THE TIMES OF INDIA, BENGALURUTUESDAY, JULY 7, 201518 TIMES SPORT

REGD. NO. CPMG/KA/GPO-31/2003-05, RNI NO. 45466/85. Published for the proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., by R.J. Prakashan at S&B Towers, 40/1 M.G. Road, Bengaluru - 560 001(Phones: Office: EPABX - 080-42200000, Editorial: 080- 42200209 / 42200211, Fax : 080-42200100, Editorial Fax: 42200202) andprinted by him at (a) No.9/10/11-A, 4th Main, Bommasandra Industrial Area, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560 099 (Ph : 080-42200500) and(b) Fourth Estate Ltd., No. 14, Phase 1,Peenya Industrial Area, Bengaluru - 560 058 (Phone: 080 - 40877888). Regd office: Dr. D.N.Road, Mumbai - 400 001. Editor (Bengaluru Market): Vaman Vassudev Kamat - responsible for selection of news under PRB Act. © Allrights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

NO. 252 VOL 31

GOREN BRIDGE

Bengaluru: Nepal’s basket-ball players were a picture ofcalm during the three-day So-uth Asian Basketball Associ-ation (SABA) Championshipthat concluded here on Sunday.

Their bronze-medal win-ning performance, which in-cluded a stunning victoryover Bangladesh and a nail-biting fight-to-the-finishagainst Sri Lanka, has manyin the team calling it a ‘gift’ totheir motherland, which is re-building itself in the recentaftermath of the devastatingtwin earthquakes that killedmore than 9,000 people andleft thousands homeless.

The Dasarath RangasalaStadium in the capital ofKathmandu, which became amakeshift refugee centre forsurvivors, was among severalsporting facilities that weredamaged in the natural ca-lamity. “We couldn’t preparewell for the tournament butwe had the will to compete.Two of our basketball facili-ties at the Dasarath Stadiumwere damaged so withoutproper infrastructure, we hadto practise outdoors on therough terrain for severalweeks,” Nepal coach Dinesh

Chandra Nakarmi said. Thecountry’s participation in theSouth Asian tournament toowas in jeopardy until Basket-ball Federation of India (BFI)president K Govindrajstepped in and sponsoredtheir flight tickets to India. “Iwould like to thank the BFI forsupporting us and helping usto come to India and play thistournament. I'm really grate-ful,” Nakarmi said.

Two players in the team,who didn’t want to be named,lost their homes in the disas-ter. Bhawana Lama, a mem-ber of the women’s nationalteam who represented thecountry at the 2014 AsianGames, lost her elder brotherin the calamity, while herhome and her grandparents’house were also destroyed.

Amidst these testingtimes, the players still decid-ed to come together and trainfor the tournament. “Wecould have been home withour families, but that’s notwho we are. We are profes-sionals,” skipper SadishPradhan said. “We knew thetournament will happen evenif Nepal didn’t make it. Weare committed to basketballand the show must go on.”

The love for basketball, in away, helped the cagers over-come their personal grief andtragedies. “This (bronze med-al) gives us a lot of happinessafter all the sorrow and painwe had to endure a couple ofmonths ago. It means a lot notonly for us, but also for our fansback home,” Pradhan added.

Quake-hit Nepalpass test of poise

Maxin.Mathew@timesgroup.com

Cagers EndurePoor PreparationsTo Make A MarkIn SABA Meet

BASKETBALL

PROUD: The Nepal basketball team, after clinching the bronzemedal in the SABA Championship in Bengaluru on Sunday

Chethan Shivakumar

St Joseph's boys High Schooljuniors defeated Bishop CottonBoys School 3-0 in the Fr Eric Vazhockey tournament in Bengaluruon Monday. Jason scored twogoals (14, 27) while Carlincompleted the rout in the 25thminute. In the Centenarytournament for seniors, hostsSJBHS drew with Bishop Cotton1-1. Aaron Lobo put SJBHS aheadearly in the third minute butDharshan Mehta helped Cottonsdraw level in the 43rd minute.

