Rajasthan ended their 63rd National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy with a 3-2 win over Himachal Pradesh in a Cluster VIII match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai on Thursday.
Rajasthan played an attacking game right from the start and found the back of the net in the 18th minute as they were awarded a penalty. Vikas Gupta capitalized on the situation well to get the ball past Himachal custodian to give his team a 1-0 lead.
Himachal Pradesh though tried hard but never got the control of the game. With match entering into the lemon break and Rajasthan leading the start of the second half also witnessed Rajasthan having better and composed game.
With just ten minutes into the second half Sakir Ahmed found the back of the net to extend the lead to 2-0. But Himachal players got their acts together in the very next minute and Gaurav Kumar reduced the lead to 2-1.
Playing with determination Rajasthan increased the lead in the 74th minute as Sourav Das got the ball past Himachal Pradesh custodian to give his team a 3-1 lead.
Just before the relegated time Luv Kishore found the back of the net and help Himachal reduce the lead to 3-2. But it was too late as Rajasthan ended their Santosh Trophy campaign with a win.
Source: the-aiff.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 28 May 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.