Mumbai District produced a determined fighting performance and managed to scrape past Kolhapur District by a close 3-2 margin in the final of the WIFA Inter-district women football championship and played at Palghar.
Akansha Kandalkar (10th minute), Bhagyashree Dalvi (25th minute), and Harshika Jain (90+1st minute), with a late strike got the goals for Mumbai while Kolhapur girls who put up a spirited fight scored through Sarika Patil (57th minute) and Aarya More (90th minute) to stay in the match before they conceded a third goal and had to settle for second best.
Favourites Mumbai started aggressively and took an early lead with consistent goal-scorer Akansha scoring the opening goal in the 10 minute. The Mumbai girls continued to dictate terms and 15 minutes later the experienced midfielder Bhagyashree Dalvi fired in the second goal to give her team a solid 2-0 cushion at the break.
Despite trailing 0-2 the Kolhapur outfit did not lose heart, instead they came roaring back and in the 12th minute of the second period Sarika scored to reduce the deficit. Kolhapur managed to restore parity when Aarya struck the equalizer in the 90th minute. But, Harshika dashed the hopes of the Kolhapur team by scoring the decisive match-winning goal to secure Mumbai’s triumph.
Earlier in the semi-finals, Kolhapur got the better of Pune District by a narrow 2-1 margin with Sonali Salvi and Samruddhi Katkole scoring a goal each to seal the win, while Aishwarya Jagtap pulled one back for the losers.
In contrast, Mumbai recorded a convincing 4-0 victory against Nagpur District in the second semi-final.
Results – semi-finals: Mumbai District 3 (Akansha Kandalkar, Bhagyashree Dalvi, Harshika Jain) beat Kolhapur District 2 (Sarika Patil, Aarya More).