Indian Bank emerges victorious in CFA league

The Bank team’s hunger and desire to win was evident from the start as a strangely subdued Eagles never looked capable of scoring. It didn’t help that two of its key players — Okoro and Prabakaran — were unavailable because of injury. Spectators who turned up at the venue in anticipation of a contest were left bitterly disappointed at seeing Eagles’ meek surrender. 

Indian Bank’s first goal came through penalty when Elavarasan was tripped inside the penalty box by Ugo and the referee immediately pointed to the spot. Kapongo Patient stepped forward to convert the penalty without much fuss. 

The impressive Pravitto came close to scoring soon after but was denied by the post. A few minutes later, Pravitto made amends for that miss with a delicate header that flew over the goalkeeper’s head. That second goal was the proverbial final nail in the coffin for Eagles as Indian 

Bank went into the break with a twogoal cushion. 

The second-half was a mirror image of the first with the Bank team once again bossing the possession. Pravitto was in the thick of things again as he scored his second and the team’s thjird through a powerful header off an inch-perfect corner taken by O Lepcha. By then the result was already a foregone conclusion as Eagles’ plans of soaring high into the sky wilted under the heat. 

Eagles coach Abraham Varghese credited Indian Bank for being the ‘worthy’ winners of the league. 

“Indian Bank deserve to win after not losing a single match. Although we lost, I’m glad that we finished second in the table above Viva Chennai and Chennai City FC. We finished third last year and now we came second. Injuries to our strikers was also a factor,” rued Varghese. 

His counterpart, Sabir Pasha, was understandably delighted after what he labelled an unexpected triumph. 

“When we last won the league in 2007, we had a much stronger team. This time, we had to form a team just 20 days before the start of the season. As our team consisted of many inexperienced players, my plan was to avoid getting relegated. But we organised ourselves well and the fact that we had three to four goalscorers also helped us,” said Sabir. 

According to Sabir, the opening match draw against defending champion Chennai City FC gave his team the belief that it can do something special. “That match coupled with the win over Viva Chennai was the turning point,” added Sabir.

RESULTS: Indian Bank 3 (Kapongo Ilunga Patient 14-pen, Pravitto 41, 58) bt Hindustan Eagles 0; Chennai FC 5 (Pranesh Bharat 6, Joseph Segan 35, 62, Maruoti 57, Timmy 80) bt ICF 1 (David 81); Southern Railway 2 (Rajesh 21, Nandu 55) bt RBI 1 (Kilzong 87)