Indian Navy, Dena Bank prevails as Western Railway & Kenkre FC bows out

by Siddharth Yadav February 7, 2018

7th February 2018, Mumbai: The second day of the 111th edition of RCF Nadkarni Cup saw Western Railway vs Dena Bank and Indian Navy vs Kenkre FC at RCF Ground on Wednesday afternoon. Dena Bank showed patience in their emphatic victory against the Railways while Indian Navy edged past Kenkre FC in an eventful encounter to prevail into the next round of Nadkarni Cup.

Western Railway (Anil Pawar 29′) 1-1 Dena Bank (Denzil Mascarenhas 85′) – Dena Bank won 6-5 via penalties

In the first encounter of Day 2, Elite Division side Western Railway faced in-form Super Division side Dena Bank in a closely-contested match. Dena Bank caused the first major upset of the tournament after defeating the Railway on penalties to qualify for the next round.

The first-half saw Western Railway keeping the major share of ball possession, whereas, Dena Bank looked quite danger while attacking. After taking their time to settle down, Western Railway broke the deadlock just before the half-an-hour mark when a precise cross from Asif was met by Anil Pawar’s looping header which sailed past Dena Bank’s goalkeeper.

Moments after conceding, Dena Bank almost levelled when Arafat Ansari and Denzil Mascarenhas combined well where the latter’s attempt struck the post. Dena Bank’s persistence finally paid off in the last stages of the match when Mervin Stephen fouled Denzil inside the box in the 84th minute.

Denzil stepped up and calmly made it 1-1 which took the match into the penalties where the Bankers edged past the Railways 6-5 to register a memorable victory.

Indian Navy (Anoop Pauly 14′ and Bibake Thapa 45′) 2-0 Kenkre FC

The second and final game of the day witnessed Indian Navy locking horns against a spirited Kenkre FC side. In what was an eventful match, Indian Navy breeze past a wasteful Kenkre FC 2-0 to set up a clash against Dena Bank in the quarter-final.

Indian Navy looked solid from the beginning. It took them just 14 minutes to open the scoring when Anoop Pauly made no mistake in front of the goal after Jibin set him up with a well-timed cross at the edge of the box. As the match progressed, Kenkre FC improved and started to bother Navy’s goalkeeper Vishnu, who along with Kenkre’s goalkeeper Manoj Gupta had a busy day at the office.

Kenkre’s concentration remained intact as they didn’t let Indian Navy dictate the play but in the 65th minute, Bibake Thapa followed a through ball and lobbed it over the onrushing Kenkre’s goalkeeper to strengthen the lead which took the match beyond Kenkre’s reach.

Later in the game, Kenkre were awarded a penalty when Shuntan was fouled inside the penalty box, Referee Elvis had no hesitation to point at the spot kick. But unfortunately, Calvin Baretto missed his penalty which proved to be quite fatal as it was their poor finishing which led to a defeat.

Indian Navy will face Dena Bank, whereas, yesterday winners Air India will play against KSA in the quarter-final. Tomorrow, Central Bank of India (CBI) is set to face HDFC while Union Bank of India (UBI) will meet Millat FC in an anticipating game at RCF Ground in Day 3 of Nadkarni Cup.