Maharashtra hold Kerala

BANGALORE, June 4: It WAS a day of surprises in the football competition of the National Games. While hosts Karnataka dealt a severe blow t...

BANGALORE, June 4: It WAS a day of surprises in the football competition of the National Games. While hosts Karnataka dealt a severe blow to the semi-final hopes of Punjab after edging past by a lone goal in group B, fancied Kerala were held to a 1-1 draw by a rejuvenated Maharashtra in a Group A fixture.

Two initial thrusts by Karnataka, with one penetrative run by Kadiravan to create space for Soma Philips who shot wide, promised much for the hosts as the match began.

Another quick counter-attack from the mid-field saw Yoganathan and Soma pave the way for Kadiravan to ward off a Punjab stopper’s challenge as he moved 15 yards right to the top of the box. But the Punjab goalkeeper positioned himself on the line to avert danger.

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Punjab could be excused for feeling that nothing would go right for them this evening. Perhaps their anxiety to escape with a draw also caused them to leave gaps which Karnataka exploited in fast breakaways, with Kadiravan involved in most of the surges.

Naresh Kumar waged a lone battle in the Punjab attack, spurting down the right and releasing high crosses into the unguarded space behind the rival defence. Punjab’s best chance came in the 15th minute when Naresh hit the cross-piece with a rising shot, with even the goalkeeper out of charge.

The Punjab custodian had to pay dearly for his lack of grip, when he let the ball slip off his hands off a 50th-minute Soma flag kick, towards an alert Mohammed Ali who slammed the rebound home.

In their game against Maharashtra, though Kerala set up a fast pace for attacks, the moves hardly grew into threats because their players, particularly in the early phase of the first half, were too slow and let Maharashtra nip in and snatch the ball away. Much of the session saw Kerala losing possession due to this fundamental error. Maharashtra made use of the freedom in the mid-field along the flanks to send wing backs to cross the ball into the rival penalty area. Strangely, Kerala did little to stop the incursions into their mid-field space.

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Inside the area, whenever the ball was on the ground, the Keralites kept on losing it, or shooting wide, or passing outside the box to players much farther away, whose uncontested shots were always blocked.

Maharashtra’s hard-working striker Khetang Paite made full use of the space given by the Kerala centre-backs to dart in following a free kick, and lifted the ball to Anthony Fernandes, who buried it in the far net when the game was just 10 minutes old.

The bolt from the blue seemed to have worked wonders for Kerala, who moved Edison up to strengthen the attack. Both Shabir Ali and Shafeeq strove hard to punch holes into the rival mid-field with their swift swapping of positions.

Jo Paul climaxed a combined move with Vijayan, beating the rival stopper Sandir Kharat with his fine body swerves, snatching the ball away from him and virtually walking it into the goal.

Thursday’s matches: Bengal v Delhi; Goa v Manipur.

MEDALS TALLY

Teams G S B T

Delhi 14 15 10 39

Karnataka 14 14 14 42

Punjab 11 9 13 33

Kerala 9 3 5 17

Haryana 7 6 12 25

Manipur 6 7 4 17

Tamil Nadu 4 2 2 8

UP 4 2 2 8

Maharashtra 3 3 9 15