Adhya scores hat-trick:Adhya scored a hat-trick as JainInternational School boysdefeated St Joseph's Indian HighSchool 'B' 3-0 in the HockeyKarnataka inter-schooltournament in Bengaluru onMonday. Among girls, BishopCotton crushed Sacred Hearts 4-0.Sthuthi scored two goals in the14th and 17th minutes whileDivyashree (19) and Athesa Kumar(30) too contributed to the tally.

Strong field for FIDE chess:Grandmasters RR Laxman (TN),Sriram Jha (Delhi), India’s firstwomen GrandmasterVijayalaxmi (TN), IMs BSShivananda, Himanshu Sharmaare among the 350 players whohave confirmed participation inthe all-India FIDE-rated chesstournament to be held at theKarnataka Engineers Academy inBengaluru on July 11 and 12.Organised by the KarnatakaSchool of Chess (KSC) andMysore Chess Centre thechampionship will have ninerounds of matches, five on theopening day and four on July 12.The total prize fund is Rs 1 lakhwith the winner getting Rs20,000 and a trophy. Contact:www.karchess.com or Supriya(97316-00486, 98451-28650).

Jaipur TSD rally cancelled:The third round of the FMSCIIndian National TSD Rally Cham-pionship (four-wheeler), the Jaipur

Rally 2015, has been cancelled. Itwas scheduled to be held on July11 and 12. After rounds inChikmagalur and Coimbatore, thethird one will be the Nagpur Rally2015 on July 25 and 26.

BFC, Boca Juniors sharespoils: Bengaluru FC and BocaJuniors India shared the honoursof the Mfar Boca Juniors FootballLeague in Bengaluru by winningthe Under 16 & 14 and Under 12 &10 categories respectively.Results: U-14: Christel House: 3 bt BFC 2;

U-12: Boca Juniors Whites Palermo: 1 bt

BFC: 0. U-10: Boca Juniors Stars Palermo: 1

bt BFC: 0 Final Results: U-10: 1. Boca

Juniors Stars Maradona, 2. BFC1, Golden

Boot: Gautam (Boca Juniors), MVP: Rajat

(Boca Juniors). U-12: 1. Boca Juniors Whites

Palermo, 2. BFC1, Golden Boot: Lokanshu

(BFC), MVP: Lokanshu (BFC). U-14: 1. BFC, 2.

Boca Juniors Yellows Palermo, Golden

Boot: Nikhil (BFC), MVP: Aryan (Boca

Juniors). U-16: 1. BFC, 2. Boca Juniors Blues,

Golden Boot: Yaseer (BFC), MVP: Harsha

(Boca Juniors).

Blitz in quarters: Vikramscored a brace to help Blitzoutclass La Masia 4-1 and powerinto the quarterfinals of theBDFA ‘C’ Division football leaguein Bengaluru on Monday.Results: Blitz: 4 (Vikram 32 & 41, Sanu

Thomas 36, Multan 54) bt La Masia: 1

(Shashidharan 17); BOSCH: 1 (Arun 13) bt

B’lore Warriors: 0; RS Sports: 2 (5) (Raghu

14, Moses 35) bt Phantoms: 2 (4) (Nihal 5,

Sang 62) on penalties.

On Tuesday (Quarterfinals):

Koramangala FC vs Parikrma FC (2pm);

Reserve Bank of India vs C2 FC (4pm).

BFC academy U-8 trials:Bengaluru FC will conduct trialsfor their Under-8 squad from July7-9 at the Bangalore FootballStadium at 4.30pm. Childrenborn on or after January 1, 2006,are eligible for the trials.

Sharan ends 18th: JainUniversity student GS Sharanfinished 18th in men’s trapshooting in the World UniversityGames in Gwangju on Sunday.The Bengaluru boy finished witha total of 111 points (22, 21, 23,23, 22). The other two Indians inthe fray Namanveer Brar ended21st (110) and Harsimran SinghKatodia finished 40th (84).

