28 SPORT Gulf Daily News Tuesday, 3rd June 2014 Email: [email protected] Indian School and NMS in semis n Members of Indian School team n Blue Jays’ Buehrle delivers a pitch in the fourth inning against the Royals TORONTO: Mark Buehrle pitched eight sharp innings to become baseball’s first 10-game winner and Edwin Encarnacion homered again as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 4-0 on Sunday. Buehrle (10-1) won his sixth straight decision. He gave up six hits, walked one and struck out three. He lowered his ERA to 2.10, second-best in the American League to New York’s Masahiro Tanaka, and INDIAN School and New Millennium School booked their places in the semi-finals of the Second Shaikh Khalid bin Ali bin Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa Cup Under-16 Bahrain Inter-School Cricket Tournament. The tournament is organised by Cricket Bahrain Association under the patronage of Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa. A total of eight teams are participating in the tournament being played on a league-cumknock-out basis at Awali ground under floodlights and with coloured kit and orange balls. Indian School team beat Asian School by three wickets for their second victory. Batting first, Asian School scored 151 for three in their allotted 20 overs with Nikhil making a fine 60-ball 73 and Karthik contributing a 32-ball 41. For Indian School, Yash claimed two wickets for 31 runs while Akshay bagged one for 25. In reply, Indian School openers Anand (36-ball 43) and Rakshit (26-ball 37) gave them a good start while captain Billal (16-ball 27) and Anush (6-ball 18) sealed victory. In the other match, New Millennium School (NMS) beat Ibn Al Haytum Islamic School by five wickets. It was NMS’s second victory. At one stage, Al Haytum were cruising at 100 for one in 10 overs before collapsing to 113 runs. BRIEF SCORES: Ibn Al Haytum 113 all out in 15 overs (Faizan 13 ball-27, Avais 33-ball 50; Ajay 3-20, Utsav 2-20, Aporva 2-17) lost to New Millennium School (Soumya 16, Tanmay 15, Utsav 18, Ajay 36). Blue Jays blank Royals improved to 25-12 lifetime against the Royals. Encarnacion, who matched Mickey Mantle’s AL record with 16 home runs in May, started off a new month with another drive. He hit a two-run shot off Aaron Crow in the eighth for his 19th homer of the season. Also in the AL, Phil Hughes pitched eight poised innings in his return to New York and wound up a winner when the Minnesota Twins came back to beat the New York Yankees 7-2 be- hind big hits from Josh Willingham and Brian Dozier in a six-run ninth. In other AL games, Jon Lester pitched seven shutout innings and Brock Holt drove in two runs with one of his four doubles as the Boston Red Sox blanked the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0, the Baltimore Orioles downed the Houston Astros 9-4, the Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-3 and the Seattle Mariners shut out the Detroit Tigers 4-0. Yu Darvish struck out 12 batters over eight innings and Leonys Martin broke open a scoreless duel with a homer in the seventh as the Texas Rangers beat the Washington Nationals 2-0 to avert a three-game sweep. Pitching for the first time since May 22 after missing his last turn with a stiff neck, Darvish (5-2) gave up five hits and walked two in dropping his ERA to 2.08. The right-hander matched his season high in strikeouts and overpowered a team that amassed 19 runs in the first two games of the series. Zeeshan and Reynolds star in Titan win TITAN CC scored an emphatic 87-run victory over Arad Strikers in the Wellmed-sponsored Cricket Bahrain (BCL-CBA Division) Diamond League T25 Tournament. Batting first, Titan scored 228 for eight with Zeeshan (64*, 34 balls) being the top scorer. Ansar contributed 52 while Harshun claimed four wickets for 44 runs for Arad Strikers. In reply, Arad Strikers were bundled out for 137. Fahim made 53 and Adil 33 while Reynolds picked n Zeeshan four wickets for 26 runs. OTHER RESULTS: AJM Kooheji 2038 (Dinesh 63, Shahab 30) bt ABC 152 all out (Qasir 36, Wasem 37; Mohamed Shahab 5-25) by 51 runs. Fathe Curtain 257-9 (Asif 38, Mahn Raguram boob 38, Zahid 33) bt Kooheji Contractors 187 all out (Deepak 54, Suhail 46; Saeed 3/13) by 70 runs. ENOC Karnataka Royals 179-6 (Raguram 54, Peter 38; Pradeep 3-32) bt Central Café 170 all out (Buhram 50; Janarn Umer danan 3-33) by 9 runs. Kerala XI 203-8 (Karthik 50, Vinod 38, Tehmoor 4/24) lost to Riffa Stars 204-3 in 20.1 overs (Ranjit 76, Umer 57) bt by 7 wickets. Spartans 174-8 (Ali Khawaja 79, Hamza 3; Shoaib 4-19) bt Pak CC 159-8 (Waqas 75; Faizal 4-44) by 15 runs. n This BCL-CBA report compiled by Media, PR/Technical Advisor at Cricket Bahrain Sudhir Bangalore with assistance from Mohammed Saleem. De Villiers and Amla vie for captaincy JOHANNESBURG: Star n The Mercury MENA Squash League, Bahrain 2014 ended on a high note at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town with well-attended exhibition matches and prize-giving ceremony. Eight teams participated in the tournament with each playing 14 matches. Federation A with a score of 157 points carried away the winners’ trophy and Mercury MENA took home the runners-up trophy with a score of 132 points. During the awarding ceremony, Bahrain Badminton and Squash Federation Secretary General Hisham Al Khan highlighted the importance of the event to the sporting calendar of the region and added that Mercury MENA has been a keen advocate of competitive sports and has participated in many such events in Bahrain and the region. Above, team members and officials at the ceremony. batsmen AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla are the leading candidates to succeed Graeme Smith as South Africa’s Test captain. Cricket South Africa’s board meets in Johannesburg today to make what is seen as a crucial decision after a decade of Smith at the helm. The national selectors will table their recommendation for the captaincy, but the final decision will be made by the board.