Ruslan Three Star Club players and officials celebrate after winning the fifth Rumpum Udaypur Gold Cup Football Tournament at the Tharuhat Stadium in Gaighat on Saturday, May 19, 2018. Photo: THT

Gaighat, May 19

Ruslan Three Star Club defeated Laxmi Hyundai Manang Marshyangdi Club 1-0 in the final of the fifth Rumpum Udaypur Gold Cup Football Tournament here at the Tharuhat Stadium today.

Ajayi Martins scored the solitary goal of the match and that was enough for Three Star to beat MMC in the final match. The win was Three Star’s seventh consecutive against the ‘A’ Division rivals. Martins scored the winning goal in the 18th minute as Three Star won the third title of the tournament. Three Star had also won the first and third editions.

Both teams were reduced to 10 men as Three Star’s Martins and MMC’s Bimal Basnet were expelled by the referee in the 70th minute. The pitch turned into battlefield after Martins punched Bimal Basnet, who used foul language to referee Nabin Maharjan for not punishing the Three Star player. Referee Maharjan then gave marching orders to both Martins and Basnet.

With the victory, Three Star earned Rs 500,000 and runners-up MMC got Rs 300,000. Three Star’s Peter Segun was named the player-of-the-match and he received Rs 50,000. Similarly, Three Star clean swept the individual awards. Ramesh KC and Bijay Dhimal were named the best midfielder and defender respectively, while Martins was the highest scorer and Alan Neupane was the best goalkeeper. Meghraj KC was named the best coach. Udaypur’s Prajwal Chaudhary was adjudged the rising player.

All the individual award winners got Rs 10,000 each.

The post Three Star beat MMC, again appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

 

LONDON: Eden Hazard’s first-half penalty proved decisive as Chelsea salvaged their season by beating Manchester United 1-0 in the FA Cup final in what is widely expected to be manager Antonio Conte’s swansong on Saturday.

The Belgian’s searing pace earned the spot-kick in the 21st minute after forcing Phil Jones into a desperate lunging tackle and he coolly tucked it away for what proved to be the winner.

Jose Mourinho’s United were dismal in a scrappy first half and although they improved significantly after the break they were denied a record-equalling 13th FA Cup triumph.

Chelsea, whose Premier League title defence fizzled out into a fifth-placed finish, survived several scares but defended superbly as Conte celebrated his first domestic cup honour as a manager having seen his side beaten by Arsenal a year ago.

It was only Mourinho’s third defeat in 15 Cup finals as a manager and his first in an English showpiece final.

In a poignant end to the afternoon, Chelsea captain Gary Cahill was presented with the cup by Jackie Wilkins — wife of former Chelsea and United great Ray Wilkins who died last month.

“This was to save our season, we haven’t had a magnificent season by any stretch. We are used to winning, I’m not saying that in an arrogant way,” said Cahill, whose assured display would have impressed England manager Gareth Southgate.

“We had a lot of defending to do, they pushed us until the very end. We are buzzing. This a dream come true because it is my first trophy win as captain of the club.”

The sunshine that illuminated the day’s other big occasion down the road at Windsor helped provide a carnival-like atmosphere as red and blue clad fans streamed into Wembley.

Pre-match pyrotechnics aside, however, the opening stages of the showpiece hardly offered up party football with a predictably cagey approach.

Hazard, also rumoured to be on his way out of Stamford Bridge, stood out from the crowd, though, and the Belgian served notice of his threat in the eighth minute when he jinked past Jones and fired in a shot that David de Gea saved with his feet.

ENGLAND PORTENT

In a portent of what might await England when they face Belgium in the World Cup next month, Hazard’s pace proved calamitous for United in the 21st minute.

Again Jones was cruelly exposed as Hazard latched on to Cesc Fabregas’s first-time pass and accelerated into the area where the lumbering defender felled him with a desperate lunge.

Michael Oliver pointed to the spot and booked Jones, although Chelsea manager Conte screamed for a red card, and side-footed his spot-kick to De Gea’s left.

Jones should have made amends just before the break but headed wastefully wide.

Kicking towards their own fans on the resumption, United raised the tempo and Chelsea‘s defence came under pressure with Marcus Rashford forcing a first save by Thibaut Courtois.

