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

Nepal rallied from a twogoal deficit to hold India women to a 22 draw in the first of two international friendly matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium hereSoumya Guguloth and Indumathi Kathiresan scored two secondhalf goals for India while Sabitra Bhandari netted a lastminute penalty to pull one back for Nepal before levelling the scores in injury time on WednesdayIndia looked the better side in the first half with striker Bala Devi troubling the Nepal backline and putting pressure on the defendersBala 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 neitherThe 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 ChanuThere was a brief lull after the quarterhour mark before Bala started to look dangerous againA deflected shot was collected by Nepal keeper minutes before the halfhour mark before the 33yearold managed to make her way past the backline and attempted to dribble past the keeper But Nepal defender Gita Rana wrestled the ball off her feetAlso Read Must bring curtain down on issues concerning All India Football Federation Supreme CourtIndia 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 respectivelyThe 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 upfrontBala had a golden opportunity when she played a onetwo with Indumathi However Nepal goalkeeper and captain Anjila Subba made a terrific save to keep the scores levelFour minutes before the hour mark Manisha finally found a teammate at the end of her cross The nimblefooted 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 keepers head and went inThe Chennai crowd was on its feet in the 68th minute when two local girls combined to score Indias second goal Karthika Angamuthu dinked the ball over a Nepal defenders head as it was chested down by Indumathi who calmly slotted it homeNepal has been somewhat of a bogey side for India in their last couple of encountersDisaster 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 22