Sikkim edge past fighting Puducherry

The Sikkim girls were more organised through out the match while the Puducherry did not show any panic and even counter-attacked to give their rivals a tough time in the match. In the evenly contested match,Sikkim drew the first blood in the 12th minute with Parbita Limbu catching the Puducherry defence napping. It was Limbu’s first goal of the match and it set the things up for Sikkim in the match.

Down by a goal,Puducherry reorganised their game and launched counter attacks. In one of their moves in the 29th minute,P Parmeshwari put Puducherry back into the game with a fine goal.

Sikkim counter-attacked in the next minute and again forged ahead with Nirmal Bhutia scoring with a powerful shot. Sikkim were able to kept this slender lead intact till the end of the regulation time in the match. Puducherry had a couple of chances to restore parity but the Sikkim defence thwarted all their moves. Meanwhile,Sikkim forwards also made some attacking moves but all their efforts were thwarted by Puducherry defenders. Sikkim’s Nirmal Bhutia received a caution in the 68th minute for rough tackling.

The defence-dominated second half did not produce any goal and Sikkim collected full three points from their first quarter-final league encounter.

In another match of the day,Haryana proved too good for Uttar Pradesh on ground number two. With proper coordination among their players,Haryana established a commanding 3-0 lead at half time. Reena netted the first goal for Haryana in the 11th minute. Maintaining their pressure,Haryana doubled their margin in the 17th minute when Seema found the target. Taruna further increased the margin for Haryana with a goal in the 30th minute. The second half belonged to Shalu who contributed a fine brace. She caught the Uttar Pradesh defence on the wrong foot in the 64 minute and went on to add another goal to the kitty of Haryana in the 73rd minute of the match.

Today’s matches:

Group B (Q-final league): Orissa vs Maharashtra and Manipur vs West Bengal (4.30 p.m.)