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Mumbai beats Indian Bank

CHENNAI DEC. 27. The brilliance of Mahindra United goalkeeper Kalyan Chaube and local team Indian Bank's bank luck combined to give the Mumbai side a 2-0 win, its third success in six outings, in the Coca-Cola National Football League at the floodlit Nehru stadium here on Saturday.

The goalscorers for the winner were Venkatesh and Abhishek Yadav.

The host crashed to its sixth defeat. The Bank side with the two Sri Lankan recruits _ Kasun Nadika Jayasuriya and Fazlur Rahman _ put up a plucky show, but it failed to translate the opportunities it got into goals.

Chaube's ball sense left the Bank strikers, in particular Syed Sabir Pasha, stupefied. In one instance Chaube stopped a sharply driven Sabir left footer, a relay of Bobby's through ball with aplomb. The best act, however, came in the second session when he showed remarkable alacrity to pluck a Pasha header that had goal written all over it.

For a team starved of chances such denials can be unsettling, particularly when it has organised itself better. There was a spring in the strides of each Bank player. The way they went for the ball, there was promise of positive action. Amjad Hussain was again in focus for his accurate crosses and diagonals and also for the way he kept tormenting the defence with his bounding runs down the right flank.

The Mumbai side started without key player Khalid Jamil. "We showed our bench strength today," said manager Henry Menezes. In Venkatesh, James Singh, Togo player Patron Akakro and not to forget Abhishek Yadav, the side's attack was sharp. Venkatesh is a coach's delight and he showed why with his anticipation in sighting a long diagonal by Covan Lawrence to complete a perfect right footed finish (41st mt).

Things meandered a bit in the second session and that was when the Bank approach came into sharp focus. Mahindra Mani, Roopesh and Amjad added teeth but either Chaube came in the way or Jayasuriya's nudge would veer away tantalisingly. Frustration mounted before Abhishek completed it with the second goal (89th) off a rebound from Felix after Ateven Dias had taken the shot.

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