Midfielder Shanti Mardi scored a hat-trick as defending champions Bangladesh continued their winning spree in the SAFF Under-20 Women鈥檚 Championship with a 4-1 win over Bhutan in a game that had to be played across two separate venues due to persistent rain on Tuesday. 听
Bangladesh ended the first half 1-0 at the Kings Arena, but the players had to wait for nearly three hours for the start of the second half after heavy rain and thundershower left the Kings Arena pitch unplayable.听
Ground staff tried their best to remove water from the pitch, but they failed to make it playable.听
Due to unplayable conditions at the Kings Arena, later, it was decided that the second half would resume at the training venue of Kings Arena, which is made up of artificial turf.
In the match, Bangladesh took the lead in the seventh minute through Madri, who beat opposition goalkeeper Pema Yangzom with a left-footed drive from the centre of the box on a rebound. Sangay Wangmo equalised for the visitors in the 53rd minute.
The hosts regained the lead four minutes later with a placing shot by Madri following a corner from midfielder Bonna Khatun.听
Munki Akhter鈥檚 mazy dribble from midfield in the 76th minute, in which she dribbled past four players before shooting past Bhutan's keeper, made it 3-1 for Bangladesh.听
Mardi completed her hat-trick three minutes later with a left-footed drive from the box after receiving a cross from forward Umehla Marma.听
With the win, Bangladesh remained on top of the four-team table of the double-leg format competition with nine points from three games, as they earlier crushed Sri Lanka 9-1 and earned a hard-fought 3-2 win over Nepal.听
Bangladesh will play their next match against Bhutan on July 17 before facing Sri Lanka and Nepal again on July 19 and 21, respectively.
On completion of the round-robin league, the top team will emerge champions.
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