CITY SPORTS

Jason powersSJHC to victory

Bengaluru: Powered by left-arm medium-pacer PrateekJain’s six-wicket haul, Banga-lore Zone eked out a narrow13-run first innings honoursfrom their drawn encounteragainst Shimoga Zone in thefinal league clash of the SASrinivasan Memorial U-23cricket tournament here onMonday.

After making 294 in theirfirst innings, Bangalore Zonerestricted Shimoga to 281.Bangalore, who picked up

three points from the drawntie, finished on top of the heapto book their berth in the finalwith 14 points.

In the two-day title clashbeginning on Wednesday,they will take on President’sXI, who conceded the first in-nings lead to Combined CityXI in their final match, fin-ished second, two points be-hind Bangalore.Brief scores: Bangalore Zone: 294 all out

in 86.1 overs (Shivam Mishra 36, Sahban Khan

54, Bhavesh Gulecha 56, HS Adarsh 41; S Ma-

noj 3-89, YS Ranjan 2-54, AN Koushik 2-12)

drew with Shimoga Zone: 281 all out in 88

overs (Sumanth Bharadwaj 135, HR Vijayku-

mar 43, R Yuvaraj 31; Prateek Jain 6-78, Sha-

ran Gowda 3-34).

Bangalore: 3 pts; Shimoga: 1.

Combined City XI: 442/9 decl. in 88.3

overs (Vinay Sagar 56, Abhinav Manohar 165

n.o., Raunak Shah 45, KV Siddharth 66, Melu

Kranthi Kumar 57; KC Cariappa 5-101) drew

with President’s XI: 200 all out in 57.4 overs

(Rohan Kadam 82, Aman Raj 28, Rohith Gow-

da 27; Daivik Vishwanath 3-43, Raj Gala 2-34,

Shimon Luiz 3-22) & 164/8 in 50 overs

(Mashooq Hussain 28, Rohan Kadam 78 n.o.,

CA Karthik 5-38, Shimon Luiz 2-21).

Combined City XI:3 pts; President’s XI:1.

Mysore Zone: 361 all out in 89.3 overs (MG

Naveen 27, Fahad Vandikar 105, K Arun 104,

PV Preetham 49; Suresh H Karani 2-82, LM

Sunil 4-84) & 18/2 in 3.4 overs drew with

Tumkur Zone: 264 all out in 68.5 overs

(Shreyas Movva 99, HV Manoj Kumar 34, GT

Pavan Kumar 32; P Naveen Kumar 4-51, K

Shashank 5-46).

Mysore Zone: 3 pts; Tumkur: 1.

Raichur Zone: 167 all out in 49.3 overs (Ga-

nesh Kulkarni 36, Shashi Biradar 70; Ompra-

kash Choudhary 2-54, Kishore Kamath 6-25)

and 117 all out in 34.2 overs (Kishore Kamath

3-40, Omprakash Choudhary 6-26) lost to

Dharwad Zone: 333 all out in 87.2 overs (Md.

Azeem 37, Samarth Ooty 117, Kishore Kamath

76, Majid Makandar 33; Vicky Athwal 2-40,

Anand D 5-67, Shashi Biradar 2-68).

Dharwad: 5 pts; Raichur: 1.

Final (July 8-9): President’s XI vs Banga-

lore Zone (RSI).

Bangalore in finalafter Jain’s heroics

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

CITY CRICKETBengaluru: Top-seededNikhil Shyam Sriram pow-ered into the final in boththe boys’ U-19 and U-17 cate-gories in the Indian Gymk-hana Club state-rankingbadminton tournamenthere on Monday.

Sriram outplayed Sidd-harth ES 21-13, 21-14 in theU-19 section and scored a 21-13, 21-8 win over Kiran B inthe U-17 category.

