ARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2015

42SPORTS

Boland replaces Coulter-Nile in Australia squad

Six wickets for Ali as England win warm-up game PIETERMARITZBURG, South Africa,Dec 22, (Agencies): Moeen Ali took sixwickets as England cruised to a comfort-able innings and 91 run win over SouthAfrica A on Tuesday to successfully con-clude their preparations for the BoxingDay test.

Ali’s spin skittled out the opponentsfor 187 runs on the last day of the lastwarm-up game as the home side offeredscant resistance after resuming on 35-2,243 runs behind thetourists who hadproven rampantwith the bat on thesecond day at theCity Oval onMonday.

England declaredon 414 for six inreply to the homeside’s first inningstally of 136.

Ali finished withfigures of six wickets for 77.

Seamer Steven Finn took two quickwickets to add to the four he took in thefirst innings and should be enough to earnhim a place in the England side for thefirst test against South Africa, whichstarts in Durban on Saturday.

England began on Tuesday with awicket with their first ball as MarkFootitt, also fighting for a test place, hadnight watchman Marchant de Langecaught at short leg by James Taylor.

After test players Quinton de Kock andRilee Rossouw put on 67 runs for thefourth wicket, Ali made a breakthroughby trapping De Kock leg before wicketfor 53 and Rossouw not long after in asimilar fashion for 32.

Finn then took two wickets in a singleover as South Africa A slumped to 110 forseven.

The last three wickets fell to Ali withwicketkeeper Dane Vilas, dropped bySouth Africa after the recent test defeat inIndia, unbeaten on 30.

❑ ❑ ❑Uncapped pace bowler Scott Boland

has been called up to the Australia squadfor the second test against West Indiesafter Nathan Coulter-Nile dislocated hisshoulder in a domestic Twenty20 match,Cricket Australia said on Tuesday.

Boland joins Josh Hazlewood, PeterSiddle and James Pattinson as the paceoptions for the Boxing Day match, whichbegins on Saturday at the MelbourneCricket Ground (MCG).

Coulter-Nile dislocated his right shoul-der when he fell awkwardly while field-ing for the Perth Scorchers in the BigBash League on Monday, dashing hishopes of making his test debut at theMCG.

“Although the extent of the injury andrehabilitation period will not be fullyknown until we receive the results ofscans later today, we can confirm thatNathan will not be available for theBoxing Day test,” team physio DavidBeakley said in a news release.

Boland has taken 72 wickets in 27 firstclass matches and took 7-31 in the secondinnings to bowl Victoria to victory overWestern Australia in a Sheffield Shieldmatch in Perth last month.

Australia have also lost left-arm pace-men Mitchell Starc and MitchellJohnson, to ankle surgery and retirementrespectively, since the start of the season.

The hosts won the first test againstWest Indies by an innings and 212 runs inHobart to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Australia squad: Steve Smith (cap-tain), David Warner, Joe Burns, UsmanKhawaja, Adam Voges, Shaun Marsh,Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill, PeterSiddle, James Pattinson, JoshHazlewood, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon.

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Blockbusting New Zealand batsmanBrendon McCullum announcedTuesday he will bow out of internationalcricket after the Test series againstAustralia in February, saying “all goodthings must come to an end”.

The New Zealand captain’s 101st andlast Test will be the second Test againstAustralia which starts in his home town,Christchurch, on Feb 20.

“I’ve loved my opportunity to play forand captain the Black Caps,” the 34-year-

Pakistani cricketers from the Karachi Kings pose for a photograph as theyattend the drafting of players for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Lahore onDec 21. Former Australian batsman Dean Jones finally arrived in Pakistan onDec 20, to take over as coach of a team in the new Twenty20 League after land-ing earlier without a valid visa, officials said. Jones arrived from Dubai on Dec19, but was refused entry because he had no valid visa for Pakistan and

returned to the emirate. (AFP)

‘Soccer is a strange sport sometimes’

Hertha players ponder secret of their own successBERLIN, Dec 22, (RTRS): Whetherit’s their change of coach, better fitnessor a new-found camaraderie, some-thing has transformed Hertha Berlinfrom a team on the brink of relegationseven months ago to one of the leadinglights of German soccer.

