Villy keeps Tamil Nadu in the hunt

By Our Sports Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 22. A blunder by Assam goalkeeper Sumanta Ghosh helped Tamil Nadu live to fight another day in the junior National football championship for the Dr. B.C. Roy Trophy here on Tuesday.

The late equaliser by A.V. Villy enabled Tamil Nadu to hold Assam 1-1 at the G.V. Raja Sports School ground. With Delhi scoring a runaway 11-0 win over Himachal Pradesh, the result of the Tamil Nadu-Assam tie has thrown open the cluster as all the three teams have equal chances of qualifying.

Tamil Nadu played well in patches and struggled to cope with the pace exerted by the quick moving Assam players. Assam judiciously used both flanks to build up its attack and had more look at the goal than its rival.

However, the Tamil Nadu defence withstood the pressure and the defenders impressed with quick clearances. But the resistance broke down in the 52nd minute when Bijen Gayari's pile-driver from the top of the box caught Tamil Nadu goalkeeper Jayakumar napping. The pass for the goal was provided by Asangir Sha, who advanced down the right flank and centered from near the corner flag.

Assam had two more good efforts at the rival goal in the second half, but Bhim Kanta Sonowal and Bijen Gayari's long rangers missed the target narrowly.

Tamil Nadu made an all-out attack in the last 15 minutes and was helped by some sloppy defending by Assam. In the 74th minute, Tamil Nadu earned a flag kick and Assam goalkeeper Sumanta timed his jump a bit late and the ball was headed in by Villy.

Delhi broke free and thrashed Himachal Pradesh 11-0 after leading 6-0 at half-time. The hero of Delhi's comprehensive win was striker Sunil Chetri, who scored five goals including a hat- trick.

Sunil got into the goal-scoring act by converting a penalty in the 13th minute and went on to complete the hat-trick, scoring his team's sixth, seventh and eighth goals in the 33rd, 48th and 52nd minutes respectively. The striker also netted the 11th (his fifth goal) in the 79th minute to complete the rout.

It was Irfan Zanan Khan who opened the floodgates in the third minute, converting a pass from the middle. Ten minutes later, Himachal was reduced to 10 players when captain Bhupinder was shown the red card for handling the ball.

As the Delhi forwards swarmed the rival territory, neither the Himachal defence nor its goalkeeper Prashant Raj Thakur proved adequate to stop them. Prashant Thakur once again had a miserable outing under the bar and his poor reflexes helped Delhi score a few easy goals. Strangely he was not substituted.

Delhi struck six goals in the first half and played with the same verve in the second half. Himachal Pradesh opted for zonal defence but the Delhi forwards tried long rangers and succeeded with ease.

Substitute Ravinder Mohan tested Prashant Thakur twice with right-footers from the top of the box and succeeded on both occasions.

For the record, the goal-scorers for Delhi were Sunil Chetri (13th, 33rd, 48th, 52nd and 79th), Irfan Zanan Khan (third and 27th), Ravinder Mohan (58th and 67th) Vijay Kumar Jha (22nd) and Ninja Kubui (27th).

Tripura gallant in defeat

At the Chandrasekharan Nair stadium, Tripura went down fighting to Maharashtra 2-3 in a Cluster V encounter. It was Tripura which took the lead in the seventh minute through Amitava Das but it could not recover from Maharashtra's three-goal blitz within three minutes in the first half. Imran Ansari (27th and 29th) and Stephen Dias (28th) bulged the net in quick succession as Maharashtra wrested the initiative from Tripura. Undaunted by the quick reverses, Tripura fought hard and scored its second goal in the 78th minute through Eshwar Jamatia. Maharashtra meets Haryana in the crucial match on Thursday to decide the group winner.

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