THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015 SPORTS Windies bid to do Sobers proud

COLOMBO: The West Indies will look to is in his first series as . the legendary for inspira- “I have full confidence in the guys. I tion as they bid for an unlikely series-sav- just told them: ‘Don’t get dejected, it’s ing victory when they take on fellow not the end of the world. We have anoth- strugglers Sri Lanka in the second Test in er Test match to make amends and come Colombo beginning today. back stronger’. We will push for that one- The tourists have yet to win a Test in all draw.” Like Sobers, Holder hails from Sri Lanka after 10 attempts and they suf- Barbados and is looking to put a smile on fered an innings defeat last weekend in the face of a man whom he has the first Test in Galle where veteran spin- described as “one of the greatest to play ner Rangana Herath took 10 in the game”. the match. The 79-year-old Sobers, wide- In contrast, Holder’s opposite number ly regarded as the greatest allrounder Angelo Mathews is wary of dwelling on ever to have played the game, is in the past and has spent the build-up to Colombo to watch the second and final the match speaking of his satisfaction at Test at the P Sara Oval alongside Sri his team’s response to the recent retire- Lanka’s Michael Tissera. The two men ments. were rival captains when the then Ceylon He was particularly delighted with the played the West Indies in an unofficial performances of Dinesh Chandimal and one-off Test at the same venue in 1967. Dimuth Karunaratne, who both scored Sobers was the star of the show, hitting a big hundreds in Galle. in a rain-affected match. “We can’t keep talking of the past all Back then, the West Indies were on the time,” he said. “After Sangakkara and the cusp of a lengthy period of domina- Mahela left the team, we needed those tion in international while their guys to stand up and take the responsi- hosts were still some years away from bility. I’m glad that they did it.” attaining Test status. Despite their commanding victory, Sri The West Indies however have not Lanka have made two changes for the found Sri Lanka a happy hunting ground second Test with Tharindu Kaushal, who since they played their first official Test only took one in Galle, making CANADA: Jaden Schwartz No. 17 of the St. Louis Blues skates with the puck against David Desharnais No. 51 of the during on the island in 1993. way for fellow off-spinner Dilruwan the NHL game at the Bell Centre. —AFP Now the West Indies are only above Perera. Bangladesh in the league table of regular Batsman Lahiru Thirimanne has also Test playing nations while Sri Lanka are paid the price for a run of low scores, Canadiens blank Blues one notch above them in seventh place. with the uncapped 20-year-old Kusal Sri Lanka are going through a rebuilding Mendis picked in his place. MONTREAL: Carey Price made 38 saves for his phase after the recent retirements of star Sri Lanka (from) - Angelo Mathews second shutout in his last three starts and Alex NHL Results/Standings batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela (capt), Lahiru Thirimanne, Dimuth Semin scored his first as the Montreal Jayawardene. Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Dinesh Canadiens beat the St. Louis Blues 3-0 on But they were still far too strong for Chandimal, Rangana Herath, Dhammika Tuesday night to win their team-record seventh Pittsburgh 3, Florida 2 (OT); NY Islanders 4, Columbus 0; New Jersey 3, Arizona 2 (OT); Dallas 2, the visitors in Galle who were let down Prasad, Kusal Perera, Dushmantha in a row to begin the . Philadelphia 1; Montreal 3, St. Louis 0; Nashville 5, Tampa Bay 4 (SO); Washington 6, Calgary 2. by sloppy fielding as well as a failure by Chameera, Nuwan Pradeep, Tharindu Max Pacioretty and Torrey Mitchell also Western Conference Eastern Conference most of their batsmen to build a big Kaushal, Suranga Lakmal, Dilruwan scored for the Canadiens, who broke the Blues’ Central Division Atlantic Division innings despite making starts. Perera, Milinda Siriwardena, Kusal four-game winning streak. Price, the league’s WL OTLGFGAPTS Montreal 7 0 0 23 7 14 While the West Indies are expected to Mendis. most valuable player and top last Tampa Bay 4 2 1 23 20 9 Dallas 5 1 0 21 14 10 be unchanged, skipper has West Indies (from) - Jason Holder season, has allowed only six goals in six starts. It Florida 3 2 1 18 12 7 acknowledged that his batsmen need to (capt), Kraig Brathwaite, Jermaine was the 36th shutout of his career. He posted a Nashville 5 1 0 19 13 10 Ottawa 3 2 1 19 17 7 show more application. Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Devendra 25-save shutout against the New York Rangers St. Louis 5 2 0 21 17 10 Detroit 3 2 0 15 13 6 on Oct. 15, and allowed one goal on 22 shots in Winnipeg 4 2 0 20 13 8 Boston 2 3 0 18 21 4 “At this present time, we need to Bishoo, , Rajendra Toronto 1 3 1 12 17 3 knock it down, we need to take it slower Chandrika, , Shannon a 4-1 win over Detroit on Saturday night to earn Minnesota 3 1 1 14 15 7 Buffalo 1 4 0 9 14 2 and slow down the game as much as Gabriel, , , NHL first star of the week honors. Chicago 3 3 0 14 14 6 Metropolitan Division possible-simplify it as much as possible, , , Jerome His save of the night was a spectacular glove Colorado 2 3 0 16 16 4 NY Islanders 4 1 1 21 15 9 effort early in the second frame on Vladimir and make it easy for us,” said Holder, who Taylor, Jomel Warrican. — AFP Pacific Division NY Rangers 4 2 1 18 15 9 Tarasenko, who was held off the scoresheet for Washington 4 1 0 19 12 8 San Jose 4 2 0 17 12 8 the first time this season. Pittsburgh 3 3 0 10 11 6 Vancouver 3 1 2 16 11 8 Philadelphia 2 2 1 8 12 5 ISLANDERS 3, BLUE JACKETS 0 Arizona 3 2 1 18 14 7 New Jersey 2 3 1 11 16 5 Jaroslav Halak stopped 37 shots for his 37th Los Angeles 2 3 0 6 14 4 Carolina 1 4 0 11 17 2 career shutout to lead the to Edmonton 2 4 0 12 16 4 Columbus 0 7 0 13 34 0 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one their fourth straight win. Nikolay Kulemin gave Anaheim 1 3 1 5 12 3 the Islanders the lead late in the first period, and in the standings and are not included in Calgary 1 5 0 12 25 2 Thomas Hickey, Cal Clutterbuck and John the loss column (L) Tavares all scored in the third period. Halak made a second straight start after returning stood a video review. He took a pass from Kris ners of five of six. Nashville’s last two wins have from an upper-body injury sustained during the Letang at the top of the right circle and fired a come via a shootout. preseason. The Blue Jackets extended their fran- slap past Roberto Luongo. Crosby netted Predators goalie Pekka Rinne allowed four chise-worst winless start and became the third his first three points of the season on the first- goals on 29 shots through overtime, but he was team in the NHL’s modern history to open a sea- period goal and two assists. sharp in the shootout, denying all three son 0-7. Curtis McElhinney finished with 25 saves scored his second goal and Malkin Lightning shooters. Steven Stamkos, Nikita and was steady throughout, making several key has five points during a four-game point streak Kucherov, Ryan Callahan and Erik Condra scored saves to keep Columbus within striking distance for the Penguins, who won their third straight. for the Lightning, who have dropped three of for most of the game. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 31 shots. Quinton four. In the tiebreaker, Forsberg skated to the Howden and Derek MacKenzie scored goals for right and beat Lightning goalie Ben Bishop with DEVILS 3, COYOTES 2 the Panthers and Luongo made 32 saves. a quick wrist shot. Travis Zajac had a goal, two assists and set up Adam Larrson’s game-winner 43 seconds into STARS 2, FLYERS 1 CAPITALS 6, FLAMES 2 overtime to lift New Jersey. Larsson slam dunked Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn each had a goal Nicklas Backstrom scored twice and Alex the game winner to cap a 3-on-1 break that and an assist as Dallas won its fourth straight. Ovechkin added a goal and an assist for started after he knocked Martin Hanzal off the Sean Couturier scored for the Flyers, who were Washington. Andre Burakovsky, TJ Oshie and puck in the Devils’ zone. playing for the first time since beating Chicago Jason Chimera also scored, and Evgeny Mike Cammalleri also scored for New Jersey last Wednesday. Antti Niemi made 34 saves to Kuznetsov added three assists. The Capitals, COLOMBO: West Indies cricket great Garfield Sobers (right) and former Sri Lankan and Cory Schneider made 18 saves as the Devils