Sunday, June 13, 2021Dhul-Qa’da 3, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

England home games ‘unfair’, says Croatia’s Modric

Reigning 400m champ Horton misses team for Tokyo

SWIMMING SWIMMING | Page 3 FOOTBALL FOOTBALL | Page 7

CRICKET

Henry strikes as New Zealand eye England series victoryPage 4

Djoko conquers ‘Everest’, eyes 52-year landmark at Roland GarrosSPOTLIGHT

Czech beat Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 for her second title

AFPParis, France

Novak Djokovic can become the fi rst man in 52 years to win all four Grand Slam titles

twice in the French Open fi nal today after conquering Rafael Nadal, the ‘Mount Everest’ of Roland Garros.

World number one Djokovic takes on Greece’s Stefanos Tsit-sipas for the title with tennis history on the line.

Victory for the Serb will take him alongside Roy Emerson and Rod Laver as the only men to capture the four majors more than once.

It’s an achievement that has proved even beyond the capa-bilities of Nadal and Roger Fe-derer.

It is so rare an accomplish-ment that it hasn’t happened since 1969 when Laver com-

pleted his second calendar Grand Slam.

Djokovic can pocket a 19th Slam with victory and move just one behind the record of 20 joint-ly held by Nadal and Federer.

Djokovic insists there will be no letdown physically or emo-tionally after reaching the fi nal in Paris for a sixth time with an epic triumph over 13-time champion Nadal.

“It’s not the fi rst time that I play an epic semi-fi nal in a Grand Slam and then I have to come back in less than 48 hours and play fi nals,” said the 34-year-old.

“My recovery abilities have been pretty good throughout my career.”

His four-hour, four-set battle with Nadal is already jostling for a prime spot in the list of “great-est ever matches” at the Slams.

‘NEVER BELIEVED’It featured a lung-busting

92-minute third set and re-quired government interven-tion to allow the 5,000 fans in-side Court Philippe Chatrier to watch the match’s conclusion despite it extending beyond the 11pm Covid-19 curfew.

The 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 tri-umph gave Djokovic the honour of being the only man to have beaten Nadal in Paris more than once, having fi rst achieved it in the 2015 quarter-fi nals.

Nadal has only lost three times in 108 matches since his title-winning debut in 2005.

Djokovic, the 2016 champion, said it was his best win in Paris and ranked it among his “three greatest” ever performances.

He broke the Spaniard eight times from 22 break points and fi red 50 winners.

A weary Nadal committed 55 unforced errors.

“It’s hard to fi nd words bigger than all the superlatives you can think of for Rafa’s achievements

at Roland Garros,” said Djokovic who now leads their series 30-28 and had lost three fi nals in the French capital to Nadal.

“Each time you step on the court with him, you know that you have to kind of climb Mount Everest to win against this guy here.”

Djokovic will be playing in his 29th Slam fi nal today.

He holds a 5-2 record over Tsitsipas, a run which includes all three meetings on clay.

At last year’s Roland Garros, Djokovic won their semi-fi nal over fi ve sets.

“We played an epic five-set-ter last year in the semis here. I know it’s going to be another tough one,” added Djokovic who also defeated Tsitsipas in Rome on the eve of the French Open.

“I’m hoping I can recharge my batteries as much as I can because I’m going to need some power and energy for that one.”

AFPParis, France

Barbora Krejcikova won her maiden Grand Slam singles title at the French Open yesterday, beating Russia’s Anastasia Pav-

lyuchenkova to become the fi rst Czech woman in 40 years to conquer Roland Garros before dedicating her victory to former Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna who died four years ago.

Krejcikova, ranked 33 in the world and playing just her fi fth main draw in a Slams singles event, triumphed 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 for a second career title.

The 25-year-old emulates compa-triot Hana Mandlikova who claimed the trophy in Paris in 1981.

Krejcikova paid an emotional tribute to her mentor Novotna, who died of cancer at the age of 49 in 2017.

“It’s hard to put into words. I cannot believe I have just won a Grand Slam,” said Krejcikova who was still outside the top 100 when the 2020 French Open took place last October.

“I spent a lot of time with Jana before she died. Her last words to me were ‘enjoy tennis and try and win a Grand Slam’.

“I know she’s looking after me. All this is pretty much because she is look-ing after me.

“It was amazing that I got the chance to meet her. She was such an inspira-tion. I miss her and I hope she’s really happy,” added Krejcikova, who had to save a match point in her semi-fi nal to defeat Maria Sakkari.

Krejcikova, who can also win a third Grand Slam women’s doubles title to-day with Katerina Siniakova, was pre-sented with the trophy by Czech-born Martina Navratilova who won two French Opens in 1982 and 1984 but as an American citizen.

Krejcikova will rise to number 15 in the world as a result of her win yester-day as she became the sixth successive fi rst-time major winner in Paris.

She is also the third unseeded cham-pion at Roland Garros in the last fi ve years after Jelena Ostapenko in 2017 and Iga Swiatek in 2020.

If she adds the doubles today, she’ll be the fi rst player since Mary Pierce in 2000 to claim both titles at the same Roland Garros.

Pavlyuchenkova was playing in her

fi rst Slam fi nal at the 52nd attempt and was attempting to become the third oldest fi rst-time winner of a major.

