Prity brace gives Bangladesh perfect start

Sauravi Amanda Prity scored a brace as Bangladesh cruised to a 2-0 win over Nepal in their opening match of the SAFF U-16 Women's Championship at the ANFA Complex Stadium in Nepal today.

The Bangladesh No. 20 opened the scoring in the 234th minute with a superb placing shot on a through-ball before doubling the tally seven minutes later with a perfect spot-kick.

Although the girls in red and green dominated the whole match, they could not extend the lead, thanks to some dogged defending from tge host nation.

Bangladesh, the champions of this event in the inaugural edition in 2017 and runners-up three times, will take on favourites India in their next match on March 5.

India had opened their account with a 7-0 thrashing of Bhutan in the opening match on Friday.

The top two teams from the round-robin stage will qualify for the final, which will be held on March 10.