New Zealand bowled with discipline and looked set for a lead in the second Test against Pakistan in Dubai yesterday, despite Azhar Ali and Younis Khan’s half-centuries.
Pakistan lost Asad Shafiq in seamer Tim Southee’s penultimate over for 44 to end the day on 281-6, still trailing by 122 runs on New Zealand’s first innings total of 403.
Sarfraz Ahmed was unbeaten on 28 and Yasir Shah on 1 in a day when the Pakistan batsmen failed to score big after a good start.
Photo: AFP
Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi led the New Zealand bowling with two for 65. Pakistan, resuming at 34-2, saw off the first session without losing a wicket as Younis Khan (72) and Azhar Ali (75) shared a 113-run stand for the third wicket.
Yet New Zealand got four wickets in the next two sessions to press their claim for a useful lead and in turn improve their chances of sealing a series-leveling win.
Pakistan won the first Test by 248 runs in Abu Dhabi.
Azhar added another 50 runs with skipper Misbah-ul-Haq, but New Zealand hit back with the second new ball taken after 83 overs with the score at 194-3.
Trent Boult claimed his first wicket of the series with a beautiful delivery that got the edge of Misbah’s bat and landed in the safe hands of Ross Taylor at first slip.
Misbah’s 28 had two boundaries and a six.
Ali drove spinner Mark Craig through point for three to complete his 18th half-century, but he too fell, trying to cut Sodhi and getting bowled. He hit six boundaries and a six during his patient 5 hour, 22 minute vigil.
Shafiq was lucky to survive at 26 when Boult bowled him with a sharp incoming delivery, but to New Zealand’s dismay it turned out to be a no-ball. He too failed to bat for long and was caught off a loose shot in the end, adding 59 for the sixth wicket with Sarfraz.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier