Dhirubhai Ambani School girls showed tremendous resilience

Defender Aisha Patel (left), who played as a stand-in goalkeeper for Dhirubhai Ambani International School, tries to tackle Amaya Patel of Cathedral and John Connon during their MSSA U-16 Division-I inter-school match at Cooperage ground on Saturday. Pi

Dhirubhai Ambani International BKC took the field with just nine players for their game against Cathedral & John Connon Fort in a girls U-16 Division-I match of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at Cooperage ground on Saturday.

That did not deter them from giving their best. The Dhirubhai Ambani girls showed resilience and willpower to put up a fight against the full-strength Cathedral outfit. Luck, too, deserted them as they conceded an own-goal in the final minute and went on to suffer a close 0-1 defeat.

Cathedral six points and Dhirubhai Ambani three points, who are placed first and second respectively in the three-team group, advanced to the quarter-final play-offs. The third team Canossa Convent Andheri lost both their matches.

The Cathedral girls were unable to exploit the numerical advantage to try and score goals.

The Ambani side packed their defence and soaked in the pressure. Stand-in goalkeeper Aisha Patel had a very busy day in the office and although she lacked experience, she did an excellent job as she time and again rushed to the top of her area to make timely collections and was also alert enough to keep her citadel clean before that one bad moment late in the game.

As the game looked to be heading for a goalless finish, Cathedral-s captain Tanisha Laud-s corner-kick from the right, struck the body of Dhirubhai Amabani defender Aanya Malhotra and deflected into the goal much to the dismay of her teammates.

Goalkeeper Aisha was not disappointed by the defeat. "Mistakes do happen and there is nothing you can do," she told mid-day. "Despite the disadvantage, we tried our best. We missed many of the main players, who are away on vacation. All of us today played at our best and we can count ourselves unlucky to lose," was how Aisha summed up their match.

Later, in a Group-D encounter, MIG Borivli and Arya Vidya Mandir Juhu shared the spoils as they played out a 1-1 draw. Angeline Antony was on target for the Borivli side while Sai Sankhe scored for the Juhu schoolgirls.

MSSA U-16 Division-I Quarter-final line-up

Boys:

• Christ Church Byculla v Bombay Scottish Mahim
• Cathedral & John Connon Fort v Army Colaba
• Don Bosco -A- Matunga v St Pius X -A- Mulund
• St Mary-s ICSE Mazagon v St Stanislaus Bandra

Girls:

• Apostolic Carmel Bandra v Bai Avabai Petit Bandra
• Bombay Scottish Mahim v Arya Vidya Mandir Bandra E
• Cathedral & John Connon Fort v MIG Borivli
• Arya Vidya Mandir Juhu v Dhirubhai Ambani Bandra

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