The New Nation - Internet Edition

National Handball (Men's) starts today

Sports Reporter

The Exim Bank 18th National Handball Championship (Men's) of Rajshahi Zone starts today in Jamalpur. Bangladesh Handball Federation will arrange the handball competition under auspices of Exim Bank Limited.

A total of eight teams will take part in the Rajshahi Zone (Group A). They are: Rajshahi District team, Rangpur District team, Chapainawabganj District team, Jamalpur District team, Natore District team, Panchagarh District team, Joypurhat District team, Gaibandha District team. The competition will be held on single-league basis. Top three teams of Group A will get tickets of the final round. The final round will be held in the second week of March. The zonal matches of Rajshahi Zone will come to an end on February 10.

The Chittagong Zone (Group B) matches begin on February 18 and conclude on February 20 in Chittagong. Six teams will participate in Chittagong. They are: Chittagong District team, Chittagong Metropolis team, Rangamati District team, Khagrachari District team, Sunamganj District team, Bandarban District team. Of them, two teams will move into the final round.

The Khulna Zone (Group C) matches start on February 28 and will come to an end on March 2 in Jessore.

A number of 11 teams will compete in the Khulna Zone. They are: Khulna District team, Barisal District team, Patuakhali District team, Faridpur District team, Madaripur District team, Gopalganj District team, Bagerhat District team, Jessore District team, Narail District team, Satkhira District team, Kushtia District team will play in Jessore. Top three teams will reach the final round.

Dhaka District team, Bangladesh Rifles, Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Ansar and VDP will straightly take part in the final round. The final round will be taken place in Dhaka.

Arambagh KS reach final beating Badda Jagarani

UNB, Dhaka

Arambagh KS smartly reached the final of the Protiti Pharma Victory Day Club Cup Football Tournament with a 2-0 win over giant killer Badda Jagarani Sangsad in the first semi-final at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Thursday.

Arambagh play the final on Sunday against the winners of country's two sports giants, Abahani Limited and Mohammedan SC, who meet in the second semis today (Friday) at 4:15 pm at the same venue.

Satellite channel ATN Bangla, which telecast the day's first semi-final live from the Bangabandhu National Stadium, will also live-telecast the battle of the titans today (Friday).

After a barren first in the day's first semis, Liton and Edi scored one goal each for mediocre Arambagh KS to fulfil their pre-match determination of reaching the final.

Liton scored first for Arambagh in the 79th minute with a nice header from inside the box capitalizing on a right wing cross from Edi (1-0).

Ugandan striker Edi fired the Badda net in the dying moment with a cannon like shot from the danger zone, utilizing a back pass from Domenic amid frustration of the high flying Badda Jagarani (2-0).

After a dull first half, Arambagh KS displayed a better brand of football in the second half to win the match by a good margin scoring two quick goals.

Senior Division club side Badda Jagarani, which came to the limelight beating Abahani Limited in the meet opener, failed to impress the handful of soccer fans at the big bowl today due to their poor performance

Ratan of Arambagh KS was cautioned with yellow card in the match for rough charge.

Both matches of Senior Div Football League end in draw

UNB, Dhaka

Both the matches of the Metropolis Senior Division Football League ended in draw at the Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Sepoy Mohammad Mostafa Stadium in Kamalapur on Thursday.

Victoria SC played to a one-all draw with Youngmen's Club Fakirerpool in the day's first match.

Towhidul Alam Sabuj scored for Youngmen's Club in the 37th minute while Arafat netted the equalizer for Victoria SC in the 70th minute.

In the day's other match, Dhaka Wanderers Club split points with lowly City Club in a goal-less affair.

Despite the day's draw, Victoria SC retained the second slot in the league table securing 15 points from seven matches, three points adrift of Jatrabari KC, which dominate the league with 18 points, also playing seven matches.

The metropolis soccer league resumed on Thursday after a three-day recess for non-availability of playground.

Mohammedan SC face arch-rival Abahani Limited in semis today

UNB, Dhaka

Title aspirants Mohammedan SC and Abahani Limited meet today (Friday) in the second semi-final of the Protiti Pharma Victory Day Club Cup Football Tournament at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

Private satellite channel ATN Bangla will telecast live the high voltage match that will kick-off at 4:15 pm.

Talking to the reporters on Thursday, Abahani manager Satyajit Das Rupu said they would take the field to win and their target is to clinch the tournament title.

He said striker Emily and Abul would miss the semi-final match due to card problem. Striker Robin will replace Emily in the match.

Mohammedan SC coach Shafiqul Islam Manik said they would take on their arch rival Abahani Limited with full strength.

"It's a pressure match for both teams. Abahani is a formidable team, but we'll try to play positive football today (Friday)," he told to a questioner.

Manik said they hope to maintain the winning run against Abahani, as in the last encounter with Abahani, "we clinched the 'best of three' exhibition football title" in December last year in Dhaka.

