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SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2016
SPORTS OMAN EDGE QATAR IN U-23 GCC CUP FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP Oman defeated hosts Qatar by a solitary goal to record their second successive victory in the Under-23 GCC Cup football championship in the Qatari capital of Doha on Friday. Ayman Ibrahim Al Haikal scored the all-important goal for the Sultanate squad in the 68th minute. Earlier in the evening, Saudi Arabia defeated the UAE by a similar 1-0 margin. Oman, who opened their campaign with a 3-1 win over Bahrain on Wednesday, are now on the top of the table with six points from two games. The Sultanate squad will next play Saudi Arabia on Monday and then take on the UAE on Wednesday.
INDIAN CRICKET
Pink ball test: Jury still out on sighting, no reverse or turn
India, West Indies T20 stars look to rock US The two T20 Internationals against West Indies will be the first instance of India being involved in a competitive match in the US
FORT LAUDERDALE: Cricket will seek to reach out to the untapped American market when the sport’s most followed practitioners, India, lock horns with the West Indies in their maiden international game in the US here on Saturday. The two Twenty20 Internationals over the weekend will be the first instance of India being involved in a competitive match in the U.S. Days after India cruised to victory in the four-match Test series for their third successive triumph on the Caribbean soil, the team’s seasoned campaigner Mahendra Singh Dho-
NEW MARKET: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, left, vicecaptain Virat Kohli, right, and coach Anil Kumble chat during the team’s training session at Fort Lauderdale in Florida on Friday. – PTI
ni will return to lead the side in the two limited overs games at the Central Broward Regional Park, the only purpose-built cricket stadium in the US. It is the only ICC certified ODI standard stadium facility in the USA and hosted six Caribbean Premier League matches last month.
The 14-member Indian team will see the return of as many as 11 regular players who were rested from the tour to Zimbabwe in May earlier this year. Dhoni, who retired from the longest format of the game in December 2014, is scheduled to play just seven more matches in 2016 --
two T20Is against the West Indies in USA and 5 ODIs against New Zealand in India. Dhoni’s last assignment was against Zimbabwe where he led a young Indian team, sans the stars, to victory in both the ODIs and T20I series in Harare in June. The two-match series is going to be the first of what will develop into an annual event in the USA as part of efforts to reach out to new markets and audiences. Even though India won the Test series 2-0, players from the Test squad are coming with hardly any recent match practice because of the rain-affected fourth Test in Port-of-Spain where the last four days didn’t see any play. Indian coach Anil Kumble was, however, still optimistic about a good performance in what will be his first assignment with Dhoni. “This is the first time that I’ll be working with MS, obviously we have played together over a long period of time and we had a chat on Thursday and on Friday as well,” Kumble said. “I’m really looking forward to working with him and the new set of boys like (Jasprit) Bumrah who’s joined as well. I’ve worked with him in the IPL so it’s nice to be a part of the India dressing room again,” he added. - PTI
GREATER NOIDA: Yuvraj Singh felt “it moved a bit more than SG Test” while Robin Uthappa’s observations varied from “colour change” to “lack of reverse swing” as the first set of inputs on Indian cricket board’s much talked about ‘Pink ball’ day-night experiment came to the fore. While there is no denying that day-night cricket always brings in more people as one saw at least 800 to 1,000 spectators during peak evening hours on all three days of the inaugural Duleep Trophy match, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will still need to figure out a few things before they seriously think of pursuing the idea of a Test match. For starters, there has been varied opinions on whether an individual batsman has been able to sight the pink kookaburra ball well or not but everyone agreed that not much effort was required to “maintain the ball” unlike the conventional red kookaburra, SG Test or Dukes. While Yuvraj did not have a great time with the willow but his input will be the most valuable one for the BCCI. “I thought the pink ball moved a bit more than the SG ball. It was pretty exciting, the pink ball doesn’t go old. It was coming onto the bat nicely,” the India Red skipper and a World Cup winner said after the match. Veteran glovesman Parthiv Patel sees future in Pink ball Test but he conceded that this ball skids a bit more. “I had no problem in sighting. During the day, I could see the ball better. Not used to getting the pink ball coming to you. It’s a matter of getting used to it but visibility was not a problem.” “As far as future is concerned, too early to say. Definitely there is a future. But dew could be a fac-
