Bankers fail to cash in, exchange thrilling draw

SBI consolidated in the 43rd minute when Bengre scored a simple header off a Hasmukh Baria’s cross.

CBI’s answer was swift, but the effort questionable. Mal moved up on a cross from Osbern D’Souza, seemingly off-side. While the SBI defenders waited for the whistle, Mal went on ahead and scored, seconds before the end of the first-half. Half-time score, 2-1 in favour of SBI.

In the first minute of the second half, CBI substitute Greville Crasto latched on to a long overhead and sent the ball into the top right corner, with goalkeeper Biplab Roy nowhere near. Score: 2-2.

SBI went ahead one last time in the match in the 76th minute. Baria found himself with a good scoring opportunity in front of the goal, but at a slightly odd angle. He sent the ball across to the unmarked Bhoir to take the shot. However, the wet Cooperage ground made Bhoir’s shot stop a foot from the goaline. The opportunistic Bengre was on hand to see the ball safely home, while the CBI defence lay beaten.

The SBI forwards, however, refused to relent. Two minutes later, Crasto’s cross went straight to Mal, standing unguarded in the danger area. The visibly tired striker waited for the scattered SBI defence to settle before calmly slotting the ball into the far corner.

CBI’s Caitano Fernandes alone was guilty of spoiling many an opportunity, failing to deliver the knock-out punch. Mal had the beleagured goalkeeper Biplab Roy, who had a harrowing time under the bar, beaten in the third minute when he sent the ball across to Fernandes. But the luckless Fernandes missed.

In the 12th minute, Vijay Lokegaonkar sent Fernandes alone, but he hit the ball straight to the goalkeeper. Four minutes later, Fernandes found Roy’s gloves again after being set up by a D’Souza cross.

The fatigued Mal also had an opportunity to take his tally to three when he shot wide from the edge of the box in front of an open goal.

SBI made fewer forays into enemy territory but threatened to score from some of them. In the 40th minute Bhoir had the CBI goalkeeper Jerome Ghanekar out of position, but could not control a Baria pass. Bhoir took a shy at the goal in the 17th minute off a Ramesh Mistry pass but was foiled by goalkeeper Ghanekar.

TE-Centaur draw While it rained at the St Xavier’s ground, Parel, the spectators remained thirsting for a goal. The Harwood League MDFA encounter between a rejuvenated Hotel Centaur and Tata Electric ended in a goalless draw.

The match had a couple of exciting moments. The ninth minute saw an unmarked Centaur mid-fielder Girish Varma get past the Tata defence. But a diving goalkeeper Pradeep Chatterjee just managed to deflect the ball with the tip of his fingers.

Tata’s right-half Nicholas Paul came up with some heroics in the 21st minute when he cleverly tried to flight the ball over the goalkeeper Salim UM. But an alert Salim timed his jump well to grasp the ball cleanly.

Earlier, Wonderboys and Khalsa College drew their Division II league match for the Shivaji Trophy 0-0.

Xavier’s triumph

St Xavier’s Boys Academy defeated Mohammad Umer Rajab School (Madanpura) 8-0 in their under-16 Inter-Schools football match at Azad Maidan today.

Results:

Under-16: IV-F: Anjuman Khairul Islam (Madanpura) 1 (Aftab Saeed) bt Anjuman-i-Islam English (VT) 0; IV-G: St Xavier’s Boys Academy 8 (Merchant Mustafa 3, Kamdar AniruddhA 2, Ahmed Moinuddin, Damani Vikram, Hozefa Cutlerywala) bt Mohammad Umer Rajab School (Madanpura) 0

Under-14: III-F: Bombay International School 3 (Aditya Krishnamoorthy 2, Siddharth Kothari) bt Seventh Day Adventist 0