Central railway rout MbPT — Western railway made to struggle

MbPT restored parity in the 31st minute through Leonard Pereira who made the most of a cross from the right by Elton Menezes. MbPT then bristled in the early stages of the second-half and wrested the lead in the 41st minute through striker Digvijay Naik who scored after combining well with Leonard just outside the circle.

MbPt could have built on that slender lead in the 48th minute but Central defender Haseeb Uddin brought off a fine goalline save after Mumtaz Ahmed had beaten goalkeeper Arun Gurung with a top-of-the-circle rising shot.

Central than turned on the heat and the deadly trio of Jamsher Khan, Shamim Baig and Meeraj Uddin were seen at their very best with deadly individual thrusts. Jamsher made it 2-2 in the 51st minute when he neatly beat a defender at the top of the circle after trapping a long hit by centre-half Feroze Khan and then went on to score after getting the better of goalkeeper Jahangir, too.

In the very next minute Shamim came up with a brilliant run down the right flank and then crossed back from the goalline for Meeraj to score from close (3-2).

Shamim got his second goal (4-2) five minutes later when he applied the finishing touches to a splendid passing bout between Jamsher and Meeraj. Shamim then initiated the move from the left flank which saw Jamsher beating goalkeeper Jahangir with a powerful drive to the right of the ‘keeper to round-off the tally in the 69th minute.

Earlier in the evening, Western rallied splendidly to down RCF. RCF led by a 22nd minute penalty-corner goal by Yogesh More but Mukhtiar Singh neutralised the lead for Western in the 48th minute, also following a penalty-corner.

Just when it looked as though the match would end in a draw, Sunil Kumar came up with the match-winner for Western when he scored off a penalty-corner in the 63rd minute. Vinod Kumar failed to account with a `stroke’ for RCF.