‘ONLY CHANCE’“I was preparing a speech for this mo-ment ever since I was a little kid and now I am lost for words,” said the 29-year-old.

“Many thanks to my friends who came here from all over the world for one match — maybe they thought this was my one and only chance! Congrat-ulations to Barbora. I don’t know how you play singles and doubles. I was dead on the last point.”

In a nervy start to the fi nal, Krejcikova was broken in the fi rst game, serving up two double faults.

However, the Russian was un-able to capitalise and dropped the next six games as her Czech opponent grabbed three breaks and raced way with the opener inside half an hour.

Krejcikova was rewarded for her bold attacking, hitting 13 winners to the Russian’s seven.

Pavlyuchenkova, who made her Slam debut back in 2007, was the more composed player in the second set, stretching out to 5-1.

A medical timeout at 5-2, during which she was seen munching Haribo gummy bears, merely delayed the Rus-sian levelling the fi nal.

In the decider, the players exchanged breaks in the third and fourth games, before the Czech broke to love for 4-3 on the back of a 10-shot rally.

Pavlyuchenkova saved two champi-onship points in the ninth game and a third in the 10th but Krejcikova became champion on the fourth when the Rus-sian hit long.

Both women capitalised on a draw in which the top seeds fell and just kept falling. World No. 1 and 2019 cham-pion Ashleigh Barty hobbled out in the second round. Serena Williams was knocked out in the fourth round, world number two Naomi Osaka withdrew af-ter one match, while 2018 champion Si-mona Halep never even made it to Paris.

Krejcikova fi lesName: Barbora KrejcikovaDate of birth: Dec 18, 1995Residence: Ivancice, Czech RepublicRanking: 33Career prize money: $5,280,000Singles titles: 2 (Strasbourg 2021, French Open 2021)Doubles titles: 8Grand Slam singles record: 12-4

PATH TO TITLE1st rd: bt Kristyna Pliskova (CZE) 5-7, 6-4, 6-22nd rd: bt 32-Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) 6-2, 6-33rd rd: bt 5-Elina Svitolina (UKR) 6-3, 6-24th rd: bt Sloane Stephens (USA) 6-2, 6-0QF: bt 24-Coco Gauff (USA) 7-6 (6), 6-3SF: bt 17-Maria Sakkari (GRE) 7-5, 4-6, 9-7F: bt 31-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 6-1, 2-6, 6-4

Krejcikova wins French Open, dedicates victory to Novotna

TENNIS

Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova poses with her runner-up trophy after losing the French Open final to Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova (right) yesterday. (AFP)

SPORT3Gulf Times

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Reigning 400m champ Horton misses Aussie team for Tokyo

Bored Games: Aussie soft ball team fi nds Olympic bubble ‘challenging’

Blues to host Highlanders in Trans-Tasman fi nal, Canterbury fall short

The 25-year-old misses the top-two finish by just 0.65 seconds in the trials

SWIMMING

BOTTOMLINE

SUPER RUGBY

AFPTokyo, Japan

No meeting fans, no eat-ing out and no sight-seeing – life in the To-kyo Olympic bubble

could be “challenging” for ath-letes, the fi rst team to arrive in Japan has warned.

Australian softball head coach Laing Harrow told AFP his play-ers have been bingeing on Netfl ix and hitting the gym in a bid to “break the boredom” after land-ing in Japan on June 1.

He said the players “seem to be in a very good headspace”, despite the severe restrictions, which organisers insist are nec-essary to hold the Games safely.

But he warned other teams could fi nd life diffi cult at the coro-navirus-postponed Games, with cabin fever a potential risk for ath-letes who don’t come prepared.

“It is challenging,” Harrow said in an online interview from

the team’s base in Ota City, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Tokyo.

“If it’s cards or games that you can play on phones or whatever, you do need to break the bore-dom up a little, because there is a fair bit of downtime.”

Harrow said his players and staff – who were all vaccinated before leaving Australia – are glad to be training again after spending their fi rst three days cooped up in the hotel.

They have played a series of practice games against Japa-nese teams, at a venue around a 10-minute bus ride from their hotel.

“We’re quite lucky because we do play games, and we’re at the grounds for a good fi ve, six hours. That takes up a fair chunk of the day,” he said.

‘ABIDE BY THE RULES’But he said it was disappointing that the team are barred from meeting Japanese fans.

The only interaction they have with locals, he said, is when gov-ernment offi cials come to their hotel every morning to test for

the virus.“It is a shame, because we’ve

been to Ota City a couple of times and it’s always great to interact

with the locals,” he said.“But we can’t do anything

about it. We just have to maintain this bubble and we can’t put any-

one in jeopardy.”The ‘Aussie Spirit’ team are

restricted to three fl oors of their hotel, and have their own gym, dining room and meeting room.

They must enter and exit the hotel through a special door, and have a lift reserved for their use.

“I wouldn’t have any idea how many guests are here,” said Har-row. “We don’t see any guests at all.”

But he said there were no com-plaints about the restrictions, insisting the team “just follow those instructions and try to abide by the rules”.

RARING TO GOThe team arrived early in Japan because they needed game prac-tice and couldn’t go to the US as originally planned, he said.

