Pune: Second-half goals from Sandesh Gadkari and Henry Ezeh steered Air India to a comfortable 2-0 win against Pailan Arrows in the Round XI match of the I-League at the Balewadi Sports Complex on Friday.
After an unimpressive first half, Air India picked up pace on the change of ends and fired two goals in a space of eight minutes to earn full points that helped the Mumbai side climb one place above to sixth with 19 points, one better that Pune FC. Pailan stay on 6 points from 11 matches.
Air India captain Kali Alaudeen was marked, but he kept his both wings functioning as Takayuki Omi and Sandesh Gadkari responded to their skippers’ calls. Pailan did make some moves at the beginning for the second half, but their pace reduced once the game wore on. Their best chance came when a fantastic cross from Jibon Singh saw striker Holicharan Narzary in the clear but the latter headed wide.
Air India slowly regrouped. First, Muhammed Shafi set himself up at the top of the box but his powerful grounder zipped wide of left post. And on the counter, Jibon moved up from left but Fenai wasn’t equal to the occasion.
That gave Colin Abranches to get in from the left wing and his cross in the middle kissed Sandesh Gadkari’s boots before landing into the post in the 62nd minute.
Abranches was at it again, but this time it was Ezeh Nna Henry who fired home the goal to give Santosh Kashyap’s team the much needed respite considering that they had made a sedate start to the match.
Earlier, Air India striker Manandeep Singh squandered two chances in a space of five minutes something which Air India were lucky not to rue at the end. After snatching the ball from Gurtej Singh, Manandeep found himself in the clear with just Naveen Kumar goalkeeper to beat. But he shot wide.
Five minutes later, fellow striker Bijoy Basfore set up Manandeep in the box, but his left-footer went out.
For Pailan, Avinaba Bag kept the right wing alive with his rushes, but his shots in the middle were too weak for the strikers to extract something from them. On one such free-kick, Pailan captain Milan Singh shot feebly even as Air India defenders weren’t really threatening him.
Air India’s Sanjay Gadkari was declared the Man-of-the-match.
