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21 Sport maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 20 AUGUST 2014 FORMULA 1 CRICKET FOOTBALL Marsa on top after second round LAST Saturday the sec- ond round of the CRIC HQ MCA Cricket Sum- mer league came to a thrilling end again involving the Marsa C.C, this time against Krishna C.C. The Marsa team after being rattled the previous week by the Marauders needed to re- spond. Both teams were at full strength which made the game more en- joyable. The Marsa team bat- ted first, Malcolm Crab- be opened the innings and did pretty well scor- ing twenty four runs which included a couple of boundaries. Bikram Arora sent out his inten- tions smashing a six of the sixth ball he faced , but six balls later he was caught of the bowling of Suhrid Roy (one of the juniors with plenty of potential) for fourteen runs. This game also had the return of John Callus who played a decent innings, retiring after thirty balls and making thirty four runs which included two boundaries. Matthew White took of where he left of from the previous week and made twenty seven runs from twenty balls which included two fours and plenty of running. Andrew Naudi chipped in with sixteen runs towards the end of the innings. The Marsa team with extras totalled 144 runs. For Krish- na , Kevin Krishna took two wickets while Frank Spiteri and Nowell Kho- sla were the other wicket takers. The Krishna team batted with de- termination with the mas- ter blaster Haroon Majeed back to his best hitting fifty runs from the thirty balls faced including two sixes and two fours. Nowell Khosla hit thirty five runs which included four boundaries, Joy Ghoseroy fifteen runs not out and Sid Anand twelve runs. The game came to a crunch with Krishna needing four runs to win of the last ball of the innings. Ghoseroy could only manage two. The pen ultimate over was a crucial over as well with Andrew Naudi bowling out of his skin taking two wick- ets and only giving one run. Naudi ended taking three wickets while Bikram Aro- ra took four. From the win Marsa earned fourteen points and are leading with forty one points, while Krishna earned two points and have a total of thirty points. Marauders have fourteen points. Next Saturdays sees the full and final third round being played with three games scheduled, Marsa v Krishna, Marsa v Marauders and Krishna v Marauders. John Callus Julio Cesar signs for Benfica after QPR release Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar has joined Benfica after being released by QPR THE Portuguese giants confirmed on their website on Tuesday evening that the 34-year-old had signed a two-year deal. Julio Cesar, who arrived at Loftus Road on a free transfer in August 2012, had been under contract for another two years with the Premier League newcomers. A statement on QPR's official web- site earlier in the evening read: "QPR have agreed to release goalkeeper Julio Cesar, with the player set to sign for Portuguese side Benfica. "The Brazilian, who was contract- ed until June 2016, has left Loftus Road by mutual consent with im- mediate effect." Julio Cesar Verstappen to race for Toro Rosso in 2015 MAX Verstappen will become the youngest driver in Formula 1 his- tory after it was confirmed that he will race for Toro Rosso in 2015. Verstappen, who will be 17 when he makes his Formula 1 debut, will race alongside Daniil Kvyat, leaving Jean-Éric Vergne without a seat. The Dutch driver has been rac- ing in the European Formula Three Championship this year and is cur- rently in second place in the stand- ings, having claimed eight victories in his first season of car racing after stepping up from karting. Verstappen joined the Red Bull young driver programme only last week and will break the previous record of youngest Formula 1 driver, currently held by Jaime Alguersuari, by almost two years. "First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Helmut Marko and Red Bull for all their trust and giving me the chance to make my Formula debut in 2015 with Toro Rosso," said Ver- stappen. "Ever since I was seven years old, Formula 1 has been my career goal, so this opportunity is truly a dream come true. "With the return of the Verstap- pen name to Formula 1, I hope we can relive old memories and I'm hoping to see many fans at all the Grand Prix circuits." Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost praised Verstappen's progress this season. "We are happy to welcome Max into the Toro Rosso family," he said. "We consider Max to be as one of the most skilled young drivers of the new generation and we believe he has the necessary maturity and mental strength to take on this challenge successfully. "This year he has already demon- strated how well he can cope un- der difficult conditions. Bearing in mind that Toro Rosso was created with the aim of bringing young tal- ent from the Red Bull Junior Team into Formula 1 and to educate them, it will now be up to us to provide Max with a competitive car, which will enable him to have the best pos- sible start to his Formula 1 career." Red Bull Motorsport Consultant Helmut Marko has also praised new Toro Rosso signing Max Verstap- pen, describing the Dutch young- ster as a 'special' talent with 'unbe- lievable speed'. "I think he has unbelievable speed," Marko told Red Bull. "For his age he is very mature, and he is a hard worker. He has all the neces- sary ingredients you need to be ab- solute champion. "It was a surprise how quickly he adapted to Formula Three. The mo- ment I thought [he was] something really special was at the Norisring. In mixed conditions - it was more wet than dry - he was per lap two seconds and more faster than any- one else." Marko played down the risk of promoting Verstappen after just one season of car racing. "He will be 17 when he has his first race, which is pretty young, but I don't think it is a risk," he said. "He proved in various races that he can use his head. I had quite a few con- versations with him and there you see how mature he is. "Toro Rosso is well known for educating and training young driv- ers, so he comes into [that] environ- ment, and with all the possibilities which are around the Red Bull fam- ily - I think he'll go into the season well prepared. We can't see any risk doing it like that." Marko added that the early an- nouncement provides Verstappen with ample time to prepare for his Formula 1 debut next year - and challenged the Dutch driver to em- ulate future team-mate Kvyat. "We are announcing it in the mid- dle of the season to end all the spec- ulation, to give a really good prepa- ration for next year," he said. "We were a little bit spoiled by what we have seen from Kvyat, who came into F1 with nearly no testing and was immediately in the points. I think we expect similar things from Max." Max Verstappen Räikkönen targets 2009 -like revival at Spa FERRARI driver Kimi Räikkönen says he is hoping to revive his 2014 season as he returns to his 'fa- vourite' circuit for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francor- champs. Räikkönen has won at Spa Fran- corchamps on four occasions but has endured a difficult period in 2014, having mustered just 27 points across the opening 11 rounds of the year to lie in 12th positon in the Championship. But the Finn cites his 2009 season, in which he won in Belgium after a troublesome start, as inspiration for the current campaign. "Spa is probably my favourite cir- cuit because it's an old-style track which climbs and drops through the forest and I like the fact it's fast and flowing," he said. "I think you can make a differ- ence as a driver at every part of the circuit, but as with every track, it's a combination of factors. At La Source you can actually lose or gain a lot of time and you need good speed out of it because after it comes the very long straight in- cluding Eau Rouge. "That corner has been easily flat out for quite a long time now, al- though actually, with this year's cars, that might not be the case. "Last time I drove here in a Fer- rari [in 2009] I won, and that was in a year when we had been struggling since the start. But in Spa we man- aged to get things going a bit more in the right direction and it would be good if the same thing could happen this year. That would hope- fully mean the racing would be a bit more fun. It's always more fun when we get the results!" Kimi Räikkönen

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