Nongrim Hills win 2nd Div cricket match
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Nongrim Hills defeated Clique United in a rain-affected SCA Second Division Cricket League match at the Cricket Ground, Polo, on Sunday. Electing to bat first after winning the toss, Nongrim Hills scored 133/6 in the allotted 20 overs. Dheeraj Kumar top-scored with 42 runs, while Solo Marak contributed 30. Hilarious Thabah took 3-16 in three overs. In reply, Clique United were reduced to 48/9 in 12.3 overs when bad weather stopped play. Manish Prasad and Vishal Pachuau ended with figures of 3-14 and 3-12, respectively. Nongrim Hills won the game by 32 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method.
Serena and Sharapova survive at Miami
MIAMI: World number one Serena Williams and Russian star Maria Sharapova each battled through three sets on Saturday to advance into the fourth round at the ATP and WTA Miami Masters hardcourt tournament. Meanwhile, world number one Rafael Nadal hammered former number one Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-3 to reach the third round. Nadal next faces Denis Istomin, who beat Dmitry Tursunov 6-7 (8), 6-0, 6-3. Second seed and three-time champion Novak Djokovic advanced to the fourth round when opponent Florian Mayer retired a day before their scheduled match with a groin injury. Djokovic will next play on Tuesday. Defending champion Williams and last year’s runner-up Sharapova struggled mightily to survive, with five-time finalist Sharapova requiring nine match points to book her win. Sharapova beat Czech Lucie Safarova 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 in a battle which took five minutes short of three hours. Top seed Serena Williams waited out a 45-minute rain third-set interruption before dispatching France’s Caroline Garcia 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Reigning Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka downed Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the men’s third round, while Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych began with a 7-6 (5), 6-1 win over Frenchman Stephane Robert while 10th seed John Isner defeated Donald Young 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. (AFP)
Bhupathi, Bopanna crash out
Miami: Mahesh Bhupathi and his South African partner Kevin Anderson went down fighting in a thrilling three-set men’s doubles match against the pair of Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil to crash out of Sony Open tennis tournament. The unseeded Indo-South African pair lost to their second seeds 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 in the first round. Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan reached the second round by beating Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-2 in a 55-minute first round match. But they then lost to Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday (early Monday India time). The third Indian in the men’s doubles, Leander Paes, and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek also lost in the first round. In the women’s tournament, Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black, seeded fifth, advanced to the second round after defeating Taiwan pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan. (PTI)
U-14 footy: Nepal get the better of India
NEW DELHI: Inaugural champions India went down 4-0 to a spirited Nepal in their third match of the 2014 AFC Girls Regional Championship for South and Central Asia at the City Football Complex in Sri Lanka on Saturday. In the 70-minute match, Nepal’s Bhawana Mukhiya opened the scoring with Alisa Jimba adding a second 17 minutes before Rekha Poudel netted one more to the tally on 35+1 minutes. Mithila Kumari completed the rout after 40 minutes. Courtesy the result, Nepal leapfrogged India and runners-up Iran, who were occupying top and second spots, respectively, as a result of the win and other matches. India play wooden-spooners Bhutan next on Monday. On Friday, India had trounced Tajikistan 8-1 for their second victory in the tournament. Suman opened the scoring for India in the sixth minute. Daya scored her first goal in the 21st minute with Roja making it 3-0 in the 27th. Changing over, Amin scored her first of two goals in the 37th minute and Daya scored her second three minutes later. Daya completed her hat-trick in the 56th minute. The other two goals for India were scored by Amin (48th) and Roja (62nd). (Agencies)