17 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2018 sports

Brave 17 bouts announced Wozniacki and Kerber for Pakistan TDT | Manama global mixed martial arts event introduced to Pakistan. rave Combat Federation The event will feature mul- stunned at Open Bannounced the main and tiple global athletes competing co-main event for Brave 17 in Pakistan for the very first AFP | Wuhan, China hosted on 27th October in Pa- time. The initiative will sup- kistan. port the growth of the sport orld number two Car- The main event will feature in Pakistan and will create an oline Wozniacki and a welterweight bout between opportunity to strengthen the WWimbledon cham- Rodrigo Cavalheiro from Bra- trade and cultural relationship pion were zil and Abdoul Abdouragui- between the nations. stunned at the mov from France. In the co- The poster launch for Brave in China on Wednesday, both main event, Jeremy Pacatiw 17 was held in the Kingdom of suffering shock defeats at the from Philippines will face Bahrain. The initiative bring hands of less fancied opponents. Uloomi Kareem from Pakistan. global attention towards the Olympic champion Monica The event will be held under developing mixed martial arts Puig gave herself an early birth- the patronage of His Highness scene in Pakistan. The event day present, beating Wozniacki Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al will be broadcasted live on Abu 7-6 (12-10), 7-5 to reach the Khalifa and marks the first Dhabi TV. quarter-finals. She was joined in the last eight by in-form , who upset world number three Kerber 7-5, 6-1. Rahim, Mithun lead The 51st-ranked Puig was more than a match for Austral- Bangladesh to 239 in ian Open champion Wozniacki, who missed an opportunity to narrow the gap at the top af - must-win Pakistan clash ter world number one Simo - AFP | Dubai minul Haque (five) to reduce na Halep was knocked out on them to 12-3. Monday. of Denmark hits a return against Monica Puig of Puerto Rico during their women’s singles third round xperienced batsman Junaid finished with 4-19 in Wozniacki made a solid start match of the WTA Wuhan Open tournament in Wuhan EMushfiqur Rahim missed his nine incisive overs. to the match, winning the first a century by one run while Rahim hit nine boundaries three games, but the Puerto Ri- WTA Finals, which she won last ranked player, quickly regained Mohammad Mithun notched before he was caught behind can Puig quickly fought her way year. control while Kerber struggled a half century to steer Bangla- with just one needed for a sec- back to win two gruelling sets, Six of eight places at the sea- to contain unforced errors. desh to 239 in their must-win ond hundred in the tourna- the first of which was decided son finale in Singapore next The Aussie wrapped up the game against Pakistan in the ment, following his 144 against through a tie-breaker. I feel like by far this month are still up for grabs match in just over 75 minutes, Asia Cup in Abu Dhabi yes - Sri Lanka in the first round. Puig, who turns 25 on Thurs- -- only Halep and Kerber have setting up a quarter-final against terday. It was sheer bad luck that he day, appeared unfazed by her was my best match. qualified so far. . Former Rahim fell in the 42nd over, caught opponent’s stature, and kept the I set myself that “I feel like by far this was my scored a 116-ball 99 and add- behind off paceman Sha - Dane under pressure through- goal at the start of Barty time! best match,” said Barty, who is ed an invaluable 144 for the heen Shah who finished with out. the year, that I want Germany’s Kerber was downed looking to end the 2018 season fourth with Mithun 2-47. Rahim became the first She will now face to stay top-20. I feel 7-5, 6-1 by Australia’s Ashleigh on a high. (60) to help Bangladesh recov- Bangladeshi batsman to be of China, who ousted Australia’s like I’m a top-20 Barty, last year’s runner-up in “I set myself that goal at the er from a shaky 12-3 after they dismissed for 99 in one-day 7-5, 6-2 to the player. Obviously I Wuhan. start of the year, that I want to won the toss and and opted to . delight of the home crowd. Barty came storming out of stay top-20. I feel like I’m a top- bat at Sheikh Zayed Stadium. Mithun, who added 134 with Wozniacki failed to capitalise would love to push the blocks, taking a 3-0 lead in 20 player. Obviously I would Left-arm paceman Junaid Rahim against Sri Lanka, hit on the early exits of other heav- towards the top 10 the first set before the German love to push towards the top 10,” Khan, who replaced Moham- four boundaries in his 84-ball yweights like Halep. ASHLEIGH BARTY offered some resistance to make she added. mad Amir in the squad, had innings. A successful run in Wuhan it 5-5. “It’s been a really exciting jolted Bangladesh at the start, Pakistan made 85 runs at would have helped her move But it was a short-lived fight- year and hopefully there is a dismissing (six), the loss of three in 20 closer to qualification for the back as Barty, Australia’s top- couple of big tournaments left.” (0) and Mo - overs at the time of closing.

