PSEB survives

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 10. Defending champion Punjab State Electricity Board survived a second half rally from Tamil Nadu before scraping home for a 2-1 win in a pool `A' match of the all-India inter- electricity board football tournament at the Chandrasekharan Nair stadium here on Wednesday.

With this win Punjab topped the group and entered the semifinals, while Tamil Nadu, despite today's reverse, also made the grade. Punjab began on an ominous note with its forwards dissecting the rival defence with ridiculous ease. It went ahead in the fifth minute through Sandip Saini and by the 21st minute Dalip Kumar had put his side 2-0 up. But Tamil Nadu regrouped in the midfield and strengthened its defence to deny any further goals to Punjab.

Tamil Nadu reversed the trend in the second half as Irudayanathan initiated a few good moves from the right. It pulled one back in the 8th minute as Irudayanathan danced his way into the rival penalty area and fed substitute striker M.Prabakaran who made no mistake. Tamil Nadu got a few more chances to equalise but the strikers could not convert the chances that came their way.

Earlier in the morning, TNEB scored an emphatic 5-2 win over Orissa. J.Irudayanathan (32nd, 54th), Samson Selvakumar (59th), Prabhakaran (60th) and J.Xavier (65th) scored for the winner while S.Pal (63rd) and N.Pal (80th) netted the goals for Orissa.

The host Kerala State Electricity Board was far from impressive in its 4-2 win over Haryana Power Sports Group in a pool `B' encounter.

Sanjay put Haryana into the lead in the 10th minute much against the run of play. However, Jaseer scored the equaliser for KSEB and Ramesh put his side ahead in the 28th minute.

Yabavindar Singh restored parity for the Haryana in the 42nd minute. Rajesh (53rd) and Sunil Kumar (58th) scored in the span of five minutes to settle the issue for host.

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Section  : Sport
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