improve to 3-1 in four career starts against playing their first road game of the season, have cricket captain Michael Tissera pose with the Sobers -Tissera trophy which will be won their second straight overtime game under Philadelphia. Niemi was in because starting opened with four wins in five games. awarded to the winners of the ongoing Sri Lanka West Indies series. — AP new coach John Hynes after opening the season goalie Kari Lehtonen is 1-10-2 in 13 games Sean Monahan and Mark Giordano scored for 0-3-1. Anthony Duclair and Mikkel Boedker against Philadelphia. Calgary, which has lost five of their first six scored for Arizona, which has lost three in a row. Steve Mason made 30 saves for the Flyers in games while opening with four straight losses Mike Smith made 22 saves in the opener of a his return for the Flyers after sitting out the last on home ice for the first time in franchise histo- Pakistan get Yasir boost five-game East Coast road trip for Arizona. two games due to personal reasons. ry. Ovechkin gave the Capitals the lead for good 30 seconds into the second period. His long shot DUBAI: Pakistan will be looking to fit- Dhabi saw both team piling up 500-plus PENGUINS 3, PANTHERS 2 PREDATORS 5, LIGHTNING 4 was stopped by Flames goalie Karri Ramo but again leg-spinner to lift their totals in their first innings. England will Evgeni Malkin scored on the power play in Filip Forsberg scored the only goal of the mishandled, allowing the Washington captain to bowling in the second Test against also look to leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who overtime and Sidney Crosby picked up his first shootout to help Nashville beat Tampa Bay. poke in the rebound and put Washington ahead England starting in Dubai from today. took a five-wicket haul in the second goal of the season to lead Pittsburgh. James Neal scored twice and Mike Fisher and 2-1. It was Ovechkin’s fourth goal of the season Shah, regarded as a wicket-taking innings after going wicketless for 163 Malkin’s third goal in as many games with- Shea Weber also scored for the Predators, win- and 900th career point. — AP bowler who anchored Pakistan’s wins runs in the first. over Australia and Sri Lanka in the last 12 England captain Alastair Cook, fresh months, missed the drawn first Test in from his 263 in the first Test, said he Third title is Hamilton’s American dream Abu Dhabi with a back spasm. hoped his team can keep the fight going. But he is back to full fitness and was “Over the next 10 days of Test cricket we AUSTIN: Lewis Hamilton can live his own American able to bowl without any pain in the nets, need to show the same resilience,” said dream by becoming a triple Formula One world something which Pakistan captain Cook, praising Adil. “He’s obviously had a champion in Texas on Sunday. Misbah-ul-Haq sees as a big positive. tough introduction, the first day-and-a- If the Briton scores two points more than “Shah looks good and is raring to go half - not getting a wicket, bowling on Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg, and nine more and that’s a good sign for us,” said probably the worst wicket you’d ever than Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, at the Circuit of the Misbah. “We missed him a lot in the first want to make your debut on as a leg- Americas then it is game over with three races to Test and his return will give us that boost spinner when you lose the toss.” spare. in the spin bowling.” Cook said his batsmen were ready for A Mercedes one-two, with Hamilton winning, Pakistan narrowly escaped defeat Shah. “I think Pakistan missed him in the would see to that. No British driver has ever won after an extraordinary collapse saw them last game and he has done well in his ten two Formula One titles in a row, despite the coun- slump to 173 all out on the last day to Test matches but we were ready to play try providing more world champions than any oth- spice up a Test which was heading for a him in the first Test and obviously he er nation, but Hamilton looks set to make history in draw until the fifth morning. strengthens them.” a country he considers home from home. England were denied the win as, chas- Seamer had an upset The 30-year-old would join Jackie Stewart, now ing 99 in a possible 19 overs, they fell 25 stomach but is fit to play. The third and 76, as Britain’s only three times champions but it is runs short when bad light forced the final Test starts in Sharjah on November another great-Brazil’s late triple title winner Ayrton umpires to call off the match. 