Santosh Trophy: Kerala lose in shootout

By John Cheeran
Wasted chances will haunt Kerala skipper Abdul Hakeem in the years to come as Kerala lost their battle for Santosh Trophy, midway in the semifinal, to West Bengal in Haryana on Sunday night.
Kerala lost when full time and extra time did not throw up any goals and the match went into penalty shootout (2-4.)
Bengal will meet Punjab in the 61st Santosh Trophy final.
In the shoot out, Kerala's R Rajesh and Jaseer Karnath could not control their shots and they hit the upright. Bengal displayed their professional edge by slotting home all four of their shots. It was Lenal Thomas and N Pradeep who found the target for Kerala.
Dipendu Biswas, Sanjeev Maria, Suman Dutta and Shyam Mondal scored for Bengal.
In the first semifinal played earlier in the day, Punjab defeated last year's finalists Maharashtra 2-1.
In the first half, Kerala and Bengal tried to go for the goal. Bengal started brightly as Avinash Thapa hit over the bar only in the second minute. Syed Rahim Nabi, who was the driving force for the team in the match against Punjab, continued the good work, but failed to test Jean Christian in the Kerala goal in the eighth minute.
Kerala, braving the chill, slowly came back into the game. But all their efforts were not good enough on this day.