New Delhi, Dec 27 (IANS): With the help of Mahip Adhikari's brilliant hat-trick, Delhi defeated Gujarat 4-0 to register their second consecutive win in Group-1 of the 76th National Senior Men's Football Championship being played for the Hero Santosh Trophy.
In the match played at the Ambedkar Stadium, Mahip completed the hat-trick by scoring goals in the 59th, 81st and 84th minutes. Meanwhile, in other matches of the day played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Karnataka beat new comers Ladakh 3-2, while Uttarakhand defeated Tripura 1-0.
Delhi's performance continued to improved match-by-match, which played at Ambedkar Stadium. On Tuesday, Substitute attacking midfielder Mahip Adhikari, who was benched for two consecutive matches, scored a brilliant hat-trick, when he got his chance. In the 30th minute, Ajay Singh Rawat opened Delhi's account by scoring from Jaideep's pass. Delhi was leading 1-0 till half time.
Mahip entering the field as a substitute just after the interval proved to be a boon for the hosts. Mahip scored all his three goals on the passes of Jaideep, Raghav Chadha and Ajay Singh Rawat respectively. The hosts dominated for most of the time. Captain Neeraj Bhandari, Karandeep, Gaurav Rawat and Sahil, the players of Delhi's defence, did not give any chance to Gujarat's forwards by defending strongly.
With this victory, Delhi remained in second place in Group-1 with seven points of two wins and one draw from three matches. On the other hand, Karnataka registered their third consecutive win today and remain at the top with nine points from three wins in three matches. After tasting the victory today, Uttarakhand has moved to the third position in the table. Uttarakhand have four points from three matches with one win, one draw and one loss. At the same time, Gujarat is in fourth place with three points from one win and two defeats in three matches. Tripura and Ladakh are placed fifth and sixth respectively with one point each from three matches.
In the first match of the day played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Karnataka had to struggle a bit to win over Ladakh. Karnataka beat Ladakh 3-2. Abhishek Shankar Powar (27th), Jacob John Kattukaren (54th), Robin Yadav (80th minute) scored in Karnataka's victory.
Ladakh played the better side in the first half and defied expectations to take an early lead through Mohammad Ilyas' goal in the ninth minute. So, he kept Karnataka at 1-1 till the interval. But in the second half, Karnataka launched a flurry of attacks and were leading 3-1 at one stage. Stanzin Gillik of Ladakh made the difference 3-2 before the referee's whistle.
In the third match of the day, Uttarakhand beat Tripura 1-0. This is the first victory of Uttarakhand. Substitute Sarthak Singh scored the only goal of the match in the 56th minute.