Sports Wednesday, July 3, 2019 15 Attiyah in search of first Silk Way Rally success

last season – the best ever fin- drivers Jérôme Pelichet and with the short opening stage Overdrive Racing ish on the event for a Toyota Matthieu Serradori. through the Russian ‘Taiga’ and Overdrive Racing - but Van Loon said: “Sebastien forest between Irkutsk and enters three have never won the Silk Way already has a lot of experience Baykalsk on July 7. The route Toyota Hiluxes Rally. Attiyah also finished in various cars and with dif- then heads towards the Mon- second overall back in 2010 ferent drivers. I hope we click golian wilderness with a sec- with German navigator Timo quickly in the car. It will take ond stage between Baykalsk TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK Gottschalk. some getting used to because, and Ulan Ude on July 8. DOHA The three-time winner after years with Dutch naviga- Crews then move on to- of the Dakar Rally in South tors, the official language will wards the Mongolian capi- OVERDRIVE Racing begins America has been in impres- now be English. tal of Ulan Bator on July 9 its quest to win the gruelling sive form so far this season “I am looking forward to and the route features a loop Silk Way Rally for the first and leads the FIA World Cup this rally. Every time before stage to the east of the city time with the event starting in for Cross-Country Rallies fol- it came into the schedule at on July 10. From there, crews the eastern Siberian city of Ir- lowing wins in Qatar and Ka- the wrong tone, always in the head through the Mongolian kutsk on Sunday (July 7). zakhstan. He faces 52 rivals middle of the summer vaca- steppes towards Mandalgovi The 5,000-km cross- in the car category in central tions for the children. Now on July 11 and on to Dalanzad- country rally offers 10 special Asia. Attiyah is running un- this rally takes a little less gad on July 12. stages and will pass through der the Toyota Gazoo Rac- time and is a fraction earlier, The rally caravan then some of the most demanding ing South Africa banner at so I can finally do it once. I takes a winding trail towards terrain that Russia, Mongolia the Silk Way Rally. He said: Qatar’s ace rallyist Nasser bin Saleh al Attiyah in action in his Toyota Hilux. hear from various drivers that China with a seventh stage and China have to offer be- “This is one event that I really the dunes in China are huge.” between Dalanzadgad and fore the finish in Dunhuang on want to win and, hopefully, all in 2016 and the winner of eighth overall in Kazakhstan Van Loon has worked The year’s Silk Way Rally Bayinbaolige in Inner Mon- Tuesday (July 16). this will be my year. I have the event in 2018 before join- earlier in the season. with Overdrive Racing for is being observed by the FIA golia on July 13 and a timed The Belgian team will taken part in six rallies so far ing Overdrive Racing. On that several seasons and will be for possible future inclusion in test to Alashan in northern run three Toyota Hiluxes for this season and won all six, occasion the Riyadh driver Experienced Dutch hoping that the new partner- the FIA World Cup for Cross- China on July 14. Qatar’s Nasser bin Saleh al including the win at Rally Ka- teamed up with German navi- The experienced Dutchman ship with Delaunay brings Country Rallies. The ninth edi- The penultimate section Attiyah, Saudi Arabia’s Ya- zakhstan at the start of June. gator Timo Gottschalk when Erik van Loon drives the third success against his two Over- tion of the event will start from crosses into Jiayuguan on July zeed al Rajhi and Dutchman This is a long and demanding the event started in Astrakhan Toyota Hilux and teams up drive team-mates and other Speransky Square in Irkutsk, 15 and the final competitive Erik van Loon. rally and the stages will be a and finished in Moscow. This with Frenchman Sebastien rivals, including American Siberia, on July 6 at 18.00hrs action takes teams to the fin- Attiyah and his French challenge for everyone.” year he is working with Dirk Delaunay, a veteran of nine Bryce Menzies, the Russian (local time). ish near the high dunes of the co-driver Matthieu Baumel Saudi Arabian driver Ya- von Zitzewitz with whom he Dakars and a podium finisher duo of Denis Krotov and An- Competitive action, to- Gobi Desert and the finish in finished second in the event zeed al Rajhi was second over- finished second in Qatar and in both the T2 and T3 classes. drey Rudskoy and French talling 2,593.15km, kicks off Dunhuang on July 16.

