tag

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates: Pace bowler Fareed Ahmad kept cool in the last over Friday to foil Asif Khan’s aggressive hitting as a depleted Afghanistan beat United Arab Emirates by four runs in a tri-series match.After Asif opened the final over with a four, a six and a two, Ahmad beat the bat with the next two balls. Asif needed to find the boundary off the last ball but was caught as Afghanistan held on to win at the Sharjah stadium.Afghanistan, already sure of facing Pakistan in today’s final, rested six of their main players including skipper Rashid Khan, veteran Mohammad Nabi and in-form opener Sediqullah Atal.Afghanistan made a 170-4 before restricting UAE to 166-5 in their 20 overs.Afghanistan’s stand-in skipper Ibrahim Zadran won the toss and batted.With Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Zadran put on 98 for the first wicket in 12 overs.Zadran hit 48 in a 35-ball knock that contained three sixes and as many fours.Gurbaz smashed three fours and a six in his 38-ball innings before both the openers fell off successive deliveries.Kariam Janat made a 14-ball 28 with three sixes and a boundary and Gulbadin Naib scored a 13-ball 20 not out as Afghanistan hit 56 runs in the last five overs.Left-arm spinner Haider Ali was the best UAE bowler with 2-23.For the hosts, Muhammad Waseem scored a 29-ball 44 with three sixes and two fours while Asif made a valiant 28-ball 40 with two sixes and four fours.BRIEF SCORESAfghanistan 170 for 4 (Zadran 48, Gurbaz 40, Haider 2-23) beat UAE 166 for 5 (Waseem 44, Asif 40, Sharafuddin 1-20, Noor 1-23) by four runs

Australian Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) went for broke five kilometres from the summit finish to win stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana Tuesday, repeating his stage six victory, while race favourite Jonas Vingegaard reclaimed the leader’s red jersey.Vine caught and overtook Spain’s Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) on the climb to the finish of the 175.3km ride from Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva to El Ferial Larra Belagua, raising two fingers as he crossed the line after his second individual stage win of this year’s race.The 29-year-old – mountains classification winner last year and this year’s leader of the category – also won two stages in 2022.“Winning is so, so hard, and it’s such an incredible feeling when it happens,” Vine said.“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to winning, because it’s just unbelievably hard.”Castrillo held on to take second spot, 35 seconds behind Vine, with the Spaniard’s compatriot and teammate Javier Romo finishing third.Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) had lost the red jersey to Norway’s Torstein Traeen (Bahrain Victorious) after stage six, but having begun Tuesday’s stage 37 seconds off the lead, he opened a gap to Traeen on the final climb to move 26 seconds ahead in the general classification.Following Monday’s rest day, Tuesday’s stage was a mostly flat ride, with one category three climb along the way before the category one finish, and any early breaks had all been quashed by the peloton.A group, which eventually included 30 riders, made the decisive break 72km from the end, and they were allowed to get away, though the leading group was whittled down as the race wore on.There were attacks from the breakaway, with Romo trying to get away, but when Castrillo made his move with seven kilometres remaining, the Spaniard looked set for victory, but Vine reacted and powered past the leader for another stage win.The riders in the strung out peloton were never going to contest the stage win, but the GC battle commenced on the final climb and Vingegaard, who had already closed the gap to Traeen by winning the previous stage, returned to where everyone expected the Dane to be.Vingegaard was part of a small group which began passing some of the breakaway riders towards the finish, and his 11th-place finish on the stage brings an end to Traeen’s time in the red jersey.