FFOOTBALLOOTBALL | Page 3 CCYCLINGYCLING | Page 7 Mendy’s late Pogacar strike puts Real holds lead, in sight of CL Vingegaard quarters wins fi ft h stage Friday, February 26, 2021 CRICKET Rajab 14, 1442 AH India crush England GULF TIMES inside two days in pink-ball Test SPORT Page 2 FOOTBALL / QATAR CUP SHOOTING / ISSF WORLD CUP Qatar’s Rashid Red-hot Al Sadd wins bronze favourites against in Cairo Al Duhail in fi nal ‘Al Sadd players have a winning mentality. This is an important feature of my team’ By Yash Mudgal in Rabat Grand Prix early this Doha month, had been in good form in the local competitions and won a gold and silver besides a fourth- Al Sadd (left) and Al Duhail players train yesterday on the eve of the Qatar Cup final. atar’s Rashid Hamad place fi nish in the Amir Cup and clinched the skeet Qatar Shooting Association Cup By Sports Reporter feating Al Gharafa (2-1) and Al think the Al Arabi match in the Duhail are one of the best teams to prepare in the best way to go bronze medal at the recently. Doha Rayyan (1-0) respectively in the league last week was a great ex- in Qatar. Both teams have very into the match with the aim of ISSF Egypt World Cup Talking about his Olympic semi-fi nals of the tournament, perience before facing Al Duhail, high-level players and from my achieving victory. Qfor shotgun yesterday. chances, Rashid was very opti- which features the top four clubs as we performed very well in it,” point of view, Al Sadd are bet- “We are trying hard despite Rashid fi nished with a score mistic. l Sadd and Al Duhail in the league championship. the Spaniard said yesterday. ter than Al Duhail. We are also the pressure of playing many of 41 in the fi nal round, behind “I have a very good chance, but will clash in a block- Al Sadd had beaten Al Duhail “Al Sadd players have a win- stronger even though Al Du- matches and the lack of time for fi rst-placed Ukraine’s Mikola I have to wait till the next World buster Qatar Cup fi nal in last year’s Qatar Cup fi nal and ning mentality. This is an im- hail are one of the best teams in players to recover from injuries. Milchev with 53 and second- Cup in India (March 18-29) for at the Abdullah Bin it would be hard to bet against portant feature of my team as Asia and recently signed quality The two teams are undoubtedly placed Denmark’s Jesper Hansen my Olympic quota chances. I AKhalifa Stadium today. Both the them not retaining the title. we go into a match with a strong overseas players,” said Xavi. looking forward to winning the with 52. am going to India directly from teams have fi erce rivalry, but Al Having said that, Duhail have desire to win, regardless of the Meanwhile, Duhail coach Sabri title. Both teams are among the “I am very satisfi ed with here,” Rashid said. Sadd have had the better of their settled down nicely under their strength of our opponent. We Lamouchi admitted Al Sadd are in best in Qatar. We must work to my performance here as it was The 2012 London Olympic rivals in the recent past. French coach Sabri Lamouchi are happy to play the fi nal for a good form but urged his players avoid mistakes and pay atten- a tough fi nal against veteran Games bronze medal winner The Wolves have beaten Al and can make it hard for their second year in a row. We want to focus on winning game. “The tion to details to achieve the de- Milchev and a very good shooter Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah of Qa- Duhail six consecutive times, Al Sadd, who are unbeaten this to add this title to our trophy strength of Al Sadd in the recent sired goal, which is winning the Hansen,” Rashid, who represent- tar missed the fi nal round by a dating back to January last year. season. cabinet. The good thing for matches cannot be denied. But I Qatar Cup,” Lamouchi added. ed Qatar at the 2008 and 2016 whisker as he was seventh at the And their red-hot form in QNB Al Sadd coach Xavi Hernan- me is that since I started train- have told the team’s players to fo- Duhail will be without expe- Olympic Games, said. end of the qualifi cation rounds. Stars League, where they hold dez was happy for his team to ing with Al Sadd, the team is cus more in order to achieve vic- rienced midfi elder Luiz Martin The 53-year-old former Ol- In the women’s section, Slova- a