And despite the lack of inter-action, Harrow said the team “have felt very welcome” in Ja-pan, which he sees “as a positive that people are looking forward to the Olympics”.

“I guess people want to catch a glimpse of us at the grounds,” he said.

“They’re happy to wave and they have smiles on their faces — not that you can see them be-cause they’re under masks. But they seem very happy to see us.”

Softball is making a fl eeting return to the Olympics after a 13-year absence, before being dropped again for the 2024 Paris Games.

Only two of Australia’s players have previous Olympic experi-ence.

The team have won one silver and three bronze medals in the sport, and Harrow says his play-ers are raring to go.

“All the girls and staff have worked extremely hard over the last three years to put themselves in a position to represent Aus-tralia,” he said.

“They’re very excited to have this opportunity, and they’re giv-ing it all they can. We are looking forward to it.”

ReutersAdelaide, Australia

Reigning Olympic champion Mack Hor-ton was the major cas-ualty on day one of the

Australian Olympic team swim-ming trials as he fell just short of qualifying in a scintillating 400 metres freestyle fi nal.

Horton, who is widely known also for his strong anti-doping stance, was edged out on a night of high drama and quality in Ad-elaide.

The 25-year-old missed the top two fi nish that would have allowed him to defend his ti-tle in Tokyo next month by just 0.65 seconds as young gun Elijah Winnington, 21, swam the fast-est time in the world this year in 3:42.65 with Jack McLoughlin in second place. The fi rst three men swam the fastest three 400m freestyle times in the world this year.

“This means everything to me, I dreamt of this moment as a kid,” Winnington said before paying tribute to Horton.

“I pretty much told Mack that he is my hero,” he said, a sentiment mirrored by McLoughlin.

“He (Horton) is probably my most admired swimmer. I see what he does in training, he is an animal and I have so much re-spect for him. I feel like it is now Elijah’s and my duty to go and do well in the Olympics.”

Horton wished his team mates well after the race.

With just 41 days until the Olympics begin, there was a cracking atmosphere all night as swimmers fought it out across fi ve diff erent events at the South Australia Aquatic Centre.

There was little mistak-ing what was at stake, behind the swimmers starting blocks fl ashed a large digital banner to underline the do or die nature of the occasion. ’Who will repre-

sent Australia?’ it asked.The questions were soon an-

swered as records began to tum-ble.

Emma McKeon, who won four medals in Rio and is widely tipped for another robust Olym-pics, kicked the night off with a blistering swim in the 100m butterfl y, to break the Australian record in 56.82.

She said the enforced time

out following the postponement of the 2020 Games helped her enormously.

“That extra year defi nitely helped as well and I’m a lot stronger and more confi dent in my ability to compared to March last year,” she said.

There was heartbreak for sec-ond placed Brianna Throssell, who missed the Olympic quali-fying time by just 0.01 seconds.

Minutes later another Australia record fell when Brendon Smith romped home in the men’s 400m individual medley.

Zac Stubblety-Cook clinched the men’s 100m breaststroke fi nal but failed to meet the Ol-ympic qualifying time as did 17-year-old Jenna Forrester who won the women’s 400m indi-vidual medley outside the pre-scribed time for Tokyo.

Mack Horton reacts after failing to qualify in the men’s 400m freestyle final on first day of the Australian Olympic swimming trials in Adelaide yesterday. (AFP)

In this June 7, 2021, picture, members of Australia’s Olympic softball squad listen to the mayor of Ota city, Masayoshi Shimizu, a stadium in Ota, Japan. (Reuters)

Action from the match between Al Duhail SC (in red) and Uzbekistan’s FC AGMK (in white and black) during their Asian Club Handball Championship Group B match in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, yesterday. Al Duhail won the match 39-21.

Al Duhail SC beat Uzbekistan’s AGMK in Asian club handball

ReutersSydney, Australia

The Auckland Blues downed the Western Force 31-21 in a game of two halves yesterday

to ensure a return to their Eden Park home next week to play the Otago Highlanders in the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman fi nal.

Needing only to win to se-cure their spot after the Canter-bury Crusaders failed to rack up enough points against the Mel-bourne Rebels, the Blues com-pleted their mission reasonably comfortably against the Perth-based Australians.

Four unanswered tries in the fi rst half, including two for loose forward Hoskins Sotutu, all but secured the Blues a fi rst home Super Rugby fi nal since they won their third title in the interna-tional competition in 2003.

The winless Force, who had played a role in the make-up of the fi nal by denying the Crusad-ers a crucial bonus point with a late try last week, were unable to contain the powerful Auckland-ers before halftime but came out fi ring after the break.

Tries from Hooker Feleti Kaitu’u, centre Tevita Kuridrani and Irish fullback Rob Kearney got them on the board but a stun-ning upset that would have sent the Crusaders into the fi nal never looked like a realistic prospect.

“We’ll be happy with the fi rst half but it’s fair to say we didn’t turn up in the second,” said Blues

captain Patrick Tuipulotu.“It’s quite disappointing to

fi nish up like that but we can’t dwell on that too much. We’ve got to be happy with the win and a home fi nal.”

The Blues, Highlanders and Crusaders – all unbeaten – fi n-ished tied on 23 competition points but separated in the standings by aggregate points diff erential.

