7th Manipur International Women’s Polo Tournament Manipur beat South Africa 8-7 in final thriller to lift title trophy

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Feb 2 : India Team-B represented by Manipur, showed grit and determination to get the better of South Africa 8-7 in the final thriller to seal the title of the 7th Manipur International Women’s Polo Tournament hosted by the All Manipur Polo Association.
In the keenly contested final staged this afternoon at Mapal Kangjeibung, Manipur and South Africa were locked at 7-7 before Oinam Veronica snatch the victory in the 7th minute (6:50) of the fourth chukker to seal the title win.
It was a see-saw affair as Manipur led the first chukker 3-2 before South Africa surged ahead in the second chukker and took a 5-4 lead. Manipur retained the lead in the third chukker adding twice against the visitors who drew nil before Manipur and South Africa added two goals apiece in the final chukker. Eventually Manipur came out 8-7 winners.
Khundongbam Deventy (3:59), Oinam Veronica (6:00) and Thoudam Tanna (7:23) found the target for Manipur in the opening chukker as Cranje Ritali (1:16) and Abraham Clair Bridge (2:43) scored it for the visitors.
Spies Chrisna, however,  turned things around by adding thrice (00:25, 5:53, 6:58) against one added by Thoudam Tanna (4:10) for Manipur but they failed to add to their tally in the third chukker where in Khundongbam Deventy (4:36) and Moirangthem Bijenti (5:18) scored a goal apiece for Manipur to make it 6-5.
South Africa drew level just 25 seconds into the fourth chukker through Abraham Clair (0:25) but Manipur retained the lead through Thoudam Tanna in the second minute (1:45) and kept the title hopes alive.
South Africa, however, produced a never say die attitude and returned to the game courtesy of the equaliser from Spies Chrisna (4:29).
With the scoreline locked at 7-7, the competition was wide open yet again and the two sides toiled hard to find the winner.
After trading some brilliant runs that failed to materialise, Oinam Veronica came up with a brilliant shot 40 seconds away from time and earned Manipur the coveted title.
Notably, the two evenly matched sides had earlier played out a 5-5 draw in the league stage before securing their final tickets.
India Team-A (IPA) and Zambia are the other teams who took part in the tournament. Manipur team were feted with a cash prize of Rs 1,50,000 as the runners up South Africa team received Rs 1,00,000.