Manipur Outclass Tamil Nadu to Set Up Final Date With Railways at Senior Women's Nationals

New Delhi: Manipur and Railways advanced to the final of Senior Women's National Championships 2019 in Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh and will play for the title on Tuesday.

Manipur are the defending champions but will have Yumnam Kamala Devi-led Railways in their way as they look to hold on to the nationals title.

Daya Devi scored a hat-trick while Kamala got a brace to her name and were the stars of the day for Manipur and Railways, respectively.

The semi-final saw a good crowd turn up for the matches on Sunday as Railways vs Odisha was attended by 3000 people while Tamil Nadu vs Manipur was witnessed by a crowd of 5000 at the CHF stadium in Pasighat.

Tamil Nadu were no match to Manipur as the defending champions pulled the screws as early as the 10th minute of the match. Manipur's star player Bala Devi was the one who got her team to a solid start.

Daya, however, took the mantle from there and the crafty winger put Manipur 2-0 up in the 14th minute of the semi-final.

Irom Prameshwori Devi joined the party in the 35th minute before Daya scored her second in the 39th minute to put Manipur 4-0 up against Tamil Nadu at half time.

While the first half saw a flurry of goals, it was calm in the second with Daya completing her hat-trick in the 84th minute as Manipur advanced to the final once again.

Earlier in the day, Kamala led Railways to the final with a 3-1 win over Odisha as she continued her goalscoring form and added two more to her tournament tally.

Kamala, who has been out of the national team due to a controversial fallout with coach Maymol Rocky and assistant coach Chaoba Devi, has shown her quality coming into the tournament.

Kamala was not at her best during the Indian Women's League in May and told News18.com that she was not in the right place mentally but in Pasighat, she has come out shining and has made a solid case for herself to get back into the national team.

Kamala opened the scoring for Railways in the 10th minute when her team was awarded a penalty. Mamta stepped up for Railways in the 23rd minute as they went into the break with a 2-0 lead over Odisha.

Kamala did not waste a lot of time in the second half and scored Railways' third at the half an hour mark.

Odisha got a consolation goal in the 88th minute through Jasoda Munda but Railways advanced to the final with ease.