Former champion Kerala blanked Chhatisgarh 3-0 for its third successive win in Group ‘A’ in the 77th Santosh Trophy National football championship at the SAG Benaulim ground here on Sunday. The victory helped Kerala retain its lead in the five-team group with nine points from three matches.
Manipur and Assam are in the lead in their respective groups after posting their fourth win. Manipur, riding on Phijam Sanathoi Meetei’s brace, blanked Madhya Pradesh 5-0 in Group ‘C’ while Assam, with Dipu Mirdha and Akrang Narzary scoring two goals each, thrashed Rajasthan by an identical score in Group ‘D’.
The results (league):
Group A: Kerala 3 (E. Sajeesh 7, Junain Kadvalath 55, Nijo Gilbert 69) bt Chhattisgarh 0; Goa 2 (Clencio Pinto 16, Selwyn Frazier Miranda 78) bt Jammu & Kashmir 1 (Adnan Ayub 45+1).
Group C: Tamil Nadu 8 (Syed Suhail Pasha 2 & 51; M. Umasankar 16, N. Solaimalai 29, Vineeth Kumar Velmurugan 46, A. Regan 72 & 90+3; P. Kamalesh 82) bt Jharkhand 1 (Rohit Tigga 74); Manipur 5 (Phijam Sanathoi Meetei 19 & 52; W. Sadananda Singh 44, Samson 57, Ngangbam Pacha Singh 74) bt Madhya Pradesh 0; Uttar Pradesh 2 (Pankaj Kumar Gupta 14, Sanyem Konyak 76-OG) bt Nagaland 1 (Haileuyibe Iranggau 15).
Group D: Assam 5 (Milan Basumatary 13, Dipu Mirdha 19 & 24; Akrang Narzary 60 & 68) bt Rajasthan 0; Railways 4 (Shabaz Pathan 25 & 82; Mervin Stephen 45+4; Nuruddin 84) bt Himachal Pradesh 1 (Mohit Sharma 75); Chandigarh 2 (Sandeep 27 & 56) bt Bihar 0.
Group E: Uttarakhand 1 (Shashank Rana 77) bt Sikkim 0; Pondicherry 1 (Rajesh 45+2) drew with Daman & Diu 1 (Rahul Laxman Kharpadiya 34); Services 2 (Samir Murmu 45+3, Bikash Thapa 79) bt Mizoram 1 (Lalkhawpuimawia 77)
Group F: Maharashtra 4 (Advait 9, Armash Nasir Ansari 59, Nikhil Kadam 68, Himanshu Patil 78) bt Lakshadweep 0; Andaman & Nicobar 0 drew with Tripura 0; Telangana 0 drew with Andhra Pradesh 0.
