Armstrong Vas The Peninsula

Former Indian pacer S Sree-santh, serving a life ban from all forms of the game

after his involvement in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal, is eye-ing a return to active cricket in Scotland next year.

The Kerala speedster, part of the Indian team that won the inaugural World T20 in 2007 and the World Cup four years later, is hoping to make his a come-back in April next year, provided he gets the green signal from BCCI, the game's ruling body in India.

The 33-year-old, who was acquitted of all charges by the Delhi High Court in the IPL spot-fixing in July 2015, has not played cricket for three years.

“I hope the year 2017 is inter-esting. Maybe cricket is calling me back again,” Sreesanth said after being invited as chief guest at a schools cricket tournament being held in Doha.

The four-day eight-over ten-nis ball cricket tournament played at old Ideal School cam-pus features eight Doha-based teams.

“I have got a good offer from

a Scottish First Division club side. (It) depends on (if) BCCI gives me permission or not," he added.

"As far as I remember, the ban for me was for not to play in BCCI tournaments and not to represent BCCI. Maybe, I will get an opportunity to play there.

"If I can keep myself fit, which is very important in the cold conditions. When it comes to fitness, you need to be fit for play five days a week. I am look-ing forward to it,” Sreesanth said.

The former India pacer said

BCCI has not responded to his request for permission to play club cricket in India after he was cleared by a court in the spot-fixing case.

“I not happy with the way BCCI has treated me. I am wait-ing to get (BCCI's) permission to play club cricket.

"(I am) not disappointed, but upset, even after clearing my name, and having things sorted out, I have not got a response from the BCCI. I have been send-ing mails and letters, but there

has been no response from BCCI since July 2015, when the court case got over," Sreesanth said.

“If you get out of the coun-try, still you need permission from BCCI to play in the Scotland league, since I had a contract with BCCI,” he explained.

The 33 year-old Kerala fast bowler has represented India in 27 Tests and 53 ODIs and 10 T20Is, bagging close to 170 inter-national wickets

Sreesanth last played for India in 2011 against England in

Oval. The high point of his career was the tour of South Africa in 2007 when he consistently trou-bled the South African top order with an upright seam and pro-digious swing to become the highest wicket-taker of the series with a tally of 18 wickets at an impressive average of 21.94.

Sreesanth was confident that he will get over the dark phase of his life in the New year.

“Tough times do not last long. It has all been an experience for me. I have taken it (the setback)

in my stride. It is very easy to blame a lot of people, but hon-estly I am fortunate to get my family's support,” he said.

Sreesanth said he was for-tune to play cricket after the 2011 Birmingham Test when all seemed lost.

“After the 2011 Birmingham Test, I could hardly walk. I played the match after taking injection for injuries to my big toes. I could only bowl at an average of 78 to 75 miles per hour, which was way slower than my normal speed," Sreesanth recalled.

"I called up my brother and told me him that 'I am done with the game'. Since it is difficult to come back after surgeries," he said.

“I had 12 surgeries on my big toes after the Birmingham Test ... I was on a wheelchair for a while. But I came back, came back strongly and got a contract in IPL with Rajasthan Royals.

"So in a way, I was fortunate to stage a big comeback,” Sree-santh said.

He said he was happy to see a lot of attention given to sports in Qatar.

“Great to see that they are giving interest to sports and especially to cricket,” he said with a smile.

Tokyo Reuters

Real Madrid suffered an almighty fright before a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-

trick hauled them back from 2-1 down and gave them a 4-2 win over rank outsiders Kashima Antlers in the Club World Cup final yesterday.

Two goals from Gaku Shiba-saki stunned the European champions as the Japanese hosts took a 2-1 lead early in the sec-ond half before a Ronaldo penalty brought Real level on the hour.

The 11-time European cham-pions then survived several more scares and a possible sending-off for captain Sergio Ramos before Ronaldo scored twice more in the first period of extra-time.

Real, who won the tourna-ment for the second time in three years and were crowned cham-pions for a fifth time overall, appeared set for an easy victory when Karim Benzema gave them a ninth-minute lead but Shiba-saki changed the story by levelling one minute before halftime.

