to unite the northern and southern hemispheres in one global calendar.

Talks surrounding a proposed Nations Championship, containing 12 of the sport’s leading countries - including maybe the US - and poten-tially backed by private finance worth $7.5bn over 12 years, broke down in 2019 over disagreements about who would be involved and whether it would feature aspects like promotion and relegation.

Gosper said conversations between the unions and various competitions continue but are “still in the kitchen” and would unlikely bring about any meaningful changes until 2024.

“There is an urgency to get these things done,” Gosper said, in light of the financial predicament rugby fed-erations across the world find them-selves in.

Gosper said World Rugby has dis-tributed $100m from a relief fund to around 30 unions across six regions.

“Hopefully we can see this through if things start to get back to normality, whatever that is, halfway through next year,” he added.

MELBOURNE CUP RESULTS

WINNER: TWILIGHT PAYMENT (IRE), Joseph O’Brien, Jye McNeill, 55.5kg - barrier 12

2nd: TIGER MOTH (IRE), Aidan O’Brien, Kerrin McEvoy, 52.5kg - barrier 22

3rd: PRINCE OF ARRAN (GB), Charlie Fellowes, Jamie Kah, 54.5kg - barrier 1

Last: AVILIUS (GB), James Cummings, John Allen, 57kg - barrier 10

4th: THE CHOSEN ONE (NZ), Murray Baker & Andrew Forsman, Daniel Stackhouse, 53.5kg - barrier 5

5th: PERSAN, Ciaron Maher & David Eustace, Michael Dee, 51kg - barrier 19

6th: SIR DRAGONET (IRE), Ciaron Maher & David Eustace, Glen Boss, 55.5kg barrier 14

7th: VERRY ELLEEGANT (NZ), Chris Waller, Mark Zahra, 55.5kg - barrier 15

8th: RUSSIAN CAMELOT (IRE), Danny O’Brien, Damien Oliver, 53.5kg - barrier 16

9th: FINCHE (GB), Chris Waller, James McDonald, 54.5kg - barrier 6

10th: ASHRUN (FR), Andreas Wohler, Declan Bates, 53kg - barrier 23

11th: OCEANEX (NZ), Mick Price & Michael Kent (jnr), Dean Yendall 51.5kg - barrier 17

12th: WARNING, Anthony & Sam Freedman, Luke Currie, 53kg - barrier 8

13th: SURPRISE BABY (NZ), Paul Preusker, Craig Williams, 54.5kg - barrier 7

14th: MIAMI BOUND (NZ), Danny O’Brien, Daniel Moor, 51kg - barrier 13

15th: MASTER OF REALITY (IRE), Joseph O’Brien, Ben Melham, 56kg - barrier 11

16th: STEEL PRINCE (IRE), Anthony & Sam Freedman, William Pike, 53.5kg - barrier 20

17th: ETAH JAMES (NZ), Ciaron Maher & David Eustace, Billy Egan, 52.5kg - barrier 21

18th: VOW AND DECLARE, Danny O’Brien, Jamie Mott, 57kg - barrier 4

19th: MUSTAJEER (GB), Kris Lees, Michael Rodd, 55kg - barrier 2

20th: STRATUM ALBION (GB), Willie Mullins, Jordon Childs, 55kg - barrier 9

21st: DASHING WILLOUGHBY (GB), Andrew Balding, Michael Walker, 54.5kg - barrier 18

22nd: AVILIUS (GB), James Cummings, John Allen, 57kg - barrier 10DID NOT FINISH: ANTHONY VAN DYCK (IRE), Aidan O’Brien, Hugh Bowman, 58.5kg - barrier 3SCRATCHED PRE-RACE: KING OF LEOGRANCE (FR), Danny O’Brien, Damian Lane, 53.5kg

AGENCIES – NEW YORK

The NFL has not yet lost any scheduled games because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But the league is constantly preparing in case it does.

The latest evidence is a plan that potentially could adjust this season’s play-off format to a 16-team field, with eight teams in each conference qualifying for the postseason, ESPN reported Monday.

The fall-back option was discussed on a conference call conducted by the NFL competition committee on Monday, with the purpose to soften some of the league’s financial blow in case multiple games are eventually cancelled and bye weeks are lost due to COVID-19.

NFL sources were cited describing the idea that would hypothetically increase the numbers of playoff teams by two to 16, with one additional team each from the AFC and NFC. This postseason was already slated for a two-team playoff spike, with one more wild-card team in each conference, after the league approved the switch in March.

If approved and instituted, the seeding system would include no byes for division champions and instead rank each team by conference from No. 1 through 8. In the opening round, the top seed -- the division champion with the best overall record -- would face the wild-card team with the worst record as the No. 8 seed. Then the second seed would face the seventh seed, with No. 3 versus No. 6 and No. 4 against No. 5 in the opening weekend.

