Chaudhary guides Yeti into final

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CHITWAN, Dec20:Dipendra Chaudhary smashed scintalliating 73 runs as Yeti Airlines beat Rupandehi Cricket Team by 49 runs in the first semifinal of the Lions Cup Cricket tournament on Friday.

The right-handed batsman with international experience faced 72 balls to hit two sixers in his fiery knock to help Yeti Airlines set a commanding total of 191-8 in the allotted 35 overs. Star-studded Rupandehi were 49 runs short of the target after being bundled out in 34 overs making 142 runs.

Apart from man of the match Chaudhary, Munik Shreshta (29), Paresh Lohani (26) and Prafulla Vaidhya (20) played sensibly for Yeti Airlines. Left-arm spinner Shakti Gauchan was the pick of the Rupandehi bowlers notching two wickets in his seven-over spell conceding 19 runs. Likewise, Basanta Regmi, Anil BK and Amit Shrestha also claimed two wickets apiece.

Chasing a huge target, Rupandehi never looked comfortable after Raju Basnet bowled a superb spell picking up three vital wickets. Binay Tripathi scored run-a-ball 27 runs and became the highest scorer for Rupandehi. Basudev Thapa (19) and Basanta Regmi (16) failed to play longer innings. Bardan Chalise claimed two wickets while Kalam Ali, Prafulla Vaidhya , Pramod Basnet and Chaudhary bagged a wicket each for Yeti Airlines.

Bara will take on Morang on Saturday’s second semifinal.

Rana enters final

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KATHMANDU, Dec 20:Manoj Rana downed Karma in a three-set thriller to enter the veterans’ singles final of the fifth Hyatt Winter Tennis Tournament on Friday.

Rana easily claimed the first set 6-2 but went down 4-6 in the second set. He bounced back in the crucial third set to win 6-3. He will take on Kamal Thapa who registered semifinal win over Binod Kayasthsa on Thursday.

Likewise, the pair of Kamal Bhandari-V Dayananda defeated Raju Sherstha-Mille Scultz’s pair 6-2, 6-1 in mixed doubles semifinal to set clash with E Nott and C Shahi in the Saturday’s final. Nott-Shahi had beaten P Dayananda-S Dayananda 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday. The remaining matches including all the finals of the tournament will be held on Saturday. In the day’s other matches V Dayananda and S Dayananada thrashed Harinder Singh and M Lim 6-0, 6-0 in women’s doubles being played in round-robin league format. Likewise, Manoj Rana and Chamba Dhondup pulled a win over Chandra Shahi and Amrit K in the finals of the veteran’s doubles category.

Other Winners:

Junior Singles Boys (U-12)

Jimmy Sherpa beats A Maharjan 6-1

Sameer Lama beats L Lama 6-2

Jimmy Sherpa beats M Tiwari 9-3 (U-14 boys)

Kumar Adhikari beats S Karki 9-5 (U-18 boys)

Utsav Rijal beats Santosh Karki 9-0

Priti Rijal beats Sumi Serchan 6-1 (U-12 girls)

Saloni Pandey beats S Gurung 6-1

Linda Mc Dougal beats Shibani Pandey 6-2 (U-14 girls)

Preeti Rijal beats Saloni Pandey 6-2

V Dayananda beats Ruby Basnet 9-1 (U-18 girls)

Linda Mc Dougal beats Shibani Pandey 9-2 (U-18 girls)

Nepal register impressive win over Maldives

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KATHMANDU, Dec 20:AFC Under-14 Football Festival kicked off at Dashrath Stadium on Friday with impressive 6-1 win for Nepal.

Nepali striker Shishir Adhikari fired a hattrick to demolish Maldives convincingly and take the pole position in the round-robin league championship.

Likewise, Bhutan and India also registered wins to start their campaign on a happy note.

Nepal opened the scoring as early as in the 9th minute through a sublime header from Prakash Bhandari. The man of the match Adhikari supplied a well-judged pass at the centre to unmarked Bhandari, who connected a perfect diving header and the ball landed on the back of Maldives goal.

