New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum plays a shot as teammate Mark Craig looks on during net practice session at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on November 24, 2014. The series-deciding third Test between Pakistan and New Zealand starts at Sharjah on November 26, 2014. Aamir Qureshi / AFP
New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum plays a shot as teammate Mark Craig looks on during net practice session at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on November 24, 2014. The series-deciding third TesShow more

New Zealand on notice about Sharjah’s pitch



New Zealand coach Mike Hesson warned his team needed to be at their best to compete on a flat Sharjah pitch where they meet Pakistan in the third and final Test on Wednesday.

New Zealand are seeking a series-levelling win after losing the first Test in Abu Dhabi by 248 runs and drawing the second in Dubai.

Hesson said a flat and grassless Sharjah pitch will be tough.

“In the other two pitches we could see grass but not here,” he said on Monday. “This looks a bit different. Sharjah traditionally is lower and skiddier, and slows up as the game goes on. So I don’t expect this wicket to be any different.”

The Sharjah Cricket Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for Pakistan since the 1980s when they dominated one-day internationals at the stadium and they chased down a tough 302-run target at the ground to win a Test against Sri Lanka in January this year.

Hesson said winning the toss will be an advantage after the team calling correctly dictated terms in the first two Tests.

“It does give great advantage, no doubt about it,” said Hesson, whose team lost the toss in Abu Dhabi but won it in Dubai.

“Being able to bat first and third rather than second and fourth has advantages in this part of the world.”

Hesson said New Zealand’s come-from-behind win in Sri Lanka to level a two-Test series 1-1 in November 2012 gave them a lot of belief.

“We gained a lot of confidence from there and that was really impressive. The ball swung there [in Sri Lanka] and if the ball swings here it gives us more of a chance,” Hesson said.

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis stressed his team needed to be cautious after New Zealand’s resurgence.

“Test cricket is like that, you have to be cautious about any team, it doesn’t matter if it’s Australia or New Zealand,” Waqar said. “They are all fine sides and we need to be doing what best we can do, we drew the second Test but we are definitely capable of doing well and win the series.

“We did not field well so we have debated that and will certainly like improvement in that department.”

Clarke’s plan is to test hamstring on Friday

Australia have named Michael Clarke in a 12-man squad for the first Test against India starting at Brisbane next week, but the captain must prove his fitness in a match on Friday.

Clarke re-injured his problematic hamstring during the one-day international series against South Africa and is in a race to be fit for the first match of the four-Test series at the Gabba, which starts on December 4.

Clarke, 33, would need to be fit enough to run tomorrow to have a chance of playing for a Cricket Australia XI in the two-day tour match at the Adelaide Oval on Friday, chief selector Rod Marsh said.

“My gut feeling all along was that he’d be fit for the Test match,” Marsh said. “But now he’s got to play the two-day game here for him to prove his fitness and I think that’s really important because, with his recent history, we can’t have him breaking down in the first innings of a Test match per se.”

If Clarke fails in his bid, he would be replaced by a batsman, Marsh said, declining to name any candidates.

Uncapped paceman Josh Hazlewood has been rewarded for an impressive one-day series against South Africa with a place in the squad, but may be condemned to carrying the drinks, with Ryan Harris recalled after a long recovery from knee surgery.

Hazlewood, 23, replaces left armer Mitchell Starc, who toiled in Australia’s 2-0 Test series loss away to Pakistan, but the hosts are certain to retain Mitchell Johnson as their main strike bowler with fellow paceman Peter Siddle in support.

Spinner Nathan Lyon is expected to be retained despite a disappointing series against Pakistan, which saw him take only three wickets.

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5 of the most-popular Airbnb locations in Dubai

Bobby Grudziecki, chief operating officer of Frank Porter, identifies the five most popular areas in Dubai for those looking to make the most out of their properties and the rates owners can secure:

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Two bedroom: Dh627 to Dh960 
Three bedroom: Dh721 to Dh1,104

• Downtown

Within walking distance of the Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and the famous fountains, this location combines business and leisure.  “Sure it’s for tourists,” says Mr Grudziecki. “Though Downtown [still caters to business people] because it’s close to Dubai International Financial Centre."

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• City Walk

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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.

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