SPORT Tuesday 27 December 2016 PAGE | 21 PAGE | 22 The headline Australia grabrab key grabbers wickets beforeore in 2016 rains disruptspts plaplayy Chelsea ease past Bournemouth Fulham EPL Results Reuters Arsenal 1 (Giroud 86) West Brom 0 supremely confident Chelsea notched a Burnley 1 (Gray 81) Middlesbrough 0 club record 12th consecutive league Chelsea 3 (Pedro 24, 90+3, Hazard win yesterday to 49-pen) Bournemouth 0 moveA nine points clear at the top of the Premier League, two Leicester 0 Everton 2 (Mirallas 51, goals from Pedro and one from Lukaku 90+1) Eden Hazard giving them a 3-0 victory over Bournemouth. Manchester United 3 (Blind 39, bra- It took the energetic Pedro himovic 82, Mkhitaryan 86) until the 24th minute to score, Sunderland 1 (Borini 90+1) set up by Cesc Fabregas after jinking interplay between the Swansea 1 (Llorente 89) West Ham Spanish players, Hazard, Wil- 4 (Ayew 13, Reid 50, Antonio 78, lian and Nemanja Matic. He Carroll 90) deftly lofted the ball over Artur Watford 1 (Deeney 71-pen) Crystal Chelsea dominate Palace 1 (Cabaye 26) EPL Top Scorers 12 13 Diego Costa (Chelsea) Chelsea beat Bournemouth 12 Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) 3-0 for club record 12th Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester straight win. United) 10 Romelu Lukaku (Everton) Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) Pedro scores Chelsea's third goal during their English Premier League match against AFC Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge 9 Eden Hazard (Chelsea) in Fulham, London yesterday. 8 Theo Walcott (Arsenal) 50 Sadio Mane (Liverpool) Pedro chipped the ball over Boruc, stranded in the Bourne- converted the penalty for his stoppage time when Pedro's United closed to within three Christian Benteke (Crystal Palace) Boruc's head for the first mouth goalmouth. 50th Premier League goal. surging run ended with the ball points of the Champions League Jermain Defoe (Sunderland) goal, Hazard scored a Captain Simon Francis Chelsea, who have conceded deflected into the goal. places by beating Sunderland Michail Antonio (West Ham United) penalty for his 50th brought down a sashaying Haz- only two goals on their winning Elsewhere, Zlatan Ibrahi- 3-1. 7 Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) Premier League goal. ard in the Bournemouth area in run under Antonio Conte and movic scored one goal and set Champions Leicester City Salomon Rondon (West Bromwich Albion) the 49th minute and the Belgian scored 27, added the third in up two others as Manchester lost again. Lakmal strikes to Chess: Rapid action begins in Doha ensure honours even The Peninsula he 2016 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Cham- on opening day pionships kicked off yesterday at the Ali T Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena. The Rapid event, which began yesterday, Port Elizabeth, South Africa SCOREBOARD will take place over the next two days and the Reuters Blitz Championships will continue from Decem- South Africa (I innings): ber 29 to 30. S Cook c Chandimal b Lakmal .....................59 P Duminy and Stephen Cook D Elgar c Chandimal b Lakmal .................. 45 The events will be both Swiss pairings tour- scored half centuries but four H Amla c Chandimal b Lakmal ..................20 naments and will be held over two days for Blitz Jwickets for Suranga Lakmal J Duminy lbw Herath .....................................63 and three days for Rapid. The Blitz will have 21 and two for Rangana Herath F du Plessis c Karunaratne b Lakmal ........37 rounds in open championship and 17 rounds in restricted South Africa to 267 T Bavuma lbw Herath .....................................3 women’s championship, with a single game for for six on the opening day of the Q de Kock (batting) .......................................25 each round, Swiss event. first Test against Sri Lanka V Philander (batting) ......................................6 The Rapid will be 15 rounds for Open and 12 Extras (LB-3, NB-5, W-1) ................................9 yesterday. Total (for 6 wkts) ..........................267 rounds for Women’s championship, with a sin- Duminy made 63 and Cook Fall of wickets: 1-104, 2-105, 3-178, 4-213, gle game for each round, Swiss event. 