Santosh Trophy: Kerala in semis

KOCHI: Kerala on Tuesday beat Maharashtra 3-1 to reach the semifinal stage of the 66th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy being played in Odisha.
The state, in the semifinal after six years, will on Friday take on the winners of a Group C quarterfinal match between Odisha and Services. The match is slated for Wednesday. "While Odisha can still qualify if they win on Wednesday, we expect to face Services in the semifinal.They are a strong team, and have defeated Chhattisgarh 6-0 on Monday. We have to be at our best, and crucially, convert the chances to progress further," said M M Jacob, Kerala coach.
Striker Kannan R, an employee of AG office in Thiruvananthapuram, starred in the win, striking twice in the second half to see the side through. The match was level at 1-1 at half-time with Kerala's V V Surjith having cancelled out Kailash Patil's early penalty for Maharashtra.
For Jacob and his assistant P K Rajeev, Tuesday's win was sweet revenge. The duo was left disappointed on the sidelines when Maharashtra ousted Kerala by a solitary goal (scored by a Malayali, Mohammed Najeeb) in the 2000 final.
"This win over Maharashtra is extremely sweet for us because of what had happened in 2000. But personally, there is another bad memory. In 1994, when I was the assistant coach of the Kerala side, we lost the final at this very same ground in Barabati to Bengal on penalties. Hopefully, this time, my boys can set that record straight for me as well," Jacob said.
Manipur, who beat Goa 2-0 on Tuesday in their final quarterfinal group match, will face either Tamil Nadu or Railways in the other semifinal.
Kerala have won the Santosh Trophy in 1974, 1992, 1993, 2001 and 2004.
Kerala's first D/N ODI in Kochi
KOCHI: Kerala's first day and night one-day international cricket match will be played between England and India in Kochi's Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on January 15 next year. Kochi will host the second of the five-match ODI series between the two countries, according the schedule released by the England and Wales Cricket Board. Though Kochi has hosted seven ODI matches so far, all matches have been day affairs. But with Kochi successfully hosting IPL day and night matches last year, BCCI decided to allot the city a day and night match.