IB draw with A-I

Chennai, March 13: Don’t give tales but sales is a popular jargon in the advertisement world. Indian Bank must have experienced similar feelings finding all their domination turning out unproductive and forced to share two goals and points against the high-flying Air-India in the Philips Football League at the Nehru Stadium on Friday.

Air-India are presently at the third place along with FC Kochin (25 points from 16 matches). Indian Bank’s plight remains the same. With 17 points from 16 matches, they are one point behind their nearest rivals Churchill Brothers. It may well boil down to the final match of the league on March 22 between the bankmen and Churchill Brothers to know for sure as to the team which will join Mahindras in the relegation. In a contest which fell in between the good and the bad, the bankmen had more of the exchanges. The thrust, penetration and the urge to fire at the citadel from all angles were all pronounced in that opening burst. The phase looked too good to last and it did not.A-I came into their own and their systematic probings made things hot for the bankmen, so much so that they quickly retreated.

The bankmen struck close to the breather when Sabir Pasha’s gentle free-kick lobbed tantalisingly in front of the A-I goal and Mahesh Singh cashed in on that momentary hesitation of the A-I defence to put his left foot for the desired result.

The advent of Rizvi for Sandeep Kharat did pep up proceedings from A-I’s angle. Rizvi came up with enough variations to throw the bank defence off guard. The equaliser came from a typical Godfrey floater from the left which Antony Fernandez relayed it to a better placed Jose. From an angle which looked too good to be missed, Jose had the time to gauge the pace and the placement. Coming that just inside the hour, it was all square for the teams to start it all over again.