CHENNAI: Delhi crashed to a 1-2 defeat against Assam to bow out of the 63rd National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy here Tuesday.
Playing without skipper Sunil Chetri who was injured Sunday during their 0-1 loss to the Indian Railways, Delhi had no answer to the nippy Assam and with two defeats in the three-team cluster 5, made their exit from the competition.
Raju Konwar drew first blood for Assam with a 12th minute strike and forward Durga Boro added a second goal to the tally past the 51st, while the lone reducer for Delhi was an own-goal by Raju Konwar.
In Coimbatore, fancied Kerala were off the blocks with a 5-0 rout of Chandigarh in the three-team Cluster 1. Chandigarh, who had drawn goalless with Chattisgarh in their opening fixture, had no answer to the swift Kerala who had won the last of their five titles five years ago.
KP Zubair (36th, 38th), Bineesh T Balan (67th), MP Sakeer (84th) and skipper NP Pradeep (injury time) scored for Kerala.
Hosts Tamil Nadu kept up their goal-scoring spree by defeating Himachal Pradesh 11-0 for their second win in cluster 8 at the JN Nehru Stadium, here.
Tamil Nadu, who had beaten Rajasthan 7-0 in their opening fixture, handed out a second defeat to Himachal Pradesh following their 0-2 loss to Tripura.
Topping the scorer's list in the game was PC Riju with four goals that took his tally to seven from two matches. Muthu and skipper Kulothungan scored three goals apiece and Jagan completed the tally.
In a cluster 3 match at Tiruchirapalli, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram were involved in a 2-2 draw. Sonu Rajak scored both the goals for Madhya Pradesh while Jeje Lalpekhlua and Zaidinmawia Hmar replied for Mizoram.
Mahdhya Pradesh, in fact led 2-1 with a minute left on the clock when Zaidinmawia Hmar was brought down inside the box leading to a penalty that he converted for the equaliser.