Cup Tales Gutsy Tijan lifts Qatar World Cup pitches tougher to Taylor pays no bat on second, says Morgan heed to critics of ‘world class’ CHESTER-LE-STREET: The pitches prepared for the Cricket World skipper Kane despite blow to head Cup do not last the full 100 overs and have not aided batsmen chasing a score in the second innings, England skipper Eoin Mor- DURHAM: New Zealand gan said on Tuesday. Many teams have found it difficult to chase skipper Kane Williamson is TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK big totals at the World Cup, with the pitch appearing to slow down a “world class” leader and DOHA Qatar’s Ahmed and the ball not coming on to the bat as quickly as in first innings. pundits should not brand him Tijan (right) India’s unbeaten run at the tournament came to an end after Eng- as timid or cautious after A concussion to Ahmed Tijan had nearly with teammate land beat them by 31 runs on Sunday, despite having five wickets the Kiwis lost their last two ended Qatar’s campaign in the ongoing Cherif Younousse in hand, with Indian batsmen blaming the slowness of the pitch matches at the Cricket World FIVB Beach Volleyball World Champion- during the World after they were unable to hit boundaries. “I think every wicket Cup, batsman Ross Taylor ships premature in Hamburg. But gutsy Beach Volleyball that we have played on so far has been tougher to bat on in the said on Tuesday. and tough as he is, the defender returned Championships second innings, regardless if we had won or not,” Morgan told New Zealand were firm to the Am Rothenbaum Stadium court on in Hamburg. reporters ahead of Wednesday’s match against New Zealand. favourites to become the first time and provided enough support to his “Even the games I have watched on TV, it’s been tougher (in the) team to seal a semi-final spot partner Cherif Younousse to see off the second innings... The wickets haven’t been as good as they have after winning five matches in challenge of Italians Adrian Carambula in the last four years.” a row but consecutive losses and Enrico Rossi in a three-sett thriller. to Pakistan and Australia have Both Younousse and Tijan went for left Williamson’s side in third a ball which was about to land between Avishka Fernando can be Sri Lanka’s place with one game to go. them. Younousse’s knee hit the head of ‘spark’, feels Jayawardene British media have picked on his teammate, resulting in medical atten- Williamson’s sedate captaincy tion for Tijan. However, when back on the LONDON: Former captain Ma- style which they said was court, he asked Younousse to help him in hela Jayawardene says Avishka in stark contrast to former the defence. They took some time before Fernando can be the “spark” captain Brendon McCullum’s Tijan’s mind began working again and the to reignite Sri Lanka after the gung-ho approach but Taylor Qatari progressed to post a superb come- match could have gone either way,” said sence. “We were aware that our opponents 21-year-old hit his maiden one- said he was not concerned by back victory. Tijan. are not in good shape, though their rank- day international ton against the the reaction from pundits. That exciting 56-minute opening Pool Talking about the second match ing is high. So we just played tough and West Indies. Fernando’s century “I think Kane is a fantastic D match triumph in fact set the ball rolling against Czechs Ondrej Perusic and David ensured our win to finish on the top of the on Monday helped secure Sri world class batsman and a for the fourth seeds Younousse and Tijan, Schweiner, Tijan said: “The rivals in the pool.” Lanka’s third win of the tourna- world class captain,” he told who won the remaining two games and second match were quite thrilled to face us Having cleared the first hurdle, the ment but it was too little too late reporters ahead of Wednes- finished on the top. By the end of Mon- and they posted comments and pictures Qatari team is upbeat and Ahmed says for the Asian side, who cannot day’s match against England. day’s action, teams from Qatar and Russia about it on Instagram as well. We did not he and Cherif are committed to pushing qualify for the semi-finals. “It has Sri Lanka’s Avishka Fernando “You don’t have to look far, (third seeds Viacheslav Krasilnikov and expect them to be so aggressive and play at the barrier higher. “We’re happy to have been a tough couple of years for celebrates his century against the last couple of matches. Oleg Stoyanovskiy) were the only ones to such a high level. qualified for the next stage after being on Sri Lanka but we have learned our the West Indies. (REUTERS) “There’s some pundits out win their respective pools. “They really surprised us with their the top of the group. We’re waiting for the lessons,” Jayawardene wrote in a there saying he was a great Tijan revealed on the rest day on Tues- approach. They won the first set but we draw to learn about the first opponents. column for the International Cricket Council (ICC). “It is important captain. We lose a couple of day that he was feeling quite groggy after again stage a bold recovery and forced the The going has been good so far. Every- that we plan around a group of players who will be there for the next games and he is a bad cap- the hard knock in the head. After resuming tie-break set. They were against ahead to- thing is fine and we want continue the mo- four years and I think Avishka has shown he has to be a big part tain. He is still a great captain, the action, though he was not able to focus wards the closing stages but we rallied and mentum. We’re enjoying the world cham- of that.” “He will take a lot of confidence from this and he has now leads from the front