Kashima were the first Asian team to reach the final although they qualified for the tournament as champions of host nation Japan. Asian champions Jeonbuk Motors had lost in the

quarter-finals. "We knew it was not going to be an easy one. They were very aggressive," Real coach Zinedine Zidane told reporters.

Real went ahead when Luka Modric's volley was parried by Hitoshi Sogahata and Benzema tapped in the rebound.

Kashima refused to be over-awed, continued playing their neat football and snatched a shock equaliser just before the

break. Shoma Doi's cross found Shibasaki, whose first touch was poor but he was gifted a second attempt when Raphael Varane failed to clear and he smashed the ball into the net.

Shibasaki struck again six minutes after the break when he collected a poor Real clearance, got away from three opponents and fired a low shot past Keylor Navas from 25 metres.

Real were facing their first

defeat since they lost to VfL Wolfsburg in April, a run of 36 competitive games, until Lucas Vazquez was bundled over by Shuto Yamamoto and Ronaldo converted the resulting penalty on the hour. Kashima continued to give as good as they got and had three good chances in the final minutes of normal time.

Fabricio's goalbound drive was tipped over by Navas and the Costa Rican goalkeeper came

to the rescue again one minute later by blocking Mu Kanazaki's shot after he got free of the Real defence. Yasushi Endo could have won it with the last kick but fired wide at the far post while Sergio Ramos was lucky to escape a second yellow card for a push on an opponent, a deci-sion which Kashima coach Masatada Ishii said "lacked courage".

Ronaldo ended Kashima's

dream when he collected Ben-zema's sliderule pass and fired past Sogahata eight minutes into extra-time, then settled the match six minutes later with an emphatic finish into the roof of the net.

"We gave Real Madrid prob-lems," said Ishii.

"That's what we were able to do. But we made small mistakes in positioning and judgment so it's frustrating."

Hat-trickThe 11-time Euro champions survived several scares and a possible sending-off for captain Sergio Ramos before Ronaldo scored twice more in first period of extra-time.

Monday 19 December 2016

SPORTRahul misses double ton as India post 391/4

PAGE | 21 PAGE | 22Westbrook back on triple-double

train

Ronaldo seals Club World Cup for Real

Banned Sreesanth eyes return to cricket

The captains of the teams taking part in the 3rd Nation Cup cricket tournament pose for a picture with S Sreesanth and members of the organising committee. Picture by: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Real Madrid's captain and defender Sergio Ramos (centre) raises the championship trophy high with his team-mates after they won the Club World Cup football final match against Kashima Antlers of Japan at Yokohama International Stadium in Yokohama, yesterday.

4

21MONDAY 19 DECEMBER 2016SPORT

© GRAPHIC NEWSSource: Wire agencies Pictures: Getty Images

JAN 30 Angelique Kerber winsmaiden Grand Slam title at

FEB 7 DenverBroncos

Australian Open. She also wins U.S.Open to end Serena Williams’ reignas World No.1

outclass CarolinaPanthers atSuper Bowl 50in California

MAR 7 Five-time Grand Slamchampion Maria Sharapova

reveals failed drugs test for meldonium.ITF impose 2-year doping ban, laterreduced to 15 months

APR 10 Danny Willett celebratesvictory at U.S. Masters.

First-time champions dominateseason as Dustin Johnson, HenrikStenson, and Jimmy Walker winremaining majors

MAY 2 Leicester City completefairytale season by winning

English PremierLeague title

JUN 5 Novak Djokoviccompletes career Grand Slam

at Roland Garros – first man sinceRod Laver in 1969 to hold all fourmajors simultaneously