1, followed by four one-day internation- Senna-that he most wants to emulate. Misbah said Pakistan need to improve. als and three Twenty20s. “I didn’t grow up watching Jackie, when I was a “We really need to pull up our socks and kid, I wanted to see Ayrton,” Hamilton, who until the kind of fight England put we need to Teams (from): recently raced with a similar yellow helmet to Lewis Hamilton in action in this file photo. match them, I have confidence in my Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Senna’s, told British reporters after victory in Russia could see the ‘double double’ sealed in style. back down, so I’ll be pushing flat out to the end players that they can do that.” Ahmed Shehzad, , Azhar 10 days ago put the title within reach. The country’s race has been good to Hamilton, and hopefully having some fun out there in the Pakistan will be without key batsman Ali, , Fawad Alam, “I don’t have that connection with Jackie as I did who is chasing a literal hat-trick after winning two final few rounds this year,” said Rosberg. Azhar Ali who returned home following , Younis Khan, , with Ayrton. It has nothing to do with nationality, of the three grands prix held so far in Austin and “Austin is definitely somewhere that you can the death of his mother-in-law and was Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, just that’s the guy who caught my eye as a kid and three of the last four in the United States. have fun too...I got pole there last year, and I’m unable to join the team yesterday , Imran Khan, , that’s the guy I aspired to be,” he said. “I haven’t “If I can come away with a third (winner’s) coming off the back of a really strong weekend in because of visa problems. , Bilal Asif. aspired to be like any of the other drivers.” Stetson hat that would be unbelievable,” he said. Russia in terms of my performance, so if I can Pakistan also recalled under-scrutiny England: Alastair Cook (capt), Moeen If Brazil, next month, might have been a more Rosberg, despite the mathematical odds against repeat all of that then I’ll be in a good position.” For off-spinner Bilal Asif as cover. He was Ali, James Anderson, Samit Patel, Jonny symbolic place to secure the title then the United him, will be determined to keep his team mate local fans there will be the novelty of a US driver to reported for suspect bowling action in Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Jos States is perfect in other respects. waiting at least until Formula One makes its return cheer, the first since 2007, even if Californian Zimbabwe on October 6 but can still play Buttler, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Hamilton has a holiday home in Colorado and is to Mexico next week. Alexander Rossi is more likely to be lapped in the pending a report on his action which will Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James a frequent visitor, as celebrity websites and his With only three wins to Hamilton’s nine, and Manor Marussia than playing any part in the cham- come in two weeks’ time. Taylor, Mark Wood, Chris Jordan. social media accounts bear witness, to both the Vettel’s three, he needs to regain momentum after pionship outcome. The starting grid will have two Pakistan will likely bring in Shah in Umpires: Paul Reiffel (AUS) and Bruce east and west coasts of a country that is also his retirement in Sochi pushed him down to third more cars than last year, a race that went ahead place of paceman Rahat Ali. They will Oxenford (AUS), TV umpire: Chris employer’s biggest market. overall in the championship behind Ferrari’s four amid rumbles of a potential boycott after absent also hope the Dubai stadium pitch helps Gaffaney (NZL), Match referee: Andy With Mercedes wrapping up the constructors’ times champion. “It’s clear that the title is a long Marussia and now-defunct Caterham went into the bowlers after a flat pitch in Abu Pycroft (ZIM). — AFP title in Russia for the second year in a row, Sunday shot for me now. But it’s not in me to give up or administration. — Reuters