New Delhi: Rain played dampener once again as India and Nepal toiled hard in slushy conditions to play out a dull 0-0 draw in a league matchup of the Nehru Cup 2012 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Tuesday.
The match, which started half an hour late from the scheduled time, was nothing but a huge disappointment for all the fans gathered in the stadium. With ground passes not possible due to the soggy pitch and players unable to trust their instinct, the teams resorted to aerial balls to make inroads but it proved futile for both the teams.
Nepal who started as an underdog in the match played as a much better unit than their fancied opponents and made better use of the conditions. Nepal, who lost two matches including a 5-0 battering at the hands of Cameroon, started with a much more defensive strategy and started the game with five defenders.
The move worked wonders for them as India, who started with 4-4-1-1 formation, were cramped by their defenders. India going by the conditions should have ideally gone in with two forwards but then they decided against it. The move did prove detrimental as with almost no roll on the ground, Indian flanks which had operated like a livewire so far in the tournament, could not make create any moves.
India made two changes in their squad with Denzil Franco replacing injured Nirmal Chhetri and Anthony Pereira staring ahead of Sanju Pradhan.
A pale contest on offer, Nepal had a little edge over India and made and created some chances but could not find the nets.
The teams went into the breather with the 0-0 deadlock.
After the change of ends, India’s Coach Wim Koevermans sensing the urgency of the match finally thought of employing two forwards and substituted Clifford Miranda for striker Robin Singh. The change however did work for India. India stared linking well and Mehtab Hossain and Singh did have some nice passes exchanged between them.
India had a chance to go up in the 52nd minute of the game but could not find the nets as Anthony Pereira’s shot was acrobatically saved by the Nepalese custodian by Kiran Chemjong. Mehtab was clearly the stand out performer of the day for India as despite the adverse conditions he was able to move swiftly and distributed the ball well.
The change of strategy did work for India and they were playing better than the first half but could find the elusive goal. With time running out, Jewel Raja came in for Lenny Rodrigues and the moves somewhat changed the pace of Indian midfield. And all of a sudden it was Raja who was behind all Indian moves.
Into the 90th minute of the match, Robin was kicked from behind while attempting a header and was awarded a free-kick. Bikash Chhetri was shown straight card for showing dissent.
Indian skipper Sunil Chhetri took the free-kick and it was well directed but the end result was that it went just over the cross bar.
With three minutes injury time, India had a last go at the goal when Robin laid the ball for Chhetri who kicked the ball wide.
Nepal who have just one point from three matches are out of the tournament, while India with seven points from three games and a game left in hand, stay in the race for finals.
India will now take on the mighty Cameroon in their next match on Friday, August 31st.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
{source}
<
{source}
<g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/106573640449893329738" rel="author" width="300" height="69"></g:plus>
{/source}
>
{/source}
