14 CLASSIFIEDS SUNDAY 20 JUNE 2021 Sport SUNDAY 20 JUNE 2021 15 Kohli leads India revival before bad light intervenes in WTC final

REUTERS — SOUTHAMPTON lapse despite interruptions India’s and New because of bad light, which also Skipper Virat Kohli led India’s Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson walk forced an early tea break. revival and steered his team to off the pitch yesterday. Both teams stuck to their 146-3 against New Zealand strengths with India picking before bad light stopped play both their spinners -- Ravi- in the weather-marred World chandran Ashwin and Ravindra Test Championship (WTC) final Jadeja -- and New Zealand on yesterday. opting for an all-seam attack. Kohli had raised 58 runs Only 64.4 overs have been Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (right) and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton with Ajinkya Rahane when the played in the first two days of shake hands after the qualifying yesterday. players were forced off amid the weather-hit contest which fading light at the Ageas Bowl has a reserve day to make up with only 9.1 overs played in the for lost time. F1: Verstappen beats final session. The one-off match marks The India , like the culmination of a two-year several of his team mates, stood cycle of the inaugural WTC, Hamilton to clinch outside the crease to try to launched in 2019 to create a negate any swing and played pinnacle event for Test the moving ball quite late for . French GP pole his unbeaten 44. Rahane, batting on 29, SCOREBOARD REUTERS — PARIS qualifying session for the two looked cagey initially but India 1st Innings races the circuit has hosted gamely hung on to feature in R. Sharma c Southee b Jamieson ...... 34 Formula One championship since joining the calendar in India’s second 50-plus S. Gill c Watling b Wagner ...... 28 leader Max Verstappen put on 2018, with Hamilton winning C. Pujara lbw b Boult ...... 8 partnership. V. Kohli ...... 44 a blinding display in yesterday’s both from pole. After persistent rain washed A. Rahane not out ...... 29 qualifying to seize pole position Nevertheless, it marked a out the entire opening day on Extras (lb2, nb1) ...... 3 for the French Grand Prix welcome return to form for Friday, New Zealand skipper Total (3 wkts, 64.4 overs, 283 mins) ..146 ahead of title rival Lewis Mercedes after two poor Kane Williamson unsurpris- with a that swung late. Cheteshwar Pujara took 36 To bat: R Pant, R Jadeja, R Ashwin, J Bumrah, I Shar- Hamilton. weekends in Monaco and Baku ingly elected to field after Rohit, having made a fluent balls to get off the mark and, ma, M Shami The 23-year-old lapped the and early struggles at Paul Fall of : 1-62 (Rohit), 2-63 (Gill), 3-88 (Pu- winning the toss. 34, left his bat hanging and Tim like Gill earlier in the match, jara) 5.8-kilometer long Paul Ricard Ricard this weekend. Under an overcast sky, India Southee dived to his right to was smacked on the helmet grill : Southee 17-4-47-0; Boult 12.4-2-32-1; circuit in one minute 29.990 Saturday’s qualifying scored 69 runs but lost both pouch the outside edge at third by a rising delivery which sent Jamieson 14-9-14-1; De Grandhomme 11-6-23-0; seconds in his Red Bull, 0.258 session was interrupted by two their set openers in an evenly slip. his neck guard flying. Wagner 10-3-28-1 (1nb) seconds clear of Mercedes’ red flags. Japanese rookie Yuki balanced morning session. Neil Wagner was intro- Pujara made eight before New Zealand: Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Kane Hamilton, who trails Ver- Tsunoda caused the first Rohit Sharma and Shubman duced late in the session and the Boult swung one back in to trap Williamson (capt), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ stappen by four points in the stoppage just three minutes Gill raised 62 runs for the left-arm quick struck with his him lbw. Watling (wkt), Colin de Grandhomme, Kyle Jamieson, overall standings and will line into the hour-long session Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult opening partnership before third delivery, dismissing Gill Kohli and Rahane did not Toss: New Zealand up alongside him on the front when he lost control of his Kyle Jamieson separated them caught behind for 28. allow their concentration to row. AlphaTauri at the first corner Valtteri Bottas in the other and ended up in the barriers. Mercedes was third while Mick Schumacher brought Sergio Perez, winner two the red flags out for a second PSL: Kings claim win over Gladiators