Karnataka pay the penalty

Ironically, it was Ravinder who had begun the trend of missed chances in the very first minute of the match — his curling shot hitting the crossbar before bouncing away. Thus began 120 minutes without a goal, and it was certainly not for lack of attacking intent.

Punjab ventured a few fancy shots from outside the box, only for Karnataka to reply in kind at the other end. Xavier Vijayakumar, who had scored all of Karnataka’s goals in the quarter-final league, worked his way to some close chances despite getting treatment for groin trouble in the first half, but to no avail.

Sanath Kumar’s missed header, his shot into the post after a Vijayakumar pass, and another flashed across the face of goal afforded just a few glimpses of what might have been for Karnataka; and Harvinder Singh, Amandeep Singh and Sukhwinder Singh were the main offenders for Punjab.

The defending champions at least have the luxury of knowing that all’s well that ends well, even if it did take a penalty shootout to separate the two sides. They needed to substitute their goalkeeper Karanjit Singh right in the middle of the tie-breaker, but his replacement Parminder Singh did not have to do more than hold his nerve — the Karnataka players he came up against — Srinath and Sanath Kumar — missed of their own accord; one taking the aerial route into oblivion, the other sailing just a bit too much to the left side.

Karnataka keeper Gumpe Rime, too, was taken off after the third Punjab penalty was scored, and even though substitute Nagendra managed to fend away Balwant Singh’s shot — the only save of the shootout — he could do nothing as his own team mates did not hold up their end of the bargain.

Punjab 4 (Jaspal Singh, Jagpreet Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Ravinder Singh);

Karnataka 3 (Rajendra Prasad, Bimal Minz, Xavier Vijayakumar) Penalties missed: Punjab — Balwant Singh; Karnataka — Srinath, Sanath kumar