While success-starved fans cele-brate at seeing their team in third placein the Bundesliga, the players them-selves are struggling to pinpoint exact-ly what has changed.

“Soccer’s a strange sport some-times,” said midfielder Per Skjelbred,who is also Norway’s captain, after theteam concluded their best first half ofa season in seven years with three winsin a week.

“Last year we had a lot of big prob-lems and this year most things aregoing well. It’s a great team but we’remostly the same players as last year.Go figure that out.”

On course for one of Germany’sthree spots in the Champions Leaguewith 10 wins and 32 points, the capi-tal-city club have won five of their lastsix matches and have reached theGerman Cup quarter-finals.

Their success has delighted PalDardai, the down-to-earth formerplayer who took over as coach inFebruary and watched the club escaperelegation in May only thanks to abetter goal difference than theirrivals.

“Everyone’s talking about Herthathese days — from the rubbish collec-tors to the hairdressers and everyone inbetween,” Dardai said after Herthabeat Mainz 2-0 on Sunday in the finalmatch ahead of the league’s five-weekwinter break.

“That’s because of the incredibleperformance in the first half but we

shouldn’t be self-satisfied with that,”added the 39-year-old Dardai, whobecame the club’s sixth coach in sixyears. “We’ve got to keep workinghard. If we were to get satisfied withour situation now, then we’d have aproblem.”

Dardai, who until July was alsocoaching Hungary, has been given thelion’s share of the credit for getting themost out of his available talent but hewaves off the accolades, praisinginstead his players for their hard workand his training staff.

His gruelling pre-season condition-ing regime, spearheaded by two fitnesstrainers, drew complaints from theplayers at the time but everyone ravesabout it now.

“Our fitness is superior. It’s the mostimportant thing,” said Dardai, whowas a fearless midfielder and hard-working favourite of Hertha’s“Ostkurve” fans. “Being in top shaperadiates all the way into your brain.”

Hertha have been especially strong

at home, picking up six of their 10wins in the Olympia Stadium. Theylast played in the Champions Leaguein the 1999/2000 season and havenever won the Bundesliga.

Hertha, who trail only BayernMunich and Borussia Dortmund, arethree points ahead of BorussiaMoenchengladbach and five aheadof both Bayer Leverkusen andSchalke 04. VfL Wolfsburg are onepoint further back in the race for atop-three finish and automatic entryinto next season’s ChampionsLeague.

Berlin is one of the few capitals ofa major nation without a club thatplays regularly in, or even challengesfor, a spot in Europe’s ChampionsLeague.

In part, that is because of a lingeringweakness in the economy in Berlin, aonce-divided city that was longtrapped as an island of democracybehind the Iron Curtain and is now oneof Germany’s cheapest big cities.

Hertha’s players say they havegelled as a unit this season, after strug-gling a year ago.

old said.McCullum said there was “something

romantic” about finishing in front of hishome crowd and he made the announce-ment now because his name would bemissing when the New Zealand team isnamed soon for the World Twenty20 inIndia from March 8 to April 3.

“Ideally, I would have preferred to waituntil after the Test in Christchurch tomake this news public,” he said.

“However, the schedule for naming theICC World T20 squads means I couldn’thave managed this without causing a lotof confusion and speculation, somethingI was keen to avoid.”

The big-hitter, with a Test best 302 andco-holder of the world record of 100 Testsixes with Australian Adam Gilchrist,said now was not the time for him todwell on his achievements.

“There’s a time and place for reflectionand that’s at the end of your career,” hesaid.

“For now, I’ll be giving all my atten-tion to helping the team focus on what’scoming up over the next few weeks —and making sure we’re in the best possi-ble shape for what’s going to be a verychallenging summer.”

He added that giving testimony in theChris Cairns match-fixing perjury trialin London last month had no impact onhis decision to quit internationals.

Former teammate Cairns, who wascleared, has demanded McCullumexplain why he chose to appear as a pros-ecution witness.

Kane Williamson, whose unbeatencentury steered New Zealand to victoryover Sri Lanka in the second Test inHamilton on Monday, was immediatelyconfirmed by New Zealand officials ascaptain for the World Twenty20.

