GGOLFOLF | Page 4 CCRICKETRICKET | Page 3 India’s Taylor pays Sharma wins tribute to Joburg Open Crowe aft er in style 17th century Tuesday, December 12, 2017 FOOTBALL Rabia I 24, 1439 AH Real Madrid tie GULF TIMES a ‘wonderful opportunity’ for PSG SPORT Page 7 SPOTLIGHT FOOTBALL/QSL CUP Misbah to thrill Big wins for Kharaitiyat, in Qatar National Al Gharafa, and Duhail By Sports Reporter dulaziz al-Ansari compounded The Day cricket series Kings’ misery with goals in the 87th Doha The matches will be held at the 13,000-capacity Asian Town Stadium and 89th. ne-sided matches were the AL SAILIYA 0 AL GHARAFA 4 order of the day in the fi fth Abdulmajid Anad opened the scoring and fi nal round of the QSL in the eighth minute following a fumble OCup with Al Kharaitiyat, Al from the goalkeeper that allowed him Gharafa and Al Duhail recording huge to strike home into an empty net from victories in their Group A fi xtures. 25 yards at the Al Shamal Stadium. Al Kharaitiyat beat Qatar SC 6-1, Al Amro Seraj doubled the advantage Gharafa won 4-0 against Al Sailiya and for Al Gharafa just before half-time Al Duhail fi nished off their campaign with a weaving run before striking from with an 8-0 rout of Al Khor. distance and he secured the points in The results saw Al Gharafa, who had the 81st with a fi nish from close range. already qualifi ed for the semi-fi nals, Nasser al-Kaabi was on hand to confi rm fi rst position in the group with complete the scoring in the 86th. 13 points, while Al Kharaitiyat’s vic- tory took them to 11 points and secured AL KHOR 0 AL DUHAIL 8 them second spot. They too proceeded Al Duhail recorded an emphatic 8-0 to the last-four stage. victory over Al Khor to fi nish third on seven points at the Al Arabi Stadium. AL KHARAITIYAT 6, QATAR SC 1 The rout started as early as the third Al Kharaitiyat settled any early minute through ace Moroccan striker nerves with two goals from Rachid Ti- Youssef El Arabi, who also scored fi ve berkanine in the 29th and 37th minutes more in the 21st, 26th, 45th, 61st and before Saoud Nasser and Al Yazidi both 80th. A penalty from Mohamed Mousa scored with free-kicks in the 40th and in the 17th and Ahmed Mohamed in the 45th respectively at the Al Khor Stadi- 49th ensured Al Duhail were comfort- um. Qatar SC did pull one back through able winners. Abdurahman Akbar in 71st, but it was Group B matches in the round will be over as a contest by that point. Ab- played today. Manzoor Ahmed, Salem al-Fuhaid, Sajjad Hussain Choudhry , Lt. Mohamed Ali al-Muraizeeq and Faisal al-Hudawi at yesterday’s press conference. By Sports Reporter ‘We are celebrating Qatar Doha National Day for the third consecutive year and this year we are organising three matches akistan’s most successful to mark the occasion’ captain Misbah-ul-Haq will be the main attraction in the Iqbal (captain), Kamran Khan, Ta- Qatar National Day Twenty20 moor Sajjad, Rizlan Iqbar (W-K), Pcricket series between Asian Stars and Zaheer Ibrahim, Inam ul Haq, Na- Qatar Stars on December 15, 17 and 18, deem Aslam, Imran Asharaf, Faisal organisers announced yesterday. Khan, Mohamed Tanveer, Nouman The former Pakistan captain, who Sarwar, Aslim Ali, Aqib Javed, Awais has retired from cricket, is hugely Malik, Khurram Shehazad, Ushantha popular in the subcontinent. And with Madushanka, Ikramullah Khan and Asian expats residing in large numbers Mohamed Murad. in Qatar, Misbah’s presence for the se- CEO of Pro Events Sajjad Hussain ries to mark the Qatar National Day, is Choudhry, who has played an active a sure-shot crowd puller. role in bringing the cricketers to Qatar The exhibition matches will be held since last three years, said he is try- at the 13,000-capacity Asian Town ing his best to promote and popularise Cricket Stadium in the Industrial the game in the country. These three Area. The event is being organised by matches to mark the big day is yet an- Ibn Ajayan Project (IAP) in associa- other eff ort in that direction. tion with Pro Events and Organising “We are celebrating Qatar Na- Committee of Associated Activities tional Day for the third consecutive of Qatar National Day 2017 celebra- year and this year we are organising tions under the patronage of Ministry three matches to mark the occasion,” of Interior to celebrate the Qatar Na- Choudhry said, while addressing a tional Day. press conference yesterday. Misbah, who led Pakistan to the “We have also decided to charge for No: 1 spot in international Test rank- the only fi rst two matches and entry is ings in 2016, has played 75 Tests, 162 free for the Qatar National Day match,” ODIs and 39 T20Is. He also recorded he said. a 