SWIMMING
CRICKET
Oman claim third place in GCC swimming championships FOOTBALL
Casillas out of Spain team BARCELONA: Spain coach Julen Lopetegui has left former captain and all-time record appearance maker Iker Casillas out of his first squad since taking charge of the national team. Former Spain Under-21 and Under-19 coach Lopetegui also omitted Pedro and Cesc Fabregas from the squad for Spain’s friendly against Belgium on September 1 and their first World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein four days later. Striker Diego Costa, midfielder Juan Mata and forward Paco Alcacer, all left out of the Euro 2016 squad, were recalled. “I have spoken to Iker, he is a huge player for the national team, he is a current Spain icon but in this case we’ve decided that from
now on David de Gea will be our No. 1 goalkeeper,” Lopetegui told reporters on Friday. “But that does not mean the door is closed to Iker and we will monitor his progress carefully. I felt I had to be sincere with him and he remains very close to us.” Pepe Reina and Adrian were the other two goalkeepers named in the squad. Costa was the most high profile omission from Vicente del Bosque’s squad for Euro 2016 but the Brazilian-born striker has made a strong start to the season, scoring winning goals for Chelsea in their opening two Premier League games. “Costa has had a great preseason and we think his presence will be positive,” Lopetegui added. - Reuters
MUSCAT: Oman finished third in the overall open category after clinching eight medals, including four gold, three silver and one bronze, in the 26th GCC Swimming Championships in the Saudi Arabian city of Dammam.
tor. The ball skid and moved more. Also I don’t think you can have Tests in sub-continent using this much of grass,” said Parthiv. However both Robin Uthappa and Parthiv feel that reverse swing will be difficult with pink ball as the shine and gloss of the ball doesn’t seem to wear out. “We tried hard but there was no reverse swing. There is conventional swing but the shine is maintained so well that there is no chance of reverse swing. I also found that colour varied at different times of the day. “At one point, it looked light pink, followed by orange at one point of time before it looked bright pink under lights. I think we will get used to it as much as we play,” said Uthappa. If one goes by Abhinav Mukund, who scored the maximum runs from either side, there were “initial difficulties during net sessions” but in the match he “did not have problems sighting the ball”. “I think a lot of people had issues sighting the ball, but I didn’t have any issues with visibility. The wicket was damp, that’s perhaps why so many wickets fell on the first day. But I feel the swing was a conventional one and not because of pink ball,” was the gist of what man-of-the-match Mukund said. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who got nine wickets in the match said: “Pink ball was dipping well and the drift was also good but there wasn’t much turn on offer as you don’t require to maintain the ball.” One of the centurions Sudip Chatterjee spoke about the dew factor. “On the third evening, the ball was getting heavier due to the dew so it was difficult for bowlers to grip the ball. But while batting, I did not face much problem and a good batting pitch also contributed to it,” he concluded. - PTI
The Omani swimmers earlier grabbed three medals on the third day of the competition, including one gold and two bronze. Oman’s gold came in the 50m freestyle competition where Khalfan Al Wahaibi clocked 30.06 sec-
onds to take the top honours. Ammar Al Wahaibi won the bronze in 30.39 seconds. The day’s second bronze for Oman came in the 200m backstroke competition with Shihab Aladdin clocking 2:35.53.
Pakistan play first day-night Test in Dubai KARACHI: Pakistan will play their first ever day-night Test match from October 13- to 17 in Dubai against West Indies, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced. Beginning on September 23, the teams will play three Twenty20 Internationals, three Oneday Internationals and as many Test matches in the United Arab Emirates. The Dubai Cricket Stadium will play host to the country’s first day-night game with the pink ball from October 13 as the International Cricket Council (ICC) fights to increase dwindling spectator count in the longest format of the game. Abu Dhabi will host the second Test from October 21 and the third and final Test will be played in Sharjah on October 30. Pakistan, currently the top ranked Test team, are scheduled to play another day-night Test against Australia in Brisbane from December 15. - Reuters