MPC end Friends’ Club challenge to reach final

By Purushottam Kattel

DHARAN, Dec 26 – Mahendra Police Club (MPC) entered the final of the 4th Budha Subba Cup invitational football tournament following their 2-0 win over Friends’ Club here on Wednesday.

Both the teams, studded with Nepali Internationals, played attacking football keeping the capacity crowd entertained throughout. While the two sides exchanged numerous attacking moves, it was not before they entered the last few seconds of the first half that it saw the first strike. In the 40th minute, MPC veteran Dev Narayan Chaudhary, the champion header, showed his class in the air to head home the ball for a1-0 lead. All the matches in the tournament have been played with 80-minute regulation time.

Chaudhary, who played brilliantly at the field, connected a fine header off Raju Pulami’s well measured cross from the right. Friends’ Club goalie, Nepali International Upendra Man Singh was left completely off guard by a surprise move by MPC striker Hari Khadka, leaving the ball for Chaudhary to head into the left corner of the net.

Friends’ Club, despite trailing by a goal, came up with more pressing moves into the MPC territory, which kept the interest alive. The second half, however, saw MPC players find their rhythm giving difficult time to Friend’s Club goalie Singh under the bars.

And the MPC’s relentless pressure paid off when they earned a penalty in the 56th minute. As MPC striker Khadka was running in with the ball into the 18-yard territory, Friends’ Club last defense Shyam Shrestha, unfortunately touched the ball with his hand and referee Binod KC did not hesitate to point at the spot. Khadka stepped up and pushed the ball to the right corner while the Friends’ Club ‘keeper dived to the opposite side to doubled the lead to 2-0, which stood as the final score.

In their desperate attempt to come back into the game, Friends’ Club put everything into stake leaving loopholes at the back. They were fortunate not to concede any more goals, though. Thanks to brilliant goalkeeping by Singh who saved more than seven shots including three powerful drives from Khadka.

Friend’s Club too had glorious scoring chances of their own only to let them go begging. Nirajan Rayamajhi missed an easy chance in the first session when he failed to put off a five-yard shot into an empty net.

Likewise in the 37th minute, Rajan Rayamajhi too had his share of bad luck when his shot, taken almost from 30-yard, bounced back off the crossbar. There were more frustrations for Friend’s Club as their claim for a penalty was denied when MPC’s Kishore Subba brought down Bal Gopal Maharjan inside the penalty area.

"Any one can say, it’s an unfair decision which sealed our fate," fumed Friends’ Club coach Navadip Singh. "Otherwise we as a good side succeeded to keep pressure on our strong opponents."

On the other hand, his counterpart Yugambar Suwal of MPC looked convinced with a new format
he employed in the tournament. "I’ve used the 3-5-2 format in
this tournament and its working fine."

"Without two of our ace players Narottam Gautam and Ananta Thapa, the team played a good football and I hope they will continue their form in the final too."

Dev Narayan Chaudhary, scorer of MPC’s first goal, was declared man of the match. In the second semi-final, United Kurseong FC Darjeeling, the lone visiting team competing in the tournament, will take on the local Dharan-11 (Red) on Thursday.

Baneshwor thrash BGCC

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 26 - Spurred by Nutan Bajracharya’s allround performance, Baneshwor Cricket Club (BCC) entered the quarter-finals of the 3rd East West BDM Open cricket tournament thrashing British Gorkha Cricket Club (BGCC) by 107 runs on Wednesday.

Bajracharya scored a fine half century as BBC posted a mammoth total of 230 runs for eight in allotted 35 overs and later took three of the British Gorkha wickets to limit them to 123 runs. Bajracharya’s score of 57 runs came in 109 balls as he belted seven boundaries. His stint with the cherry brought him three wickets for nine runs in a spell of 3.4 overs.

Although Bajracharya shone with both ball and bat, British Gorkha players had themselves to blame for the defeat. They gave away a whooping 71 extras, more than any player scored during the entire match.

Chasing more than six runs an over, BGCC team never looked like coming near the target and were bundled out in 30.4 overs. Apart from Bijay Subba (20) and Min Jung (27) none of their batsmen played the Baneshwor bowling with ease. Ajay Sharma showed some mettle scoring 17 runs off 18 balls towards the end. For Baneshwor, Kushal Karki and Sudhir Sharma took two wickets each.

Earlier, Baneshwor was put in to bat as BGCC won the toss. As Bajracharya showed his patience at the crease, Sudhir Sharma and Srikantha Dhungana increased the tempo of scoring during the later stages of the innings with 33 and 22 runs respectively. While Sharma took 25 balls for his cameo, Dhungana lasted for 21 deliveries. Sharma was particularly impressive with his shots. He scored five fours and hit one six.

For BGCC, Amit Lama and Om Lama took two wickets apiece.

KKM will take on Dharan Cricket Club in the first quarter-final on Thursday.

Pushpalal Memorial football

LALITPUR, Dec 26 (PR) – New Naikap VDC entered the second round of Puspa Lal Memorial Inter VDC football tournament following their 3-2 win in a tense match against Sirutar VDC on Wednesday.

The fifth day of the tournament being played at ANFA Complex, Satdobato witnessed both the teams indulge in grueling battle right off the starting whistle. New Naikap, however, gradually took charge of the match and went 1-0 up through Devendra Rana before half time.

Sirutar nullified the deficit when Santosh Pokharel levelled the score at 1-1 in the 56th minute of the match.

As the two sides made quick exchange of attacks, neither team could retain their supremacy for long. In the 70th minute, New Naikap regained lead to 2-1 through Shiva Tandukar but Sirutar’s Niraj Raut frustrated them bringing up the equaliser four minutes later. The referee employed an extra time to break the 2-2 deadlock and New Naikap grabbed an opportunity that they had in the very first minute to score the decisive goal for a 3-2 win.

The second match between Thecho VDC and Imadol too was resolved in the extra time after the two sides were locked at 1-1 at the end of regulation time. Thecho eventually won the match by 2-1 through a golden goal from Kiran Maharjan.