Maharashtra blank Karnataka 3-0, Kerala tame TN 3-1 in Santosh

Gurgaon, Oct 15 (UNI) Last year's runners up Maharashtra struck thrice in the second session to blank Karnataka 3-0, while title contender Kerala chalked out a facile 3-1 win over Tamil Nadu in group B quarterfinal league matches of the 61st Santosh Trophy football tournament here today.

Adil Ansari (47th minute), Abhishek Yadav (64th) and Paresh Shivalkar (84th) scored for Maharashtra in their match against Karnataka.

After a barren and uneventful first half, Maharashtra took lead two minutes into the second half with an unmarked Ansari nodding the ball home off an Abhishek Yadav cross from the left.

Then a defensive lapse by Karnataka saw Ansari taking possession of the ball and his low cross beat the goalkeeper with an advancing Abhishek Yadav making no mistake in slotting it home (2-0).

Another defensive blunder resulted in the third goal when a long clearance from Maharashtra half reached Shivalkar who beat the off-side trap and lobbed it over the onrushing goalkeeper into the empty net.

Earlier, India internationl NP Pradeep's brilliant brace powered title contender Kerala to a facile 3-1 win over Tamil Nadu.

Pradeep broke the deadlock in the 50th minute through a flying header after teammate Abdul Naushad had put his team ahead in the 13th minute and Tamil Nadu's Kuluthungan equalised in the 25th minute. Pradeep finally put it beyond Tamil Nadu's reach in the 78th minute through a solo effort.

Naushad drew the first blood from a hard work done by captain Abdul Hakim. The Kerala skipper found himself unmarked on top of the rival box and seeing the goalkeeper running out, he cleverly passed the ball to an onrushing Naushad who had all the time in the world to slam it into an empty net.

Tamil Nadu, however, equalised from a set-piece. Satish Kumar had earned a free-kick near the right top edge of the box and captain Jestus Anthony sent a perfect free-kick for Kuluthungan whose head touched goalkeeper's fingers before crashing into the net.

Kerala regained lead when R Rajesh took a free-kick and an airborne Pradeep, emerging out of nowhere, nodded the ball home in an acrobatic style.

Pradeep struck again to round off the tally in the 78th minute.

After collecting a pass from Mohammad Rafi outside the box, Pradeep dodged past his marker and the Mahindra United player unleashed a powerful right-footer from almost zero angle from the right which went through the goalkeeper's fingers and crashed into the net after hitting inside of the goalpost.

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