JUL 10 Portugalbeat host

nation France to wintheir first major footballtournament at Euro 2016

26 Chile defeatArgentina in CopaAmérica Centenariofinal to take secondconsecutivecontinental title

20 Great Britain’sMo Farah retains5,000m and10,000m titles

24 British cyclist Chris Froomewins Tour de France for third time

DEC 13 Cristiano Ronaldo winsfourth Ballon d’Or award

NOV 2 Chicago Cubs beatCleveland Indians to end

108-year wait for World Series title

SEP 18 China top medal table atParalympic Games. Entire

Russian team is banned overongoing doping scandal

OCT 2 The United States, led bycaptain Davis Love III, win

Ryder Cup for first time since 2008beating Europe 17-11 at Hazeltine

19 Sprinter Usain Bolt anchors Jamaica to 4x100m relay goldto claim unprecedented“triple triple” of Olympic titles

20 Neymar strikeswinning penalty as Brazildefeat Germany to win their first gold medal in men’s football

16 Marc Marquez becomes youngest three-time MotoGP champion, aged 23

27 Nico Rosbergwins Formula OneChampionship, andpromptly retires

20 Andy Murraybeats Novak Djokovicat World Tour Finalsto finish stellar seasonas World No.1

28 Real Madridcapture 11thChampionsLeague title

AUG 11 JubilantFiji win first

ever Olympic goldmedal after thrashingGreat Britain inRugby Sevens final

11 Swimmer Michael Phelps wins13th individual gold medal to break2,168-year-old record of sprinterLeonidas of Rhodes

15 South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerkeclipses Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old 400m world record

15 U.S. gymnastSimone Biles becomes firstwoman to winfour golds atsingle Olympicssince 1984

Jan: Angelique Kerber

Apr: Willett

Jun: Djokovic Aug: Usain Bolt

Aug: Summer Olympics

Jul: Portugal win Euro 2016

Jul: Chris Froome

Oct: USA win Ryder Cup

Nov: Andy MurrayMay: Ranieri

Los Angeles AFP

A little rest did a world of good for the reign-ing NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers, who showed spring

in their step in a 119-108 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday.

LeBron James scored 26 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter. Kyrie Irving had 21 points and matched his career high with 12 assists and Kevin Love scored 27 points and pulled down 17 rebounds a night after Cavs coach Tyronn Lue rested the star trio.

Irving was back after a week off, having told Lue he had tired legs in last Saturday's victory over the Charlotte Hornets.

"It was warranted," Irving said. "How I felt, knowing the

importance of what was coming up in the season, I think it was a great group decision in terms of the rest that was needed."

The trend of resting star players who aren't injured has sparked debate -- in part as to whether it's fair to fans -- but Lue said Saturday he would consider resting Irving again.

"There will probably come another time where he's going to need a little rest also," Lue said. "Right now, he's feeling good and that's the biggest thing for me."

The Lakers, who snapped an eight game losing streak on Fri-day at Philadelphia, led by as many as eight late in the first quarter and maintained the lead into the second period.

But the Cavs had edged ahead 62-59 at halftime and didn't trail after the interval, although the Lakers cut the gap to 108-105 late in the fourth quarter after two three-pointers from Nick Young.

"They hit some tough shots," said James, whose three-pointer with 2:32 remaining stretched the Cavs' lead to 113-105.

"It was up to us to get a cou-ple timely stops like we usually do in the fourth quarter and

make a couple timely shots like we do -- and we did that."

Western Conference powers Golden State improved their league-leading record to 24-4 with an emphatic 135-90 tri-umph over the Portland Trail Blazers in Oakland, California.

Kevin Durant scored 13 of his 34 points in the first quarter as the Warriors jumped to an early lead.

Reserve Ian Clark added 23 points, Stephen Curry chipped in 19 and Klay Thompson scored 16 as Draymond Green contrib-uted a double-double of 13 assists and 12 rebounds.

The 45-point margin of vic-tory was the Warriors' biggest of the season, surpassing their 149-106 drubbing of the Lakers on November 23.

A day after connecting on a

record 24 three-pointers in a win at New Orleans, the Houston Rockets rallied to notch their 10th straight victory, 111-109 in overtime over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

James Harden scored 10 of his 28 points in the extra period, handing out 13 assists with nine rebounds that left him one shy of a second triple-double in as many nights.

Forward Ryan Anderson scored 28 points and Eric Gor-don provided his familiar spark off the bench with 20 as the Rockets erased a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit.

Oklahoma City star Russell Westbrook was in familiar ter-ritory, notching the 50th triple-double of his career -- and 13th this season -- in the Thun-der's 114-101 victory over the Phoenix Suns.

Days after Westbrook said he was tired of the talk about his streak of seven straight triple-doubles which ended last weekend he was at it again, pouring in 26 points with a career-high 22 assists and 11 rebounds. It's just the fifth time since 1983 that a player posted a triple double that included at least 20 points and 20 assists.