Earlier at Sydney’s Leichhardt Oval, Sevu Reece scored a hat-trick as the Crusaders thrashed the Melbourne Rebels 52-26.

The Super Rugby Aotearoa champions, however, had needed to win by 33 points or more to inch ahead of the Highlanders in the standings.

They moved to within seven points of their target with seven minutes left to play but were unable to snatch a ninth try which, with a conversion, would have booked them a spot in the title decider.

“Heading into this game, we knew what we needed to get,” said All Blacks winger Reece. “We’ll take the win, but a lot of heads are down, a lot of not so happy boys.”

The woes continued for the New South Wales Waratahs, who fi nished their winless season with a 40-7 defeat to the Waikato Chiefs at Sydney’s Brookvale Oval with winger Sean Wainui scoring fi ve tries for the visiting side.

The result also handed the War-atahs their 13th straight defeat, overtaking the record for an Aus-tralian Super Rugby side set by the Melbourne Rebels in 2011-2012.

China’s Su runs 100m in 9.98 seconds in Tokyo trials

Su Bingtian has confirmed his strong form by clocking 9.98 seconds to win the 100m at China’s national athletics trials for the Tokyo Olympics in Shaoxing, local media reported. The 31-year-old, the first Asian-born athlete to go under 10 seconds in the blue-riband sprint, ran the same time at Zhaoqing in April. “The result was satisfying, though my body was not in top form,” Su told China’s state news agency Xinhua after Friday’s run. The time, the seventh legal sub 10-second run of Su’s career, was the joint 13th fastest in the world this year. Su is set to compete in his third Olympics in Tokyo this summer.

Goalkeeper Bardsley pulls out of Team GB women’s squad due to injuryEngland goalkeeper Karen Bardsley has withdrawn from Britain’s women’s soccer squad for the Tokyo Olympics due to an injury she picked up last month, Team GB said yesterday. Bardsley was among the two goalkeepers named in coach Hege Riise’s 18-mem-ber squad for the Tokyo Games. The 36-year-old, who is on loan at OL Reign from Manchester City, sustained the injury in a match against Washington Spirit in the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League.

No Cape Town farewell forJapan-bound star Du ToitCovid-19 has robbed 2019 World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit of a farewell home appearance for the Stormers in Cape Town yesterday. A Rainbow Cup South Africa final round match against the Lions was called off after an unspecified number of players from the Johannesburg franchise contracted the illness. Stormers’ off icials confirmed that the Springbok flanker is leaving the Stormers to play for Toyota Verblitz, a Japanese club guided by former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen. Du Toit is set to play for the Springboks against Georgia, the British and Irish Lions, in the Rugby Championship and on a tour of Europe before travel-ling to Japan in November.

CRICKET4 Gulf Times

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Rabada fi ve-for helps South Africa wrap up innings win over West Indies

Henry strikes as New Zealand eye England series victory

FIRST TEST

SECOND TEST

AFPGros-Islet, Saint Lucia

Kagiso Rabada completed a fi ve-wicket haul as South Africa formal-ised their demolition of the West Indies by an innings and 63 runs

just before the lunch interval on the third day of the fi rst Test in St Lucia yesterday. Having taken just one wicket in the fi rst innings on day one when the home side were routed for 97 after choosing to bat fi rst, Rabada led the way for the Proteas in the West Indies second innings with fi gures of fi ve for 34.

It was his 10th fi ve-wicket haul in Test cricket. The Caribbean side, trailing on fi rst innings by 225 runs and resuming from an overnight position of 82 for four, were dis-missed for 162. Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock, with a Test-best unbeat-en 141 in South Africa’s only innings, was named man of the match.

Only Roston Chase, with a top score of 62, off ered any meaningful resistance to the South African bowlers, the next best eff ort being 14 from replacement opening batsman Kieran Powell, who came into the match on the fi rst afternoon as a concussion replace-ment for middle-order batsman Nkrumah Bonner. Ironically, as well as Rabada bowled with the excellent support of Anrich Nortje, whose fi gures of three for 46 gave him seven wickets in the match, Chase’s demise was not to any of the fast bowlers but the spin of Keshav Maharaj.

Undone by a faster ball, Chase played on attempting a forcing shot. It was Maharaj’s second wicket in quick succession after his fi rst ball of the day accounted for Jason Holder, the former captain inexplicably of-fering no shot to a straight delivery. Joshua da Silva became the third West Indies bats-man bowled off ering no shot in the match.

Struck painfully on the left elbow when he ducked into a short ball from Rabada, the wicketkeeper-batsman never looked set-tled thereafter and his off -stump went cart-wheeling a few minutes later via an error of judgement.

West Indies were hopeful that the over-night pair of Chase and Jermaine Blackwood would have provided stern resistance but within half an hour they were separated, Blackwood mistiming a drive off Rabada to fall to a catch at mid-off for the seventh time in his Test career.

Wickets fell regularly thereafter and it was left to Nortje to put the seal on a near-perfect Test performance by the South Afri-

cans, Wiaan Mulder emphasising the excel-lent work of the supporting slip cordon with another good catch.

