ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

41SPORTS

Unfancied hosts reduce deficit against Proteas to 69 runs

Bangladesh steady after 50s by Tamim, MahmudullahCHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, July 22,(AFP): Half-centuries by MahmudullahRiyad and Tamim Iqbal gave Bangladeshthe edge over top-ranked South AfricaWednesday as the unfancied hostsreached 179-4 before rain stopped playon the second day of the first Test.

Mahmudullah made 67 while Tamimadded a patient 57 as Bangladesh reducedtheir deficit to 69 runs after the Proteaswere dismissed for a modest 248 inChittagong.

Vernon Philander trappedMahmudullah leg-before just before rainended the day’s play in the third session,swinging the game back towards the vis-itors after lowly Bangladesh appeared tohave taken the advantage.

Mahmudullah, who hit 10 fours off138 balls, put on 89 with Tamim for thethird wicket, providing the backbone ofthe Bangladesh innings after the hostsresumed on Wednesday on 7-0.

Tamim, who faced 129 balls, scoredhis first fifty against South Africa in fiveTests before he was bowled by a full toss

from left-arm spinner Dean Elgar on thestroke of the tea break.

South Africa’s bowling coach CharlLangeveldt believes Bangladesh have aslight advantage in the game.

“I think it is 60-40 in their side,” hesaid after stumps. “The game is fairlyeven. If they get a 100-run lead againstus, we will be struggling.

“Bangladesh really batted well. They

were patient. Normally they have the sec-ond highest scoring rate. I think our guysbowled really well and Bangladesh battedwell.”

Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah said thethird day’s opening session would be cru-cial for both the teams.

“I think if we can spend first session

tomorrow without losing any wicket wewill be in the driving seat,” he said.“Anything close to 400 runs will be goodscore in this wicket.”

Earlier in the morning session Tamimand fellow opener Imrul Kayes mixedaggression with caution to blunt the newball, scoring 41 in the first hour.

But occasional medium pacer StiaanVan Zyl dragged Imrul out of his creasefor Quinton de Kock to complete astumping, breaking a resolute 46-runopening stand.

Imrul departed for 26 after leading theinitial charge with three fours.

Spinner Simon Harmer then took outMominul Haque’s off stump to leaveBangladesh struggling on 55-2 beforeTamim and Mahmudullah rebuilt theinnings.

Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim was unbeat-en on 16 when rain stopped play for thesecond time with 25 overs still left in theday.

Shakib Al Hasan, on one not out, willresume with his skipper on Thursday asBangladesh push for an unprecedentedTest victory against the Proteas.

Bangladesh, who have a dismal Testrecord, had made an impressive start tothe match on the opening day on Tuesday.

Paceman Mustafizur Rahman claimed4-37 in his Test debut and leg-spinnerJubair Hossain added 3-53 as Bangladeshbowled out the visitors for 248.

The second match of the two-Testseries will be played in Dhaka from July30-August 3.

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, July 22,(AFP): Score on the second day of thefirst Test between Bangladesh andSouth Africa at the Zahur AhmedChowdhury Stadium in Chittagong onWednesday:

SOUTH AFRICA 1st innings (T.Bavuma 54; Mustafizur Rahman 4-37,Jubair Hossain 3-53)

BANGLADESH first innings (7-0overnight):Tamim Iqbal b Elgar.............................57Imrul Kayes st de Kock b van Zyl........26Mominul Haque v Harmer .....................6Mahmudullah lbw b Philander .............67Mushfiqur Rahim not out .....................16Shakib Al Hasan not out .......................1

Extras (lb 5, nb1) ..................................6Total (for four wickets; 67 overs) ......179

To bat: Litton Das, Jubair Hossain,Mohammad Shahid, Taijul Islam,Mustafizur Rahman.