New York star Carmelo Anthony called the Knicks' game in Denver a "must win" but his 29 points weren't enough for the visitors in a 127-114 loss to the Nuggets.

Kenneth Faried had a sea-son-high 25 points and three blocked shots and Emmanuel Mudiay scored 22 for the Nug-gets, who had seven players score in double figures.

Cavs down Lakers, Warriors crush Blazers

Westbrook back on triple-double train Los Angeles AFP

Russell Westbrook handed out a career-high 22 assists Saturday en route to the 50th triple-dou-

ble of his NBA career, leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 114-101 victory over the Phoenix Suns.

Less than a week after his rare streak of seven straight triple-doubles ended last Sunday, Westbrook deliv-ered another all-around gem -- produced an astonishing 26 points and 11 rebounds to go with his 22 assists in his 13th triple-double of the season.

It's only the fifth time since 1983 that a player had a triple-double and reach at least 20 points and 20 assists.

"I never know what may happen throughout games, good or bad," West-brook said of the gaudy numbers.

"My job is to go out there and com-pete at a high level. I've been blessed to play this game and every night I leave it on the floor. "Sometimes some good things happen, sometimes some bad things happen. That's the nature of the game."

Thunder center Steven Adams added 19 points and six rebounds and Enes Kanter came off the bench to score 12 points as the Thunder ended a two-game skid and improved to 16-11.

Devon Booker paced the Suns with a game-high 31 points. But the Suns'

total of 16 assists was six less than Westbrook passed around himself.

With Thunder shooting guard Vic-tor Oladipo still nursing a wrist injury, Oklahoma City relied on a variety of players to score at the start. Four play-ers had at least five points as Oklahoma City took a 30-20.

"My teammates did a great job of spacing and catching and finishing and making some shots," Westbrook said. "My job is to find those guys. The ball is in my hands a lot and it's my job to find those guys and make it easy for those guys to be successful."

The Thunder led 54-39 at halftime, having denied Phoenix a fastbreak point in the opening half.

"We got back in transition," West-brook said. "They are a fast team. That's how they score a lot of their points. They get a lot of shots up in transition. I think tonight we did a great job of just getting back and loading up and make them score in the half-court."

Booker's hot hand in the third quarter, in which he scored 20 points, couldn't match Westbrook's impact as the Thunder guard delivered 17 points, five assists and three rebounds.

"He keeps putting up phenomenal numbers," Phoenix center Tyson Chan-dler said of Westbrook.

"I think it really comes down to heart, passion and will."

"Every second he is coming full speed, he's giving 100 percent. He is putting his will over the game."

Golden State ....135 Portland ........... 90 Denver ..............127 NY Knicks .........114 Houston .............111 Minnesota 109 (Ot) Charlotte ..........107 Atlanta ..............99 Cleveland ......... 119 LA Lakers ........108 Indiana .............105 Detroit .............. 90 Oklahoma City .. 14 Phoenix ............101

NBA RESULTS

Oklahoma City Thunder's guard Russell Westbrook shoots over Phoenix Suns' forward P J Tucker during their NBA game at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on Saturday.

Cleveland Cavaliers centre Tristan Thompson defends against Los Angeles Lakers' centre Timofey Mozgov during the second half of their NBA game at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday. The Cavs won 119-108.

22 MONDAY 19 DECEMBER 2016SPORT

Australia scent victory after Shafiq leads fightbackBrisbane Reuters

Australia scented vic-tory at dinner on day four of the first day-night Test against Pakistan in Brisbane

yesterday, having captured three wickets to leave the tourists 203 for five, still 287 runs short of their victory target.

Middle order batsman Asad Shafiq was 13 not out, with wick-etkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed on 17, and Pakistan's hopes of saving the match appearing as gloomy as the weather.

Azhar Ali and Younis Khan's session-long defiance had ear-lier given their side a sliver of hope, but all that evaporated after a Mitchell Starc intervention on

a rain-interrupted day at the Gabba.

The left-arm paceman clipped Azhar's glove through to wicketkeeper Matthew Wade to dismiss the number three bats-man for 71 and end a 91-run partnership that had frustrated Steve Smith's side.

