Ulaan Baator: The Indian girls dished out another stellar performance in the ongoing AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifier to churn out a spectacular 4-0 win against arch-rivals Pakistan at the MFF Stadium in Ulaanbaatar on Wednesday.
While Avika Singh (22') opened the scoring for India, Pakistani goalie Ayesha (43') conceded an own goal at the stroke of the half-time. Sunita Munda (82') added another to get herself on the scoresheet, whereas skipper Shilky Devi (88') wrapped it up in style.
The Indian girls win happened the day when senior crickets beat Pakistan by 8 wickets at Asia Cup in Dubai. Following the win, India are firmly seated at the top of the Group B, having collected six points from two matches. Sunita, Shilky and Avika combined well to wreak havoc on the arch-rivals but the rival defenders soaked in the pressure until the
22nd minute when Avika notched the opening goal for India.
Sunita breezed past the left-back to deliver a low cross for Avika, whose well-timed tap-in earned India the lead. Pakistan were happy to sit back in their own half and defend.Goalkeeper Ayesha made some exquisite saves during the course of the game but a miscued effort from her in the 41st minute landed inside the goal to hand India a 2-0 lead.
After the changeover, India continued to mount more pressure on Pakistan. The third goal came in the 82nd minute when Sunita, the architect of Avika's goal, got her name on the score sheet. Six minutes later, skipper Shilky latched on to another attack down the middle and kept her calm to score the fourth goal of the game, which eventually nailed the final one in the coffin.
India are scheduled to take on hosts Mongolia in their next match, two days later (September 21, 2018).
INDIA: Manisha (GK), Jyoti Kumari, Ritu Devi, Pinku Devi (Priyangka
Devi 46'), Priyanka Sujjesh, Anju, Poonam, Kiran, Sunita Munda, Avika
Singh (Varsha 78'), Shilky Devi (C).
(UNI)