South Africa all out weeks ago in Baku, was fourth time in the dying seconds of the for Red Bull. opening phase of qualifying, Verstappen’s yesterday when the German spun off into for 298 against WI display, which made him the the barriers. only driver to lap below the one The 22-year-old Haas AP — GROS ISLET, ST. LUCIA minute, 30 second mark, driver, who was 14th when he earned the Dutchman his crashed, nevertheless pro- Quinton de Kock missed out on a second successive century second pole of the season and gressed out of qualifying’s and was out for 96 to drag South Africa to 298 all out in its fifth of his career. opening knockout phase for the first innings against the West Indies on the second day of It also ended Mercedes’ run first time in his career, even if the second Test yesterday. of practice and qualifying dom- he couldn’t take part in the De Kock’s edge off the bowling of Kyle Mayers flicked inance at the Paul Ricard track. remainder of the session. the gloves of wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva standing up and The reigning champions He will line up a career- looped to Shai Hope in the slips for a simple catch. had led every practice and best 15th today. That denied de Kock another ton after his 141 not out in the first Test set up South Africa’s innings win and 1-0 lead in the two-match series. That was de Kock’s first Test since giving up the captaincy. Ahmed Elkhoully storms to another Medium pacer Mayers took 3-28 and Kemar Roach 3-45 victory, bags QDMC crown as West Indies kept on top of South Africa, with the exception of de Kock. South Africa started the day on 218-5 after a delay in the morning because of a wet outfield in St. Lucia. De Kock hit eight fours to once again be the rock of the South Africa innings. Kagiso Rabada cracked 21 from 23 balls at the end to see South Africa to the brink of 300. Chess: Carlsen among stars to feature in Katara event

THE PENINSULA — DOHA Ahmed Elkhoully on the podium after winning the sixth and final round of the Qatar Digital Motorsports Championship (QDMC). Elkhoully Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway, a seven-time clocked a time of 22:03.475 against a field of 11 participants in the world chess champion, world online round contested at Interlagos (4.309km) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. rapid chess champion, and Elkhoully’s win yesterday was his fourth consecutive in the six-round world blitz chess champion, championship. Qatar’s Khalid Al Maraghi finished second in the sixth along with an array of grand- round (+3.086) while Mansour Dbeissy (Lebanon) clinched third masters from Russia, Belarus, spot (+9.021). Qatar’s Faesal Alyafei and Rashid Almannai finished Uzbekistan, Germany, Spain in fourth and fifth places respectively. Elkhoully wrapped up the and India among others will hugely popular series with a tally of 143 points while Al Maraghi be in action in the second (85 points) secured the second spot overall. Alyafei (69), Sheikh edition of the $12,800 Katara Soud Jassim Al Thani (62) and Khalid Al Abdulla (52) completed International Chess Tour- the top five. The series was hosted by QMMF. Omar Aswat served nament 2021 (Online Bullet as QDMC Observer while Timekeeping Officer was Aaron Limbago. Tournament) which will go Rami Azzam was the Race Director of the championship. into action in Doha today. A large number of entries have been and are still being received as players can reg- Handball: Al Duhail reach final ister till the last moment in the online tournament. The Qatar Chess Feder- ation (QCF) in cooperation with the Cultural Village Foun- dation – Katara will conduct the event till June 23. Commenting on the growing interest in the tour- nament worldwide, HE Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of the Cul- tural Village Foundation -- Katara, said: “The organisation of this tournament online emerged following the state’s precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the coro- navirus (COVID-19). We are confident that this edition too will see a world-class tour- Al Duhail players in action during the semi-final of Asian Club nament worthy of its success Handball Championship against Bahrain’s Al Najma in Jeddah, as in the last year,” he added. yesterday. Al Duhail sealed an emphatic 30-22 victory to sail On the opening day (inde- into the final. In other semi-final, Al Arabi lost to Al Kuwait SC pendent qualifying sessions will 22-23 in overtime. be held each lasting 90 minutes.