massive 13-point lead over carry the favourites tag into the present in all fi nals and we hope tory,” he said yesterday Junior, who is sidelined for a ympic champion Milchev and kia’s London 2012 bronze medal- second-placed Al Duhail and are fi nal and warned his team was to bag another trophy. The title “My team is ready to face Al month following surgery in the Hansen fi nished with 45 and 43 list Danka Bartekova won the one win away from winning the at its best. “We are at our best. is won, the fi nals are won and Sadd. Duhail will continue to play lower abdomen. Lamouchi said hits respectively after 50 shots to gold and Russia’s Alina Fazylzy- title, makes them overwhelming We are at the top of our physi- not played,” Xavi added. good football and remain strong he was yet to decide whether to take proceedings to a shoot-off anova, who won ISSF Grand Prix favourites for today’s cup fi nal. cal conditioning. We have not The Al Sadd coach, however, on the pitch like we did against Al play Mohamed Muntari, who in which the former won. in Rabat, claimed silver. Cyprus’ Al Duhail and Al Sadd quali- lost for a long time and the team warned his players on being Gharafa in the semi-fi nal. Given had suff ered injury in the last The 24-year-old Rashid, who Konstantia Nikolaou clinched fi ed for the title clash by de- is presenting very good levels. I complacent against Duhail. “Al the circumstances, we have tried league game. won gold in the shotgun event bronze. Al Gharafa win their opening Amir’s Cup basketball game Action from the opening Group B match between defending Qatar League and Qatar Cup champions Al Gharafa (in blue and yellow) and Al Khor (in white) in HH The Amir’s Cup 2020-2021 basketball tournament at Al Gharafa Indoor Hall yesterday. Al Gharafa won the match 96-69. Gulf Times 2 Friday, February 26, 2021 CRICKET FOCUS India crush England inside two days in pink-ball Test ‘I HAVE NEVER BEEN PART OF A TEST MATCH WHERE THINGS HAVE MOVED SO QUICKLY’ AFP Shortest Test matches Ahmedabad by days since 1900 ndia crushed England by 10 wick- All 13 matches were completed in ets yesterday in a rare two day Test two days. triumph that winning captain Virat 1912- Australia beat South Africa by Kohli said had been “bizarre”. an innings and 88 runs in Manches- ISpinner Axar Patel took 11 wickets ter over two innings as India outplayed 1912-England beat South Africa by 10 their rivals in all departments in the wickets in London day-night game to take a 2-1 lead in the 1921-Australia beat England by 10 four match series. wickets in Nottingham Rohit Sharma hit a six to see India 1931-Australia beat West Indies by an to their meagre second innings tar- innings and 122 runs in Melbourne get of 49 without losing a wicket in 1936-Australia beat South Africa by the world’s biggest cricket stadium in an innings and 184 runs in Johan- Ahmedabad. nesburg “I have never been part of a Test 1946-Australia beat New Zealand by match where things have moved so an innings and 103 runs in Wellington quickly,” said Kohli. 2000-England beat West Indies by “It was bizarre that out of the 30 an innings and 39 runs in Leeds wickets, 21 were off straight balls,” he 2002-Australia beat Pakistan by an said praising his spin bowlers but hit- innings and 198 runs in Sharjah ting out at the batsmen on both sides. 2005-South Africa beat Zimbabwe “The result went our way but the by an innings and 21 runs in Cape quality of batting was not at all up to Town standard from both teams to be very 2005-New Zealand beat Zimbabwe honest,” said Kohli, who has now beat- by an innings and 294 runs in Harare en M.S. Dhoni’s Indian record of 21 Test 2017-South Africa beat Zimbabwe wins at home as captain. by an innings and 120 runs in Port England captain Joe Root, who won Elizabeth the toss, chose to bat and then saw two 2018-India beat Afghanistan by an dramatic collapses, was shocked by the innings and 262 runs in Bengaluru defeat but insisted it would not “de- 2021-India beat England by 10 wick- fi ne” his side that won the fi rst Test so ets in Ahmedabad convincingly. “We will use the hurt from this week India spinners Axar Patel (left) and Ashwin celebrate after taking England wickets on the second day of the third Test in Ahmedabad yesterday.