Hoffenheim end Hertha’s winning run
SINSHEIM: Hoffenheim brought Hertha Berlin’s short Bundesliga resurgence to an end on Friday with a 2-0 win over the visiting team.
Goals in the first half from Andrej Kramaric and Sebastian Rudy moved Hoffenheim into seventh place ahead of the rest of the 10th round and ended Hertha’s two-game winning streak.
The Berliners were nowhere to be seen in the first half with Kramaric ramming the ball in for the lead in the 19th minute after a good move by Robert Skov and Ilhas Bebou cleverly letting the ball slide through his legs for his team mate to score.
The hosts, who have now won seven of their last nine games at home in all competitions, kept their foot on the gas and Skov rattled the post with a thundering shot in the 36th only for the rebound to land conveniently into the path of Rudy who connected perfectly to double their lead.
To make matters worse Hertha were left with 10 men when captain Dedryck Boyata was sent off with a straight red card for a late and extremely dangerous challenge on Angelo Stiller, who had to be taken off with an ankle injury.
Hertha coach Pal Dardai continues his bad run at Hoffenhein in his 200th game in charge of the Berlin club, and has now managed just one point in his seven visits to Hoffenheim, with his team dropping to 11th place on 12 points, two behind Hoffenheim.—Agencies
Aussie all-rounder Davidson is no more
MELBOURNE: Alan Davidson, the first player to score 100 runs and take 10 wickets in a single Test match, has died at the age of 92, Cricket Australia announced on Saturday.
The New South Wales all-rounder, a left-arm swing bowler who claimed 186 wickets and scored 1328 runs during his career, played in 44 Tests for Australia and was inducted into the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame in 2011.
“Alan Davidson’s passing is a sad moment for Australian cricket and for cricket across the world,” CA chair Richard Freudenstein said in a statement.Davidson made his Test debut for Australia during the 1953 Ashes series and in 1960 he became the first player to take 10 wickets and score 100 runs in a single Test.
Playing with a broken finger, Davidson hit a swashbuckling 80 on the final day in Brisbane to help the Australians draw with the West Indies.
After retirement, Davison spent five years as an Australian Test selector from 1979 until 1984.
The flag on the Members Pavilion at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where Davidson served as a trustee for 20 years, was lowered to half-mast in tribute.
His death comes a day after Ashley Mallett, one of Australia’s greatest spin bowlers, died in Adelaide from cancer.—Reuters
Sinner wins, joins Zverev in semis
VIENNA: Jannik Sinner stretched his winning streak on indoor hard courts to 11 matches and 22 sets on Friday by beating Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-1 in the quarter-finals of the Vienna Open.
The seventh-seeded Italian will take on American qualifier Frances Tiafoe for a place in the final.
In the other semi-final, Alexander Zverev takes on Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz, who upset seventh-ranked Matteo Berrettini 6-1, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5).
Ruud, who has won a tour-leading five titles this season, led 5-4 in the opening set but the Norwegian lost nine of the next 10 games as Sinner gained control in most rallies.
Tiafoe defeated Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 7-6 (6), one day after upsetting top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The 49th-ranked American squandered a 5-1 lead in the second set but broke Schwartzman when the Argentine served for the set at 6-5. Tiafoe saved a set point in the tiebreaker before converting his second match point.
Zverev defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to improve to 23-2 since losing to the Canadian in the fourth round of Wimbledon.—AP
Too much pressure’ on Bangladesh
DHAKA: Former cricketers and analysts blamed Bangladesh’s disastrous start to the T20 World Cup on the intense pressure placed on the national team.
Bangladesh lost to the West Indies by three runs in Sharjah on Friday — the team’s third successive defeat in as many matches in the Super-12 phase, effectively ending their chances to qualify for the semi-final.
“If you look at other teams, you see they enjoy their game. Win or lose, they keep smiles on their faces,” former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mashud wrote in mass circulated daily Prothom Alo.
“Our players cannot enjoy their game.”
Bangladesh began the tournament with a defeat against Scotland but scraped through to the Super-12s with wins against Oman and Papua New Guinea.
They initially had Sri Lanka on their knees in their opening Super-12 match, but sloppy fielding and some inexplicable bowling changes cost them the match.
After being trounced by England, Mahmudullah’s side had the West Indies on the ropes, opting to bowl first and reducing their opponents to 64-4 in 12.4 overs. But Nicolas Pooran’s 40 led a West Indies resurgence, leading them to a competitive 142-7 on a slow pitch. Bangladesh were in the game until the last ball with skipper Mahmudullah needing to strike a boundary, but he conceded a dot instead.
“Bangladesh played under too much pressure. We got a chance and we fought. “In the end, we lost to the West Indies’ experience and wisdom,” Gazi Ashraf Hossain, another former captain, wrote in a newspaper column.—AFP
Nabi urges Afghan fans to buy tickets
DUBAI: Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi has pleaded with his country’s fans to please buy tickets instead of forcing their way into stadiums without a valid ticket at the T20 World Cup.
“Afghan fans, please buy tickets and come to the stadium, don’t repeat again, it’s not good,” Nabi said after losing a thrilling Group 2 game to Pakistan by five wickets on Friday night with Asif Ali smashing four sixes in the penultimate over.
Ticketless fans, mostly carrying Afghan flags, tried to enter the Dubai International Cricket Stadium and the ICC said police closed all the gates an hour after the game had started to maintain a safe and controlled environment inside the venue.
The match began while swathes of fans outside the stadium were seen running towards the entrances. Those already inside had queued for hours and they generated a stunning atmosphere in a ground awash with color and energy.
But the closure of gates deprived numbers of fans entry despite having valid tickets.
“The ICC, BCCI and ECB apologise to any fans with valid tickets who were unable to enter the stadium tonight and request they contact the ticket provider,” the ICC said.
The ICC also said that it had asked the Emirates Cricket Board to undertake a thorough investigation into the Friday night’s events to learn any lessons and will work closely with authorities to ensure there is no repeat of this situation in future.—AP
Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2021