Santosh Trophy co-hosts Kerala have cruised past Maharashtra in the first semifinal played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi today.

Kerala opened the score sheet with a much discussed penalty shot in the 52nd minute. Kerala was awarded a freekick prior to the penalty and the shot was deflected befor it hit the crossbar. But the referee awarded the hosts a penalty leaving everyone wondering. Usman P. put the spot kick past keeper Rajib Miryla to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Kerala prefered to keep it safe and to wait for counter-attacks, while Maharashtra had more possession in the remaining playtime. But Kerala had to pay for their defensive game in the second half when F. Lalrempuia levelled the scorline with a wonderful shot from outside the box.

Maharashtra pushed hard to find the winner in the regulation time, but none of their efforts were able to cause any danger to the Kerala goal. So both teams went on to the extra-time in front of approximately 10,000 fans in Kochi.

The extra-time didn’t produce any mentionable efforts except a header by Kerala’s Usman P. who missed the target by a whisker and it looked like the match would be decided in a penalty shoot-out.

But Shibin Lal V.K. had other plans when he put the ball past Maharashtra keeper Rajib Miryla to put Kerala in the lead in the dying moments of the extra-time.

Kerala didn’t give away the lead and the co-hosts sail through to the final scheduled to take place at the same venue on Sunday.

.

67th Santosh Trophy 2013 | Semifinal 1
at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi

KERALA 2-1 MAHARASHTRA

.

GOALS
1-0 Usman P. (52′, pen)
1-1 F. Lalrempuia (70′)
2-1 Shibin Lal V.K. (118′)

.

LINE-UPS

Kerala
1 Jean Chrisitian P.A.; 2 V.V. Surjith [C], 3 T. Sajith, 4 Sherin Sam, 5 N. Johnson, 18 Nasurudeen C. (34′ 6 Ahmad Malik), 8 Shibin Lal V.K., 9 Usman P., 10 Kannan Rajendran (74′ 12 B.T. Sarath), 16 Vineet Antony, 19 N. Sumesh

Unused Subs
7 P. Rahul, 11 Rakesh K., 15 Abdul Basith, 17 Saleel K., 20 Rino Anto, 21 S. Sreeju, 22 P.K. Naseeb

Maharashtra
1 Rajib Miryla; 2 Naduparambil Pappachan Pradeep [C], 3 Ranjan Salam, 5 Oken Singh, 18 Nisthar Kali Alaudeen, 6 Shabbir Ali Shaikh, 8 F. Lalrempuia, 10 Sanjenban Sadanand, 14 Praneel Mendon, 13 Mohd Rashid, 11 M. Mohammed Rafi (37′ 12 Anas Ibnusalam)

Unused Subs
4 Shakti Singh, 7 Zuber Mahaboob, 15 Sreekant Molangiri, 16 Ajinkya Nalawade, 17 Shaik Mohammed Bilal, 19 Pahoon Biswas, 20 Owais Khan, Francisco Salin

.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee
Ranjit Bhakshi

Assistant Referees
Prasad S. Surlakar, J. Velayudhan

Fourth Official
J. Tony

Match Commissioner
Inayatullah Khan

.

BOOKINGS

Yellow Cards
48′ Anas Ibnusalam (Maharashtra)
55′ Naduparambil Pappachan Pradeep (Maharashtra)
65′ Vineet Antony (Kerala)

Yellow-Red Cards
none

Red Cards
none