Santosh Trophy: Bengal set up final with Kerala
KOLKATA: Two moments of individual brilliance in the second half took defending champions Bengal to the final of the 72nd Santosh Trophy where Kerala lie in wait at Salt Lake stadium on Sunday.
Bengal’s 2-0 win at Howrah’s Sailen Manna Stadium against Karnataka in Friday’s semi-final was the result of a turnaround that seemed unlikely till halftime. Then Jiten Murmu struck in the 57th minute with a rightfoot flick that was worthy of a man who is leading Bengal’s quest for a 33rd title. Tirthankar Sarkar sealed the deal with a 25-yard free-kick in the second minute of added time.
At Mohun Bagan ground, a 10-man Kerala beat Mizoram 1-0 through Afdal VK’S goal.
Bengal’s turnaround stemmed almost entirely from a half-time substitution by coach Ranjan Chaudhuri. He replaced left-back Krishna Biswas with central midfielder Sanchayan Samadder and shifted Ankit Mukherjee back from the midfield into the leftback’s role.
What it also did was get Samadder to help Sarkar create from the midfield. The first goal was initiated by Samadder who found Sumit Das with a pass that changed the direction of play. Das hared down the left and played square for Murmu who had found space between Karnataka’s inner defence. Looking towards Das, Murmu flicked home with his right-foot outstep leaving goalie Shainkhan CP gobsmacked.
Karnataka had started with a bang, skipper Vignesh Gunase- khar’s 25-yard free-kick hitting the horizontal. But let down by their quality of play in the front third and Bengal central defenders Sourav Dasgupta and Prosenjit Paul being sure-footed in their tackles, Karnataka had nothing to show barring six corner-kicks and Agustine sneaking in once before being denied by goalie Ranajit Majumder.
Bengal started the second half with Sarkar twice finding Bidyashagar Singh on the right. Then Murmu struck.