“This was really important for us after what has happened over the last few months and how we’ve slid down the rankings ta-ble,” said a delighted South African captain Dean Elgar. “We certainly won’t get carried away with this performance but it gives us a

couple more days for rest and recuperation ahead of the second Test.”

That second and fi nal Test begins on Friday at the same venue and while he would not venture into speculating about changes to his team for that match, West Indies cap-tain Kraigg Brathwaite remained insistent that his decision to bat fi rst was the correct one.

AFPBirmingham, United Kingdom

Matt Henry took three top-order wickets to leave New Zealand on the brink of a series-clinching win as

England’s batsmen failed miserably in the second and fi nal Test at Edgbaston yesterday.

England, on a good batting pitch, were 122-9 in their second innings at stumps on the third day – just 37 runs ahead of New Zealand with one wicket standing and two days left to play. Even so, that still represented a recovery from an even more embarrassing 76-7.

Henry, one of an exceptional six changes to the New Zealand side that drew the fi rst Test at Lord’s, took the fi rst three wickets to fall en route to fi ne fi gures of 3-36 in 12 overs. New Zea-land are eyeing only a third series win in England after their 1986 and 1999 triumphs – an ideal way to prepare for their appearance in next week’s inau-gural World Test Championship fi nal against India at Southampton.

England are facing a fi rst series loss on home soil in seven years since a 2014 reverse against Sri Lanka. Their slim hopes of setting a challenging target rest with tailenders Olly Stone (15 not out) and James Anderson (nought not out), whose England record 162nd Test is unlikely to be one the pace great re-members fondly.

England were without injured all-rounder Ben Stokes and fast bowler Jofra Archer. But, in England coach Chris Silverwood’s fi rst match in charge of selection, they also decided to rest Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes against one of the best Test sides in the world.

Henry struck with just the second ball of England’s innings when opener Rory Burns, who made 81 fi rst time around, was well caught in the slips for a duck by stand-in skipper Tom Latham. New Zealand’s close-catching, far superior to England’s this series, also accounted

for Dom Sibley (10), well-taken in the cordon by Daryl Mitchell off Henry.

Specialist batsmen Zak Crawley

made 10 and Ollie Pope 23 as their run of low scores continued. Dan Lawrence, who top-scored with 81 not out in Eng-

land’s fi rst innings, was powerless to prevent further collapse as he went for a duck, caught off left-arm quick Neil

Wagner (3-18) by diving wicket-keeper Tom Blundell.

New batsman James Bracey at avoid-ed a third successive nought in Test cricket but could only manage eight be-fore he played on trying to sweep left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel. Patel was well used by Latham, deputising as skipper for the injured Kane Williamson.

The spinner then captured the prize wicket of Joe Root for 11 when the Eng-land captain and star batsman was caught behind off an edged cut.

England were now 76-7, still nine runs behind.

The slump was all the more humili-ating as New Zealand had rested key seamer Tim Southee, with Patel and

Blundell only playing after Mitchell Santner (cut fi nger) and BJ Watling (sore back) were injured.

Fast bowler Wood followed his fi rst-innings 41 with a game 29 as he shared a stand of 44 with fellow quick Stone. But a knock featuring fi ve fours and a six ended when he skyed a pull off Wag-ner to Blundell.

England’s 120-8 promptly became 121-9 when Trent Boult had Stuart Broad lbw. Earlier, Broad took an im-pressive 4-48 in 23.1 overs but New Zealand, still made 388 to lead by 85 runs on fi rst innings. Ross Taylor hit 80 – the third score in the 80s in the in-nings – after New Zealand resumed on 229-3, a defi cit of 74.

England were 122-9 in their second innings at stumps on the third day – just 37 runs ahead of New Zealand

Woakes returns to England T20 squad for Sri Lanka seriesAFPBirmingham, United Kingdom

Chris Woakes was recalled to England’s Twenty20 squad for the time in almost six years yes-

terday after being included in a 16-man party for this month’s three-match series at home to Sri Lanka. The Warwickshire all-rounder now has the chance to press his case for involvement in October’s T20 World Cup.

Although Woakes has been a key member of England’s 50-over World Cup-winning side, while also enjoying Test success, has only won eight T20 caps and has not appeared in international cricket’s shortest format since

November 2015. But the 32-year-old Woakes’s appearance in the recent Indian Premier League suggested he still had T20 ambi-tions, with the delay to the T20 World Cup caused by the coro-navirus pandemic and Ed Smith’s exit as national selector seem-ingly bolstering his chances.

Woakes will certainly be keen to impress as he has not played for England in any format since September, a combination of Covid-19 restrictions and team management’s controversial rest and rotation policy keeping him on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, Woakes’s fellow World Cup-winners Ben Stokes (broken fi nger) and Jofra Arch-er (elbow) remain unavailable through injury, with Reece Top-

ley’s side strain leading to a recall for his fellow left-arm paceman David Willey .The Sri Lanka se-ries starts in Cardiff on June 23.

