Air India vs ONGC: Title-decider clash

by Siddharth Yadav April 16, 2018

16th April 2018, Mumbai: Another season, another mouth-watering finale. Tomorrow defending champions Air India is all set to play their closest-rivals ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation) in what will be a title-deciding MDFA Elite Division encounter at the Cooperage Stadium. Air India only needs a draw to defend their title while ONGC will need to do a lot more than that to stand any chance to leapfrog Air India at the top of Elite Division and lift the title.

So far, Air India has won all their games, earning 30 points in the process. An astonishing 10-game unbeaten run. On the other hand, ONGC has won nine and drawn one when they were held to a 1-1 draw against Western Railway. Since then, ONGC were able to pick themselves up where they produced a series of excellent performance which saw them challenging Air India right until the end.

Now it has come down to only one game. A win tomorrow will be a huge achievement for ONGC as Air India has been undefeated for the whole season at the most. The mighty team has only won RCF Nadkarni Cup this season and tomorrow they could end up a season-double if they manage to get even a single point.

In-form midfielder Steven Dias has rejuvenated since joining Air India. His spectacular performance in the last couple of months has inspired Air India. Partnering him in the midfield will be Captain Vijith Shetty. Steven, Vijith alongside defender Santosh Koli has brilliantly managed to guide all the young players in Air India this season.

Pratik Koli, Advait Shetty, Rinaldo Fernandes, Mrunal Tandel, Shubham Mane and Tejas Raut have excelled under their guidance and have cemented their place in the Air India squad. Talking about ONGC, their experience and flair upfront will be instrumental tomorrow. The likes of Enock Annan, Parminder Singh, Himanshu Patil will be a serial threat for the defending champions.

Their defender Ben, Captain Lalmuanpuia, midfielder Nitesh Monde, and custodian Sheldon Raghwan will have to be at their very best to stop Air India. It is not impossible but it will definitely require a lionheart performance from ONGC to lift the Elite Division title tomorrow.