Air-India maintain unbeaten run

Kochin’s Ghanian import, custodian Ali Abubaker, stupendous performance denied the Air-India strikers many opportunities and won him the Man-of-the-Match award.

Kochin were without Jo Paul Ancheri who had collided with Abubaker during a practice session on Friday. Air-India, on the other hand, had the services of their play-maker Godfrey Periera and defender Jeevan Moras. Both had missed the previous encounter against reigning champion JCT.

The match was fast-paced and saw end-to-end football. Kochin controlled the game in the first half with their mid-fielders, Carlton Chapman and Ghanian Abdul Kareem, doing a goodjob.

Air-India defenders had a tough task to keeping the Kochi striker at bay. Moras was assigned to check the older and dangerous of the two Vijayans — IM — and he was successful to some extent. He said: “It is difficult to check him as he is speedy and has the skills to boot. I could get the better of him only in the second half.”

Air-India coach Bimal Ghosh brought in substitutes Abbas Ali Rizvi and Nitin Shetty and the strikers managed to maintain the pressure on the Kochin defence in the second half.

Ghosh was not pleased with the team’s performance in first-half. He said: “We played badly in the first half but controlled play in the second.”