England squad: Eoin

Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos But-tler (wkt), Sam Curran, Tom Cur-ran, Liam Dawson, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

England v Sri Lanka T20 fixtures: Jun 23: 1st T20, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff (1730 GMT); Jun 24: 2nd T20, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff (1730 GMT); Jun 26: 3rd T20, Ageas Bowl, Southampton (1330 GMT)

FOCUS

SCOREBOARDENGLAND I INNINGS 303

NEW ZEALAND I INNINGS (OVERNIGHT: 229-3)

T. Latham lbw b Broad 6

D. Conway c Crawley b Broad 80

W. Young c Pope b Lawrence 82

R. Taylor c Bracey b Stone 80

H. Nicholls c Bracey b Wood 21

T. Blundell c Root b Broad 34

D. Mitchell c Crawley b Stone 6

N. Wagner b Anderson 0

M. Henry lbw b Wood 12

A. Patel lbw b Broad 20

T. Boult not out 12

Extras (b13, lb21, nb1) 35

Total (all out, 119.1 over) 388

Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Latham), 2-137 (Conway), 3-229 (Young), 4-292 (Tay-lor), 5-312 (Nicholls), 6-335 (Mitchell), 7-336 (Wagner), 8-353 (Henry), 9-361 (Blundell), 10-388 (Patel)

Bowling: Anderson 29-9-68-1; Broad 23.1-8-48-4 (1nb); Wood 25-3-85-2; Stone 24-5-92-2; Root 15-3-45-0; Lawrence 3-0-16-1

ENGLAND 2ND INNINGS

R. Burns c Latham b Henry 0

D. Sibley c Mitchell b Henry 8

Z. Crawley lbw b Henry 17

J. Root c Blundell b Patel 11

O. Pope lbw b Wagner 23

D. Lawrence c Blundell b Wagner 0

J. Bracey b Patel 8

O. Stone not out 15

M. Wood c Blundell b Wagner 29

S. Broad b Boult 1

J. Anderson not out 0

Extras (b5, lb4, nb1) 10

Total (9 wkts, 41 overs) 122

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Burns), 2-17 (Sibley), 3-30 (Crawley), 4-58 (Pope), 5-58 (Lawrence), 6-71 (Bracey), 7-76 (Root), 8-120 (Mark Wood), 9-121 (Broad)

Bowling: Henry 12-2-36-3; Boult 10-2-34-1; Wagner 10-1-18-3 (1nb); Patel 9-4-25-2;

Match position: England lead by 37 runs with one wicket standing

New Zealand’s Matt Henry (left) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of England’s Dom Sibley during the Second Test at the Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham, Britain, yesterday. (Reuters)

SCOREBOARDWEST INDIES 1ST INNINGS 97

SOUTH AFRICA 1ST INNINGS 322

WEST INDIES 2ND INNINGS OVERNIGHT 82-4

K. Brathwaite lbw Rabada 7

K. Powell lbw Rabada 14

S. Hope c Mulder b Nortje 12

R. Chase b Maharaj 62

K. Mayers c Mulder b Nortje 12

J. Blackwood c van der Dussen b Rabada 13

J. Holder b Maharaj 4

J. da Silva b Rabada 9

R. Cornwall c van der Dussen b Rabada 0

K. Roach not out 13

J. Seales c Mulder b Nortje 3

Extras (b-8, lb-2, nb-2, w-1) 13

Total (64 overs, all out) 162

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Brathwaite), 2-25 (Powell), 3-37 (Hope), 4-51 (Mayers), 5-97 (Blackwood), 6-125 (Holder), 7-140 (Chase), 8-141 (Cornwall), 9-146 (da Silva), 10-162 (Seales)

Bowling: K. Rabada 20-9-34-5 (1nb), L. Ngidi 13-3-31-0, A. Nortje 14-5-46-3, W. Mulder 6-1-18-0 (1nb, 1w), K. Maharaj 11-5-23-2

Note: Kieran Powell was introduced as a concussion substitute for Nkrumah Bon-ner in the West Indies team on the first afternoon

Kagiso Rabada (left) of South Africa celebrates after dismissing Joshua de Silva of West Indies during the first Test in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia, yesterday. (AFP)

David Miller (left) and Kamran Akmal starred with the bat as Peshawar Zalmi beat Quetta Gladiators by 61 runs in the Pakistan Super League in Abu Dhabi yesterday. Miller (73) and Akmal (59) put on 125 runs for the third wicket as Zalmi made 197 for 5 in 20 overs. In reply, Gladiators could only manage 136/9. Mohammad Irfan took three wickets, while Wahab Riaz and Umaid Asif picked two wickets each.

ZALMI BEAT GLADIATORS IN PSL

Sunday, June 13, 2021

GULF TIMES FOOTBALL

Finland beat Denmark aft er Eriksen collapse drama

EURO 2020

AFPBaku

Wales coach Robert Page praised Kief-fer Moore after the towering striker

claimed a point for Wales in a 1-1 draw with Switzerland in Baku yesterday to start both teams’ Euro 2020 campaigns. Moore responded to Breel Embolo’s sec-ond-half opener with a quarter of an hour remaining.

Both sides trail Group A lead-ers Italy, who beat Turkey 3-0 in Friday’s tournament curtain-raiser. “I thought his link-up play was excellent, he’s not just a presence up top,” Page said. “He’s got a good touch for a big lad and he’s a willing runner. When you have all those attributes it can be a recipe for success. The group does look wide open apart from Italy as I sit here. We thought Italy would be good, they didn’t let us down last night.”

