Oasis, Skylark win home $ away basketball

KATHMANDU, June 22: Oasis and Skylark School on Saturday claimed the boys´ and girls´ titles respectively in the First Inter-school League Basketball Championship played under home and away format.

Oasis won the boys´ title finishing with 16 points at the end of the double round-robin league while Skylark finished second with 10 points. The Excelsior School, which also collected 10 points, came third on the basis of points scored. The Chandbagh School finished the championship with four points.

In the girls´ section, both Skylark and The Chandbagh finished with 12 points but Skylark won the title on the basis of points scored. Oasis finished third on 10 points.

Santosh Pun of Oasis and Shila Khatri of Skylark were adjudged the most valuable players in the boys´ and girls´ sections respectively. The boys´ team of The Excelsior won the fair play award while Everest School of Bhaktapur received the most consistent team award.

The tournament featured five teams -- Oasis, Skylark, The Chandbagh, Everest and The Excelsior -- each in the boys´ and girls´ sections. The matches of the tournament were played either on Saturdays or public holidays.

Nepal Basketball Association President Lama Tendi Sherpa and Managing Director of The Excelsior Ram Basnet, among others, awarded the winners. The tournament was organized by Nepa Sports Group formed a year ago

Nagarkoti cards four-under for one-stroke lead

KATHMANDU, June 24: Royal Nepal Golf Club pro Ramesh Nagarkoti took a one-stroke lead in the Surya Nepal Central Open after the first round on Monday. He carded four-under 68 at the par-72 Gokarna Golf Club on the first day of the third event of the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2013-14.

Sanjay Lama is second at three-under 69 while Ram Thapa and Shiva Ram Shrestha are tied for third at two-under 70.

Nagarkoti shot four-under 32 on the front nine and played even-par 36 on the back nine. He carded birdies on the first, second, fifth and sixth holes on the front nine. On the back nine, he suffered a bogey on the 11th hole before carding a birdie on the 12th. Likewise, Lama took the turn at two-under 34 and played one-under 35 on the back nine. His bogey-free round included birdies on the first, seventh and 12th holes.

"I missed around half-a-dozen birdies today (Monday). Otherwise, I could have produced a much better card," said Nagarkoti. "The course condition is not perfect. The green is soft but the ball is not rolling as expected. In these conditions, four-under is a good score. I´ll try to continue this form on Tuesday and I´ll certainly play an attacking game in the remaining days," he added.

Thapa and Shrestha both played one-under 35 in either half.

Yelamber Singh Adhikari is fifth at one-under 71. Jaya Ram Shrestha, Tham Bahadur Rai and Surya Prasad Sharma are tied for the sixth position with the scores of even-par 72. Deepak Thapa Magar, CB Bhandari and Bhuwan Gurung are a stroke behind at one-over 73, while Ramesh Adhikari and Suman Rai are tied for 12th at two-over 74.

In the amateur section, Tanka Bahadur Karki, Bikash Bogati and Dinesh Prajapati shared the lead with the scores of two-over 74. Mithun Rai lies fourth at 77.
The winning pro of the event will receive Rs 95,000 while the runner-up will get Rs 60,000.

White House reaches Morgan Cup fina

White House reaches Morgan Cup final     REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, June 24: White House reached the final in the men´s section of First Morgan Cup National Club-level Basketball Championship on Monday. White House edged past Golden Gate 61-54 in the first semifinal of the championship with 21 points from Rishi Robertson. White House took the first quarter 16-4, which laid the foundation for its victory. Golden Gate took the remaining three quarters with the scores of 12-10, 18-16 and 20-19. However, the big lead conceded in the first quarter proved costly for Golden Gate. Golden Gate suffered defeat in the women´s section also as Gurukul outplayed it 40-11 with 14 points from Gyanu Gauchan. Gurukul completely dominated the first three quarters of the match with the scores of 12-3, 14-1, 10-1. Golden Gate showed some resistance to take the last quarter 6-4 but it was too little too late.

India deny England in Champions Trophy thrille

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, June 23: India added the Champions Trophy title to the World Cup they won two years ago after seeing off England by five runs in a dramatic final at Edgbaston on Sunday.

Tournament hosts England, still to win a major one-day international title, appeared to have done the hard work in holding India to 129 for seven in a match reduced by rain to 20 overs per side.

But, chasing 130, they collapsed to 46 for four, before a partnership of 64 between former Ireland left-hander Eoin Morgan (33) and Ravi Bopara (30), who also took three for 20 with his medium-pacers, swung the match back their way.

However, India seamer Ishant Sharma turned the match on its head by removing Morgan and Bopara off successive deliveries and England needed 19 off the last 12 balls for victory.

The target eventually became six off one ball and that proved too much for tailender James Tredwell as he failed to make contact against fellow off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Ravindra Jadeja was named man-of-the-match for making 33 not out and taking two for 24 with his left-arm spin.

India´s win left England still searching for their first major ODI trophy after defeats in three World Cup finals (1979, 1987 and 1992) and a loss to the West Indies at The Oval in the 2004 Champions Trophy final when they last staged this event.

"We handled the pressure really well," said India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, one of just three survivors along with Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, from the side that beat Sri Lanka in the 201l World Cup final in Mumbai.

"People talk about technique but the better players are the ones who respond to the pressure."

England captain Alastair Cook, suffering his first major setback as skipper just a few weeks before he leads the Test team in their defence of the Ashes against Australia, said his side had fallen at the last.

