Bahraini women bow to Indians

Bahrain's women's national football team bowed to their Indian counterparts 1-2 last night in an international friendly match played at Al Ahli Club's stadium in Mahooz.Skipper Sashmith Mallik scored both goals for the victors in the game. She netted the winner literally moments after Reem Al Hashemi connected on Bahrain's lone strike.The match was the first of three tune-ups between both nations in the coming week. The Indians are in the kingdom upon the invitation of the Bahrain Football Association. They are helping the nationals gear up for their upcoming campaign in the West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship, scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi between October 3 and 12, this was published at the GDN."For our first competitive game in a while, I was satisfied with our level and effort today," Bahrain head coach Khaled Al Harban told the GDN."India are a very good team and their players are very organised and have very good skills. Now we see how they play, we know a little bit more about their technique, and hopefully in our next friendly we can do better."All three of the game's goals came in an action-packed first half.Mallik opened India's account just three minutes after the kick-off when she unleashed a powerful shot from the left edge of the box that swerved into goal and left Bahrain goalkeeper Huda Ali no chance.Having been stunned by the quick opener, the hosts stepped it up a notch and fought hard to find an equaliser. Al Hashemi, Alia Al Muraikhi, Deena Abdulrahman and captain Yasmine Fayez all had fine attempts at levelling the scores, but their shots were either just inches off target or Indian stopper Sita Sharma was up to the task.Their efforts were finally rewarded with a goal in the 35th minute, when Al Hashemi brilliantly chased down a long lob pass from her own half and managed to chip the ball over a charging Sharma, all while being pressured by the Indian defence.