WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2014 SPORTS

PORT ELIZABETH: West Indies’ at the during the fourth day of the second Test against South Africa on Monday. — AP Second Test drawn as wet outfield wins final day

PORT ELIZABETH: South Africa’s hopes of victo- post-match presentation. “The wicket was better yards. In this game he bowled exceptionally well ry on day five of the second test against West to bat on and with the time we lost in the match, again.” The touring side also have reasons to SCOREBOARD Indies were thwarted yesterday by heavy when we were we tried to make a game smile after gutsy, battling centuries from man of overnight rain and a wet outfield which prevent- of it.” the match Kraigg Brathwaite and Marlon Scoreboard at close of play on the fifth day in the second Test between South Africa ed any play. Both sides will take positives into Friday’s Samuels, who were superb against a barrage of and West Indies yesterday in Port Elizabeth, South Africa The top-ranked Proteas had hoped to wrap final test in Cape Town. There were welcome hostile fast bowling. “Marlon got a brilliant hun- South Africa 1st innings 417 for 8 decl (D. K. Peters run out (Steyn, de Villiers) 0 up the West Indian first innings with the tourists centuries for struggling Proteas opener Dean dred and young Kraigg as well, but we weren’t Elgar 121, F. du Plessis 103, D. Steyn 58). Extras (lb-4) 4 on 275 for nine before scoring quickly to set up Elgar and , and the manner in able to carry on from that start and our batting West Indies 1st innings (Overnight: 275-9) Total (for 9 , 79 overs) 275 a testing afternoon for the visitors to survive. which their bowling attack ran through the West faltered,” said, before K. Brathwaite c Petersen b M. Morkel 106 Fall of wickets: 1-55 De. Smith, 2-55 L. But the weather, which allowed for just 201 Indies middle and lower order to take seven adding that the dropped catches and missed De. Smith c Amla b M. Morkel 22 Johnson, 3-231 M. Samuels, 4-233 K. overs out of a scheduled 450 in the test, caused wickets for 44 runs was also a plus point. Morne stumping on day one were also a worry. L. Johnson c du Plessis b M. Morkel 0 Brathwaite, 5-260 D. Ramdin, 6-261 S. a disappointing end with West Indies still 142 Morkel was especially threatening and took four “We bowled in the right areas and created M. Samuels lbw b Philander 101 Chanderpaul, 7-265 J. Holder, 8-270 S. S. Chanderpaul b Tahir 7 Benn, 9-275 K. Peters. runs behind the hosts’ first-innings score of 417 for 69 to earn special praise from his captain. some chances, but in the fielding department Did not bat: S. Gabriel D. Ramdin lbw b Tahir 20 for eight declared. “To get 400 on the board was “Morne has been doing exceptionally well for us we need to do some work, we didn’t execute Bowling: D. Steyn 14-3-48-0, V. Philander a good effort. Losing as much time in the game for quite a while,” Amla said. well enough there.” South Africa lead the three- J. Holder c de Villiers b M. Morkel 1 18-4-41-1, M. Morkel 20-2-69-4, I. Tahir is disappointing, but that’s the way it goes,” “He doesn’t always get the accolades he match series after victory by an innings and 220 J. Taylor 10 26-2-108-3, D. Elgar 1-0-5-0. South Africa captain Hashim Amla said at the deserves, but he is the guy that puts in the hard runs in the first test in Pretoria. — Reuters S. Benn c Petersen b Tahir 4 Result: Draw Inoue KEA back to winning ways grabs KUWAIT: The 17th Prof. Ramachandran memo- charge of the middle overs. Ajin (44) was partic- provided KEA the breakthrough getting Sunil tory after a gap of 7 years was an indication of WBO belt rial tournament (sponsored by GTE ularly impressive making room and dispatching (20) smartly by Tibish in the 10th over the changing equations in the KEF cricketing Olayan Co and organized by College of the short balls in the arc between cover and with the score reading 48. Next man Shajeer circles. While KEA, TEC and AECK proved that Engineering Trivandrum Alumini Association) third man while Nithin (16) never missed an tried to increase the run rate with bold hits but they are the leading sides, TKM and NSS TOKYO: Japanese boxing wonder- came to a close on 26th Dec 2014 with the final opportunity to give the strike back to Ajin. when he and Ramesh (18) were out at the same showed they are not far behind. It was evident boy Naoya Inoue dethroned Omar between KEA and TEC, two of the best and When the 5th wicket pair added 57 runs in 7 score of 59 in