A gloom had fallen over a stadium bathed in sunshine for the first three days and a collapse beckoned as spinner Nathan Lyon spun a web around the batsmen.

Jackson Bird was also bowl-ing a grudging line and length

and the pressure told on out-of-sorts captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who hung his bat out at the seamer and edged through to Wade for five.

After a nervous start on the back of a dreadful run of form, Younus had batted himself back into form with a fighting half-century but his resilience vanished with an appalling dis-missal for 65.

With four wickets down, a straight bat was called for, but the 39-year-old was out attempting a flamboyant reverse sweep that succeeded only in

launching a nick into the air for the easiest of catches to skipper Smith.

Any hope for Pakistan rests with a rearguard action from Sarfraz and Shafiq, but the bats-men will certainly face nerve-shredding tests during the evening session when the pink ball is at its most lively.

Pakistan were bowled out for

142 on day three, 287 runs short of Australia's first innings total of 429 but Smith waived the chance to enforce the follow-on and sent his team in to bat the touring side out of the game.

Smith waited a long time to declare their second innings closed, until his team had put an improbable victory target of 490 on the board.

Australia (I innings): .........................429Pakistan (I innings):.......................... 142Australia (II innings): ............ 202/5 declPakistan (II innings):S Aslam c Renshaw b Starc ...............................15A Ali c Wade b Starc ............................................71B Azam c Smith b Lyon ..................................... 14Y Khan c Smith b Lyon.......................................65M ul-Haq c Wade b Bird .......................................5A Shafiq (batting) .............................................100S Ahmed b Starc ..................................................24M Amir c Wade b Bird .......................................48W Riaz c Smith b Bird........................................30Y Shah (batting) .................................................... 4Extras (LB-4, W-2) ............................................... 6Total (for 8 wkts) ..............................382Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-54, 3-145, 4-165, 5-173, 6-220, 7-312, 8-378.Bowling: Starc 30-8-97-3 (1w); Hazlewood 35-11-78-0; Bird 29-6-94-3 (1w); Lyon 26-3-100-2; Maddinson 3-0-9-0.

SCOREBOARD

Pakistani batsman Younis Khan plays a reverse sweep shot as Australian wicketkeeper Mathew Wade (left) looks on during the fourth day of the first day-night Test in Brisbane yesterday. RIGHT: Pakistan's hero of the day, Asad Shafiq pulls the ball over the boundary line for six yesterday.

Rahul misses double ton as India post 391/4 Chennai Reuters

Stuart Broad dismissed Virat Kohli cheaply but Lokesh Rahul registered his fourth

Test hundred to lead India's strong reply to England's first innings total of 477 on day three of the fifth and final Test yesterday.

India were off to a solid start with their make-shift opening pair of Rahul and Parthiv Patel adding 152 runs for the opening stand but England claimed two wickets after lunch to restrict them to 256 for three at tea.

Rahul was batting on 133 at the break with Karun Nair on 19 at the other end with India, who have taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series, still 221 runs behind. On a track getting increasingly easier to bat on, Rahul and Patel combined to forge India's first century-plus opening stand in 32 innings.

Resuming on 60 for no loss, Rahul and Patel negotiated the English attack with consummate ease on a flat MA Chidambaram Stadium track which offered lit-tle assistance to the bowlers.

Patel, who replaced injured regular keeper Wriddhiman Saha after the second test, impressed with his commitment, having kept wickets for over 157 overs and then returning to partner Rahul after opener Murali Vijay sustained a shoulder injury which prompted him to bat lower.

Rahul was particularly harsh on debutant Liam Dawson, twice stepping out against the left-arm spinner to hit him for sixes.

Rahul took two runs off Stu-art Broad to bring up his second fifty while Patel pulled paceman Jake Ball and ran two to register h i s s i x t h T e s t

half-century, second of the series. The southpaw stepped out to hit Moeen Ali for his seventh bound-ary but fell for a career-best 71 two balls later, trying to repeat the risky shot against the turn.

Cheteshwar Pujara hit three boundaries in his 16 before edg-ing a wide Ben Stokes delivery to slip but it was Broad who dealt the biggest blow with a slow leg-cutter which Kohli drove straight to short cover.

