Saudi’s Al-Rajhi sets his sights on victory at Desafio Ruta 40 Rally in Argentina

DUBAI: Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah won the ICC’s award for men’s cricketer of the year on Tuesday for his stellar performances in both the red-ball and white-ball format during 2024.

The 31-year-old right-arm paceman became the fifth Indian cricketer to win the award, after Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli.

“When I was a youngster, I saw many of my childhood heroes winning this great award, so (I’m) very happy,” Bumrah said.

Kohli won back-to-back awards in 2016 and 2017.

Travis Head of Australia and English duo Joe Root and Harry Brook were the other nominees for the award.

On Monday, Bumrah was also named the ICC men’s test cricketer of the year for his 71 wickets in 13 matches.

Bumrah masterminded India’s successful campaign at the T20 World Cup in the United States and the West Indies with 15 wickets at a staggering average of 8.26 and impressive economy of 4.17, which also earned him the player of the tournament award.

“Last year was really memorable and specially winning the T20 World Cup in Barbados will always be close to my heart and I’ll always remember it forever,” Bumrah said.

In a memorable game at the T20 World Cup, Bumrah grabbed 3-14 against archrival Pakistan in a thriller in New York which India won by six runs. He went on to bag 2-18 in the final against South Africa.

JEDDAH: Al-Ahli captain Roberto Firmino has praised goalkeeper Edouard Mendy’s ‘amazing’ assist for Riyad Mahrez’s goal during his team’s dominant 5-0 victory over Al-Riyadh on Sunday.

Mendy produced a 75-yard pass to help Mahrez score Al-Ahli’s final goal in the 88th minute that was so perfect, it could have been the Algerian winger himself striking the ball.

Falling to his knees after claiming a catch, the former Chelsea goalkeeper spotted a potential attack and sprang up to kick the ball towards the sprinting Mahrez on the right wing.

The former Manchester City star played it inside with his right foot expertly, smashing a first-time shot with his left from 25 yards out that soared into the top of Milan Borgan’s net. It was so good, as many Al-Ahli players ran to congratulate their goalkeeper as they did the scorer.

“It was an amazing pass, congratulations to him,” said Firmino. “For a goalkeeper to (be able to) do that… amazing. Congratulations.”

Firmino himself was on the scoresheet, tapping home the third goal from Franck Kessie’s pass for his ninth strike of the season. The victory also included two goals by Ivan Toney — “It’d have been better if it was a hat-trick,” quipped the Englishman later — and a looping header from Ziyad Al-Johani.

Kessie and Firmino also had goals ruled out by VAR, the former after a foul in the build up by the latter, and Firmino due to an offside call.

The result leaves the Jeddah team, who have won four out of their last five matches, in fifth place in the Roshn Saudi League. They are three points off Al-Nassr in fourth and five behind Al-Qadisiyah in third.

“It was a big three points,” said 33-year-old former Liverpool forward Firmino. “I’m very happy to score again and help the team. We fight for everything, and we’ll do our best to achieve our goals in the future. We just need to keep winning games.

“I love it here, I’m happy. Scoring goals helps the team and that’s my goal every game so we’re getting better day by day.”

Al-Riyadh dropped to eighth in the table after the game, with coach Sabri Lamouchi saying Matthias Jaissle’s team were “excellent.”

“I want to congratulate Al-Ahli for the win,” he said. “Luck was not on our side. I don’t think it mattered if we played with four or five defenders. We might have lost because we did a few changes in the defensive line, but we played against a big team, an organized team, and an excellent team.”