The league office has reportedly remained steadfast in its hopes to avoid any schedule changes that could threaten its current Super Bowl LV date, currently slated for Feb. 7, 2021 in Tampa. In case of major postseason scheduling changes, the NFL’s likely first move would be to eliminate the week off scheduled between the con-ference championships and the Super Bowl.

08WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2020SportUK Athletics to focus on participation, not medalsREUTERS – LONDON

After years of administrative chaos, UK Athletics (UKA) has published a 12-year strategy document that shifted emphasis from a lottery-funded chase for Olympic medals to a rejuve-nation of the sport at grass-roots level.

In a sport long-riven with internal and regional disputes, the new document has been delivered in co-operation with the governing bodies of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after consul-tation with more than 5,000 athletes, coaches and officials.

In May, UK Sport delivered a damning report on athletics’ governance after a series of res-ignations, scandals and financial failings, saying the organisation “couldn’t get any worse”.

Joanna Coates, who became UKA Chief Executive in March, took those criticisms on board and has spent much of the summer trying to rebuild trust in the organisation and set out a transparent plan for the future.

At the heart of the new strategy is a three-goal approach to running the sport,

one of Britain’s most successful in the Olympics but which has been suffering at club level despite the huge popularity of the volunteer-led parkrun movement.

The first goal is that by 2032 the British team will have a rep-resentative at every discipline in all senior international events and that 95% of the Paralympic team will reach their final.

The second is to develop an infrastructure of athletics and running clubs that will have 250,000 registered athletes across the UK by 2032.

The third goal is to have nine million people running and “pushing” - the new term for

wheelchair propulsion - within 12 years.

There is no mention of medal targets in the new approach, which potentially puts UKA at odds with UK Sport, whose funding model is based on the statement that “success is measured by medals won and the systems in place to find and support the most promising future champions.”

Coates suggested on Monday that it was a back to front approach and there was now a “clear departure from previous focus areas.

“You don’t write a strategy for the sport based around funding, you write a strategy for

the sport and the bit that UK Sport or Sport England fund you for is the bit that they find attractive within your strategy,” she said in a statement.

“I’m writing a 12-year strategy so that the sport survives. It’s a different mindset.

“This is a significant oppor-tunity for the sport and the first time that all five governing bodies have come together as equal partners to build a united strategy for athletics in the UK,” Coates said.

“The co-development of a long-term strategy and framework agreement for ath-letics across the UK, with an ethical decision-making culture and a new communications strategy, will ensure that we address the sport’s long-term issues.”

Sally Munday, CEO of UK Sport, described the new plan as “an important milestone for the sport in enabling it to flourish at all levels.”

She added: “We remain com-mitted to supporting UKA and the Home Country Athletics Feder-ations as they progress in their work to deliver on all aspects of the Change Plan for the sport, which followed the independent review earlier in the year”.

Being major champion doesn’t make PGA Tour any easier: MorikawaREUTERS – LONDON

Winning the PGA Championship in August has been the highlight of Collin Morikawa’s short career but the American said being a major winner does not automatically make things easier on the PGA Tour.

The 23-year-old, who turned pro last year, triumphed at TPC Harding Park for his first major title but failed to make the cut at the US Open and Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in his first two starts on the 2020/21 Tour.

“I’ve realised over the last couple of weeks ... that this is without question a new PGA Tour season,” Morikawa wrote in a PGA Tour blog. “I can use all those positives that came from my breakthrough victory at the PGA Championship, but that doesn’t necessarily mean things are automatically going to come my way now.

“Sure, I may be a Major winner now, but I still have to play good golf, and everyone out here is really good at golf, too. That’s what makes the PGA Tour awesome, is that any week anyone can win.”

Morikawa, whose father is of Japanese descent, tied for 50th at last month’s Zozo Championship, an event he has fond mem-ories of having travelled to Japan last year to be part of the tour-nament’s unveiling.

Brady back on top as Bucs winAFP – NEW YORK

Tom Brady reclaimed top spot as the NFL’s all-time touchdown pass leader as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the New York Giants 25-23 at East Rutherford on Monday.

Six-time Super Bowl champion Brady had been knocked out of first place in the touchdown standings on Sunday, when New Orleans Saints quar-terback Drew Brees threw for two touchdowns in his team’s win over the Chicago Bears.

But a pair of Brady touchdown passes at MetLife Stadium on Monday saw the 43-year-old quarterback edge

clear of Brees once more with 561 career touchdowns to 560.

The Tampa Bay win improved the Buccaneers to 6-2 in the NFC South, while the Giants remain rooted to the foot of the NFC East at 1-7.

Antoine Winfield Jr blocked the Giants’ attempted two-point conversion that would have tied the game after Daniel Jones con-nected with Golden Tate in the endzone for a touchdown with 28 seconds remaining.

