The first semifinal played today at Khuman lampak Main Stadium was dominated by the hosts and had the strikers converted some of the chances that came their way the scoreline would have been a huge difference.
From very beginning the West Bengal defence was repeatedly breached but lack of precision on the part of the hosts' forward-line saved the opponents from suffering an embarrassing loss.
The all important goal that sealed Manipur's place in the summit round, yet again was scored by Th Tababi off an Ng bala cross in the 39th minute.
In the final slated for March 25, Manipur will take on tomorrow's second semifinal winner between Orissa and Tamil Nadu.
Manipur failed to grab the top honour in the inaugural edition held at Imphal and in 1997 with West Bengal clinching the title on both occasion.
On the otherhand, Bengal reached the final 13 times out of 17 edition of the championship.
In the 2002, 2007 and 2008 editions of the championship, the final opponent was Orissa.