The goalkeeper pulled off three brilliant saves and scored the winning penalty in the tie break against Canossa, Andheri, at the Azad Maidan on Thursday.
Jamnabai Narsee, Juhu, have made it to the quarterfinals of the MSSA girls’ under-16 inter-school tournament, thanks to the heroics of their goalkeeper Shweta Thadeshwar, who pulled off three brilliant saves and scored the winning penalty in the tie break against Canossa, Andheri, at the Azad Maidan on Thursday.
Canossa had the upper hand in what was a scrappy midfield battle that ensued throughout the game. Neither of the goalkeepers had much to do in normal time. However, the trend changed as the match went into penalty shoot-out to decide the winner.
Canossa continued their relative dominance in the penalties as they converted three out of their first four whereas Jamnabai could manage only two, thanks to a couple of brilliant stops by Canossa’s goalkeeper Vrithika Mudaliar. Canossa’s Shrushti Shinde was one kick away from getting her school through but Thadeshwar pulled of a magnificent save to keep her team in to the game.
The game moved on to sudden death where the pressure seemed to get to the players as all them could manage only weak efforts on goal until Thadeshwar stepped up to the spot and scored the winning kick.
Thadeshwar said, “I rarely practice taking penalties but I defiantly work at saving them and this helped me win the game for my school today.” She is a national level goalkeeper in handball and believes that her ’keeping skills in one sport helps her develop skills for the other sport as well.
Although she was the hero for her school in this triumph she hopes none of the next round games goes to penalty shootouts. “I hope we win all our games in regular time because that is good for the team and the team always comes first,” added Thadeshwar.
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