Meanwhile, Kaski District Football Association has started the necessary preparations under a team led by the district´s ANFA president Khem Bahadur Gurung. [break]Although, one of the matches was to be played at the Dasarath Stadium, the venue was changed due to the ongoing renovations there. The last time Nepal hosted Bhutan in the home ground was during the Eighth SAF Games, 11 years ago.
Nepali riders´ dominance
KATHMANDU: Nepali riders continued their dominance in the Fifth Yak Attack International Mountain Biking Series after the completion of the fourth round Wednesday. The only foreigner to occupy the last among the top ten spot is John McGillivray of the UK, who is still 3 hours 18 minutes 35 seconds behind first placed Ajay Pandit Chhetri leading the race with an overall timing of 9 hours 8 minutes 9 seconds.
Chhetri completed Wednesday´s race in 2 hours 25 minutes 16 seconds as the twenty national and international riders moved from the historic Gorkha city to Besisahar, covering a distance of 61 km in the undulating Himalayan trail. Narayan Gopal Maharjan was at the heels of Chhetri, late by just 2 minutes 46 seconds but Chhetri has an overall advantage of 25 minutes 7 seconds. Padam Sabenhang finished third clocking 3 hours 11 minutes 2 seconds.
The riders will move from Besisahar on Friday along the Marshyangdi river and then take a steep climb along a rocky 11 km route, before finally descending to the valley of Taal.
Bridgewater, Pentagon triumph
KATHMANDU: Bridgewater College toiled hard for a two run victory over Lord Buddha Education Foundation in the Spice Classic T-20 Inter College Cricket Tournament on Thursday. With Chandra Prakash Singh´s 25 runs and Sirish Pandey´s 24 runs, Bridgewater made 131 runs in 19.2 overs in the match held at TU cricket ground, Kirtipur. Although, Bigyan Pandey scored 47 runs for Lord Budhha, he could not avert his team´s loss.
Man of the match, Basant Khatri took three wickets for the winners to restrict Lord Buddha to 129 for 8 in the allotted 20 overs. In another match, Pentagon College thrashed Bagmati Modern College by 10 wickets. Prabeg Basnet (22) was the only player to reach the double digit runs for Bagmati. Shakti Bhandari and Santosh Bhatta took three wickets each to reduce Bagmati to 57 in 14.2 overs. Later, man-of-the-match Shakti Bhandari scored 31 and Subash Pradhan added 17 to guide Pentagon to an easy victory in 6.4 overs.
Siddhartha defeat Saharsha
BHADRAPUR: Siddhartha XI edged out Saharsha XI Bihar by five wickets in the Fourth Binesh Verma Memorial One Day Cricket Tournament on Thursday. Saharsha scored 109 runs in 37 overs with Saurav Kumar´s 26 runs. Later, with Kiran Pandey´s 35, Siddhartha reached the target in 20.1 overs. Siddartha´s Bal Bahadur Thapa was declared man-of-the-match for his all round performance with 16 runs and 3 wickets.
Birta clinch Gunmune Cup
ILAM: Birta Youth Club of Jhapa on Thursday clinched the title of Gunmune Knockout Football Tournament held at Chisapani, Ilam. Birta stunned the hosts United Three Star Club 5-4 in a tiebreaker after the regulation time ended in a 1-1 stalemate. The winners Birta bagged a purse of Rs 100,000 along with the trophy while the runners-up received Rs 60,000. Earlier, Ganesh Khadka had given a 17th minute lead to Birta but Dipen Rai hit back the equalizer seven minutes later for the hosts.
Babulal Hasda of the hosts was adjudged the best player and Dipak Rai of the winners took home the highest scorer award. Likewise, Min Basnet and Santosh Basnet of Birta were declared the best goalkeeper and defender, Jeevan Rai of Godhuli Club, Jhapa and Dipen Rai of the hosts were named best midfielder and striker, respectively. All of them were awarded with a cash prize of Rs 5,000 each. Altogether eight teams from the Eastern Region had competed in the event.
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