Maharashtra surges into final

By A. Vinod

THRISSUR, APRIL 20. The mask of invincibility that Bengal wore through its successful campaign of six years was prised open by Maharashtra in the second semifinal of the 56th National Football championship for the Santosh Trophy at the Municipal stadium here on Thursday.

Champion last in 1991 the day's winner, Maharashtra, by a 3-1 margin, will take on Kerala with the hope of settling scores with the homeside which had beaten it fair and square in 1993 at Kochi during Maharashtra's last tryst with the Santosh Trophy.

Unmistakably Maharashtra's supremacy in the end was dictated by the brilliant performance by its veteran playmaker Aqueel Ansari, who also proved to be a source of great motivation to his younger colleagues Khalid Jamil and Khalid Siddique.

Bengal, in contrast, was unable to put up a cohesive performance, perhaps because of its own tactical blunder of having opted to play a waiting game. Particularly when the Maharashtra side kept up the pressure and its forwards Manjit Singh and Mohammed Najeeb preferred to knock at the rival goalmouth in a sustained fashion.

The game had a sedate start with both the teams taking time to settle down and to get its attack organised. However, Maharasthra was soon successful in shedding its sluggish form and providing the initial spark when Najeeb made inroads into the rival territory through the right. But instead of taking a direct shot at the goal, he turned the ball to the left where Manjit Singh was unable to get into position.

It was up to Abbas Ali Rizvi to make the first attempt as he shot from outside and forced Prasant Dora to jump high and tap the ball over. A through pass by Ramesh Rajak to Manjit also saw the latter failing to hold his balance.

Bengal in spite of being forced to play second fiddle never surprisingly never reacted as it failed to turn the heat on its rival. The major reason for this was the failure of its midfielders to get their act together. Bengal then fell in arrears following a brilliant goal by Manjit whose long ranger from at least 30 yards away zoomed past Dora who stood rooted to ground.

However, the jubilation in the Maharashtra camp did not last long as Bengal retaliated and found the equaliser when a razor sharp header by Raman Vijayan off a perfect cross from Basudev Mondal, nestled in the Maharashtra goal away from the reach of custodian Virendra Singh.

Even after the equaliser which should have normally prompted the side to keep up its new found momentum, Bengal lagged behind and was forced to suffer once again when Noushad Moosa made no mistake of converting a penalty awarded in favour of Maharashtra in the dying minutes of the first session.

The spot kick was awarded after Dora brought down Jamil well within the penalty area as the latter rushed in dragging an Aqueel Ansari pass. The Bengal players protested against the decision, pointing out that Jamil was in fact off- side before he had moved in. However, referee Micheal Andrews stood his ground and Moosa was bang on target planting the ball to the right of Dora.

Bengal, which had brought in Dipankar Roy in place of Dipendu Biswas midway through the first half, seemed to have taken the decision of the referee in its stride at the re-start and went ahead in its search for the second equaliser.

Dipankar was twice guilty of missing gilt-edged chances before Rajak came up with a timely save from the goalline to push Raman Vijayan's cross out of the danger area. Maharashtra then chose to freeze the ball for a while before Najeeb was denied by Falguni Datta from the goalline.

However, towards the end it was still able to score once again through substitute Tomba Singh who made no mistake while connecting a Jamil cross from the right.

The Maharasthra coach Harish Rao reacting to his team's upset win said he had been all along confident of the abilities of his boys. ``Ii hope they will come up with a repeat show against Kerala in the final.''

The Bengal coach Shankar Moitra in his reaction slammed the referee for his decision in awarding the penalty in favour of Maharashtra. ``It was a big blow and my boys were totally unable to come back from such a set back.''

Friday will be a day of rest. On Saturday, Bengal will take on Goa in the losers' final.

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