The Hindu : Sport / Football : Santosh scores a brace

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Friday, Feb 08, 2008
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Santosh scores a brace

MUMBAI: Kerala Police and ex-Kerala state striker P. Santosh came up with two opportunistic strikes as Kerala XI defeated State Bank, Mumbai, 2-0 in the Sim Clinpharm 6th KSA all-India veterans football tournament quarterfinals at the Karnataka Sporting Association ground on Thursday.

Fielding five ex-internationals (K.T. Chacko, Sharaf Ali, Benny K., Jiju Jacob and C.V. Papachan) the visitors were in control throughout. Hyderabad XI went down to KSA (Red) 3-4 via the tie-breaker in another quarterfinal, both teams locked goalless at full-time.

Chacko under the bar contributed with timely saves, the defence tackled hard and Sharaf initiated attacks down the flanks.

Surendra Kumar, the ex-Tata SC playmaker, covered a lot of ground and hit numerous passes towards the forwardline.

Hockey Olympian Dhanraj Pillay, the focal point of passes, came in for special attention from the Kerala XI defence.

A fierce tackle on speedy Pillay almost cost Kerala XI dearly, but the SBI striker kept his balance and the harsh foul was overlooked. Hasmukh Baria missed a chance when he tapped over a diagonal pass from Surendra off a free-kick.

Semifinal line-up: Central Railway vs KSA (Red); Kerala XI vs Air-India.

The results (quarterfinals): KSA (Red) 4 (Suresh Mendon, Prakash Shetty, Santosh Kashyap and Douglas D’Sena) bt Hyderabad XI 3 (Akmal Khan, Rason D, Akbar Ali) 3 via tie-breaker; Kerala XI 2 (P. Santosh) bt State Bank 0.

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