By then, Rahul had registered his first century on home soil, courtesy of an overthrow, and celebrated it by pumping air and kissing the badge on his helmet.

Apart from the two sixes off Dawson, Rahul's 228-ball knock included nine boundaries.

England (I innings): ............................. 477India (I innings):L Rahul c Buttler b Rashid ..................................199P Patel c Buttler b Ali............................................. 71C Pujara c Cook b Stokes ....................................... 16V Kohli c Jennings b Broad ................................... 15K Nair (batting) ....................................................... 71M Vijay (batting) ..................................................... 17Extras (LB-2)..............................................................2Total (for 4 wkts) ................................. 391Fall of wickets: 1-152, 2-181, 3-211, 4-372.Bowling: Broad 18-4-46-1; Ball 15-1-50-0; Ali 24-1-96-1; Stokes 9-1-37-1; Rashid 17-0-76-1; Dawson 23-3-72-0; Root 2-0-12-0.

SCOREBOARD

Ticket sales for India-England 2nd ODI to be cashlessCuttack IANS

The sale of tickets for the second One-Day Inter-national (ODI) match

between India and England, to be played at Barabati sta-dium on January 19, would be on cashless basis, Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) Secretary Ashirbad Behera said yesterday.

The OCA Secretary said a meeting of the association has decided that all payments above Rs 500 against bills from different parties would be made through bank cheque, draft or digital trans-actions. He also said that people can purchase tickets for the match though debit cards and credit cards.

"Since there is a shortage of cash across the state due to demonetisation, we have decided to go cashless or allow digital transactions for the benefit of the people," said Behera.

He said that while spec-tators can get tickets by paying cash up to Rs 2,000, digital transactions would be made above Rs 2,000.

The OCA would make available card-swipe machines at the ticket counters for the benefit of the people. Besides, ticket pur-chase can be done through e-wallet payment, he added.

Waqar slams Younis' mode of dismissalBrisbane IANS

Pakistan's veteran bats-man Younis Khan's mode of dismissal on the

fourth day of the first cricket Test against Australia prompted legend Waqar Younis to criticise the right-hander yesterday.

After a golden duck in the first innings, Younis played a composed innings to notch up the 32nd Test match half-cen-tury of his career yesterday.

Pakistan were chasing a big target of 490 runs and were reduced to 165/4.

Younis used all his expe-rience to score 65 but -- with Australia five-and-half overs away from taking the new ball -- he tried an ill-advised reverse sweep off spinner Nathan Lyon and was caught at first slip by Steve Smith.

It pushed Pakistan deeper into trouble at 173/5 in their battle to save the match. Khan's thought process of try-ing such an audacious shot, with his team in deep trouble, left Waqar flabbergasted.

"That is ridiculous. That is so irresponsible," the former fast bowler said on Channel Nine, as quoted by Cricket Australia yesterday.

"A man with so much experience, you don't need to do that. 'What was the need? Pakistan needed you to be out there and you've played a false shot. Yeah, he's got 65 but a very poor shot."

The wicket left Pakistan at 173/5 with two new batsmen at the crease under lights to face the new pink ball at the ongoing day-night Test.

"I'm concerned about how Younis played," Waqar said.

"Two balls before, the ball had landed in the rough and spun sharply, the extra bounce was there. Then this... he was not in control at all. And I'm lost for words. Ridiculous."

Strong replyIndia were off to a solid start after Lokesh Rahul registered his fourth Test hundred to lead a strong reply to England's first innings total of 477 on day three of the fifth and final Test.

India's Lokesh Rahul celebrates after scoring a century (100 runs) during the third day of the fifth and final Test match against England at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai yesterday.

Lokesh Rahul reacts after being dismissed for 199 runs.

23MONDAY 19 DECEMBER 2016 SPORT

Sluggish PSG shocked at gutsy GuingampParis AFP

French title favourites Paris Saint Germain slumped to a 2-1 loss at Guingamp on

Saturday to stay four points adrift of leaders Monaco and make it just one point in their past three games.

PSG, champions for the past four years to take their overall haul to six -- the Qatari-owned outfit was only founded in 1970 -- huffed and puffed in a dire opening period before being caught by a two-goal salvo after half-time.

