DHAKA: Nepal made a disappointing start to their football campaign losing 3-0 against the hosts Bangladesh here at the

Bangabandhu National

Stadium today.

Mamun Ul Islam, Atiqur Rahman Meshu and substitute Mithun Chowdhury scored a goal each for the hosts. Mamun gave Bangladesh the lead early in the eighth minute capitalizing on a defensive error from Biraj Maharjan. Any hopes of comeback disappeared when Meshu doubled the lead in the 88th minute. Chowdhury added the third in the injury time.

With the defeat, Nepal’s hope of repeating the success after 16 years in the regional Games football got a severe blow. Nepal had won gold medal here at the same venue during the sixth SAF Games in 1993. Earlier in another Group A match, Maldives beat Bhutan 1-0. Nepal will play Maldives on Monday before rounding up their league against Bhutan on Wednesday. Two teams from each of the two groups will qualify for the semi-finals. The Group B includes India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Nepal looked disorganized from the outset and they almost conceded the second goal in the 18th minute only for goalkeeper Bikash Malla who acrobatically denied Md Zahid Hasan Amely’s eight-yard shot.

The 1984 and 1993 champions Nepal improved their game late in first half creating few chances. Yogesh Shrestha could not meet a wonderful chance in the 27th minute when Anil fed him up in the far post but he reacted late. Anil also headed wide following a cross from Yogesh in the 39th minute. Nepal Police Club forward Ju Manu also wasted a chance in the 42nd minute.

Chetan Ghimire had to be replaced after he was injured in the 44th minute. Ghimire was replaced by Bhola Silwal. Nepal failed to create pressure in the second half despite making some attractive moves. With time running out, they were forced to switch to an all attack mode but in the process they conceded the second goal. Unmarked Meshu headed home from a corner kick and Chowdhury sealed the emphatic win with scoring in the injury time.

Nepal coach Yugambar Suwal said his players did not play with the real spirit and the planning. “We also missed many opportunities,” rued the Nepal coach. All Nepal

Football Association President Ganesh Thapa said that

inexperience of playing

against the home crowd was the reason of the defeat. Apart from two gold medals, Nepal have also won the same number of silver and bronze medals in the SA Games.

Squash

DHAKA: Both Hira Bahadur Thapa and Tak Kumar Tiliza crashed out from the preliminary round of the squash event at the 11th South Asian Games here at the Dhaka Club.

In the first match of the day, the 16-time national champion Hira Bahadur fought back from two sets down to level the score 2-2 before losing the match in the fifth and final set against Bangladeshi opponent Masud Rana 3-11, 7-11, 11-4, 12-10, 7-11. Hira Bahadur lost the first two sets 3-11, 7-11 and won the third and fourth sets 11-4, 12-10 to extend the match to the fifth set decider. He lost the final set 11-7. Hira Bahadur, earlier, saved two match points at 8-10 before winning four straight points to win the fourth set.

Hira Bahadur was happy with the way he performed despite the loss. “We are not allowed to train in the court and was forced to play directly in the match,” said the 42-year veteran. He also added if they had played in the court they would have understood the nature of the court. “The court was too bouncy making us difficult to play. But now that we know how the court behaves it will help us in the team event,” said Hira Bahadur.

Coach Dhruba Bahadur

Gurung praised Hira Bahadur’s performance but was annoyed with the organisers for not making the court available for training. “Hira played extremely well despite his age,” added the coach.

In the second match, Tak Kumar Tiliza lost in straight sets 3-11, 5-11, 10-12 to another Bangladeshi player Shopan Pervez. Tak Kumar had five set points with the score 10-5 in the third but lost the set and the match 10-12. Tak Kumar also blamed the unavailability of the court as the major factor for his weak performance. “We were not used to playing in the hot condition inside the court,” said Tak Kumar.

Nepal will now play in the Team Event on February 2. The four-man Nepali team includes Hira Bahadur, Tak Kumar, Sudip Bahadur Singh and Suresh Kumar Gurung. However, only three men will have to play in the team event. “We will decide the playing set after the fixture is finalised on February 1,” informed Hira Bahadur.

Hockey

DHAKA: Playing their first international match after 15 years, Nepal suffered an embarrassing 21-0 defeat in hockey against powerhouse India here at the Dhaka Moulana Bhasani Stadium on Saturday.

It took only 40 seconds for India to open their account through Yuvraj, who completed a hat-trick, and they were already up by five goals within the first 10 minutes. Nepal conceded 10 goals in the first half alone and let in further 11 goals in the next 35 minutes. Skipper Ajites was the top scorer with five goals (15, 58, 59, 66, 68 minutes) while Moahammad also hit the target three times (7, 20, 57). Also scoring were Raghunath (4, 50), Promod (11, 44), Hamza (28, 52), Belsajar (10), Innocent (31), Roshan (40) and Dharam (69).

India,who are hosting the World Hockey League in March, had included only

two members from their national squad. Nepali coach

Bijen Sharma said that they were lucky to have conceded only 21 goals. “The result was obvious after playing the first match in 15 years with just 14-days of practice in the standard hockey turf,” said Bijen. “We had been practicing in the grassy turf as part of our preparation and until we build the standard hockey ground, we will have to face such humiliations,” added the coach. The team had got the feel of the turf only in Lucknow.

Captain Rajendra Bahadur Chand praised goalkeeper Chandra Singh Thalal for

his brilliant effort. “We would have conceded many more goals had Chandra not made several saves,” said Rajendra. Rajendra also said that the whole team was confused and dull playing in the turf.

Nepal will play against another hockey powerhouse

Pakistan on Sunday before taking on Sri Lanka on February 2 and hosts Bangladesh the next day at the same venue in the league round. The top two teams will play for the championship on February 7.

The last time Nepal played an international hockey

match was in the seventh South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in Madras in 1995. They were hammered 18-0 by India, 22-1 by Pakistan and 4-0 by

Sri Lanka. Jitendra Man Shrestha of Bhairahawa is the only one to score an international goal till date when he netted a consolation goal against Pakistan in Madras.