chennai an out of the blue lastgasp brace by forward sabitra bhandari snatched victory out of indias hands and took nepal to a 22 draw in the first of two international friendlies scheduled between the sides at the marina arena here on wednesday despite the late disappointment a sparse but vigorous crowd which was witnessing international action after a decade and a half cheered every indian move into the nepal territory and continued to egg on the side even after the final whistleleading 20 courtesy secondhalf goals by substitute soumya guguloth and skipper indumathi kathiresan the indian women would have believed they were home and dry before a 90th minute spotkick and a superb solo in stoppagetime by sabitra took the hosts breath awaytwo halftime substitutes combined to give india their first goal in the 56th minute forward manisha kalyan crossed one from the left flank and fellow substitute soumya guguloth met it with a halfvolley at the far post to beat nepal goalie anjila subba the tamil nadu duo of indumathi and karthika angamuthu conjured indias second goal indumathi neatly chested down karthikas aerial pass and slotted it in to double the lead in the 68th minuteindia held on to the lead almost till the end of regulation time but that is when sabitra waltzed in to spoil their party the nepal forward converted a spotkick in the 90th minute after a handball by sweety accrued a penalty and scored again a couple of minutes later with a probing run through the middle and a classy finish past india goalkeeper elangbam panthoi chanu who replaced firstchoice custodian aditi chauhan after she got injured while pulling off a double save in the 14th minuteearlier both sides created a few chances in the first half that they could not latch on to in the 4th minute an inchperfect bala devi pass threaded through the centre into the box for sandhya ranganathan whose crosscumshot went just wide of the far post for india to miss a clearcut chance in the 34th minute bala made a searing run towards goal dodged the keeper but nepal defender gita rana deftly cleared the ball just before bala could line up a shot indias passing and first touches improved considerably in the second half and in the 51st minute a silky pass from indumathi found bala in the perfect position to finish but her shot was thwarted brilliantly by anjilathe second and final friendly between the two sides will be played on saturday