Earlier, the Giants had taken a 14-3 lead after touchdowns from Dion Lewis and Wayne Gallman. Tampa Bay were restricted to two Ryan Succop field goals in the first half.

Succop closed the gap to five points at 14-9 with his third field goal of the night early in the third quarter.

Brady then picked out tight end Rob Gronkowski for a touchdown to make it 15-14.

Graham Gano’s field goal pushed the Giants into a 17-15 lead at the end of the third quarter, but Brady’s 561st career touchdown pass to Mike Evans left Tampa Bay in control at 21-17.

Succop’s 38-yard field goal looked to have made the game safe for the Bucs at 25-17, but there was still time for Jones to lead the Giants on one last 13-play, 70-yard drive for Tate’s touchdown.

Honus Wagner rookie card sells for over $1.4mAP – RUNNEMEDE, NJ

A Honus Wagner rookie baseball card has sold for more than $1.4m.

The price was a record for the rare T-206 card of the Pittsburgh Pirates great, the highlight of the weekend Goldin Auctions October Legends Auction.

Also fetching a record price was the basketball rookie card of Michel Jordan, which sold for $124,230. Other notable sales included a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card that sold for $584,250 and a 1958 Pele card that went for $295,200, a record for a football card.

Several items from Cal Ripken Jr.’s personal collection netted $1.2m, with the money going to the family foundation.

NFL mulling 16-team play-off field if games lost to pandemic

Povetkin tested positive for COVID-19REUTERS – LONDON

A WBC interim heavyweight rematch between Alexander Povetkin and Britain’s Dillian Whyte has been postponed to January after the Russian was admitted to hospital with COVID-19, promoter Eddie Hearn said yesterday.

‘Body Snatcher’ Whyte was knocked out by 41-year-old Pov-etkin, the 2004 Olympic super-heavyweight gold medallist, in the fifth round of their fight in London last August.

The rematch was scheduled for Nov. 21 behind closed doors at Lon-don’s Wembley Arena.

“Unfortunately we got the news today that Alexander Povetkin is in hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. The fight will now be rescheduled to a target date of Jan 30,” Hearn said on Twitter.

Povetkin fought Britain’s Anthony Joshua for the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles at Wembley stadium in 2018 and was stopped in the seventh round.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady

throws the ball during the second half of their NFL game against New York

Giants in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, on

Monday.

This is a significant

opportunity for the sport

and the first time that all

five governing bodies have

come together as equal

partners to build a united

strategy for athletics in the

UK: UKA Chief Executive Joanna Coates

AFP – LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts (pictured) could become only the second player in history to win Most Valuable Player in both of Major League Baseball’s top leagues after being named among the finalists for the National League award.

Betts, who played a pivotal role in helping the Dodgers win their first World Series since 1988 with their 4-2 series victory over the Tampa Bay Rays last week, was named alongside the Atlanta Braves’ Freddie Freeman and the San Diego Padres’ Manny Machado.

The 28-year-old Betts was the American League’s MVP in 2018 when he helped the Boston Red Sox to their World Series crown.

Betts was sensationally traded away by the Red Sox to the Dodgers in Feb-ruary this year, and later signed a $365 million contract that will keep him at

the Dodgers through to the end of the 2032 season.

If Betts adds the National League MVP award to his 2018 American League honor, he will become only the second player in baseball history to win MVP in both leagues after Frank Rob-inson, who won the award in 1961 and 1966 with different teams.

The 2020 American League MVP nominees are the Chicago White Sox’s Jose Abreu, the New York Yankees’ D.J. LeMahieu and Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez.

In the Cy Young pitching award cat-egories, two former Los Angeles Dodgers -- the Minnesota Twins’ Jap-anese ace Kenta Maeda and the Toronto Blue Jays’ Hyun-Jin Ryu -- were among the three nominees from the American League. Maeda notched six wins with a 2.70 ERA and 80 strikeouts in just 66 2/3 innings over 11 starts.

Ryu, who was second in the National League Cy Young voting in

2019, had another solid season with a 2.69 ERA while averaging just under 10 strikeouts per nine innings pitched.

The Cleveland Indians’ Shane Bieber completed the American League Cy Young nominees.

In the National League, Cincinnati Reds’ hurler Trever Bauer, who led the league with a 1.73 ERA, was nominated along with the Chicago Cubs’ Yu Darvish and the New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom.

In the manager of the year awards, Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash -- who guided the Rays to the World Series despite the team having the third-lowest payroll in baseball -- is nominated alongside Toronto’s Charlie Montoyo and the Chicago White Sox’s Rick Renteria.

MLB: Betts eyes rare double in MVP awards

In case of major postseason

scheduling changes, the

NFL’s likely first move

would be to eliminate the

week off scheduled

between the conference

championships and the

Super Bowl LV, currently

slated for Feb. 7, 2021 in

Tampa.

Alexander Povetkin

Collin Morikawa

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