This story is from June 21, 2019

Jharkhand rout Arunachal to win national sub-junior girls' title

In a battle of underdogs Jharkhand girls put up a brilliant display of attacking football to rout Arunachal Pradesh 4-0 before laying their hands on Sub-Junior Girls' National Football Championship (NFC) trophy at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Thursday.
Jharkhand rout Arunachal to win national sub-junior girls' title
(Getty Images)
KOLKATA: In a battle of underdogs Jharkhand girls put up a brilliant display of attacking football to rout Arunachal Pradesh 4-0 before laying their hands on Sub-Junior Girls' National Football Championship (NFC) trophy at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Thursday.
Soni Munda and Basanti Lakra scored a brace each to help Jharkhand race to their first championship at the national level this season. Earlier this year, Jharkhand went down to Himachal Pradesh in the final of Junior Girls' NFC in Kolhapur.
If Jharkhand were more prolific in scoring than their opponents in final, the side from northeast were better in defending.
While Jharkhand had scored 35 times in the meet prior to the summit clash, Arunachal's tally was 25 but they had conceded just two compared to Jharkhand's four. However, final is a different ball game where sometimes past records count for nothing.
Jharkhand used the width of the pitch to stretch the Arunachal defence from the onset and took only 15 minutes to open the scoring. Played into the box, forward Munda made the perfect run in between two Arunachal centre-backs before placing the ball past goalkeeper Bumpasai Manyu into the net.
Arunachal tried to restore parity but the Jharkhand defence kept cutting them off in the attacking third. Soon, Jharkhand doubled their lead through Lakra, who only tapped into an empty net after Arunachal 'keeper collided with one of the attackers.
The Jharkhand defence was rock solid on the day as they neutralised any threat posed by the Arunachal duo of Simran Zeeba and Tallo Ana -- the top scorer of the meet. Captain Zeeba had even released Ana with an aerial through towards the end of the first half but it was cut off by the ever-alert Jharkhand defence.

Winning captain Salina Kumari came into her own following the breather. The left-winger chased a stray ball that was somewhat equidistant between the two Arunachal centre-backs and the goalkeeper. She managed to beat the onrushing goalie to the ball first before cutting past her to expose an empty goal.
As the angle was too tight for her, Salina played it across the face of the goal for Lakra to tap it into an empty net to notch up her second of the match. Arunachal did try to attack on the counter through their captain but their wingers Zila Kamchi and Bamang Yaro were played too narrow to get crowded by the winners' midfield and defence.
A heavily marked Ana had to drop deep into the midfield to find space often and that meant Arunachal missed her poaching instinct in the final third. Few minutes from regulation time, Munda put the final nail in the coffin when scored her brace to take the scoreline beyond Arunachal's reach.
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