Nepal doubled the lead two minutes from the first half after Subash Gurung’s long-range shot beat Maldives goalkeeper Mohammad Eelaf. Maldives pulled one back just after the fourth minute of the second half when striker Sham Shakeet guided a Hassan Rausaan released ball to empty Nepal net in their bid to come back into the match.

But Nepal struck two goals in the span of two minutes just a minute after Maldives scored their only goal in the match. On both occasions the goal scorer was Adhikari. Subash Gurung, instead of taking a risky shot, released the ball to Adhikari, who did not commit any mistake to convert the chance making the score 3-1. Adhikari headed his second goal just after a minute taking the match away from Maldives reach. He completed his hattrick in the final minute of the match after a good work from the left by second half substitute Gyanendra Ale.

Ale ripped home an injury time goal to make it 6-1.

In the second match, improved Bhutan easily demolished Sri Lanka 4-0. Tschring Penjor opened Bhutan’s account in the ninth minute. Rinjin Dorje made it 2-0 six minutes into the second half. And six minutes later Bhutan confirmed their win as Dilli Ram scored the third goal of the day for them. Sanjay Choda sealed the match in style firing a 20-yard shot at the later part of the match.

Later, India downed Bangladesh 2-1 in the day’s only closely contested battle. Bangladesh were a bit unlucky when the match’s linesman ruled a Mithun Chaudhary’s header offside.

India took the lead after just four minutes when Pintu Sarkar headed home for a 1-0 lead. Sarkar received the ball from Sukumar Roy in an Indian counter-attack. Bangladesh leveled the score at 1-1 in the dying seconds of the first half -thanks to Chaudhary’s brilliant header off Monir Hossain corner. Bangladesh conceded a goal in the second half after their defender Islam Palas scored an own goal, which determined the result of the match.

Sunday’s Matches

Maldives vs India 12:00
Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka 13:30
Nepal vs Bhutan 15:00

Sri Lanka set up showdown with Pakistan

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KATHMANDU, Dec 20:Sri Lanka strolled into the U-15 Asia Cup final as they overcame the challenge of India by four wickets in the second semi-final at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

The final will be played on Sunday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

According to information posted on the tournament’s official website, India, aided by Sanjeev Martin’s unbeaten half half-century posted a fighting 177 for 7 in the allotted 40 overs.

Spurred on by the man of the match winning knock of Shalika Karunanayake, Sri Lanka notched up the victory in 38.5 overs.

In a match of fluctuating fortunes, Karunanayake hit a match winning 45 off mere 34 balls with 3 fours and two sixes under mounting run rate and tension to steer his team out of the woods with 7 balls to spare.

Karunanayake, who came in at 132 for 5, played a splendid knock where he mixed caution with aggression to bring the much-cherished victory.

He added 43 crucial runs for 6th wicket in company of Prabudda Perera (13 not out) at more than run a ball that ultimately turned the game around decisively in the end and took them to victory.

Earlier, the Lankans were off to a flying start with openers Sameera Soysa (27) and Sachitra Serasinghe (34) sharing 51 runs for the opening wicket.

Although India picked up two quick wickets, Lankan skipper Angelo Mathew dug them out of trouble making invaluable 42 off 56 balls.

Indians once again brought them back into the game claiming three wicket to leave Sri Lanka at 132 for 5 that put the game evenly poised.

Sanjeev Martin was the most effective of the Indian bowlers with 2-34.

Earlier, put into bat first, India recovered from a precarious position to post a challenging total of 177-7. They were reduced to 87-6 before Sanjeev Martin played superbly to compile a fine unbeaten half century (51 not out off 56 balls with 2 fours).

Sarabjeet Singh (31) was the other contributor and added 78 quick runs with Martin for the 7th wicket that allowed their team to end on a high note. For Sri Lanka, Rajeev Weerasinghe (3-30) and Malinda (2-35) bowled superbly to pave the path to the final.