Switzerland boss Vladimir Petkovic said his outfi t dropped their quality after Embolo’s ef-fort. “Our opponents risked more after it. We dropped 10% in standard,” Petkovic said. “We wanted to control the match too much. They were dangerous.”

Page named Gareth Bale on the left wing as the Real Madrid attacker was one of three Wales survivors in the starting line-up from the 2016 semi-fi nal loss to

Portugal. Petkovic kept Benfi ca’s Haris Seferovic and Borussia Moenchengladbach’s Embolo up front despite Mario Gavranovic scoring four times in two pre-tournament friendlies.

With Petkovic naming a nar-row back three, Bale and fellow winger Dan James found space out wide early on in front of an estimated 10,000 crowd as local authorities allowed up to 50-per-cent capacity in the 69,000-seat-er Olympic Stadium.

After a quarter of an hour played, James broke free down the left before fi nding 1.95 me-tre-tall Moore who forced oppo-sition goalkeeper Yann Sommer to tip the ball over the bar. From the resulting corner, Moore rose highest again and clashed in the air with Manuel Akanji, which left the Cardiff forward playing the remainder of the game with red tape around his head.

With Moore bandaged, the momentum swung towards Petk-ovic’s side and they dominated the remainder of the half but Seferovic wasted three chances. Petkovic’s Switzerland remained in control with captain Granit Xhaka, Liverpool’s Xherdan Sha-qiri and Atalanta’s Remo Freuler dominating midfi eld.

They broke the deadlock four minutes into the second half as Embolo sparked into life after a quiet opening 45 minutes. Sha-qiri delivered a corner to Embolo who headed home after beating

Wales right-back Connor Rob-erts with ease for just his sixth goal in 44 international appear-ances. Shaqiri, who played just 14 Premier League games for Liver-pool last season, was substituted on 66 minutes for the more de-fensive Denis Zakaria.

Despite Petkovic’s pragmat-ic change in personnel, Wales equalised with 16 minutes re-maining. Manchester United’s James played a corner short which ended up at Joe Morrell’s feet and he crossed into the box.

Moore lost his marker and headed a well-placed eff ort past the out-stretched Sommer to send the roughly 300 travelling Wales fans into a frenzy behind the opposite goal.

Seferovic was substituted for 31-year-old Gavranovic on 84 minutes and the Dinamo Zagreb forward thought he had claimed all three points for his side with his fi rst touch. After edging past the Wales backline he beat Ward but his eff ort was chalked off for off side by VAR.

Switzerland pressed on in fi ve minutes of injury time and Ga-vranovic was denied another po-tential winner, this time Ward saving with his fi nger tips. Ramsey left the fi eld for Ethan Ampadu during added time and Page’s men held on for a point. Wales stay in Baku for their next game when they face Turkey on Wednesday, with Switzerland taking on Italy in Rome later that day.

AFPCopenhagen

Finland beat Denmark 1-0 in their opening match of Euro 2020 which was overshadowed by Christian Eriksen collaps-

ing and having to be revived on the fi eld by medics. Joel Pohjanpalo scored the only goal on the hour mark of a Group B match which was stopped for nearly two hours after Danish playmaker Erik-sen slumped to the turf towards the end of the fi rst half.

There were fears for his life as he was given CPR by medics on the pitch as his teammates, some distraught, formed a circle around him. The sta-dium had fallen into a shocked silence as the medics worked but Eriksen was eventually carried off the fi eld at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen and a photo showed him apparently holding his head as he laid on the stretcher.

The Danish Football Union (DBU) said the Inter Milan player was awake and had been able to speak to team-mates. “We’ve been in contact with him, and the players have spoken to Christian,” DBU director Peter Moeller said. “That’s the great news. He’s doing fi ne, and they are playing the game for him.”

After Eriksen was carried off , a crisis meeting was held with both teams and match offi cials over whether to restart the game and the players resumed the game at 8:30 pm, fi nishing the fi nal minutes of the fi rst half.

The previously raucous crowd at the Parken Stadium in the Danish capital

fell silent in gut-wrenching scenes as the other Danish players, mainly clearly distraught, formed a circle of red shirts around him to stop anyone from seeing the on-pitch treatment. Many sup-porters were also in tears.

Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Sch-meichel and captain Simon Kjaer had

to comfort Eriksen’s stricken partner Sabrina Kvist Jensen by the side of the pitch. After around 15 minutes Eriksen was stretchered off the fi eld followed by the rest of the Denmark team, while Finland’s players also walked off .

The fans in the stadium, who were celebrating the chance to see their na-

tional team again live at the stadium, sat silently in their seats waiting for news of Eriksen’s condition.

The match, which had kicked off at 1800 local time (1600 GMT), resumed two-and-a-half hours later in front of a passionate crowd at the Parken Stadium. Chants of “Christian” and

“Eriksen” from both sets of supporters rang around the stadium as news of his status began to fi lter through to sup-porters. The two teams played out an uneventful fi nal few minutes of the fi rst half after both sets of players returned to the pitch with several Danish play-ers in tears. After a short break of fi ve minutes the second half of the match continued with a similar pattern as be-fore Eriksen’s collapse, with Denmark pressing Finland back but failing to fi nd a way past the opposition defence and Finnish ‘keeper Lukas Hradecky.

