Ananya Thakur saves and scores too

Dhirubhai Ambani International's (BKC) midfielder-turned-goalkeeper Ananya Thakur's heroics helped her team lift the girls U-14 title of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association's (MSSA) inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan yesterday.

Dhirubhai Ambani's U-14 team after winning the MSSA title yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble.

Ananya effected three crucial saves and also scored in the tie-breaker to help her team register a 3-0 win over Arya Vidyamandir (Juhu) after the teams were locked 0-0 at regulation time. Ananya replaced regular ‘'keeper Jahanvi Mehta in the shoot-out. Ananya, Radha Gupta and Zaina Goel scored for Dhirubhai Ambani in theu00a0tie-breaker. Thirteen-year-old Ananya denied AVM's Maya Venkateshwaran, Reva Sankhe and Kritika Chhabra from the spot.
Ananya credited her basketball skills for her performance.

Ananya Thakur in the tie-breaker

"As I play basketball, my reflexes are good. So, our coach Chanchal sir (Singh) asked me to be the goalkeeper in the tie-breaker."