Big Miss� Italy� Netherlands� USA� Chile

6

Teams qualified for WC 2018� Russia (host)� Brazil� Iran� Japan� South Korea� Saudi Arabia� Mexico� Belgium� Germany� England� Poland� Costa Rica� Nigeria� Egypt� Iceland� Serbia� Spain� France� Portugal� Panama� Argentina� Uruguay� Colombia� Senegal� Morocco� Tunisia� Switzerland� Croatia� Sweden� Denmark� New Zealand or

Peru� Austra i la or

Honduras

CHENNAISportsWEDNESDAY15 NOVEMBER 2017

LOCAL SPORTS

Big Miss� Italy� Netherlands� USA� Chile

Teams qualified for WC 2018� Russia (host)� Brazil� Iran� Japan� South Korea� Saudi Arabia� Mexico� Belgium� Germany� England� Poland� Costa Rica� Nigeria� Egypt� Iceland� Serbia� Spain� France� Portugal� Panama� Argentina� Uruguay� Colombia� Senegal� Morocco� Tunisia� Switzerland� Croatia� Sweden� Denmark� New Zealand or

Peru� Austra i la or

Honduras

Neymar

London, Nov 15 (AFP):England must silence the baying

home crowds if they are to stand any chance of getting on top of Australia during the upcoming Ashes series, said former spinner Graeme Swann.

Swann, who ret ired mid-way through England’s ill-fated tour in 2013/14, described the noise levels at the Gabba in Brisbane, hosting the fi rst Test from 23 November, as “unbelievable” and even louder than Real Madrid’s home supporters.

England are the current Ashes holders but go into the lion’s den on the back of two 5-0 whitewashes in their past three tours Down Under, although Swann was a key part of the side that won 3-1 in 2010/11.

‘The thing you’ve got to do is stop the noise and the easy way to do that in Australia is to get on top of them,’ said Swann, adding that England’s senior players such as Alastair Cook and captain Joe Root would have to lead from the front.

London,Nov 15:England’s players may only have

been 90 minutes older at the end of this, but some of the younger ones may have felt fi ve years wiser.

Joe Gomez, for instance, deserv-edly voted man of the match, who can return to Liverpool having kept the shackles on Neymar. Harry Maguire, confi dently bringing the ball out of the back, yet unashamed to plant the odd one into row Z when the occasion demanded. John Stones, growing with each game into England’s defensive leader. He’ll never be John Terry, but there is no better number for a defender than zero and three hours of football against Germany and Brazil have produced that for England’s opponents, combined. There will be those who will be dissatisfi ed with this performance, who will have found Eng-land dull and unimaginative, outplayed for long periods by a superior Brazilian side. Yet what did they expect? That Gareth Southgate would throw in a few kids, they would do a few tricks, and then go out and play Brazil.

Football isn’t like that. Football is real. And this Brazilian team are real, too, even if friendly conditions are artifi cial. Real skill, real talent, real intensity

when they choose, real danger when attack-ing with purpose. So while these were far from World Cup conditions, this was a genuine test for a young England team and in their own limited way, they passed. They did not lose, they did not concede, they held their shape as the manager instructed, kept their discipline, and toughed it out.

From the start it was plain to see what Southgate intended. A differ-ent kind of lesson the type his group might need if they catch a fair wind in time for summer. Last night’s tutorial: how to play against better opponents. How to stay in the game against a team that is superior technically.

Southgate sent out a side to keep it tight and look to win on the counter attack, so this was a partial success, at worst. He might even have been accused of playing for penalties, had they been a factor in a friendly game or if that was not a suicidal tactic for an England manager.

Lacazette scores brace against Germany

Germany’s Lars Stindl scored a last-gasp equaliser to rescue a 2-2 draw against France as the world champions stretched their un-beaten run to 21 matches.

France twice led through Alexandre Lacazette, who netted either side of Timo Werner’s level-ler, and looked set to triumph as they had in Germany’s last defeat in a Euro 2016 semi-fi nal.

But Stindl struck in stoppage time to rescue the hosts. But the hosts struggled under early French pressure, with the speedy Kylian Mbappe and Blaise Matuidi a constant threat.

Lacazette, replacing injured forward Olivier Giroud, forced a good save from Germany keeper Kevin Trapp with a powerful shot but went one better in the 34th minute, tapping in from close range after superb work from Anthony Martial.

