Kochi, November 12: Last year's semifinalist, Manipur, dominating the entire proceedings defeated Assam 3-1 in a group IV quarter final league match in the Air India Express national football championship for Santosh Trophy at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium here tonight.

Striker Sushil Kumar drew first blood for Manipur with a header in the 22nd minute, Samson Singh struck the second goal in the 70th minute and Dharamjit Singh in the 90th minute.

For Assam Sanjeeva Rongpi reduced the margin in the 83rd minute.

Manipur played a pleasing game with short passes and dominated for major part of the proceedings, but the water soaked ground considerably curtailed their speed.

Their midfield functioned with flexibility and verve and dominated the exchanges and pinned Assam into their own half.

Fielding seven players who are playing for various Kolkata clubs in the playing eleven, Manipur could have taken an early lead in the 7th minute but striker Sushil Kumar, who was fed with a neat cross by hard-working Tomba Singh, took a feeble shot straight into the hands of Narzary.

Manipur pressed hard for the goal and tried the rival citadel relentlessly and even came near scoring but Narzary proved a hard nut to crack as he showed good anticipation in gathering the booming grounder by Sushil Kumar by diving to his right.

However, Sushil Kumar five minutes later made up for his earlier lapses by putting his team in the lead with a neat header off a James Singh flag-kick from the left in the 22nd minute.

Assam could have scored the equaliser five minutes later, but were to be blamed for themselves as their strikers messed up with two consecutive chances.

The second half saw the Assam players showing some urgency for the equaliser.

They earned a golden chance in the 60th minute, but captain Sanjeeva Rongpi, with goalkeeper Ingobi Singh alone at his mercy drove the ball over the horizontal much to the dismay of his teammates.

Again midway through Assam wasted another opportunity, this time the culprit was Rahazuddin Ahamed who first delayed to take his shot and then drove over.

In a counter attack Manipur increased their lead when Medio Samson Singh barged to the right of Narxary, the ball hit the right post and went into the cage in the 70th minute.

In the closing stages of the game Assam scored their consolation goal through Sanjeeva, but Manipur's Dharamjit Singh struck in the 90th minute.

The first match between Punjab and Karnataka was postponed to tomorrow due to water-logging in the ground owing to heavy rains that lashed the city in the afternoon.

Tomorrow's matches: Punjab vs Karnataka, UP vs Delhi and Maharashtra vs Bengal.

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