Anirudha Nandi stars in RN Podar's promotion bid

RN Podar's (Santacruz) Anirudha Nandi played a crucial role in their come-from-behind 3-1 win over Greenlawns (BP Road) to enter the Div IV semi-finals of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) U-16 inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan yesterday

Anirudha scored a goal and an assist in the win to earn the Santa Cruz outfit a promotion to Div III after five years.

Greenlawns' Kanishiq Parekh converted a spot-kick to make it 1-0 in the 12th minute. Two minutes later, Podar midfielder Anirudha restored parity. Debrup Podar doubled the lead in the 21st minute off an Anirudha assist. Manan Dhyani sealed the match through a firm right-footer.

Anirudha Nandi (right) of RN Podar and Param Gala of Greenlawns in action at Azad Maidan yesterday. Pic/ Suresh KK

"Being a midfielder I have been behind the scenes, as our strikers always dominate. Today I got a chance and scored. It feels great to enter the U-16 semi-finals for the first time in five years," said Anirudha.

Results: G-14-QF: Apostolic Carmel 5 (Vidhisha Sawant 3, Tulip Pereira, Shezana Shaikh) bt St Anne's 0; B-14-IV: Sacred Heart 2 (Rasalkar Hasib, Ansari Munaib) bt Victoria HS 0; Gopal Sharma Int 3 (Shingo Sarkar 2, Ritik Sikdar) bt DPYA 1 (Moksh Rathod); Dr Antonio D'Silva 1 (Chinta Chirag) bt Guru Nanak 0; Campion School 2 (Aryan Jhaveri, Malav Fozdar) drew with Dr Antonio D'Silva âA' 2 (Abhishek Patil, Sairaj Chavan); Rajhans Vid 1 (Manav Shroff) drew with The New Era 1 (Safar Trivedi).u00a0