56-ball hundred against Australia in “This year the National Day celebra- 2014 – then the joint fastest hundred tion tournament is something special in Tests, sharing the record with West for us, as we see it as an opportunity Indies great Viv Richards. showcase our love and respect for this Al Duhail’s Youssef El Arabi (smiling) is congratulated by his teammates after Misbah will be joined by present country. We are bringing world crick- scoring one of his six goals against Al Khor. and past cricketers for the T20 series, eters from around the world for the with mostly his Pakistani counter- occasion and decided to charge for the parts making up the numbers. only fi rst two matches and entry is free Qatar continue preparations for 23rd Gulf Cup Wahab Riaz, Fawad Alam, Umar for the National Day match,” he said. Gul, Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Others who were present on the oc- Sami Aslam are the Pakistanis lined casion were Public Relation Offi cer The Qatar national football squad invited to the camp. The final list up for the Asian Stars. Players from Ministry of Interior Lt. Mohamed Ali continued their training in prepara- for the Gulf Cup will be announced other countries will also fi gure in the al-Muraizeeq, Community Reach Out tion for the 23rd Gulf Cup to be held in later. Meanwhile, the Arab Gulf Cup matches. Indians Waseef Jafar and S. Coordinator MOI Faisal al-Hudawi, Kuwait from Dec. 22 to Jan. 5. Football Federation (AGCFF) held a Badrinath, Sri Lankans Tillekratne Ibn Ajayan Projects’ Salem al-Fuhaid Qatar are set to face Liechtenstein consultative meeting yesterday in Dilshan, Dilhara Fernado and Bangla- and Qatar Cricket Association’s Man- on Thursday in a friendly in Doha to Doha. The meeting was chaired by HE desh’s Elias Sunny, Arafat Sunny and zoor Ahmed. ensure readiness ahead of the start Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Inam ul Haq are the others who have Matches on the fi rst two days will of the Gulf Cup against Yemen in al-Thani, president of Qatar Football confi rmed their participation. start at 5.30pm, while on the Qatar Na- Group B. Association and AGCFF. Former Pakistan spinner Saqlain tional Day the match will commence at Coach Felix Sanchez has decided to The consultative meeting discussed Mushtaq will be the coach and Amir around 3.00pm. Tickets are available at play Liechtenstein’s friendly match the formation of an AGCFF delegation Sohail will be the manager of the Indian Super Market, Filli café, Today’s behind closed doors. The training, to visit Kuwait in order to inspect the Asian Stars. Misbah-ul-Haq Fashion and Asian Town Cricket Sta- which took place at Aspire, included preparations for hosting the 23rd Gulf Qatar Stars will be represented by dium Gate Number 1. all 20 squad players, whom Sanchez Cup. Gulf Times 2 Tuesday, December 12, 2017 CRICKET SPOTLIGHT INSULT TO INJURY England ‘tourists masquerading as Iconic WACA cricketers’ panned AFP into farce as rudderless Poms face Sydney whitewash.” The Sydney Morning Herald also jumped on the bandwagon, scream- ngland were dismissed as ing “Teetering on the drink” on its prepares for life “tourists masquerading as back page in a story that said their cricketers” by Australia’s Ashes campaign was “again in disar- media which turned the ray”. Escrew yesterday after Ben Duck- “It is the third time in four months ett was fi ned for pouring beer over that England’s preparations have teammate Jimmy Anderson. been derailed by an alcohol-fuelled Duckett was slapped with a re- incident,” it wrote. ported £1,500 ($2,000) fi ne and will Earlier in the tour, England cricket aft er the Ashes play no further part in the remain- chief Andrew Strauss insisted there ing England Lions matches following was no drinking culture in the team, Future Ashes contests will be held at the shiny, new Perth Stadium on the the late-night bar prank in Perth on but he still slapped a midnight cur- Thursday. few on the Ashes tour. opposite bank of the Swan River, a 60,000-seat arena that will use a drop-in pitch It plunged their already diffi cult The Duckett incident happened tour into another crisis after wick- on the fi rst night that the curfew had Reuters win in the 1979 test by striding out to the crease with etkeeper Jonny Bairstow headbut- been relaxed. Perth an aluminium bat made by a business partner. ted Australian Test opener Cameron The Australian newspaper spared He faced a few balls from Ian Botham before the Bancroft in a Perth bar during the England some of the more strident match paused for 10 minutes as the umpires de- tourists’ fi rst night in Australia.