Kamalesh rescues Karnataka with last-minute Kamaal

By Muhammed Rumman Khan | NT

Hosts Karnataka were stretched to the limit before they eked out a 1-0 win over Andhra Pradesh in the Hero South Zone Santosh Trophy Group A Football event in Bengaluru. Karnataka, who were rescued by a 90th-minute strike by Kamalesh, keep an unbeaten record with six points from two games.

Andhra adopted tactics that saw their players hit the ground at the slightest of body contacts thus putting the brakes on the flow by the strong Karnataka side and almost pulled it off. However, with just a minute to go Kamalesh scored and ended the defiant fight by the AP side, who now have lost both their matches and are out of contention.

In another game, Tamil Nadu came back from their 0-4 drubbing at the hands of the hosts to beat Telangana 1-0. TN enjoyed the better of exchanges while Telangana were hardly the side that won their opener 4-0 against AP.

After two efforts came to grief on the post in the first half, TN skipper Vijay Nagappan finally broke the deadlock two minutes after the restart.

Vijay’s free-kick sailed over the wall and went in off the near post beating Telangana custodian Hussain hands down. With one team qualifying for the final round, Karnataka remain the only unbeaten side and a draw will see them through.

Karnataka meet Telangana in the final game on Saturday afternoon and a win for the latter will bring them back into contention.

If TN win against AP in Saturday’s first game and Karnataka lose in the afternoon then it will be a threeway tie and goal difference and head-to-head results come into play.