In sensational news, India put up a spectacular performance in a closely fought competition to outsmart Bangladesh in shoot-out to win the SAFF U-15 women’s Championship.
Indian girls produced an electric start from the word go and mounted pressure on their opponents and got off the mark in style.
Priyanka Sujeesh and Amisha Baxla made sure that things went well for India and had an upper hand.
As the game progressed, Bangladesh had a tactical plan to strike India. They realised that India weren’t giving any snippet of breathing space to go for the kill, so they waited for the right opportunity to hit India on the counter.
The tactic nearly paid off when forward Sapna Rani was played through behind the Indian defence with goalkeeper Adrija Sarkhel to beat. But the forward failed to finish properly as India breathed a sigh of relief.
India created quite a few opportunities but couldn’t find a way through the tough Bangladesh defence. India had a penalty shout and the referee wasn’t interested after a cross seemed to have hit a Bangladesh hand.
Finally, it went down to the penalty shoot-out time. Goalkeeper Adrija Sarkhel sprung into the scene and saved Bangladesh’s first spot-kick. Indian skipper Shilky Devi slotted home from the last spot kick to give her side 5-3 win.