Spain vs Russia ends in tieSergio Ramos scored twice from the penalty spot as Spain drew 3-3 with Russia in St Petersburg. Grit and some fi ne individual skill from striker Fyodor Smolov brought Russia back from 2-0 down to earn a draw which will boost morale after a tough year for the 2018 World Cup hosts.Spain fi nish 2017 unbeaten, but looked uneasy in defence as

their seven-game win streak ended in humid conditions under the roof at the St Petersburg Stadium.Jordi Alba gave the Spain the lead in the ninth minute with a head-

er, just after Smolov had missed a good chance at the other end.Ramos added some lunges to his penalty warm-up in a successful

bid to throw goalkeeper Andrei Lunyov for his 35th minute penalty, awarded after a hotly disputed handball call.Russia made it 2-1 when Smolov beat Gerard Pique and scored in the

41st minute, and the Russia equalised in the 51st with Alexei Miranchuk’s pouncing on a rebound to turn home from close range.

Spain responded almost immediately with another Ramos penalty after he was brought down by Georgy Dzhikiya. Smolov had the last word with a fi erce shot from outside the penalty area in the 71st.

Iwobi the show stopperArsenal forward Alex Iwobi scored twice as Nigeria comfort-

ably overcame the challenge of Argentina.Argentina were two goals up through Ever Banega and Sergio Aguero when Nigeria started their comeback.

Kelechi Iheanacho pulled one back before Iwobi levelled the game seven minutes into the second half. Brian Idowu

scored two minutes later to put Nigeria into the lead and Iwobi sealed the win 17 minutes before the end.There was concern Aguero when he collapsed during Ar-

gentina’s defeat by Nigeria in Russia. Aguero is said to have fainted at half time before he was replaced by substitute Dario

Benedetto. City, who play Leicester on Saturday, are awaiting medical reports before the striker returns home.

NEYMAR subdued by young lions�� England works hard to earn draw against Brazil England works hard to earn draw against Brazil

�� WC qualifi cation looms over New Zealand and Australia WC qualifi cation looms over New Zealand and Australia

India’s real test will be in South Africa: Azhar

Kolkata, Nov 15 (PTI):Former sk ipper Mohammad

Azharuddin today said the Indian cricket team’s real test will be the two-month long tour of South Africa.

India are currently hosting Sri Lanka, who were beaten across all formats in their own den earlier this year.

‘The Sri Lanka series will be chal-lenging but India’s real test will be against South Africa,’ he told report-ers on the sidelines of the inaugural Jagmohan Dalmiya Conclave here.

The low-profi le Sri Lanka series is seen as a prelude to the gruelling tour to South Africa, where they will play three Tests, six ODIs and three T20Is in January-February next year.

Azharuddin also showered praise on India skipper Virat Kohli.

‘He is outstanding. The way he is leading from the front is good to see.’

Azhar had a love affair with the Eden Gardens and whenever he batted here he seemed to be possessed by an urge to do well.

Tamilnadu ready for junior athlectics meet

NT BureauChennai, Nov 15:

A strong contingent of 166 athletes (85 boys and 81 girls) will represent Tamilnadu in the 33rd National Junior Athletic Championship in Vijayawada from November 16 to 20. Some of the prominent athletes are: B Nithin (100 m), Guru Jawahar (100 m), Ajith Kumar (200), K Ramalakshmi (100 m), R Vithya (200 m), Nithya (110 m hurdles) and T Sathya (pole vault).

London, Nov 15:Roger Federer will be in town until at

least the weekend. The 36-year-old Swiss guaranteed himself a place in the last four of the Nitto ATP Finals at the 02 Arena when he saw off an initially vigorous challenge from Germany’s Alex Zverev, who fi nally showed a British crowd what all the fuss is about.

The 20-year-old German forced a set point in the opener before fading and losing 7-6, 5-7, 6-1 to the world No 2, who remains standing while the other superstars have fallen around him.

While this has been an event shorn of some of the biggest names the quality of the matches has, so far, been better than in many recent years, and last night was no disap-

pointment either.Zverev, still coltish and with tou-

sled hair, has yet to make his Grand Slam breakthrough but he hits the ball early hard and had the perfectly polished veteran fl ustered. Some of the packed assembly by the Thames even forgot their usual loyalty to Federer as they warmed to him.