Meanwhile, also in linefor a double were DeepthiRamesh and Apeksha CNayak, who will battle eachother in both the girls’ U-17& U-19 categories. Deepthidefeated Ashwini Bhat inboth the semifinals. Results: Boys: Under-19: Semifinals:

Nikhil Shyam Sriram bt Siddharth ES 21-

13, 21-14; Balraj Kajla bt Akshaysrinivas S

23-25, 21-19, 21-12. Quarterfinals: Sri-

ram bt Sai Prateek K 21-11, 21-14; Sidd-

harth bt Ganesh Vittalji 21-13, 21-12; Kajla

bt Kiran B 21-12, 21-15; Akshaysrinivas bt

Sudharshan Raajkumar 21-15, 21-15.

Under-17: Semifinals: Nikhil Shyam Sri-

ram bt Kiran B 21-13, 21-8; Abi Amudhan

S bt Mayuresh Janpandit 21-7, 17-21, 21-

10. Quarterfinals: Sriram bt Akshaysri-

nivas S 21-18, 21-13; Kiran bt Nihal Naik

21-17, 21-14; Mayuresh bt Chinmaya Ven-

katesh 21-18, 21-15; Amudhan bt Ganesh

Vittalji 21-10, 21-14.

Girls: Under-19: Semifinals: Deepthi

Ramesh bt Ashwini Bhat 14-21, 21-15, 21-

17; Apeksha C Nayak bt Savita RN 21-15,

21-16. Quarterfinals: Ashwini bt Archa-

na Pai 21-11, retd.; Deepthi bt Ranjeeta

Sheokand 21-18, 17-21, 21-18; Apeksha bt

Neha NK 21-7, 21-7; Savita RN bt Mahima

Aggarwal 21-13, 19-21, 21-16.

Under-17: Semifinals: Deepthi Ramesh

bt Ashwini Bhat 21-17, 21-14; Apeksha C

Nayak bt Bhavya Krishnan 21-11, 21-10.

Quarterfinals: Ashwini bt Archana Pai

21-17, 21-16; Deepthi bt Trisha Hegde 18-21,

21-13, 21-7; Bhavya bt Advika Ganesh 21-17,

21-18; Apeksha bt Sheethal D 21-10, 21-9.

Nikhil &Deepthi setfor double

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

BADMINTON

Bengaluru: The sprin-kling of vivacious specta-tors at the M Chinnaswamystadium egged Harman-preet Kaur to loft the ball fora winning six on Monday.Reflecting the confidencewith which the Indian wom-en’s team won the contest,Kaur hoisted the ball overlong-on to signal India’sthumping eight-wicket winover New Zealand in a high-intensity fourth One-Dayer.

New Zealand skipper Su-zie Bates finally won thetoss and predictably optedto bat on a flat track whichhad a lot to offer for the bat-ters. The visiting side, rid-ing on Sophie Devine’s ag-gressive 102-ball 89 and AmySatterthwaite’s 43, posted a

stiff 220 for 9, the highest to-tal of the series so far, butthe Indians who were strug-gling to get past the 150mark in the first threematches, were a differentbunch on the day, as theychased down the target in44.2 overs losing two wick-ets in the process.

Incidentally this was In-dian women’s second high-est run chase after the 230against England at Lords in2012. With the win, the se-ries is tied 2-all. The hometeam’s innings was primar-ily driven by skipper Mitha-li Raj’s unbeaten 81 off 87balls. Mithali, who has beenstruggling with form, shedher cautious approach onthe day to play her naturalgame.

Unlike the first threematches in which they bat-ted first and stuttered, theIndians were in contrastingform on the day. They got off

to their best start of the se-ries, with the opening part-nership between ThirushKamini (31) and SmritiMandhana (66) yielding 49runs, before Kamini offereda sitter to Satterthwaite offMaddie Green at deep mid-wicket. Coming in at a timewhen the scoreboard need-ed to tick faster, Mithali en-sured that she rotated strikewith Smriti. FollowingSmriti’s departure Har-manpreet joined her skip-per for a quickfire 25-ball 32,which included four hits tothe boundary and a six.