Suddenly Chelsea were pinned back and Alexis Sanchez slid the ball into their net after Courtois had clawed out a Jones header, but the Chilean was adjudged to have been offside.

Chelsea were reduced to the odd breakaway and from one N’Golo Kante burst into the area before teeing up Marcos Alonso who delayed his shot and was denied by De Gea.

England World Cup duo Rashford and Jesse Lingard were hauled off by Mourinho in the 73rd minute with strikers Romelu Lukaku, who had not played since getting injured last month, and Anthony Martial sent on to try and rescue United’s day.

United pressed and former Chelsea player Nemanja Matic’s shot nearly deceived Courtois while the largely anonymous Paul Pogba glanced a header agonisingly wide of the post.

The post Hazard the difference as Chelsea edge Man United in Cup final appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

HYDERABAD: Kolkata Knight Riders qualified for the Indian Premier League playoffs after beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets and Rajasthan Royals ruined Royal Challengers Bangalore’s bid in a 30-run victory on Saturday.

Kolkata came back strongly through seamer Prasidh Krishna’s 4-30 — including three wickets in the last over — to contain Hyderabad to a competitive 172-9. Then Chris Lynn hit a composed 55 off 43 balls and Robin Uthappa scored 45 as Kolkata cruised to 173-5 with two balls to spare.

Kolkata finished the round robin third behind top qualifiers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings.

Rajasthan kept alive its playoff hopes.

Bangalore needed a win but fell to an eighth defeat in 14 games.

The defending champion Mumbai Indians will be favored on Sunday to overtake Rajasthan for the fourth and last playoff spot when they face last-placed Delhi Daredevils. Already-qualified Chennai faces trying-to-qualify Kings XI Punjab on Sunday also.

Shikhar Dhawan (50) and Shreevats Goswami (35) gave Hyderabad a brisk start of 79 off 52 balls and captain Kane Williamson missed out on his ninth half-century in the tournament in a cameo of 36 off 17 balls.

Hyderabad was well placed for a big total at 127-1 in the 13th over before Williamson was caught at deep point and the middle order collapsed.

Prasidh trapped Dhawan in the 16th over and despite putting up its highest total at home this season, Hyderabad lost five wickets in the last two overs.

Lynn and Sunil Narine gave Kolkata a flying start of 52 runs off 22 deliveries before Narine (29) was dismissed after hitting four boundaries and two sixes.

Lynn then featured in another half-century stand with Uthappa before the Australian holed out at long off in the 14th over.

Uthappa missed his fifty when he top-edged Carlos Brathwaite, but captain Dinesh Karthik eased Kolkata to victory.

At Japiur, legspinner Shreyas Gopal mopped up Bangalore’s top order with 4-16 as Virat Kohli’s side was bowled out for 134 in 19.2 overs, losing its last nine wickets for only 59 runs.

Rahul Tripathi scored a 58-ball 80 not out while opening for Rajasthan, filling the shoes of Jos Buttler, who returned to England for the first test against Pakistan.

He had help from captain Ajinkya Rahane (33) and Heinrich Klaasen (32), playing his third match of the season, who lifted Rajasthan’s total to 164-5.

It proved more than enough.

Offspinner Krishnappa Gowtham (1-6) bowled intelligently with the new ball and clean-bowled Kohli in his second over. AB de Villiers (53 from 35) and Parthiv Patel (33) put the chase back on track.

But Shreyas hurt Bangalore badly when he broke the half-century stand by having Patel stumped and then caught Moeen Ali off his own bowling in the ninth over.

And when de Villiers was also stumped by Klaasen off Shreyas in the 13th over, Bangalore slipped to 98-6.

Earlier, Tripathi hit five fours and three sixes and featured in a 99-run second-wicket stand with Rahane off 69 balls after Rajasthan’s plan of promoting Jofra Archer as opener failed.

Umesh Yadav (3-25) dismissed Rahane and Sanju Samson off successive deliveries in his return spell but Rajasthan still managed to score 63 runs off the last seven overs. And that proved enough for its spinners to defend.

The post Kolkata through to IPL playoffs, Bangalore knocked out appeared first on The Himalayan Times.