Bengaluru FC suffer opening day defeat to Kerala Blasters FC in ISL
Kochi (PTI): It was a season-opener to forget for the former champions Bengaluru FC who suffered a 1-2 defeat to Kerala Blasters FC in the Indian Super League, here on Thursday.
Two defensive errors from Bengaluru (Veendorp OG 52', Luna 70') is what consigned Simon Grayson's men to defeat.
New signing Curtis Main, who was a second half substitute, scored a late goal (90'), but the Blues couldn't stage the comeback they needed.
The Blasters kicked off proceedings with Bengaluru fielding as many as four debutants in their eleven.
Slavko Damjanovic, Jessel Carneiro, Keziah Veendorp and Ryan Williams got their first competitive minutes in a BFC shirt.
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu led Bengaluru out in the absence of Sunil Chhetri, who is away on national duty to the Asian Games.
The Blues' closest chance came in the 35th minute, when Naorem Roshan Singh's long-distance effort caught Sachin Suresh off guard.
But the Kerala goalkeeper managed to parry it away for a corner, as both teams walked down the tunnel at half time with no goals to show for.
The start of the second half saw the momentum shift back Kerala's way.
Peprah came close to scoring in the 52nd minute but Gurpreet managed to fist the ball out.
It was from the resulting corner that the hosts found the lead, with the ball coming off Veendorp's head and past Gurpreet.
Grayson turned to his bench in the 65th minute to try and change things as Curtis Main, Javi Hernandez and Parag Shrivas came on for Aleksandar Jovanovic, Keziah Veendorp and Namgyal Bhutia.
Just when Bengaluru looked to brush away the setback, another error in defence this time from Gurpreet gifted Kerala their second goal of the night.
Picking up a pass from Damjanovic, the Bengaluru goalkeeper got a heavier touch to the ball than he would have liked. An onrushing Luna got to the ball in a flash, before rolling it into an empty net and making it 2-0.
Monirul Molla and Harsh Patre came on for Sivasakthi Narayanan and Rohit Kumar in the 77th minute of the game as Bengaluru looked to find a way back.
Main ate into Kerala's lead late into the game with a simple finish, sparking some hope of a revival.
The fourth official added on seven minutes as Bengaluru continued their search for an equaliser, but it wasn't to be for the Blues who now travel to Kolkata where they play Mohun Bagan Super Giant on Wednesday.
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Woman duped of Rs 25 lakh in fake Canada visa scam; 1 held
Shimla (PTI): A woman has been arrested from Punjab for allegedly duping another woman of Rs 25 lakhs by promising her to arrange a visa for Canada, police said on Monday.
The accused has been identified as Manju Kumari, a resident of Punjab.
Senior Superintendent of Police SSP Shimla Gaurav Singh said that Manju had contacted the woman several months ago and had promised her to arrange a visa for Canada.
"After this, she asked for money for the same from the victim, which she transferred to her on multiple occasions. However, as time went by, Manju started to make various excuses and ignored her calls," the SSP said.
Upon suspecting being defrauded, the victim's brother registered a complaint, and a case was registered under sections 318 (4) (cheating), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) and 352 (2) (intentional insults designed to provoke a breach of peace) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the SSP said.
"Police teams were sent to Haryana and Punjab, but she kept evading arrest as she kept changing her locations as well as her mobile numbers. However, the police teams successfully arrested her on Sunday from a flat located in Kharar in Punjab," he said.
Further investigation into the matter is underway, and the defrauded money is also being recovered, he added.