Earlier, the White Fernscould have been restrictedto under 200, if not for sometardy fielding, especially inthe last 10 overs.

Home girl RajeshwariGayakwad was the mostsuccessful bowler, with theyoung spinner returningfigures of 3-25. Niranjana

Nagarajan too collectedthree wickets, while Har-manpreet accounted fortwo. The series decider willbe played on Wednesday.Brief scores: New Zealand: 220 for 9 in

49.5 overs (S Bates 27, A Satterthwaite 43,

SDevine 89, N Niranjana 3-35, R Gayakwad

3-25, H Kaur 2-23) lost to India: 222 for 2

in 44.2 overs (T Kamini 31, S Mandhana 66,

M Raj 81 n.o, H Kaur 32 n.o) by 8 wickets.

MITHALI SURPASSES5,000-RUN BARRIERDuring her 123-minute stayat the crease, skipper Mitha-li Raj scripted a few records.She became the second play-er in ODIs to score morethan 5,000 runs.

Mithali now has 5,029with English captain Char-lotte Edwards leading the tal-ly with 5,829 runs. With 2,115runs on home soil, Mithalinow hold the record for themost runs by a batswomanon home soil as well.

Mithali shines as India crushNew Zealand to draw level

Manuja.Veerappa@timesgroup.com

WOMEN’S CRICKET TOP KNOCK: India’s Mithali Raj in action against New Zealand

Chethan Shivakumar

Sunil.Subbaiah@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru: Four Karna-t a k a h o cke y p l aye r s, dropped from the national team owing to injury or loss of form, are making the most of the break as they prepare to stage a comeback. Drag-flicker VR Raghu-nath's powerful reverse flick at a training session during the India-Japan hockey Test series at Bhubaneswar in May fractured SV Sunil's left shin bone and forced the striker out of action.

In the weeks that fol-lowed, Raghunath, a key de-fender for India, injured his hamstring just before team was preparing to travel to Antwerp, Belgium for the Hockey World League Semi-finals. While midfielder SK Uthappa was dropped to try out some variations in the team, striker Nithin Thim-maiah was on the mend after a career-threatening injury he suffered two years ago.

With tour of Europe lined up, the players are working overtime to prove their cre-dentials again. All of them have been assigned individu-al fitness programmes by the Indian team’s physiothera-pist and trainer.

These days, Raghu, Uthappa and Thimmaiah are polishing their skills by forming a team with former internationals to play prac-tice matches against Sports Authority of India at the KSHA stadium. Sunil too is

working hard on his fitness at the SAI centre in Madikeri.

“With new coach Paul van Ass taking charge I was keen to show him my potential. But the injury has affected my plans. I tried to play a match despite the injury but could not continue. The coach sug-gested that I undergo a rehab programme. It was disappoint-ing not to be part of India's campaign in Belgium,” said Sunil, a veteran of 170 inter-national caps.

Raghu, who resumed training nearly three weeks ago, said: “It hurts that I sus-tained an injury days before the team left for Belgium. But now, I am happy I've re-covered and am fit for the European tour,” said the de-fender with nearly 200 inter-national caps. “The training and the practice matches against the SAI team has helped us to be match-fit. It's important to be match-fit as we head toward the Olym-pics,” he added.

Uthappa was dropped to make way for Lalit Upadhyay

as the coach wanted to experi-ment with some new varia-tions on the midfield. However, the Kodava lad believes he is ready to make a big impres-sion. “Dropping me from the team has made me work on my strengths and weaknesses. I am a more confident player now,” said Uthappa, who too was a nursing a shin pain dur-ing the camp.

Thimmaiah last played for India during the 2014 tour of Bangladesh after recovering from a multiple fracture he suffered after the 2013 Asia Cup. “I took a long time to re-cover from the wrist fracture. As a result I missed out on a lot of opportunities to return to the team,” he said, adding that he was looking forward to the European tour as his comeback tournament.

