Shillong, Apr 2: All of today’s matches in the Indian Women’s League (IWL) ended with the same result: 2-0, with the winners being Eastern Sporting Union (ESU), KRYPHSA and Sethu.
Defending champions ESU got the day going at the JN Stadium here with victory over Gokulam Kerala thanks to a goal on either side of half time. The scorers were Mandakini and (24′) and Kamala Devi (50′). Their fourth straight win has ensured that they cannot finish lower than fourth in the points table and the Manipur team have thus confirmed their place in the semifinal round.
Sethu then delivered something of a shock to last year’s runners-up Rising Students Club in with two goals in the second half after the first 45 minutes had ended with a breakthrough. Sabina Khatun scored the opener in the 47th minute by neatly finding her way past two defenders before scoring for Sethu, while Manisha doubled the lead in the 90th minute.
Meanwhile, the third and final fixture of the day saw Bala Devi score twice in KRYPHSA’s win over India Rush Soccer Club.
KRYPHSA, another club from Manipur, completely dominated the pitch, with little in the way of attacks from India Rush.
Devi bagged the first goal in the 22nd minute and her team would be denied twice by the woodwork by the end of the first half.
After changing ends, Grace Lalrampari produced India Rush’s best chance with a long-range strike that tested the KRYPHSA goalkeeper, but that was about it for the Mumbai team, who conceded again around the hour mark when a defender failed to clear a cross, which allowed Devi to tap the ball from inside the six-yard box.
In the standings ESU lead the way on 12 points, followed by KRYPHSA on 7. Sethu (6) have leapfrogged Rising Students (4) into third place, with the latter dropping to fourth.
After a day’s rest tomorrow the action will return on Wednesday. In the first of three games Indira Gandhi Academy will face Rising Students at 8AM, followed by India Rush versus Sethu at 11AM. Eastern Sporting and KRYPHSA will then go up against each other in a mouthwatering contest at 3PM.
(TSR photo. Bala Devi of KRYPHSA in blue and Grace Lalrampari of India Rush in orange)