West Bengal enters final

TIRUNELVELI, JUNE 15. Title holders and hot favourites West Bengal carved out an unimpressive 2-0 victory over last year's finalist Orissa, and stormed into the final of the 23rd National sub-junior football championship for the Justice Mir Iqbal Hussain trophy conducted by the Tirunelveli District Football Association at the flood-lit VOC stadium, Palayamkottai on Friday evening.

West Bengal scored both the goals through striker Gouranga Dutta, after the break.

Both the teams were equally matched and waged a grim battle for establishing supremacy over the other from the word go. However, the reigning champions were a shade superior over Orissa, which had played in the finals of this championship twice in the past, in short passes and in sending crosses over Orissa.

Despite this, West Bengal found Orissa a hard nut to crack, as its defence line of Ashish Ku Nandi, S. K. Mokim, Rajkumar Jee and Mohamed Sajid stood like a wall and thwarted all the attempts of the rival strikers, in particular Ratan Maskar, Gouranga Dutta and Debashis Rai.

Ratan Maskar, with his speedy run on the right flank frustrated Orissa mid-fielders by opening many good opportunities for Bengal in the initial stages. But, Gouranga Dutta and Debashis Rai, who were found wanting in speed and game plan, failed to take advantage of the same.

Immediately after resumption, West Bengal drew first blood using a beautiful cross from the left flank. The ball reached Gouranga Dutta waiting on the right wing. Dutta noticing all the Orissa defenders on the parallel line, in their attempt to pull him off- side, teared them past and sent a well angled placement shot to the left of the rival custodian and skipper Santhosh K. Das and the ball settled in the net.

After this goal, both the teams started playing a sloppy game, which slowed down the pace. Particularly Orissa, instead of trying to put pressure by launching counter attack for finding the equaliser, preferred long passes, which made the job of the rivals easy.

West Bengal had to wait till the fag end of the match to consolidate its lead and this goal became the cynosure of all eyes. Debashis Rai from the centre moved briskly towards the left, shrugging off the challenge of a couple of Orissa defenders and lobbed the ball to the top of the box. Gouranga Dutta, in a swift move managed to pounce on the ball and before any Orissa defender could reach him, sent a beautiful cross, which beat the rival goalkeeper.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Goa earns date with Bengal
Next     : Ancheri to lead India in Merdeka Cup