There are no injury and card problems in Mohammedan, he added.

3rd National Archery Championship begins

UNB, Dhaka

The 3rd National Archery Championship (Men's & Women's), organised by Bangladesh Archery Federation, began on Thursday at the Outer Stadium in the city.

Bangladesh Archery Federation president Maj. Gen. Mohammad Sadik Hasan Rumi formally inaugurated the three-day meet as chief guest.

A total of 98 archers from 43 teams, including district, club and university teams from across the country, are taking part in two events -- 'Ricurve Bow' and 'Bamboo Bow'.

Comilla district team emerge champions in Winter Sports Meet

UNB, Comilla

Comilla district team emerged champions in the 37th Winter Sports Competition here on Thursday.

Hosts Comilla clinched the top slot securing 108 points while Brahmanbaria district team finished runners-up with 79 points.

Deputy Commissioner of Comilla M Manjurur Rahman was the chief guest at the day's closing function and distributed the prizes. Deputy Director of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Directorate Hosne Ara Begum was present as special guest.

Earlier, in the morning, Comilla Education Board chairman M Latifur Rahman inaugurated the daylong meet, organised by Sub-Regional School and Madrasah Sports Association.

School and madrasah students from Comilla, Chandpur, Brahmanbaria and Laxmipur took part in the competition.

Bagerhat DSA emerge champion in Inter-District Athletics Competition

UNB, Dhaka

Bagerhat DSA emerged champions and Munshiganj DSA finished runners-up in the Inter-District Women's Athletics competition that concluded on Thursday at the Dhanmondi Women's Sports Complex.

Bagerhat DSA clinched the top slot among 27 teams securing 15 points while Munshiganj DSA finished second with 13 points.

Chief Adviser's Special Assistant for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Prof M Tamim was the chief guest at the closing function of the two-day meet and distributed prizes among the winners.

Nazmun Nahar of Bagerhat DSA emerged as individual champion in the meet securing 11 points while Fouzia Akhter of Munshiganj and Mina Begum of Kurigram jointly finished individual runner-up securing 10 points.

A total of 123 athletes representing from 27 district teams took part in the meet.

BAF Lawn Tennis Competition concludes

Sports Reporter

Inter-Base Lawn Tennis Competition of Bangladesh Air Force concluded here at the BAF Base Bashar Lawn Tennis Ground on Thursday.

BAF Base Bashar team clinched the title while BAF Base Matiur Rahman team became runners-up.

On the concluding day BAF Base Bashar team defeated BAF Base Matiur Rahman team in doubles by 2-1 sets and BAF Base Bashar team beat BAF Base Zahurul Haque team in singles by 2-0 sets.

Wing Commander Imran Majid of BAF Base bashar team was adjudged the best player of the meet.

Air Officer Commanding of BAF Base Bashar Air Commodore M Delwar Hossain witnessed the final day's competition as chief guest and later gave away trophies.

England beat Kiwis to seal series

BBC Online

England gave another strong performance to win the second Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Christchurch by 50 runs and seal the series 2-0.

Paul Collingwood (54) and Owais Shah (47) successfully weathered a mini-collapse to put on 102 from 62 balls and lead the tourists to 193-8.

New Zealand slumped to 42-3 after six overs and could only manage 143-8.

Ryan Sidebottom was the pick of an impressive England bowling unit, taking 2-19 with no swing available.

And none of England's bowlers let their skipper down, their collective accuracy ensuring an easy stroll to victory.

Man-of-the-match Collingwood won the toss, and having successfully defended a total in Auckland, opted to bat once again.

They named an unchanged side, while New Zealand showed two changes.

Medium pacer Paul Hitchcock replaced spinner Jeetan Patel and the hard-hitting Jacob Oram rested a tight hamstring, batsman Daniel Flynn getting a debut.

The early overs featured some robust hitting from Phil Mustard (40) and Luke Wright (30), who took the score to 65-0 from the first 34 balls of the innings.

It was not the most aesthetically pleasing batting, but the short boundaries were cleared on four occasions and Hitchcock's first over cost 22.

New Zealand briefly came back into contention, however, with 19-year-old seamer Tim Southee bowling straight and full for figures of 2-22.

He had Kevin Pietersen lbw for three with a low full toss on middle stump and persuaded Mustard to hit a high catch to mid-on.

With Ian Bell run out cheaply in between, England had lost 4-11 in 21 balls and Collingwood and Shah had to rebuild the innings.

They timed their partnership exquisitely well, taking few risks initially before upping the tempo.

Typically, Collingwood hit nearly all his runs through the leg-side with a rich assortment of pulls, slog-sweeps and drives.

Shah was patient to begin with, but also hit some big shots later in the innings, hitting two sixes to Collingwood's three.