Birendra Memorial Cup draw released

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KATHMANDU, Jan 7: Naxal Yuba Mandal and Galaxian Club will kick off the first Birendra Memorial Cup Football Tournament, starting from January 11 at Dashrath stadium, confirms a tournament programme that was released Monday by the organisers All Nepal Football Association (ANFA).

The tournament scheduled, according to an ANFA press release, was drawn following a meeting held among capital’s 12 ‘A’ division clubs and two departmental teams – Mahendra Police Club and Royal Nepal Army’s Tribhuvan Club at ANFA Complex, Satdobato.

The 13-day football event, being held in fond memory of His late Majesty King Birendra, features a total of 17 outfits, including three visiting sides from neighbouring India. The final is scheduled on January 22.

Mahendra Morang, Siddhartha in final

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BIRATNAGAR, Jan 7:Mahendra Morang Campus and Siddhartha Higher Secondary School fixed their summit meeting of the Nirajan Memorial Eastern Regionwide Inter-campus cricket tournament with respective semifinal win on Monday.

Mahendra Morang team crushed BCA Campus by 108 runs in the first semifinal while in the other match Siddhartha Higher Secondary School registered a 69-run win over Manakamana Academy. The final will be played on Tuesday.

Mahendra Morang put on 147 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the allotted 25 overs after they won the toss and elected to bat first. Mahesh Sen topscored with 29 runs while Anish Aryal (27) and Simant Koirala (26) also made handy contributions helping Mahendra Morang post the challenging total.

Krishna Tamrakar, who picked two wickets, was the most successful of the BCA bowlers.

BCA, in reply, never looked comfortable against a tight Mahendra Morang bowling and their innings were soon brought to book in 12 overs for just 40 runs. Saurav Shah (15) and Amit Koirala (11) were the only batsmen to attain double figure as six batsmen failed to get off the mark.

Ravi Aryal spearheading the Mahendra Morang bowling attack scalped four wickets including a hattrick. Other bowlers Saroj Karna and Rupak Shrestha too bowled impressively, taking three and two wickets respectively. Aryal was later named man of the match.

In the other semifinal, Siddhartha Higher Secondary School, having won the toss and opted to bat, took apart the Manakamana bowling to register 169 runs before they lost all of their wickets.

Siddhartha’s huge total centered around the batting of Sunil Shrestha, who made 55 runs with the help of six sweetly timed sixes playing only 38 balls. His half-century earned him man of the match. Akash Bhattarai (33) and Abhishek Timilsena (19) also scored in even time ensuring the big total.

For Manakamana, Rabin Thapa and Parwej Hussein both picked three wickets each but not before taking heavy punishment from the opposition batsmen’s willow.

Manakamana found runs hard to come by as Siddhartha bowlers rarely let them to settle in the middle. Apart from Prabin Thapa (19), Rajesh Chobe (18) and Amit Thapa (10), the rest of the Manakamana batsmen simply caved in. And Suman Majhar (3 wickets) together with fellow bowlers – Akash Bhattarai and Manoj Mandol, both with two wickets – wrapped up the Manakamana innings for 100 runs in 22 overs.

Karate team heads India

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KATHMANDU, Jan 7: A nine-member Nepali karate team left for Nagpur, India on Monday to compete at the International Amateur Karate Championship 2002, the Nepal International Sotokan Karate Federation (NISKA) said in its press release.

The three-day long Championship being organised jointly by Universal Martial Arts Association and Traditional International Sotokan Karate Federation of India will kick off on January 11.

The nine-member Nepali team includes: Rajan Tuladhar (65kg), Pritam Rajkarnikar (60kg), Shailendra Tamrakar (60kg), Satrughan Maharjan (55kg), Dinesh Shakya (65kg), Surendra Karanjit (70kg), Suman Shrestha (50kg) and Dinesh Maharjan of 45 kg weight category and senior coach Dilendra Govinda Vaidya.