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GUYANA CHRONICLE Saturday, May 20, 2017
Karn, Bumrah carry Mumbai into fourth IPL final THE 2017 IPL final will be a repeat of Tuesday’s first qualifier, with Mumbai Indians facing Rising Pune Supergiant. Mumbai Indians made the most of a second chance to reach the Indian Premier League final, beating Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in yesterday’s qualifier in Bangalore. The table-toppers at the end of the regular season, Mumbai, lost on home soil to Rising Pune Supergiant in Tuesday’s opening play-off fixture. However, Rohit Sharma’s side will now get another crack at the Supergiant in Hyderabad
Jasprit Bumrah finished with figures of 3-1-7-3, the best of his T20 career (BCCI)
on Sunday, thanks largely to Karn Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah, who were chiefly responsible for limiting Kolkata to a paltry total of 107. Spinner Karn returned 4-16 from four overs, while Bumrah claimed 3-7 from three as the Knight Riders failed to build any momentum. Ishank Jaggi (28) and Suryakumar Yadav (31) were the only batsmen to make any impact, their sixth-wicket stand of 56 at least giving Kolkata something to defend. Yet it was no surprise to see Mumbai reach their target with relative ease, in the 15th
Thiem ends Nadal’s unbeaten run on clay
(REUTERS) Austria’s Dominic Thiem dumped seven-time champion Rafael Nadal out of the Italian Open 6-4, 6-3 yesterday to reach the semi-finals. Beaten twice by Nadal in the space of a month, in the Barcelona and Madrid Open finals, Thiem took his revenge by handing the 30-year-old Spaniard a first clay-court defeat of the season in Rome. The upset, after one hour 51 minutes, ended Nadal’s 17-match unbeaten run on clay. Thiem will now take on either world number two Novak Djokovic or Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, meeting for the 18th time yesterday evening, in today’s semi-final at the Foro Italico. The aggressive eighth
Dominic Thiem
seed had Nadal rattled from the start and broke the Spaniard in the first and fifth games to go 5-1 up before Nadal fought back to 5-4. Thiem then broke for a 4-3 lead in the second set
with successive backhand and forehand winners and held on to leave Nadal serving in vain to stay in the match. The Austrian clinched victory on his first matchpoint as Nadal hit wide. The Spaniard will now
focus on the French Open, where he will be aiming for a 10th title at Roland Garros. Rising German star Alexander Zverev earlier reached the semi-final with a 7-6(4) 6-1 defeat of world number six Milos Raonic. Zverev, 20, will face John Isner for a place in the final after the American beat Croatian Marin Cilic 7-6(3), 2-6, 7-6(2). “It’s another stepping stone in my career,” Zverev told the ATP’s website. “I feel like I have played very well today. I returned very well. “So I’m happy to be in the semis and playing John tomorrow, whom I know very well from our Saddlebrook (Florida) days. It’s going to be a great match.”
Law continues to see progress, readies for England WEST Indies coach, Australian Stuart Law, while not pleased with losing 2-1 in a home series to Pakistan, has seen enough improvements in his young charges to be hopeful about the prospects of facing England next month.
