Khulna Titans 159 for 4 (Mahmudullah 50, Bopara 2-17) beat Dhaka Dynamites 158 for 7 (Sangakkara 59, Junaid 3-22) by six wickets Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKhulna Titans, having to win their last league game to qualify for the playoffs, did so emphatically courtesy Mahmudullahs half-century. They finished the group stages in second position to ensure the first qualifier against the same opponents on December 6. The eliminator will be played between Chittagong Vikings and Rajshahi Kings.Khulna, having never gone past 157 in the tournament, had to make their highest team total. And against a weakened Dhaka side that rested Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell, they breezed to the target with 12 balls to spare.It didnt seem a cakewalk when they lost Andre Fletcher early. Mohammad Hasanuzzaman struck three sixes and as many fours in his 18-ball 40 to get them ahead of the asking rate. Mahmudullah then took over after Hasanuzzamans dismissal; he hit five fours and two sixes in his 28-ball 50. The trigger boost meant Abdul Mazids strike rate of 58.33, the lowest of the season for batsmen who have faced 35 or more deliveries, was negated.Mahmudullah fell with Khulna needing eight, but with no pressure, they cantered home to dash the hopes of Rangpur Riders, who lost to Comilla Victorians earlier in the evening.When Dhaka batted first, Kumar Sangakkara, reprieved on 2, brought up his second half-century of the tournament. The rest of the Dhaka batting line-up threw away starts with, with Mehedi Maruf, Nasir Hossain, Shakib Al Hasan, Seekkuge Prasanna and Ravi Bopara not going past 20. Junaid Khan picked up three wickets. Custom Saints T-shirts . In Europe, top teams seem to be largely happy with their squads after spending nearly $1 billion in the off-season. And although English league clubs are unlikely to splash cash in January, Arsenal and Chelsea could be tempted to strengthen their squads with new strikers. Tony Baker Jersey . Clarke was injured while practicing on the Doha Golf Club range after the pro-am on Tuesday. The Northern Irishman arrived at the course on Wednesday hoping to start, but after hitting a few balls on the practice putting green Clarke advised officials he was not fit to play. http://www.customsaintsjersey.com/custom-latavius-murray-jersey-large-1892e.html . -- Chicago Bears cornerback Tim Jennings was selected Monday to his second straight Pro Bowl, while guard Kyle Long made it after a solid rookie season. Reggie Bush Jersey . The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrators decision suspending him for the 2014 season and post-season. Andy Livingston Jersey . The injury bothered Bledsoe in the Suns victory over the Clippers on Monday and he sat out the teams home loss to Memphis on Thursday night. If Alana Nichols wins gold at the Paralympic Games in Rio, she will be the first female U.S. athlete -- Paralympic or Olympic -- to do so in three different sports. Not that shes feeling the pressure. Well, maybe a little.Thats what its about at the end of the day, is winning a medal, she says. Theres no way around it. So, yeah, of course Im feeling that pressure. I also have a pretty substantial track record that people are expecting me to medal.Substantial might be an understatement. Nichols, 33, has already earned three gold medals -- one in wheelchair basketball at the 2008 Beijing Games and two in alpine skiing at the 2010 Vancouver Games -- making her the first female U.S. Paralympian to win in both summer and winter sports. She also earned a bronze and a silver in Vancouver. In 2014, despite a scary crash during the womens super-G sitting event, Nichols came home with a silver medal in downhill. (In London in 2012, Nichols just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish with the U.S. wheelchair basketball team.)The Rio Paralympics open on Wednesday, and in Nichols fifth Games she will hit the water as one of two members of the USAs inaugural paracanoe team. Its the first year that 200-meter sprint kayaking has been held in the Paralympics, and the races, across flat water, begin a week after the Games begin on Wednesday, September 14.This has been the biggest challenge for me as an athlete. I was part of two very skill-oriented sports. With sprint kayak, its just been about how well I can condition my body, she says.In the lead-up to Rio, Nichols adhered to an intense training schedule both in and out of the water. Most days, she was in the San Diego Bay (her home base since last year) from 6 to 8 a.m., practicing sprints of several hundred meters, and then back in again for an afternoon/evening session.On land, she focused primarily on strengthening her core and lats to allow for the explosive work required of a race that will likely last just under a minute. Exercises like angled lat pull-downs, using an 8-pound balancing ball for rotational work, have become a regular part of her gym routine.Nichols works remotely with trainer Michele Eray, a former Olympic canoer from South Africa. Eray, who also trains U.S. sprint canoer Maggie Hogan, says monitoring Nichols heart rate has become crucial for improving her aerobic power and endurance.Eray uses Motionize, a deviice with two sensors -- one on Nichols kayak and one on her paddle -- to track things such as the length and distance of her stroke, strokes per minute and strokes per session.dddddddddddd The information syncs up to an app on Nichols phone, which then can be forwarded to Eray to better design training sessions.[Alana] knows what she needs to do to get the most out of herself. The challenge [is] that she is pretty new to a sport that is highly technical. It usually takes about seven to 10 years to fully develop a medal-potential canoe sprinter, and she has been in the game for 1.5 years, Eray says.Nichols also incorporates CrossFit workouts once or twice a week at local gym at Alpine Ranch CrossFit, with a coach who is also an adaptive athlete. And she cross-trains at least once a week by surfing, a sport that has been her passion since 2014.I say it keeps me sane because sprint kayaking is such a focus endurance sport, that when I go surf, I get to purely have fun. Its like a revitalization, she says.Even in a new sport, everything feels very familiar to the veteran Paralympian -- down to the last-minute prerace jitters.If youre not nervous, if you dont feel like you wanna throw up, then somethings wrong. But its about being comfortable with those feelings. I had a friend tell me the other day, Its about making those butterflies fly in formation, she laughs.In Rio, Nichols will compete under a KL2 classification, which will pit her against athletes with partial leg or trunk function (e.g. single-leg amputees). Nichols, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a snowboarding accident in 2000, feels this may put her at a disadvantage, but is determined not to worry about it.Theres nothing to keep me from having my best 200-meter race at Rio, and thats what Im going to do. The podium will shake out how it will. Medaling is just the cherry on top, she says.Shes said all along that Rio will be her last Paralympic Games -- until the recent announcement that surfing will be an official Olympic sport in 2020. The Paralympic Games may follow suit in 2024, and if thats the case, Nichols may aim for one more Games.If 2024 includes surfing, I would love to compete, she says.But, first things first -- she has another chance to make history next week in Rio. ' ' '