the 12th over, the match took a that CET and NIT has a long way to go before Narvaez of Argentina with a sec- evenly matched teams in the competition. overs, the tide turned firmly in KEA’s favor. definite turn. The remaining batsmen could not they could be rated as serious challengers. All in ond-round knockout and grabbed The weather was cold but perfect for a hard With the help of the lower order KEA finished cope up with the increasing run rate and suc- all, with the improving standards and cama- the World Boxing Organization jun- fought game of cricket. KEA got the initial on an imposing 99 for the loss of 7 wickets off cumbed to catches in the deep. In the end TEC radarie, this was a tournament that all cricket ior bantamweight title. advantage by winning the toss and choosing to their 15 overs. Shajeer was the most economical could reach only 75 for 7 wickets off their 15 lovers enjoyed as seen by their increasing pres- The unbeaten 21-year-old previ- bat first. But they were in for a rude shock as of the TEC bowlers giving away only 11 runs off overs leaving KEA convincing winners by 24 ence at the ground. ously captured the World Boxing their skipper Tibish was LBW to the first ball of his 3 overs. Sreekumar (2 for 15), Ramesh (2 for runs. The winner’s trophy and medals were given Council light flyweight title in April the match from Sreekumar. This brought in 17) and Sunil (2 for 22) tried to contain KEA but TEC badly missed the services of Dinto and away by Tapan Ramesh, Regional Manager, GTE and defended it in September. KEA’s new star and main hope Ajin Skaria to join Suresh (1 for 31) was expensive. Sandeep which depleted their normally incisive Olayan (main sponsor) and the runners trophy For this match, Inoue jumped up the dependable Govind. Sreekumar again With the wicket favouring the bowlers, TEC bowling attack. For KEA Nithin (3 for 20) and and medals by Cetaa President Sunil Kumar. two categories in what was touted raised the hopes of TEC getting rid of Govind faced an uphill task chasing the target of 100 Ajin (2 for 7) were again the stars showing their Individual prizes were awarded to Ajin Skaria as an ambitious shot to fight cheaply in the 3rd over. runs. Ajin again proved his worth removing the all round capabilities in full measure well sup- (KEA - Man of the Match and Player of the Narvaez, 39, who had defended the And when Ramesh got Binu caught at point dangerous Suresh for 7 with a smart return ported by Sreejith (1 for 10), Presoon and Tournament), Nithin Varughese (KEA - best WBO belt for 12 years. off a full toss, the score was only 23 (for 3) in the catch in the 3rd over. Sunil and Ramesh tried to Naseef. bowler) and Mahesh (AECK - best batsmen) by 5th over and TEC was firmly in control. However, repair the damage, using their experience in In summary, this year’s tournament was Messrs Shyam Mohan (Co Sponsor - Nouri Est), But the Japanese fighter, nick- Ajin found an able partner in Nithin Varughese the face of adversity, but the quality of the dominated by the bowlers in bowler friendly Suresh Krishnan (GC ex officio), Anilkumar (GC named “Monster”, was in control and mixing caution with aggression both of attack tied them down. Boundaries were hard conditions with the teams having better bowl- designate), Varkey Monsey (ex GC) and Jose from the start of the bout, putting them took the attack to the opposition taking to come by. The introduction of spinner Nithin ing strength reaching the later stages. KEA’s vic- Kurishinkal (Cetaa). his experienced opponent to the floor three times, before finishing with a killer left body punch that kept Narvaez on his knees. “I have practiced the body punch, and I thought I can bring him down if I could find opportuni- ties to use it,” Inoue said after the match. “I appreciate this opportunity to fight the super champion (Narvaez) in Japan,” he added. Inoue is unde- feated-his professional record now stands at eight wins, seven by knockout. The bout was part of a triple header that also featured Mexican Pedro Guevara lifting the WBC light flyweight title by flooring Japanese fighter Akira Yaegashi. Guevara’s seventh-round knock- down with a stunning body punch denied Yaegashi’s attempt to win his third world title. Meanwhile, Jorge Linares of Venezuela won a WBC lightweight title by beating Mexico’s Javier Prieto. Linares collected his third world title with his fourth-round knock- out, after winning the WBC feather- weight and the WBA super feather- weight titles. — AFP