Pohjanpalo stunned the crowd into silence with when he headed home Jere Uronen’s cross, capitalising on Finland’s one true chance of the game.

Shorn of the creativity of their shin-ing light Eriksen, the Danes struggled even more to break down the tightly-organised Finns and looked as though they would need some good fortune to get something from the match.

They thought they had got it when Yussuf Poulsen was brought down in the area by Paulus Arajuuri in the 73rd minute, but Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s weak spot-kick was easily saved by Hradecky. The Danes piled on the pres-sure but apart from a few skirmishes in the box failed to cause their opponents much trouble and had to deal with de-feat which will likely seem unimpor-tant given what happened earlier in the evening.

The Danish Football Union said the Inter Milan player was awake and had been able to speak to teammates

Perfect start for Mancini’s Italy ‘Excellent’ Moore grabs point for Wales against Switzerland

FOCUS SPOTLIGHT

Qatar players arrived in Croatia yesterday for the training camp as they prepare for the Gold Cup, which will be staged in United States from July 9 to August 2. Asian champions Qatar will face Panama, Honduras and Grenada in the group stage. Qatar will be based in Houston, Texas. Head coach Felix Sanchez on Friday announced the list of players for the training camp, which will be held till July 5. Qatar Squad: Saad al-Sheeb, Meshaal Barsham, Pedro Miguel, Tariq Salman, Abdul Karim Hassan, Boualem Khoukhy, Hassan al-Haydos, Akram Afif, Youssef Abdul Razzaq, Ahmed Suhail, Musab al-Khadr, Mohamed, Hashim Ali, Bassam al-Rawi, Asim Madibo, Ali Karim Boudiaf, Ismail Mohamed, Mohamed Muntari, Abdullah Abdul Salam, Sultan Bareik, Ahmed Alaa El Din Hammam, Yusuf Hassan, Abdullah, Mahmoud Abu Nada, Jassim Jaber, Abdul Aziz Hatem, Abdul Rashid Oumarou and Khalid Munir.

Qatar squad reach Croatia for training camp

Wales’ midfielder Kieff er Moore (second right) heads the ball to score during the UEFA Euro 2020 Group A match against Switzerland at the Olympic Stadium in Baku yesterday. (AFP)

AFPRome

Italy capped a perfect night in the Sta-dio Olimpico with a Euro 2020 open-ing win over Turkey but coach Roberto Mancini warned that the road was long

between Rome and Wembley. A 28-match unbeaten run has put Mancini two games short of Italy’s two-time world Cup winning coach Vittorio Pozzo’s record of 30 unbeat-en games between 1935 and 1939.

“We still have six games ahead of us. It’s a long way,” said the 56-year-old former Manchester City manager who took over in 2018 after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup that year. Amid the euphoria veteran defender Leonardo Bonucci called for “cool heads, humility and a down to earth” approach while maintaining “hearts of fi re” in front of 16,000 fans, and preceded by a glittering opening ceremony, the spark was lit for a run which Mancini hopes will end with a second European title after 1968 in London on July 11.

Italy have the advantage of playing their Group A matches at home and next meet Switzerland in Rome on Wednesday fol-lowed by Wales four days later. For Lazio forward Ciro Immobile, the group games at

home are “pure adrenaline” as the 31-year-old scored his fi rst international goal in his club stadium.

Merih Demiral’s own goal got the ball roll-ing in the second half before Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne completed the victory. “We did what we had to do, it was our duty to win the fi rst game on front of our fans,” said Im-mobile, who has scored four goals in the last fi ve matches.

Mancini’s front-line trio of Immobile, Lorenzo Insigne and Domenico Berardi proved effi cient for an Italy who are without a stand-out star striker. Italy missed out on the 2018 World Cup, and the ‘Azzurri’ had not hosted an international match since the 1990 World Cup.

Tenor Andrea Bocelli’s rousing perform-

ance to ‘Nessun Dorma’, popularised dur-ing that world tournament, set the tone for the night. “There was an incredible emotion before the match, it was spine-chilling,” said Roma midfi elder Leonardo Spinazzola, UEFA’s man-of-the-match after his per-formance in his club stadium. “Then it was a perfect match, zero goals conceded and we played great football. We have a strong team, an incredible mix of strength and technique.”

Berardi had a role in all three goals against Turkey, and has scored fi ve goals in his last seven games for Italy. “Our secret is the group,” said Napoli’s Insigne. “No one’s place is guaranteed, those who play know what to do and we put ourselves at the serv-ice of each other.”

Veteran coach Claudio Ranieri praised Mancini’s style which has proved so suc-cessful in reviving the four-time world champions. “What lucidity Mancio has, he knows how to manage emotions,” Ranieri wrote in a column.

“The fi rst game is always the most dan-gerous, there is the pressure of the debut, the desire to overdo it can sometimes lead you to make mistakes, but Roberto Mancini was really good. He managed emotions, the tactical plan, the most delicate moments of the match with clarity.”

Denmark’s players react as paramedics attend to Christian Eriksen after he collapsed on the pitch during the UEFA Euro 2020 Group B football match between Denmark and Finland in Copenhagen yesterday. (AFP)

Finland’s forward Joel Pohjanpalo (left) scores against Denmark. (AFP)