"I´m proud of the way the lads responded to pressure in this tournament and we just fell short today."

England´s reply suffered an early setback when Cook was well caught in the slips for two by Ashwin off Umesh Yadav.

Jonathan Trott and Joe Root both came and went before Ian Bell, like Trott playing on his Warwickshire home ground, was stumped by Dhoni off Jadeja.

It was a close call but Australian third umpire Bruce Oxenford eventually ruled in India´s favour and England were 46 for four.

"I thought it was a poor decision," an unusually outspoken Cook said.

England needed 48 off 30 balls after Bopara launched Ishant Sharma for six.

Morgan then weighed in with a reverse-swept four off part-time spinner Raina.

But Morgan then holed out and Bopara, off what might have been a wide had he left it alone, was caught hooking by Ashwin at square leg.

Jos Buttler was bowled for nought by Jadeja and Tim Bresnan run out as the match slipped from England´s grasp.

Earlier the organisers, in what was meant to be a 50 overs per side contest, took the unusual decision to extend play by two hours to ensure a result in front of a packed crowd, after opting against a reserve day.

England, who won the toss in overcast conditions, dismantled India´s top-order with the visitors reduced to 66 for five after play was delayed by nearly six hours.

But India, who shared the 2002 Champions Trophy after a rain-ruined final against Sri Lanka in Colombo, were revived by Kohli and Jadeja´s quickfire stand of 47.

Kohli smashed 43 off 34 balls that included four boundaries and a six, before he holed out off James Anderson in the penultimate over.

Jadeja faced 25-balls for his unbeaten 33.

Left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan, who went into the final as the tournament´s leading scorer with 332 runs in four matches, hit 31 of 24 balls -- including a six over third-man off Stuart Broad.

But Dhawan was dismissed off Bopara´s second delivery, and the all-rounder then removed Raina and Dhoni, out for nought after uppercutting to third man, in the space of four balls.

sportsdigest

JUN 23 - Triton win KU T20 cricket
KATHMANDU: Triton International College clinched the first KU Twenty20 Tournament after upsetting the hosts Kathmandu University by 25 runs in KU ground on Sunday.
Opting to bat first, Triton scored 168 runs losing eight wickets as man of the final Suman Uday top scored with 39 runs. Ujjwol Thapa and Bijay Gautam added 29 runs each, while Ritesh Singh contributed 28 runs.

KU’s Pragyesh Dhungel took three wickets and Saurav Thapa scalped two. In reply, KU could manage to score just 143 runs with the loss of nine wickets. Pujan Jung Pandey (32), Raj Timalsina (19), Krishna Bista (18) and Pawan Nepal (17) runs were not enough for KU after Indra Kamal Manandhar and Sanjay Shrestha took two wickets each. Champions Triton were awarded Rs 51,000 along with the trophy, while KU fetched Rs 30,000. Triton’s Indra Kamal Manandhar and Rabin Joshi were adjudged the best bowler and best batsman of the tournament respectively. Both the players were awarded Rs 9,000 each. Krishna Bista earned Rs 11,000 after being named player of the tournament.

Wins for Swikriti, Santu
KATHMANDU: Santu Shrestha of Nobel Academy and Elite HS School’s Swikriti Shrestha have won the second National Inter-school Open table tennis tournament on Sunday. Swikriti lost opening two sets but recovered to beat Neologion Academy’s Sonu Thapa Magar 6-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 in girls’ final match played at Janasewa School in Kirtipur. In boys’ single, Nobel Academy’s Santu defeated Yubraj Pun in straight sets of 11-8, 11-8, 13-11, 11-5 to deny Elite School the second title of the event.

Retain Qualifier: CAN prez to request ICC

KATHMANDU, JUN 23 - Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) will appeal to the ICC not to scrap the World Cup Qualifier and instead urge the world cricket governing body to come out with more of similar programmes to help develop the cricket among the associate nations, at its Anuual General Meeting starting on Tuesday.
CAN President Tanka Angbuhang Limbu, before leaving for London on Sunday, told the Post, “We will urge ICC not to come under pressure from cricket giants and continue with programmes like the World Cup Qualifier which is very vital for the development of cricket for minnows like us.”
ICC has already announced that the World Cup Qualifier to be held in New Zealand in January will be the last one. The top two sides out of the 10 from the Qualifier will progress to the 2015 World Cup which will be held in Australia and New Zealand.
Limbu and General Secretary Ashok Nath Pyakuryal are attending the five-day meeting. CAN is also pushing for more support to construct infrastructure. “We have a lot more to do as far as infrastructure is concerned and we will try to attract ICC’s attention on this matter,” Limbu added.
Apart from submitting the financial report and CAN’s annual cricket calendar, Nepal will also attend the election to choose a new executive committee.
Limbu also revealed that he will request for a specialist batting and bowling coach to help Nepal prepare for the World Cup Qualifier.

New Diamond clinch Volleyball League title

KATHMANDU, APR 13 -
New Diamond Club prevailed against tough competitors Western Region Team 3-1 to lift the title in the women’s category of the first National Men’s and Women’s Club League Volleyball Tournament at the Covered Hall of the National Sports Council on Friday.
New Diamond topped the standings with eight points and although Armed Police Force (APF) have a game in hand, they will only secure seven points if they succeed to win. New Diamond’s title hopes looked murky as they lost the first set 23-25. However, staging a stunning comeback they toiled hard to emerge victorious in the next two sets with 25-20,
25-23 and 27-25 points.