Stuart Law
“We can continue to work hard. When we get to England, we’ve got a pretty extensive preparation period before the first Test,” said
Law, pointing out that preparing properly was key to performing well against the number four Test side in the World. According to Law, while hard work doesn’t guarantee victories, it certainly makes it more likely. “It’s not going to guarantee us victories but it will certainly give us an idea of what we’re faced with. England are a wonderful team but we’re going there not just to compete but we’re going there to hopefully upset them,” he said. Law’s hopes for the Test series which begins in Egbaston on August 17, is quite lofty, bearing in mind that the West Indies have gone without a win in England for 17 years. In 13 encounters in England, the West Indies have only managed a draw twice, with all others ending in defeat. The second Test in the
series begins on August 25 at Headingley, with the
South Africa Racing Tips Scottsville 08:25 hrs Big Blue Sea 09:00 hrs New Fort 09:30 hrs Last Winter 10:05 hrs Dark Moon Rising 10:40 hrs Blazing Winter Turffontein 08:42 hrs Musette 09:12 hrs Romany Prince 09:45 hrs Simply Royal 10:20 hrs She’s Dragon 10:55 hrs Paree English Racing Tips Thirsk 08:40 hrs Ajwan 09:10 hrs Lucky Beggar 09:45 hrs Run To The Hills 10:20 hrs Edward Lewis 10:55 hrs Zylan 11:30 hrs Key Bid 12:05 hrs Ottonian 12:40 hrs Llewellyn Newbury 08:50 hrs My Dream Boat 09:20 hrs Barrington 09:55 hrs Defoe 10:30 hrs Somehow 11:05 hrs Kit Marlowe 11:40 hrs Gracious Diana 12:10 hrs El Hayem
third Test set for September 7 at Lord’s. (Sportsmax) Newmarket 09:05 hrs Call To Mind 09:40 hrs Larchmont Lad 10:15 hrs Ekhtiyaar 10:50 hrs Di Fede 11:25 hrs Ballymore Castle 12:00 hrs Star Rock 12:35 hrs Justice Lady Irish Racing Tips Navan 09:25 hrs Caesar’s Comet 10:00 hrs Guessthebill 10:35 hrs Miss Power 11:10 hrs Finn Mc Cool 11:45 hrs Clongowes 12:15 hrs Less Of That 12:45 hrs Flirt American Racing Tips Pimlico Race 5 Everything Lovely Race 6 Barney Rebel Race 7 Recruiting Ready Race 8 Dover Cliffs Race 9 A. P. Indian Race10 On Leave Race11 Hedge Fund Race12 Projected Race13 THE PREAKNESS STAKES 1 Looking At Lee 2 Always Dreaming 3 Classic Empire
over, Krunal Pandya (45 not out) and skipper Rohit (26) having done the bulk of the work. KKR initially slumped to 31-5, Karn doing much of the damage as he followed up by dismissing Sunil Narine in his first over and ousting Gautam Gambhir and Colin de Grandhomme with successive balls during his next set of six. Jaggi and Suryakumar provided a glimmer of hope for their team, but another collapse was triggered when the former holed out to long-on off Karn in the 15th over. A mighty pulled six from Nathan Coulter-Nile off Mitch-
ell Johnson took the score into three figures amid the flurry of wickets - the maximum proving nothing more than minor irritation for the bowler, who gained his revenge two deliveries later. Mumbai’s initial progress in reply was uncertain, Piyush Chawla trapping Lendl Simmons lbw and bowling Ambati Rayudu inside the first six overs, either side of Parthiv Patel edging Umesh Yadav behind. Rohit and Krunal responded superbly, though, and the result was inevitable from the moment Chawla was taken for 16 in the 11th over. (Sportsmax)
Sharapova to enter Wimbledon qualifying
Maria Sharapova
AFTER being denied a French Open wildcard, Maria Sharapova has chosen to enter qualifying for Wimbledon. Maria Sharapova has announced she will not seek a wild card entry to the main Wimbledon draw but intends to try and progress through qualifying for the grand slam event. The Russian returned to competitive action in April after serving a 15-month ban for failing a drugs test at the 2016 Australian Open. A five-time slam winner, the 30-year-old was denied a wildcard entry to next month’s French Open but will not be relying on that route to try and claim a berth at the All England Club in July. “Because of my improved ranking after the
first three tournaments of my return, I will be playing the qualifying of Wimbledon in Roehampton, and will not be requesting a wild card into the main draw,” Sharapova, who withdrew from this week’s Italian Open with a thigh injury, wrote on her website. “I have already started getting treatment on the injury I sustained a few days ago in Rome, and will begin my preparation as soon I get better.” Sharapova won her first grand slam singles title at Wimbledon in 2004, surprising Serena Williams in the final. After her French Open snub, Sharapova was granted a wildcard to compete in the AEGON Classic in Birmingham next month. (Sportsmax)
CRICKET QUIZ CORNER (SATURDAY MAY 20, 2017) COMPLIMENTS OF THE TROPHY STALL-Bourda Market & The City Mall (Tel: 225-9230) & CUMMINGS ELECTRICAL COMPANY LTD-83 Garnett Street, Campbellville, Georgetown (Tel: 225-6158) Answers to yesterday’s quiz: Kirk Edwards-110 (WI vs IND, 2011) Ben Cutting (SH vs RCB, April 05, 2017) Today’s Quiz: Which team topped the table at the end of the preliminary round of matches in IPL 2017? Which team ended at the bottom of the points table? ANSWERS IN TOMORROW’S ISSUE