Nationals, IAF earn full points

The victory by Nationals took their tally of points to 13 from five games while South India have just a solitary point from seven matches they have played so far.

Nationals, true to their recentform, dominated the proceedings right from the beginning even as their rivals South India went scurrying for cover. At the pace with which the Nationals’ players moved ahead, they should have scored more than what they did.

They did exactly what was expected of them as they struck three times in the first session. Within four minutes of the start, Anthony put the team ahead and in the next eight minutes they had increased the lead through Shyam Kumar. Before the break came their third goal when Belsing slotted home with ease.

On resumption, however, Nationals did not force the pace and relaxed a bit. Though they kept the ball possession to themselves for the maximum period, they did not make any real attempt at going full throttle. However, Mina Sherpi completed the tally just before the final whistle.

Air Force began slowly and it was reflective very much in the scoreline. Thanks to a penalty award by referee Rizwan-ul-Haq and R. Gosen’s neat conversion, the IAF managed to pick full points. But for this, they would have split points with Moonlight.