Santosh Trophy Round Up: Day 5

We bring to you a round up of all the matches played on the fifth day of the 63rd Santosh Trophy.

Pondicherry 0-4 Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh defeated Pondicherry 4-0 in their Cluster III match on Thursday. MP took the lead in the 25^th minute through a Krishna Kumar Singh penalty and sustained their lead until the half-time break. MP doubled their advantage just before the hour mark when Santosh Rajak scored. Four minutes later it became 3-0 as Rajak scored his second of the match and the 4-0 scoreline was completed in the 88^th minute when Bhagwan Das added his name to the scoresheet.

Kerala 3-0 Chhattisgarh

Kerala defeated Chhattisgarh 3-0 in a Cluster I match on Thursday to qualify for the pre-quarterfinals of the Santosh Trophy. Kerala went 1-0 up in the 25^th minute when NP Pradeep scored. Kerala got the better of the chances in the remainder of the first half and even had a penalty but failed to add to their tally. However, they did eventually score and that was in the 62^nd minute when Zubair K headed past Gurpreet Singh. Sushant Matthew, who had seen his penalty get saved in the first half, made amends in the second period as he blasted home a 35-yard screamer to round up a convincing 3-0 victory for Kerala.

Mizoram 3-0 Jammu & Kashmir

Mizoram inflicted a 3-0 defeat on Jammu & Kashmir in a Cluster II match on Thursday. It was goalless in the first half but Mizoram went into the lead six minutes after the restart when Lalamunpuia scored. They played better football than J&K from then on and got their second goal in the 76^th minute when Jeje Laleekhlua scored. Mizoram added their third of the match in the 88^th minute when H. Lalrochama scored.

Assam 0-1 Railways

Railways registered their second successive victory in Cluster V when they defeated Assam 1-0. It was an entertaining match right from the match with both sides trying to get at each other and it was Railways who scored. Their goal came in the 39^th minute when Amrinder Singh scored. The second half was an eventful affair as neither side failed to dominate over the other.

Rajasthan 3-2 Himachal Pradesh

Rajasthan defeated Himachal Pradesh 3-2 in a Cluster VIII match on Thursday. In what turned out to be an entertaining match, Rajasthan scored first in the 18^th minute through a Vikas Gupta spot-kick. It stayed 1-0 until the 50^th minute of the match when akir Ahmed scored to make it 2-0 t Rajasthan. Himachal Pradesh, though, made an instant comeback as they pulled one goal back the very next minute, thanks to a strike from Gaurav Kumar. Rajasthan increased their lead back to two goals when Sourav Das made it 3-1 in the 73^rd minute. Although HP did make it 3-2 in the dying minutes of the match through Luv Kishore, it was too little, too late.

Tamil Nadu 7-0 Tripura

Hosts Tamil Nadu have qualified for the pre-quarterfinals after thrashing Tripura 7-0 in a Cluster VIII match at JN Stadium, Chennai on Thursday. Both sides came into this game with two wins each but Tamil Nadu only needed a draw to qualify because of a superior goal difference. The hosts opened the scoring in the 12th minute through Pradeep. Tripura had a few chances to get the equalizer but they could not take their chances. In form striker Riju made it 2-0 in the 22nd minute and then captain Kulothungan got the third five minutes later. Muthu who scored a hat-trick in the 11-0 win over Himachal Pradesh, scored the fourth goal of the game in the 30th minute. There were no more goals before halftime but Tamil Nadu kept dominating. The first goal of the second half came in the 65th minute when Riju scored his second of the game. Muthu also got his second in the 87th minute and in injury time Alamurugan scored the seventh goal. Tamil Nadu scored 25 goals in three cluster games and will face either Haryana or Bihar in the pre-quaterfinal.

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