While Chandigarh had it easy over Rajasthan 3-1 after leading by a goal at half-time in cluster H league match, Tripura got the better of Madhya Pradesh before winning by the odd goal in three (2-1) in a cluster E encounter. Tripura led 1-0 at the breather.

While Tripura tasted their first victory after their loss against hosts Tamil Nadu in the tournament's pipe-opener the other day, Chandigarh recorded their second successive victory following their drubbing of Andaman and Nicobar islands by a similar 3-1 margin yesterday.

Assam drub Pondicherry

COIMBATORE: Fancied Assam today registered a 5-0 victory over Pondicherry in Cluster G.

In a one-sided encounter Assam's star striker Tridip Khound drew the first blood in the sixth minute of the first-half and they led 1-0at half time.With the one goal lead Assam boys continued their fight and scored four more goals at regular intervals.

Their second goal came in the tenth minute of the second-half through Mahendra Brahma. Seven minutes later captain Nabajyothi took a beautiful shot from just outside the box for the third goal.

In the 65th minute of the game a beautiful twenty-yarder by striker Tridip Khound increased the lead (4-0). Two minute later Mrinal Boro scored the 5th goal and completed the tally.

Bhutia to leadBengal

CALCUTTA: East Bengal star striker Bhaichung Bhutia will lead the Bengal squad for the forthcoming national football tournament for Santosh Trophy in Chennai. However, I M Vijayan was not considered for the tournament, sources here said.

The team: Kalyan Choubey, Prasanta Dora, V Dinesh (goalkeepers), Reazul Mustafa, Falguni Dutta, Ratan Singh, Edward Barreto, Debjit Ghosh, Amit Ghosh, Ranjan Dey (defenders), Basudeb Mandal, Amit Das, Carlton Chapman, R P Singh, Khentang Paite, SoumitraChakraborty, Joe Paul Ancheri (Linkman), Bhaichung Bhutia, Dipendu Biswas and Raman Vijayan (forwards).

Dhanesh to lead Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Midfielder K V Dhanesh of F C Kochin will lead Kerala in the Santosh Trophy. The 20-member squad was announced by the Kerala Football Association secretary, K Bodhanandan.

The team: K V Dhanesh (Captain), Goal keepers: M V Nelson, and Joby Joseph. Defenders: Jiju Jacob, V Sivakumar, M Suresh, Martin Mathew, Anil Kumar, A S Firoz and V Vinaya Kumar. Midfielders: KV Dhanesh, S Earnest, M K Sunil, M Boniface, K Noushad. Forwards: VP Shaji, CV Sunny, PN Manoj, Asif Saheer, M Najeeb and Ignatious; Coaches: MM Jacob and Sebastian Thomas.