Angel di Maria and Uru-guayan striker Edinson Cavani did their best to rouse a sluggish PSG in the opening 45 minutes but could not find a break-through on the way to what was the club's fourth league loss of the season.

"I think the team played to win it and controlled the game in the first half. But their second goal did it for us," PSG coach Unai Emery said afterwards.

Midfielder Marco Verratti was blunt as he lamented the reverse.

"We have lost a lot of matches -- something's not working very well. The only thing to do is not to talk but work harder. We are surely stronger than Guingamp -- if we play at 100 percent then we are going to win.

"If we're third it is not because we are playing well."

The win delighted Guingamp counterpart Kombouare, who PSG sacked five years ago to make way for Carlo Ancelotti even though they were top of the table at the time.

The big-spenders lost out to Montpellier that season but have

dominated the league ever since."Perfect -- we won," smiled

Kombouare, whose side moved provisionally fourth in the table.

"We sent out an attacking side and I congratulate my play-ers -- we had to be very disciplined. We scored two very fine goals. We've not stolen points."

Like PSG, Guingamp reached the League Cup quarter-finals in midweek and that success over Lyon underlined the west-ern club's league form which had taken them into the top six before start of play. After the break, it was Guingamp who seized the initiative and they went ahead on 66 minutes as Yannis Salibur fired home inside the box.

By then Di Maria had exited the action as the Argentine became ever less effective, Lucas Moura coming on for the

former Manchester United man. Four minutes later it was 2-0 as midfielder Nill de Pauw finished off a flowing move from close range with the PSG back four all at sea at the Stade Roudourou.

Marcus Coco found Jimmy Briand and he fed De Pauw for a neat clipped finish.

Belgian De Pauw was starting for the first time hav-ing scored three times from the bench for Antoine Komb-ouare's men earlier in the campaign.

Two goals behind, PSG tried belatedly to rally but Cavani had a goal ruled off for offside with 12 minutes remaining.

Two minutes later he did reduce the deficit with a close-range finish for his 17th league goal of the season -- but that was as good as it good for the Parisians.

Guingamp's French defender Lucas Deaux uses a loudspeaker at the end of the French Ligue 1 match against PSG at the Roudourou Stadium in Guingamp, western France on Saturday.

Mourinho hails twilight zone IbraWest Bromwich AFP

Jose Mourinho hailed Zla-tan Ibrahimovic after the veteran striker scored

twice to secure Manchester United a fourth consecutive victory with a 2-0 win at West Bromwich Albion.

The United manager sang the praises of the evergreen Ibrahimovic after he struck early in each half as United moved alongside fifth-placed Tottenham on 30 points the Premier League table.

"He is doing amazingly well, even in the period when he was not scoring goals," said Mourinho.

"He is important to us for many more reasons than the goals but in the last two matches he has scored three goals and got us six points in two away matches which is very important.

"I was expecting him to have the impact he has had this season because I knew the reasons he was coming here. He was not coming for the money or the prestige, he was just coming to enjoy his football and to play in the best league in the world."

The 35-year-old Ibrahi-movic has now scored 16 times since joining the Old Trafford club last summer and is flourishing despite being in the twilight of his career.

"I was very lucky in my career because I had a lot of players with enthusiasm and players in the last phase of their career, 35, 36, 37 and they were still magnificent in their attitude," Mourinho added.

"But he is not just a nor-mal player, he's in a position where you cannot hide and just play with experience. Amazing central defenders can play until they are really older but as a striker you can-not hide and he's doing very well. "We communicate, we exchange ideas at his situa-tion and his feeling and up until now he is feeling great."

Meanwhile, the Portu-guese played down an altercation between Salomon Rondon and Marcos Rojo, which saw the Venezuelan striker appear to slap Unit-ed's Argentina international.

"I was happy with the decision, it was correct," he said. "The referee did fine."

Mourinho was clearly in a festive mood and ordered his players to throw their shirts to visiting supporters following the final whistle.

Rodriguez double fires Saints

Bournemouth AFP

Southampton forward Jay Rodriguez bagged a brace to inspire his side's 3-1 win against local rivals Bourne-

mouth yesterday.Rodriguez hadn't scored in

the Premier League since August but he ended that barren stretch with a second half double in the south coast derby at Dean Court.

