KATHMANDU: Nepali football team is all set to play its second friendly match against Kuwait on Monday.

Nepal will be eying a win against the host after settling to a draw in the first friendly match. The match will kick off at 9:15 NST.

Before the match, Nepal’s Coach Johan Collin said they would attempt to stop Kuwait for a draw. It is likely that Nepal’s Starting –XI will be repeated for the second match as well.

Nepali Team:

Goalkeeper: Kiran Chemjong, Bikesh Kuthu and Bishal Shrestha

Defender: Rohit Chand, Ajit Bhandari, Ravi Silwal, Suraj BK, Ranjit Dhimal, Biraj Maharjan, Saroj Dahal and Devendra Tamang

Midfielder: Ravi Paswan, Tanka Basnet, Santosh Tamang, Birkam Lama, Bishal Rai, Heman Gurung and Sujal Shrestha

Forward: Ranjan Bista, Suman Lama, Bharat Khawas, Bimal Rana, Nawayug Shrestha and Ashish Lama

KATHMANDU: Nepal is out from the tournament after a humiliating defeat 5-0 with Qatar under the AFC U-23 Championship on Sunday night at the Doha-based Empire Academy on Sunday.

After Nepal’s defender Ananta Tamang fouled in the D-box and was granted the penalty, Qatar’s Abdullah Alharak kissed the net in 25 minute. Nepal’s Dinesh Rajbanshi added a goal to Qatar through a suicide.

KATHAMNDU: Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets in the second match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday. Kolkata chased down the 182 runs target set by Sunrisers in 19.4 overs losing four wickets.

Nitish Rana top-scored for Kolkata at 68 runs off 47 balls. Andre Russell made 49 runs off 19 balls.

Earlier, David Warner made blazing 85 runs off 53 balls smashing three sixes and nine fours. Jonny Bairstow made 39 runs and Vijay Shankar contributed 40 runs that helped Hyderabad to post 181 runs on the board losing three wickets in the stipulated 20 overs.

Andre Russell of Kolkata Knight Riders took two wickets while Piyush Chawla grabbed one wicket. Knight Riders had won the toss and had elected to field first.

KATHMANDU: Nepal U-23 is competing against Qatar in the second match of the AFC U-23 Qualifiers at the Doha-based Empire Academy on Sunday.

The official kickoff time has been fixed at 9:45 pm NST.  Nepal is under pressure to win the game after facing a 1-0 defeat against Oman. Meanwhile, the starting XI has been made public. Nitin Thapa is replacing Hemanta Thapa Magar in today’s match.

Starting XI

Goalkeeper: Arpan Thapa

Defender: Suman Aryal, Anata Tamang, Dinesh Rajbanshi and Kamal Shrestha

Defensive midfield: Tej Tamang

Midfielder: Gaurav Budhathoki, Nithin Thapa, Anjan Bista and Sunil Bahl.

Striker: Bimal Gharti Magar

KATHAMNDU: David Warner made blazing 85 runs of 53 balls smashing three sixes and nine fours as Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 182 runs to win for Kolkata Knight Riders in the second match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday.

Jonny Bairstow made 39 runs and Vijay Shankar contributed 40 runs that helped Hyderabad to post 181 runs on the board losing three wickets in the stipulated 20 overs.

Andre Russell of Kolkata Knight Riders took two wickets while Piyush Chawla grabbed one wicket. Knight Riders had won the toss and had elected to field first.

KATHMANDU: Delhi Capitals, the team of Nepali leg spinner, Sandeep Lamichhane, is kicking off its IPL 2019 journey on Sunday. Delhi Capitals will face Mumbai Indians at the latter’s home ground in its first match of the tournament this evening.

Delhi will be eyeing a win against Mumbai led by Rohit Sharma that has clinched the IPL title thrice. Delhi, that was knocked out form Group Stage last season, is hopeful for a flying start to the tournament. Cricket fans are impatient to know if the Nepali spinner will play the first match of this season.