HOCKEY STARS MENTOR BUDDING YOUNGSTERSApart from fine-tuning their skills, VR Raghunath, SV Sunil, SK Uthappa and Nithin Thimmaiah have also turned mentors, imparting hockey knowledge to bud-ding youngsters. Raghu, Uthappa and Thimmaiah teach youngsters at SAI Ben-galuru about modern train-ing methods and fitness pro-grammes. In Madikeri, the girls team have benefited from special training ses-sions with Sunil.

“It’s good to teach the youngsters modern tech-niques. It will help them pre-pare better for future chal-lenges,” said Raghunath.

Manuja.Veerappa@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru: It has been 35 years since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where the Indian women’s hock-ey team turned out as invitees. What followed were years of frustration as they made one at-tempt after another to qualify for the subsequent editions of the quadrennial Games.

But on a wind-swept evening in Antwerp, Belgium last week, Ritu Rampal and her band of gritty girls took a crucial step towards booking a berth at the 2016 Rio Olympics with a fifth-place finish at the World Hockey League semifinals. Playing a crucial role in taking India clos-er to the dream destination was goalkeeper Savita Poonia.

The 25-year-old was a revela-tion during India’s 1-0 trium ph over Japan. The Haryana lass, who has been a regular fixture in the playing 11 since last year, looked composed and confident in the Indian citadel.

Talking about the WHL, amidst celebrations on her ar-rival home, Savita told TOI, “Qualifying for the Olympics is our primary agenda and the whole team was focused on it. We knew the match against Japan was our best chance to take the giant step towards Rio and we

did well in the defence, especial-ly during penalty corners. I’m glad we had Helen ma’am around because she has a lot of experi-ence and knowledge to share.”

Helen Mary Laxman, the former custodian of the Indian post for over a decade, who has been with the Indian senior team from the start of the year as the goalkeeping coach, believes that Savita’s confidence and ability to handle pressure took the team through the decisive contest. “She is very confident under the bar and her communication with the team is excellent. She is always talking to her teammates and en-couraging them. She shows great character when under pressure and doesn’t crack easily. Even in a tough match against Italy she was cool and did not panic when the match went into the shoot-out,” the 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medalist said.

While Savita attributed her impr ovement in penalty shoot-outs to Helen, the former Indian skipper, who grew up playing for the BEL Colony Youth Associa-tion in Bengaluru, said playing with men helped Savita.

“At the camp in Delhi we have ensured Savita practises with men. We have a few youngsters from the Punjab National Bank team to help us out regularly in fine-tuning Savita and the other goalkeepers’ skills in shootouts, drag-flicks and penalty corners,” explained the Arjuna awardee.

While the road to Rio is yet to be cleared, Helen believes for India to make the big leap on the world stage, they need to play more international matches, es-pecially against countries like Australia and The Netherlands.

IN STEP WITH RIOPractice Matches With Men, Calm & Composed Mind Help Goalkeeper Savita Excel In Antwerp

PRIMED FORCOMEBACK

LAST-MINUTE GOAL GIVES AUSTRALIA THE TITLEChris Ciriello sent a low drag flick into the right corner of the goal in the dying seconds for World champion Australia to defeat host Belgium 1-0 in the title encounter of the World League Semifinals at the KHC Dragons Stadium in Antwerp, Belgium, on Sunday. Earlier, Ireland defeated Malaysia 4-2 in the playoff to seal the fifth place in the league.

INDIA’S FINEST: The national women’s hockey team, with goalkeeping coach Helen Mary (standing, right) and Savita Poonia (squatting, fourth from left), after their arrival in New Delhi on Sunday night INDIAN HOCKEY

FANTASTICFANTASTICFOURFOURKarnataka Stars Raghu, Sunil, Thimmaiah And Uthappa Gear Up For European Tour