59 as South Africa threatened 5-225, 6-253. The total prize fund for the Open tourna- to dominate on a dry track at St Bowling: Lakmal 23-6-62-4; Pradeep 17-4- ment is $400,000 with $40,000 for the winner George's Park but wickets at 48-0 (2nb); Mathews 13-5-26-0 (1w); Cha- of each championship and $80,000 in Women key moments kept Sri Lanka meera 14-1-68-0 (3nb); Herath 20-4-48-2; De Championships with $10,000 for the winner of firmly in the game. Silva 3-0-12-0. each championship. Sri Lanka: A Mathews, K Silva, D Karunaratne, K Lakmal ended a 104-run Mendis, D Chandimal, D de Silva, K Perera, R Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin, Viswa- opening partnership between Herath, S Lakmal, N Pradeep, D Chameera. nathan Anand, Alexander Grischuk, Vassily Cook and Dean Elgar and took Ivanchuk, Leinier Dominguez, Levon Aronian, two more vital wickets to leave Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and some of the top honours even at the start of the before attempting to sweep players who are taking part in the three-test series. Herath and being trapped lbw. championship. He removed both openers Herath had Temba Bavuma In the women’s section, Alexandra Kosteniuk, in quick succession as Sri Lanka lbw for three after a review Antoaneta Stefanova, Anna Ushenina, Zhu Chen, produced a much improved before Lakmal, who ended the Kateryna Lagno, Anna Muzychuk, Valentina bowling display after lunch. day with figures of 4-62 and Gunina and Ju Wenjun will be vying for top hon- Cook squared up to a deliv- tantalisingly close to first test ours. The Championship features more than 400 ery that straightened and Elgar five-wicket haul, removed Faf players from 75 countries. went in Lakmal's next over for du Plessis for 37 with the sec- 45, tempted by a ball outside ond new ball. The home captain the off stump that he could have was caught out by extra bounce left alone. and snapped up by Dimuth Kar- Hashim Amla continued to unaratne at first slip. look out of form and his foot- Quinton de Kock (25 not work again proved his downfall out) and Vernon Philander (6 as he was the third batsman not out) will resume today. caught by wicketkeeper Dinesh Sri Lanka, who have lost Chandimal off Lakmal for a eight of 10 previous Tests in laboured 20 off 107 balls. South Africa, will be pleased Players compete during the 2016 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz But while Amla struggled, their young side kept up their Duminy went after the seam- competitive edge after beating Championships at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena in Doha yesterday. ers and raced to 50 off 73 balls Australia at home this year and RIGHT: Qatari Grandmaster Al Sayeed Mohammed (right) prepares for but he was then pegged back Zimbabwe away. a move. Pictures by: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula SPORT 27 DECEMBER 2016 TUESDAY 21 The headline grabbers in 2016 New York Chicago Cubs players celebrate AP after defeating the Cleveland Indians in game seven of n a year filled with stunners, The year 2016 sports certainly went along the 2016 World Series at for the ride. registered some of Progressive Field in Cleveland, From the Golden State the most amazing Ohio, US. Warriors squandering a 3-1 sport stories - Ilead in the NBA Finals after a record-breaking season to little Chicago Cubs' Leicester City defying insur- World Series mountable odds to capture the Premier League title, there were triumph, Leicester plenty of shocking outcomes in City's EPL glory run our arenas and stadiums. and Angelique Heck, the Chicago Cubs even won the World Series for the first Kerber's tennis time in 108 years. dominance on the Let's take a look at the games WTA Tour were and events that left us aghast in 2016: the standout tales from the season NOT SO GOLDEN that ends in just The Warriors started the sea- a few days. son with a 24-game winning streak and finished 73-9, the greatest regular season in NBA history. Led by the incompara- ble Splash Brothers, Stephen most decorated athlete in Olym- England at the Euros, the most Grand Slam in 2015, Jordan Spi- even make it past their opening Curry and Klay Thompson, riveting, rain-delayed innings pic history. Joseph Schooling prestigious soccer prize outside eth was cruising toward his game. Middle Tennessee State, a Golden State rallied to beat Okla- after squandering a four-run won his country's first gold the World Cup. But the team second straight Masters title No. 15 seed, shot 56 percent from homa City for the Western lead. "We did it," first baseman medal with an upset victory in playing in its first major interna- when he made the turn on the the field and knocked down 11 Conference title and was poised Anthony Rizzo said. "I can't the 100-meter butterfly. Phelps tional tournament for its second straight champi- believe it." finished in a three-way tie for overcame an early onship. But, in an astounding second , giving him a silver to go deficit for a 2-1 vic- twist against Cleveland, the War- FOXY CHAMPIONS along with five golds in what was tory . It was one of riors became the first team ever again billed as his final Olympics. the humiliating to blow a 3-1 lead in the NBA If that seemed unbelievable, Phelps wasn't the only star to fal- defeats in the history Finals — dropping the last two check out Leicester City, perhaps ter in Rio: Keri Walsh failed to of English football, games in Oakland, no less.