Comeback man Balwant stars in Bagan win
BARASAT: There will be better comeback stories in sport but Balwant Singh will take this. Almost 11 months after he last played a competitive match because of injury, Singh returned to action in Mohun Bagan’s opener of the 10th I-League against Churchill Brothers here on Sunday. And 28 minutes later, his powerful header put Mohun Bagan ahead.
It stayed that way despite Mohun Bagan looking rusty in front and playing with 10 men for 26 minutes after under-22 leftback Subhasish Bose marred his debut with bookings in the 55th and 64th minutes. The red card forced Mohun Bagan into sacrificing wide left Kean Lewis for left-back Prabir Das. With defensive midfielders Sehnaj Singh and Pronay Halder in the roster Mohun Bagan could struggle to end matches with 11 on the pitch in this edition. Sehnaj Singh stabbed Aniston Fernandes and escaped with a booking in the 43rd minute.
Churchill Brothers couldn’t exploit the advantage of an extra player but substitute Agnelo Colaco rocked the horizontal in second-half stoppage time.
Earlier, Seriton Fernandes had driven wide after a communications break-down between Das and Mohun Bagan goalie Debjit Majumder. Singh, who turned 30 on December 15, shares his birthday with Bhaichung Bhutia. His strike too would remind those old enough at the Barasat stadium of the many Bhutia scored, leaping to meet Pritam Kotal’s delivery from the right and connecting sweetly.
Balwant Singh is “hands down” the best Indian striker, tweeted former teammate and Trinidad and Tobago international Cornell Glen and though Jeje Lalpekhlua could have something to say to that, for now the club would go with the assertion.