Claude Puel's team had fallen behind to Nathan Ake's early opener, but Ryan Bertrand lev-elled soon after to set the stage for one of the better days in recent memory for the injury plagued Rodriguez.

Southampton's second win in their last nine away league matches lifted them into seventh place, while Bournemouth remain in mid-table.

Just 33 miles separate these south coast rivals, but derbies between them have been few and far between.

The rariety of the fixture seemed to give extra intensity to both teams in a scintillating opening.

Eddie Howe's side made the perfect start when on-loan

Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere lofted a perfectly-weighted cross to the far corner, where Ake escaped his marker to plant a diving header past Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

Joshua King had a chance to increase Bournemouth's lead with a powerful shot that For-ster kicked away.

But Bournemouth were in front for only eight minutes as S a i n t s l e f t - b a c k

Bertrand equalised with a superb individual effort. Twisting and turning on the left edge of the penalty area, Bertrand weaved through the Bournemouth defence before driving a blister-ing low strike into the far corner of Artur Boruc's goal.

Puel sent on Steven Davis at half-time and the Northern Ire-land midfielder played a key role as Southampton swept into the lead three minutes after the interval.

Sofiane Boufal's backheel flick set Davis free and he surged into the penalty area before clip-ping a cross into the six-yard box for Rodriguez to score with a sliding effort.

Callum Wilson should have equalised moments later but the Bournemouth striker blasted over from inside the area.

Rodriguez threatened to follow his third goal of the sea-son with another midway through the half, but Boruc was

equal to his effort. Emile Hojb-jerg almost wrapped up the points with a stinging shot that Ake cleared off the line, but it wasn't long before Rodriguez delivered the kil ler blow in the 85th minute.

When Nathan Redmond lost control on the edge of the pen-alty area, the ball ran to Rodriguez, who unfurled a bril-liant dipping shot that raced into the top corner.

Southampton's Jay Rodriguez celebrates scoring their third goal with team-mates during the English Premier League at Vitality Stadium yesterday.

Premier LeagueSouthampton's second win in their last nine away league matches lifts them into seventh place, while Bournemouth remain in mid-table.

Darmstadt's midfielder Marcel Heller (left) and Bayern Munich's Spanish midfielder Javier Martinez vie for the ball during the German first division Bundesliga match in Darmstadt, Germany, yesterday.

Costa saves Bayern against basement side DarmstadtBerlin AFP

Douglas Costa's long-range strike gave Bayern Munich a 1-0 victory at

bottom side Darmstadt yester-day to reinstate his side as Bundesliga leaders ahead of their showdown with RB Leipzig.

Bayern host second-placed Leipzig at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday in a mouth-water-ing clash with both teams on 36 points, but the Bavarians are top on goal difference.

Costa's ferocious dipping shot from 30 metres out on 71 minutes was the bright highlight of a lacklustre Bayern display as Darmstadt battled their

illustrious opponents, running seven kilometres more as a team. Carlo Ancelotti's Bayern had been temporarily usurped from top spot in Germany for 24 hours by Leipzig's impressive 2-0 win at home to Hertha Ber-lin on Saturday.

However, this was a below-par display from Bayern, especially in the first half, against a limited Darmstadt team who suffered their seventh straight league defeat.

With Jerome Boateng already out after needing a shoulder operation, Bayern's captain Philipp Lahm withdrew just before kick-off after pull-ing a thigh muscle in the warm-up and was replaced at right-back by Rafinha.

With an eye on Leipzig, Ancelotti rotated with both Ger-many midfielder Joshua Kimmich and Franck Ribery started on the bench.

The Italian coach had demanded a performance with "maximum intensity", but Bay-ern did exactly the opposite, failing to create a clear chance in the opening 25 minutes at the Boellenfalltor stadium.

Without Arjen Robben or Ribery on the flanks, Bayern lacked a creative spark and Costa made little inrode into the Darmstadt defence, until his thunderbolt of a shot settled the result. Bayern's hot-shot striker Robert Lewandowski was har-assed Darmstadt defenders whenever he got the ball.