Delhi had been keeping a keen eye on Sandeep as he played different T20 tournaments including the famous Big Bash League from Melbourne Stars. Delhi has been constantly praising Sandeep for his achievements in international tournaments.

Last time in IPL, in the last three matches, he gave an outstanding performance by taking five wickets. He was paid Indian Rupees two million last year. Delhi had retained 14 players including Sandeep for this season.

Since then, Sandeep has made to the list of probable players for Delhi this season. But, there are doubts over Sandeep playing the first match as Delhi has veteran players like Amit Mishra in the team.

Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals tweeted Sandeep’s photo with a caption ‘Sandeep cannot wait for the game, bring it on’, which has signaled that the star Nepali spinner will make it to the playing XI.

BIRATNAGAR: All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has announced a prize of Rs 100 thousand to each player of the Nepali football team who played in the Fifth SAFF Football Championship.

Earlier, the council of ministers of the State-1 government had also announced a cash prize of Rs 100 thousand to each team member. Similarly, the Biratnagar Metropolitan City has also announced Rs 50,000 prize to each player of the team.

Meanwhile, ANFA has approved, through the annual general meeting, an estimated budget of Rs 237 million 450 thousand for the fiscal year 2019/20.

CHENNAI: Chennai Super Kings (CSK)  beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by seven-wicket. Bangalore lost the toss and were bowled out for 70, before the hosts reached their target with 14 balls to spare. “The wicket definitely needs to be much better,” said ex-India skipper Dhoni.

Keeper Parthiv Patel (29) was the only member of the star-studded Bangalore line-up- including India’s Captain, Virat Kohli, England’s Moeen Ali and ex-South Africa star AB de Villiers – to make double figures as the visitors crumbled.

Chennai took advantage of the conditions with a spin-heavy attack led by veteran spinners Harbhajan Singh (3-20) and Imran Tahir (3-9), only sending down 4.1 overs of seam. “It was a very good bowling effort by Harbhajan to give us a kind of start that was very well capitalized by the other spinners,” said Dhoni.

Despite losing ex-Australia opener Shane Watson for a 10-ball duck, the Super Kings cruised home with Suresh Raina (19) becoming the first man to pass 5,000 IPL runs. Bangalore skipper Kohli reflected, “No one wants to start like this, but it’s good to get a game like this out of the way this early in the tournament.”

CENTURION: Sri Lankan limited overs Captain Lasith Malinga on Friday announced retirement from international cricket, media reports have said.

Malinga will retire from international cricket after next year’s T20 World Cup.

“I want to play in the T20 World Cup and then end my career,” AFP quoted the 35-year-old cricketer as saying.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is playing with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the opening fixture of IPL 2019 today night.

CSK is the defending champions winning 9 of their 14 league matches and then turned in a dominant performance in the title clash to clinch their third IPL title.

In a head-to head meet between the teams, CSK becomes the dominant to RCB winning 14 matches, clashing the 22 times. RCB had just won the 7 matches.

RCB had a disappointing season in 2018. TheRCB won just 6 of their 14 league matches and finished sixth in the eight team standings. Virat Kohli’s team won only 3 of their first 10 matches and were therefore always playing catch up. Heading into their last league match, they were still in with a chance of progressing to the Playoffs; but Rajasthan Royals emerged victors in that match and qualified as the fourth qualifier.

RCB have retained 15 players from their 2018 squad and acquired the services of nine more players at the IPL Player Auction 2019. Shimron Hetmyer, Shivam Dube and Heinrich Klaasen are among the exciting new signings. They will be handicapped at the start of the season with Marcus Stoinis and Nathan Coulter-Nile missing out the first few games because of international commitments.

Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Deepak Chahar, David Willey.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers, Heinrich Klaasen, Shimron Hetmyer, Moeen Ali, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav.

(Agencies)