Were it not for the odd bit of youth-ful petulance at key moments Zver-

ev could have won this. He saved two set points at 5-6 and then led

4-0 in the tiebreak, missing a fore-hand at 6-5 that would have given him the set, before losing it 8-6.

Federer’s form dipped towards the end of second set and the German’s less steady forehand side held up suffi ciently to take advantage by breaking at the end of it.

Yet Federer’s superior courtcraft was always likely to prevail, and the forehand let his opponent down in the decider. It would not be a huge surprise, however, if they were to meet again in Sunday’s fi nal.

‘What I like about Zverev is he’s got the full package,’ Federer said.

‘He’s already three in the world. I think he’s going to leave the World Tour Finals, regardless if he quali-fi es for the semis or not, with a lot of information.

Alexandre Lacazette

Kolkata, Nov 15: The 28-year-old, who has played

32 Tests to date in which he has taken 155 wickets and scored 1136 runs, currently sits second in both the categories.

In the bowlers table, he is 12 points behind England’s James Anderson, while in the all-rounders’ list, he is eight points behind Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh.

If Jadeja puts up a strong show with both bat and ball, then he will regain the top slots he last held following his side’s second Test against Sri Lanka in August.

While that was the first time he had surged to number one in the all-rounders’ list, he was the top-ranked bowler until Anderson leapfrogged him on September 9 following the Lord’s Test against the West Indies.

Apart from Jadeja, India’s sixth-ranked Virat Kohli will also be eyeing a return to the top-fi ve among bats-men as he presently trails Australia’s

David Warner by just one point.Other India batsmen inside the top-

10 include Lokesh Rahul (eighth) and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane (ninth), while batsmen outside the top-20 are Shikhar Dhawan (30th), Murali Vijay (36th) and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha (47th).

The other India bowlers to feature prominently in the rankings are Ravi-chandran Ashwin (fourth), Moham-med Shami (19th), Umesh Yadav (27th), Ishant Sharma (29th) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (37th).

Sri Lanka have two batsmen in Dimuth Karunaratne (17th) and cap-tain Dinesh Chandimal (20th) inside the top-20, while batsmen aiming for upward movements are Angelo Mathews (24th), Niroshan Dickwella (40th), Dilruwan Perera (78th) and Lahiru Thirimanne (113th).

Prabhu faces Shrikrishna in fi nal

NT BureauChennai, Nov 15:

Varun returned with a break of 68 to make it 1-1, and also managed to clinch the next frame to lead by 2-1. In the fourth frame Shrikrishna cleared the table with a well-constructed break of 137 to make it 2-2. He then made a break of 80 in the succeeding frame and took the lead by 3-2.

Varun held his nerve and used the opportunities and clinched the next frame to make it 3-3. The next two frames were shared by the two play-ers with a good tactical game for 4-4.

In the decider, Shrikrishna made sure to pot the winning balls to seal his place in the fi nal. In the other semifi nals, G Prabhu defeated R Ash-

ish Jain 5-3. Ashish qualifi ed from the league rounds and made it all the way to the semis. Both the players shared the frames well in the beginning.

Results: Semi fi nal: S Shrikrishna bt J Varun Kumar 5-4(66(50)34,7-121(68),26-72,137(137)8,102(80)-15 ,53 -74 ,82 -8 ,25 -53 ,62 -24 ) ; G Prabhu b t R Ash ish Ja in 5-3(62-15,75-21,15-68,54-12,36-63,366,77-18,77-33) Quarter fi nals: S Shrikrishna bt R Loganathan 4-0(80-2,67-50,56-7,66-25);Prabhu bt S A Saleem 4-0(53-22,72-45,79-49,7025); R Ashish Jain bt Vadi-vel 4-3(53-32,57-43,45-63,4449,59-24,30-58,71-52); J Varun Kumar bt Vijay Nichani 4-2(65-56,4774,68-24,51-62,72-48,7628).

Federer still standing� Six-time champion sees off challenge from 20-year-old Zverev in ATP semis

Jadeja looking to reclaim top spot

� India takes on Sri Lanka in fi rst test tomorrow

Alarming situationRafael Nadal may have gone out

but his brief stay in London was not helped by a 4 am fi re alarm. He was left standing outside in the early hours and was joined by fellow ATP stars Jack Sock and Dominic Thiem after an incident at the hotel they’re all staying at.

England must silence Aussie crowds to win Ashes: Swann

Ravindra Jadeja

Roger Federer