Fall of wickets: 1-46 (Imrul), 2-55(Mominul), 3-144 (Tamim), 4-178(Mahmudullah)

Bowling: Steyn 13-3-46-0, Philander12-1-22-1 (nb1), Morkel 11-2-28-0,Harmer 19-3-59-1, van Zyl 9-2-13-1,Elgar 3-0-6-1

Toss: South AfricaUmpires: Richard Kettleborough

(ENG) and Joel Wilson (WI)Third umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS)Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)

B’desh vs SA Scoreboard

CRICKET

Shehzad leads Pakistan toseries ‘win’ over Sri Lanka

Visitors thrash below-par Lankans by 7 wickets

COLOMBO, July 22, (AFP):Ahmed Shehzad smashed 95off 90 balls as Pakistanthrashed below-par SriLanka by seven wickets inthe fourth one-day match inColombo on Wednesday toclinch the five-match series.

Mohammad Hafeez chipped inwith 70 as the tourists surpassed SriLanka’s 256-9 in the 41st over at thePremadasa stadium to take a decisive3-1 lead in the series.

The series win kept Azhar Ali’sPakistan in contention for a place in theeight-nation Champions Trophy inEngland in 2017.

Pakistan are two points ahead of theWest Indies at number eight in the rank-ings, but both teams are due to play a tri-series in Zimbabwe next month that willdetermine the final spot.

Pakistan’s one-day success followstheir 2-1 victory over Sri Lanka in thepreceding Test series under Misbah-ulHaq’s captaincy.

Sri Lanka are assured of taking part inthe Champions Trophy, but their lacklus-tre display did not do justice to the formerworld champions.

Shehzad and Azhar put Pakistan on theroad to victory with an opening stand of75 in 11 overs before the skipper wasremoved by sling-arm fast bowler LasithMalinga for 33.

Hafeez helped Shehzad build on thefine start by adding 115 for the secondwicket, but Sri Lanka hit back to removeboth batsmen in the space of 23 runs.

Shehzad fell five runs short of hisfourth one-day century when he cutseamer Suranga Lakmal to a diving KusalPerera at third man. He hit 12 boundariesand a six.

Hafeez was caught behind by DineshChandimal off spinner MilindaSiriwardana to leave Pakistan on 213-3,but Sri Lanka’s recovery came too late.

Shoaib Malik hit a 16-ball 29 andended the match by lofting Siriwardanaover mid-wicket for his fourth six.Sarfraz Ahmed remained unbeaten on 17.

Earlier, Lahiru Thirimanne top-scoredwith 90 for Sri Lanka after skipperAngelo Mathews won the toss for thefirst time on Pakistan’s current tour andelected to bat.

The left-hander put on 109 for the sec-ond wicket with Tillakaratne Dilshan (50)after Perera had been dismissed byMohammad Irfan off the second ball ofthe match.

Thirimanne missed his fifth one-daycentury when he swept leg-spinner YasirShah to deep square-leg, where Shehzadpicked up a low catch to make amendsfor a dropped catch in the bowler’s previ-ous over.

Besides Thirimanne and Dilshan, noneof the other top-order batsmen settled in asMathews fell for 12 and Dinesh Chandimalwas dismissed after making 20.

ScoreboardCOLOMBO, July 22, (AFP): Fullscoreboard of the fourth one-dayinternational between Pakistan andSri Lanka at the Premadasa stadiumin Colombo on Wednesday:

SRI LANKA:K. Perera c Imad b Irfan ..................0T. Dilshan b Imad ..........................50L. Thirimanne c Shehzad b Yasir ..90A. Mathews c Yasir b Rahat ..........12D. Chandimal c Yasir b Irfan .........20A. Priyanjan c Hafeez b Anwar .....18M. Siriwardana c Rizwan b Anwar 19S. Pathirana run out .......................14L. Malinga c Rizwan b Irfan ..........17S. Lakmal not out ............................1N. Pradeep not out ..........................0

Extras: (b4, lb1, w8, nb2) ..........15Total (for nine wickets, 50 overs)

256Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Perera), 2-109

(Dilshan), 3-143 (Mathews), 4-170(Chandimal), 5-186 (Thirimanne), 6-215 (Siriwardana), 7-228 (Priyanjan),8-243 (Pathirana), 9-252 (Malinga).

Bowling: Irfan 10-0-50-3 (nb2, w2),Anwar 7-0-41-2 (w4), Rahat 7-0-39-1(w2), Yasir 10-0-50-1, Azhar 2-0-13-0,Imad 10-0-43-1, Malik 4-0-15-0.

