AP beats Kerala, leads with 4 points

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 18 (UNI) With a hard-fought 3-2 win over hosts Kerala, Andhra Pradesh led the table with four points in the South Zone Sub-Junior Women's Hockey Tournament here today.

In another match, Tamil Nadu trounced Karnataka 2-0 and bagged the full three points.

Andhra girls had slight advantage in all fields right from the beginning and their forwards created many chances to score in the first half. However, due to poor finishing, many of them went out of mark.

Madhavi with a smart move sounded the board first, outwitting all the rival defenders in the sixth minute.

However, the Kerala girls were not ready to surrender and through Mariya Susan Gomez they succeeded in bringing the score level at 1-1 five minutes later.

But the joy did not last long in the hosts camp, as the visitors mounted pressure at the rival goal-mouth and found the target through Hemalatha in the 18th minute (2-1).

With renewed vigor after lemon-break, Kerala girls re-grouped and exhibited some good moves and Mariya once again succeeded in bringing the parity (2-2) five minutes after resuming the match.

As the match was going on for a draw, the bad luck of Kerala came through Jotsna, as she, with an unexpected move blasted the third goal and absolute victory to her team with just one minute before the final whistle.

In the second match Tamil Nadu's Gomathi (23rd minute) and R Nithya (41st minute) scored goals against Karnataka.

UNI