Luther’s hat trick makes Amajita Singh

Luther Singh was chosen as the Man of the Match after his triple strike against Zambia. Photo: Muzi Ntombela, BackpagePix

Luther Singh was chosen as the Man of the Match after his triple strike against Zambia. Photo: Muzi Ntombela, BackpagePix

Published Feb 27, 2017

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Do yourself a favour and Google young Luther Singh if you don’t already know who he is.

The 19-year-old forward got South Africa’s Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Zambia off to a dream start by bagging a hat trick in their 3-1 win over a physical Cameroon side.

Singh has been the talk of the town since joining Portuguese side Braga at the end of last month after his contract with Swedish outfit GAIS expired in October last year. He’s been a star for the junior national team in recent times, and on Monday night helped them to come from a goal down to register an emphatic victory over the young Indomitable Lions in their opener played at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.

Amajita were trailing in the 15th minute when Eric Ayuk broke the deadlock to give Cameroon the lead, but they weren’t ahead for too long as Singh stuck two minutes later from a free kick outside the penalty area.

He bagged his double close to the half-hour mark, this time converting a spot-kick after Sibongakonke Mbatha was fouled in the box, leaving the referee no choice but to award the penalty.

Singh confidently stepped up to hand SA the lead for the first time.

Cameroon never quite found their rhythm after that as coach Thabo Senong’s men countered their physicality with speed and flair.

And that approach again set up striker Singh for his and Amajita’s third of the evening. The man who has just recently become a regular for Braga’s B side, left the Cameroon defenders for dead, chasing the ball and lobbing it over the on-rushing goalkeeper to simply tuck it into an empty net and end the encounter as a contest.

The result sent SA to the top of Group B after Senegal and Sudan played to a 1-1 draw earlier in the day at the same venue.

Amajita face Senegal on Thursday in the second match, and will go into that clash confident of progressing to the semi-finals, which will mean they qualify for the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in South Korea in May.

@superjourno

Independent Media

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