PAKISTAN:A. Ali c sub (Senanayake) b Malinga ......33A. Shehzad c Perera b Lakmal .....95M. Hafeez c Chandimal b Siriwardana ....70Sarfraz Ahmed not out ..................17Shoaib Malik not out .....................29Extras: (b4, w9) .............................13

Total (for three wickets, 40.5 overs) 257

Fall of wickets: 1-75 (Azhar), 2-190(Shehzad), 3-213 (Hafeez).

Bowling: Malinga 9-2-46-1, Lakmal8-0-50-1 (w3), Pathirana 10-0-81-0,Pradeep 2.2-0-9-0 (w1), Mathews2.4-0-9-0 (w2), Siriwardana 5.5-0-28-1, Dilshan 3-0-30-0 (w3).

Pakistan won by seven wickets,lead 3-1 in five-match series

Toss: Sri LankaUmpires: Raveendra Wimalasiri

(SRI) and Rod Tucker (AUS)TV umpire: Ian Gould (ENG)Match referee: Javagal Srinath

(IND)

CRICKET

Pakistan’s Ahmed Shehzad plays a shot as Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper Danish Chandimal watches during their fourthOne-Day International cricket match in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 22. (AP)

Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal plays a shot during the second day of the firstcricket Test match between Bangladesh and South Africa at the Zahur Ahmed

Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on July 22. (AFP)

Greater peace in freediving

Nery, the genie ofthe deep blue seaNICE, France, July 22, (AFP):“People think of me as a yogi whoeats tofu, it’s mad how they assumefreedivers to be,” says GuillaumeNery, the star of his sport from thesouthern French city of Nice.

Far from the stereotypes, Neryhas sagely built up a viable eco-nomic model which has allowedhim to follow his dream and makea living from his sport.

The bronzed and sculpted 33-year-old finishes the plate ofspaghetti carbonara of the personsitting alongside him at his table, inthe shade of the baking Coted’Azur sun.

He then sets about debunkingother myths that were popularisedby The Big Blue, Luc Besson’s1988 film about the friendship andrivalry between two leading freed-ivers.

Nery refuses to pontificate aboutenvironmental issues when he isprepared to fly across the world togo diving in Tahiti, and he recoilsat the image of himself as a mer-man, half-man, half-fish.

“A fish breathes under water.Submarine life, that’s not me,” hetells AFP as he talks of the “crazyintensity” of diving to a worldrecord depth of -125 metres.

Nery has set the world recordfour times and was also the worldchampion in 2011, but despite thathe is unable to make a living fromhis sport so instead he created hisown company, known as BlueNery.

“When I was 14 or 15, I said: ‘Iwant to live the life of Pelizzari, myrole model’”, he says, referring toItalian freediving great UmbertoPelizzari.

“Today, I live off my image.”Along with his wife Julie

Gautier, he has a successful filmproduction company called LesFilms Engloutis (Sunken Films).

They made the 2010 film ‘FreeFall’, in which Nery dives into theworld’s deepest underwater hole,

the 202m Dean’s Blue Hole in theBahamas.

The film has been viewed 22 mil-lion times on the internet and hiscompany has an annual turnover ofup to 130,000 euros ($141,522;£91,000).

The financial autonomy that andhis sponsors provide allow him toprepare to win back his title at theworld championships in Cyprus onSeptember 16 in the constantweight apnea discipline.

He ceded his world title in 2013to his friend and rival, the RussianAlexey Molchanov, who has alsobeaten Nery’s world record with adive of —128 metres.

In the build-up to the competi-tion, he has intensified his prepara-tions and dived -105m in the watersoff Nice on July 18.

He spends plenty of time in thegym too, although he insists thatfreediving is not body-building.Unlike other sports, he says, “weneed to maximise our use of ener-gy. A good dive means consuminglittle oxygen, and yet a huge effortis required to descend and comeback up again with fins.”

The key is “relaxation, to bealmost in a state of hibernation.You need to get in that mindset assoon as you wake up. Sometimesyou are almost in a state of idle-ness.”

He says he is at his happiest dur-ing three and a half minutes of adive, especially in a freefall to adepth of more than 30 metres,when “you listen to your own feel-ings, living the moment. That’swhere I get my mantra: here andnow.”

