Nepal's late charge denies India women victory in first friendly

Secretary General Shaji Prabhakaran with the Senior, U-20, & the U-17 Women`s Teams after the Blue Tigresses` match against Nepal (Pic Courtesy: @IndianFootball/Twitter)

Nepal rallied from a two-goal deficit to hold India women to a 2-2 draw in the first of two international friendly matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.

Soumya Guguloth and Indumathi Kathiresan scored two second-half goals for India, while Sabitra Bhandari netted a last-minute penalty to pull one back for Nepal, before levelling the scores in injury time on Wednesday.

India looked the better side in the first half with striker Bala Devi troubling the Nepal back-line and putting pressure on the defenders.

Bala found Sandhiya Ranganathan with a through ball in the opening minutes of the game but the latter was caught in two minds whether to cross or shoot, and ended up doing neither.

The hosts suffered an early blow when goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan sustained an injury while stopping a Rashmi Ghising shot in the 10th minute. She was replaced by Panthoi Chanu.

There was a brief lull after the quarter-hour mark, before Bala started to look dangerous again.

A deflected shot was collected by Nepal keeper minutes before the half-hour mark, before the 33-year-old managed to make her way past the back-line and attempted to dribble past the keeper. But Nepal defender Gita Rana wrestled the ball off her feet.

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India head coach Thomas Dennerby decided to ring in a few changes following the break. He brought on Manisha Kalyan, Soumya Guguloth, and Sangita Basfore in place of Sandhiya Ranganathan, Dangmei Grace and Anju Tamang, respectively.

The substitutions had an instant impact as Manisha darted down the left, isolating Nepal right back BK Bimala in the process. However, she could not find an Indian upfront.

Bala had a golden opportunity when she played a one-two with Indumathi. However, Nepal goalkeeper and captain Anjila Subba made a terrific save to keep the scores level.

Four minutes before the hour mark, Manisha finally found a team-mate at the end of her cross. The nimble-footed winger decided to hang one in the air across the face of the goal. Bala gave an almighty leap, but missed. However, substitute Soumya Guguloth crept in unmarked from the far side and slapped the ball into the ground, as it bounced over the keeper's head and went in.

The Chennai crowd was on its feet in the 68th minute when two local girls combined to score India's second goal. Karthika Angamuthu dinked the ball over a Nepal defenders' head, as it was chested down by Indumathi, who calmly slotted it home.

Nepal has been somewhat of a bogey side for India in their last couple of encounters.

Disaster struck when Nepal were awarded a penalty in the 90th minute, which was converted by Sabitra Bhandari, who levelled the scores two minutes later when she found some space inside the India box and slotted it past Panthoi to make it 2-2.