ONGC raid hapless Customs

ONGC lived up to their favourites tag as they trounced Mumbai Customs 4-1 in a Group B encounter in the MFL Elite Division League at the RCF ground in Chembur on Wednesday.

ONGC lived up to their favourites tag as they trounced Mumbai Customs 4-1 in a Group B encounter in the MFL Elite Division League at the RCF ground in Chembur on Wednesday. Meanwhile, another seeded team Central Railway struggled to hold Mumbai United to 1-1 draw earlier in the day.

Mumbai Customs, who had thrashed Union Bank of India last weekend, did not combine well today and allowed the ONGC forwards to dictate terms right from kickoff. Malsawmdawngliana aka Dawng, Tarif Ahmed, Lalmuan Puia and Dhanesh MC complemented each other well in front, creating a lot of problems for the Customs defence. Dawng struck in the 14th minute, while Puia drove a ball from the top of the box into the left bracket in the 30th minute.

Immediately after the lemon-break, Tarif Ahmed deftly relayed a ball from the left flank over the head of an advancing Customs goalkeeper, Bunty Dhiman for Dwang to run in and nod into goal. The Customs team regrouped after that and with the advent of Stalin on the right flank created a few chances. It was from one such move that Nitin Shetty scored, pushing the ball past a diving Bilifinag Nazary. Keniston, who went in as a substitute for ONGC in the dying minutes of the game, with the light fading fast, ran in from the left flank and got his name on the score-card in the 87th minute.

The Central Railway -Mumbai United match was made interesting by the sending-off of the railway goalkeeper Kunal Sawant in the 60th minute of the game. He ran out to fist a ball, overstepped the 18-yard-box and to everyone8217;s horror brought down a Mumbai United striker who was goal bound. Mumbai United had struck first through Anthony Agbaraji in the 52nd minute and Sumesh T then drew parity for Central Railway two minutes later.

Though the railmen were reduced to ten men -goalkeeper Raghu Khanolkar being pressed into service -they withstood the pressure exerted by the United forward line manfully and would have been happy to grab a point from the encounter.

The Budweiser 8216;man-of-the-match8217;award winners for the two matches were Raghu Khanolkar from Central Railway and Malsawmdawngliana for ONGC.