Argentina and Great Britain Dhoni takes a dig at umpires picked as Davis Cup wild card Indian captain refuses to comment on umpiring howlers against Afghanistan

PTI |Dubai his words very carefully. this wicket. The first over that However, the stand-in captain a fast bowler bowls, they need don’t want to be fined,” was magnanimous in his praise to extract swing. We didn’t hit “Isaid Mahendra Singh Dho- for Afghanistan. the back of a length area, and ni as umpiring howlers became “Their (Afghanistan’s) cricket we gave away too much initially as much a talking point as Af- has improved a lot. The way with the ball.” ghanistan’s dogged resilience in they have continued from the He praised the Indian openers the exciting tie between the two start of the Asia Cup, it is com- KL Rahul and Ambati Rayudu sides in what was an inconse- mendable and we have enjoyed for providing a solid start. French (L) and Spanish tennis players pose for photographers behind the quential Asia Cup match. their cricket. It is one country “We got off to a very good Davis Cup Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik that has risen through the ranks start with the bat, but the wick- were given leg before by the on- very well,” Dhoni said. et slowed down over the course field umpires – Gregory Brath- Dhoni felt that Afghanistan of the game, so someone should AFP | Paris -- France, Croatia, Spain and waite of West Indies and Anisur excelled in all departments of have continued with the bat. the United States -- qualify Rahaman of Bangladesh – even Mahendra Singh Dhoni the game. Shot-selection is something that rgentina and Britain have directly. Twelve more places though TV replays clearly indi- “They batted extremely well we need to work on. It’s good Abeen awarded wild cards will be decided in qualifiers on cated that the ball was missing he was dragging it in. India were too. The wicket slowed down that it’s a tie, but they played into the 2019 Davis Cup, the Feb 1-2 next year. the stumps in both the cases. set a target of 253 and the match later, but they bowled extremely really well. first to be played under a rad- That left two spots for wild- Dhoni was dismissed by part- ended in a tie after the team was well throughout the game and “The Afghanistan guys played ically changed format, organ- cards selected by the organ- time off-spinner Javed Ahma- bowled out for 252. their fielding was tight too.” really well. 250 was a very good isers announced Wednesday. isers and they have chosen di and the seemed to “There were a couple of run- Dhoni was quick to point out score on this wicket. We could Under a format proposed by Argentina and Britain. have gone over stumps while outs, and a few things we can’t that India were not playing their have been on the losing side be- the Kosmos group, and adopt- The choice was made by a Karthik’s dismissal of Moham- talk about because I don’t want full-strength side also needed to cause of quite a few things that ed by the International Tennis committee of ITF president med Nabi was bigger blunder as to get fined for it,” Dhoni said at be factored in. didn’t go for us, so I’m happy Federation in August, the com- David Haggerty, one of his vice the ball missed the leg stump by the post-match presentation, his “I wouldn’t say we went with the result.” petition will bring together presidents Rene Stammbach, a couple of feet. irritation quote palpable. wrong in the chase. To start off, Centurion Mohammed 18 nations in one place for a former Spanish tennis play- Kedar Jadhav’s run-out was Any public criticism of umpir- it was like a handicap in golf. We Shahzad was, however, a bit de- week at the end of the tennis er Galo Blanco and Barcelona also a case of bad luck as his bat ing decisions invites sanctions didn’t go with a full-strength jected that Afghanistan couldn’t season. footballer Gerard Pique, who got stuck near the crease while from the ICC and Dhoni chose side. Not enough spinners on register a victory. The four 2018 semi-finalists is president of Kosmos.