McCullum hasforged the bestrecord of any NewZealand captainsince taking overthe leadership fromRoss Taylor inDecember 2012.

Under his stew-ardship the BlackCaps have won 11and drawn 11 of 31Tests.

His record as anone-day captain is a New Zealand best at59.43 percent, which included leading hisside the World Cup final this year.

McCullum made his internationaldebut against Australia in 2002 andplayed his first Test against South Africatwo years later.

In his 99 Tests, he has scored 11 cen-turies and is one of only 24 players andthe only New Zealander to make a triple

Paul suspendedas Jordan coach AMMAN, Dec 22, (AFP): Paul Put hasbeen suspended as Jordan’s nationalfootball coach pending “clarification”of a prison sentence in his homelandBelgium for match-fixing, Jordan’sfootball federation said Tuesday.

A Belgian appeals court last weekgave the 59-year-old a two-year jailterm and ordered his immediate arrestfor allowing a Chinese businessman tobribe players when he was coach ofLierse, according to the Belga newsagency.

Jordan’s football association “decid-ed to immediately suspend the coach ofthe national team pending clarificationof the legal situation in order to make afinal decision,” it said in a statement.

Put was one of more than a dozenmanagers, players, coaches and agentscharged in connection with a hugematch-fixing scandal dating back to2004-2006.

He was initially given a two-yearsuspended sentence but the appealcourt ordered him to serve time behindbars.

Best of the Rest

France to host event: Frenchcity Toulon will host the fifthAmerica’s Cup World Series event inSeptember 2016.

The World Series event, which ispart of a two-year schedule to deter-mine the challenger to face TeamOracle in the 2017 America’s Cupin Bermuda, will be held in theMediterranean city from Sept 10-11.

Franck Cammas, the captain ofGroupama Team France, says “wecan’t wait to bring the race to Toulonand to compete in front of a homecrowd.”

Other events in 2016 are scheduledto take place in Muscat, Oman, alongwith New York, Chicago andPortsmouth, England. (AP)

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Burkina Faso coach quits:Gernot Rohr has quit his job as coachof Burkina Faso to take up a post withthe German football association andalso work as a television analyst, hesaid on Tuesday.

The 62-year-old last month sawBurkina Faso through the first phaseof the African zone of the 2018 WorldCup qualifiers but said he was leavingfor ‘professional and personal rea-sons’.

He will work on development pro-grammes for the German federationand concentrate on his role as televi-sion analyst.

Rohr spent just 10 months inBurkina Faso, where there has been atenuous political situation and civilunrest. (RTRS)

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Melo gets three-match ban:Inter Milan midfielder Felipe Melohas been banned for three matches foraiming a kung-fu kick at Lazio’sLucas Biglia at the weekend, Serie Asaid on Tuesday.

The Brazil international received astraight red card for the 90th-minuteincident that came moments after hehad given away a penalty for a foul onSergej Milinkovic-Savic on Sunday.

The penalty was missed butAntonio Candreva scored on therebound to secure 10th-placed Lazioa 2-1 win over table-topping Inter.

“Unfortunately Melo did two stu-pid things,” coach Mancini told SkySport Italia after the match.

Melo now misses Serie A gamesagainst Empoli, Sassuolo andAtalanta. (RTRS)

❑ ❑ ❑

Tomic replaces Drulovic:Former Partizan Belgrade midfielderIvan Tomic has taken over as coach ofthe Serbian champions from LjubinkoDrulovic after a turbulent openinghalf of the season.

“We thank Drulovic for taking thejob under difficult circumstances,”the club said on their website(www.partizan.rs) on Tuesday.

“He was guided by the club’s bestinterests throughout and handed overthe position to Tomic knowing thatwe fully appreciate his positiveapproach.”

The 39-year-old Tomic, who madefive appearances for the formerYugoslavia, is Partizan’s third coachthis season. (RTRS)

Hertha’s defender MarvinPlattenhardt celebrates after scor-ing his team’s second goal duringthe German first divisionBundesliga football match SVDarmstadt 98 vs Hertha BSCBerlin in Darmstadt, Germany, on

Dec 12. (AFP)

Ali

McCullum

CRICKET

SOCCER