Bengaluru: Gokulam Kerala FC embarrassed Kenkre FC 10-1 in their Hero Indian Women’s League football fixture here on Tuesday.
Gokulam’s Nepali striker Sabitra Bhandari was the star of the show with five goals. Karishma Shirvoikar notched up a hat-trick, while Manisha netted two more to complete the rout.
Kenkre couldn’t get any foothold in the game as their Kerala counterparts completely blew them away and raced to a 7-1 lead going into half time. Gokulam opened the scoring in the 7th minute when a Sabitra Bhandari effort was initially saved by Kenkre keeper Monika Devi, but the rebound fell to Karishma, who made no mistake. Bhandari continued to be the fulcrum of Gokulam’s attack, running circles around the Kenkre defence as they failed to find an answer.
She linked up beautifully with Karishma throughout the game, forging a formidable partnership and scoring an astounding eight goals between them. Just like she had created Karishma’s opener, the young forward returned the favour by setting her up minutes later, in the 17th minute.
The goal of the game was scored by Manisha in the 30th minute, when her left-footed curler left everyone astounded. Bhandari completed her hat-trick in first-half stoppage time and added a further two in the second half. (PTI)