Nery may dismiss the image ofhimself as yoga-obsessed, but hesays freediving can teach people tobe at greater peace with them-selves.

“It is a type of meditation. Thissport makes you feel extremelyhumble when you are hanging like amolecule of water in the blue enor-mity,” he says.

“Nowhere else in the world canyou experience infinity with allfive senses.”

Pakistan’s Anwar Ali bowls pass SriLanka’s Sachith Pathirana (not seen),during their fourth One-DayInternational cricket match inColombo, Sir Lanka on July 22. (AP)

Bairstow saysin ‘best’ formLONDON, July 22, (AFP): JonnyBairstow believes he is in the best formof his career after being handed anEngland recall ahead of the third Testagainst Australia at Edgbaston on July29.

Bairstow has been picked in place ofdropped county team-mate Gary Ballanceafter making five hundreds for reigningchampions Yorkshire in the CountyChampionship where he averages over100 so far this season.

England have suffered a series of top-order collapses in recent matches andthey could not get themselves out of trou-ble in the second Test at Lord’s, whereAustralia won by a crushing 405 runs tolevel the series at 1-1.

Bairstow, the son of late formerEngland wicket-keeper David Bairstow,now has a chance to improve on a modestTest average of 26.95 in 14 matches, thelast against Australia in Sydney in 2014when an England defeat meant they suf-fered a 5-0 Ashes whitewash.

However, he made a match and series-winning 83 not out against New Zealandin a one-day international at Chester-le-Street last month.

“I am very pleased to have been calledup,” Bairstow, set to bat at number fivefor England, said Tuesday after beingincluded in a 13-man Test squad.

Aussies beaten by 4 wickets

Advantage England in Women’s Ashes series.LONDON, July 22, (AFP): NatalieSciver’s 66 saw England to a four-wicket win in the first match of themulti-format Women’s Ashes seriesin Taunton on Tuesday.

England, set a target of 239 forvictory after holding Australia to 238for nine in this 50-over one-dayinternational, finished on 240 for sixwith 26 balls of the match remain-ing.

Sciver and Lydia Greenway (53)oversaw England’s recovery from 80for four in a century stand beforeboth fell in sight of victory.

Greenway hooked a full tossstraight to midwicket before Sciverfound mid-off with 22 runs requiredto win.

Georgia Elwiss and KatherineBrunt scored the remaining runs totake the first two points on offer inthe series.

England’s top order, includingexperienced captain Charlotte

Edwards (15) and Sarah Taylor (30)all got starts but could not go on.

Australia had earlier slumped to 35for three before Ellyse Perry (78) andAlex Blackwell (58) shared a part-nership of 121.

For Perry, who made her name incricket as a new-ball bowler, this washer sixth fifty in as many one-dayinternational matches.

Their stand ended when HeatherKnight ran out Blackwell with adirect hit from mid off. Perry,dropped on 21, later holed out toSciver at deep mid-wicket.

A victorious Edwards, whose sidehold the Ashes, told Sky Sports: “Wetalked about starting the series well.It’s something we haven’t done in thepast.

“We’ve done it as perfectly as wecould have today.

“I thought we started brilliantlywith the ball. Our fielding was out-standing at times and then that part-nership between Sciver andGreenway was absolutely brilliant.And for Georgia Elwiss to come inand show her talent at the end wasfantastic.”

Meanwhile Perry said: “The condi-tions were really tough because theoutfield was so incredibly quick. Butthey showed great ability to hit thestumps for those run outs and allcredit to them.

“We didn’t have a great start withthe bat and that was probably the dif-ference, in the end.”

The format has been changed fromthe last Ashes, with the points forwinning the lone Test match reducedfrom six to four, with all the limited-overs games providing two points forvictory.

This series continues with the sec-ond ODI at Bristol on Thursday.

French free diver Guillaume Nery practices apnea during a trainingsession in the Mediterranean sea near Nice on July 18. (AFP)

French free diver Guillaume Nery blows a bubble ring as he practicesapnea during a training session in the Mediterranean sea near Nice onJuly 18, ahead of the 2015 AIDA (Association for Development ofApnea) Individual Depth World Championships which will take place

between Sept 5 and 20 in Cyprus. (AFP)

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DIVING