Riding on the brilliance of attacking midfielder Bhumika Mane who netted a brace of goals inspired Maharashtra (WIFA) to a convincing 5-1 win against Mizoram in the opening Group-II league match of the Hero 27th Senior Women’s National Football Championship 2022-23, played at the IGIS Complex, Haldwani, Uttarakhand on Tuesday.
Besides the efforts of Junior International Bhumika, the entire Maharashtra team produced a solid collective performance to make a bright winning start.
The Sanaya Anklesaria coached Maharashtra team opened the scoring in the 14th minute through Sapna Rajpure’s strike to gain ascendancy. Maharashtra doubled the lead when Arya More found the back of the Mizoram net in the 36th minute.
Maharashtra continued to press forward and Bhumika did well to score the third goal in the second minute of additional period and give her team a commanding 3-0 cushion at the break.
On resumption, Mizoram showed signs of fighting back and cut the deficit with Deborah Lalenpuii scoring their lone goal in the 52nd minute.
Maharashtra continued to search for goals and Sanika Patil struck the fourth goal in the 55th minute before the energetic Bhumika was once again on target with the fifth goal to complete the winning tally.
The Maharashtra women will meet Pondicherry in the second group match on Friday (Mar 31).
In the other matches of the same group, fancied Kerala blanked Pondicherry 6-0, while Uttarakhand and Chandigarh played out a goalless draw.
Results – Group-II: Maharashtra 5 (Sapna Rajpue 14 min, Arya More 36 min, Bhumika Mane 45+2 min & 70 min, Sanika Patil 55 min) beat Mizoram 1 (Deborah Lalenpuii 52 min).