and the fully, he just managed to hang on and it was caught them at 14 to force extra points. pionships and will keep our high-level of proven to himself that he can go on and do it on the international team respect him and I love Younousse’s brilliant support that enabled Here, we used our experience and won the beach volleyball as we’re aiming a podium stage,” added Jayawardene. “I thought he might start the tourna- playing under him. Taylor said them to finish the day on the top. third set for our second win in the pool,” finish in Hamburg.” ment but the selectors understandably went with experience. But as he expected a high-scoring “After we won, we were really sur- Tijan recalled. Qatar’s second pair of Tamer Abdelra- this tournament has progressed, it’s been clear we have needed a match at The Riverside Ground prised how we pulled it off. I just carried Tijan said he knew that Dried soul and Assam Mahmoud lost their third spark. And there it is.” Fernando was only drafted into the side for after Sri Lanka beat West on with my 50 percent of abilities. Cherif Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle won’t be Pool E match to Americans Billy Allen Sri Lanka’s sixth match. He impressed in making 49 in a shock win Indies by 23 runs at the same was a huge help and he withdrew a bit to a big problem in the third match. His rea- and Stafford Slick United 13-21, 11-21 and over England and was Sri Lanka’s joint top scorer with 30 in a disap- venue on Monday, with both help me defend the balls. In the end, it son was the Belgians had recently come bowed out of the world championship, fin- pointing nine-wicket thrashing by South Africa. (AGENCIES) teams scoring 300-plus runs. was really a big relief to have won. Or the back on the Tour due to injury-forced ab- ishing fourth and last. England, New Zealand keen to keep date with destiny recalled paceman Liam Plun- Henry at the expense of spin- League stage World Cup match kett (3-55) once again taking ner Ish Sodhi, given the River- wickets through the middle side is not renowned for turn- is a virtual quarter-final clash overs. ing pitches. “Winning a game like this, But while several England AFP And, with both Asian teams under the pressure we were un- batsmen have made hundreds CHESTER-LE-STREET (UK) well behind on net run-rate, it der, can only stand us in good at the World Cup, New Zealand would take a big New Zealand stead, potentially for the New appear dangerously over-reli- ENGLAND and New Zealand loss allied to a commanding Zealand game and hopefully ant on captain Kane William- head into their final World Pakistan victory or two Bang- after that,” said Woakes. son and fellow senior batsman Cup group match on Wednes- ladesh wins by big margins, to “You don’t actually play Ross Taylor for runs. day, each knowing that a win deny the 2015 losing finalists a much knockout cricket, so to Colin Munro was dropped would see them into the semi- place in the last four. put ourselves in the heat of the for the Australia game, while finals. But right now, England and battle -- obviously we’d rather fellow opener Martin Guptill Even a defeat would not New Zealand’s World Cup des- have qualified by now -- could has managed just 85 runs from spell the end of either team’s tiny is in their own hands. potentially help us.” six innings since his 73 not out chances of emerging as one of England travel to the By contrast, New Zealand against Sri Lanka. the top four from the 10-team northeast buoyed by a 31-run head into the match following Wicketkeeper-batsman round-robin phase. win over an India side that successive losses to Pakistan Tom Latham is averaging just Were England to lose in were previously unbeaten. and Australia that have put a 8.2 at this tournament. Chester-le-Street, Pakistan Sunday’s success against taken the gloss off a promising “We’re still in charge of our could leapfrog them into the India, the team that recently campaign. destination and where we’re top four with victory over replaced England at the top England’s Ben Stokes (centre) stretches during a training session at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le- An attack led by left-arm heading, and that’s always a Bangladesh. of the one-day international Street on Tuesday, ahead of their 2019 Cricket World Cup group stage match against New Zealand. (AFP) quick Trent Boult, who took nice thing to have,” said Craig Given that they play each rankings, came after back-to- a hat-trick hero against Aus- McMillan, New Zealand’s bat- other in their final pool match, back defeats by Sri Lanka and England, other than the result, Jonny Bairstow (111) and cessive fifty, to boost the total tralia, and featuring the ex- ting coach. only one of Bangladesh -- who reigning champions Australia was that the defeat of India was Jason Roy, who made 66 fol- to 337-7. press pace of Lockie Ferguson “Obviously (Guptill and also still have to face India -- or had led many pundits to ques- built on many of the factors lowing his return from a ham- England, bidding to win is a testing proposition for any Latham) are short on runs but Pakistan can draw level with tion their tournament nerve that have been key to their ODI string injury, put on 160 for the their first World Cup, then kept side. we’re excited by the fact that we New Zealand in the event the and nous. revival since a first-round exit first wicket before the in-form things tight in the field, with New Zealand could now re- haven’t quite clicked as a bat- Black Caps lose on Wednesday. But the pleasing aspect for at the 2015 World Cup. Ben Stokes hit 79, his third suc- Chris Woakes impressive and call another paceman in Matt ting group yet.”