Kolkata: The Indians were held on to a 1-1 draw by St. Kitts and Nevis at the Mumbai Football Arena on Thursday but nonetheless won the Tri-nation Football series as they finished with one win and one draw.
St. Kitts finished second among the three nations, having drawn both their games.
The match started off with India getting very close to open the scoring as Jackichand Singh proved threatening to the opposition. India could have had an early 1-0 lead but Balwant Singh, who had scored against Mauritius missed to net in the header by a whisker.
But Jackichand did not miss with his header in the 38th minute through a long ball from Rowlin Borges and India looked the lead that they were looking for. Jackichand, coincidentally netted his second goal for India at the very same venue, where he had scored his first one against Puerto Rico.
India’s midfielders put on a dominant show right from the beginning as they dictated the terms against St. Kitts and Nevis, never really allowing them to make a comeback in the game.
The Men in Blue went into the break with a 1-0 lead and looked good to win this match also.
After the break, coach Constantine introduced Robin Singh into the match, replacing Balwant, whose goal in the 26th minute was ruled offside.
After an hour, St. Kitts and Nevis went very close to level the scores through Bertie Carlos and although Indian goalkeeper Subrata Paul knocked away the ball, he couldn’t prevent the corner.
Amory Gvaune equalised for the visitors in the 71st minute through a beautiful header when the Caribbean side was awarded its third consecutive corner.
With 10 minutes left for the regulation time to end, Anirudh Thapa was introduced into the game. Thapa thus became the 517th player to have played for the Indian senior football team.
Nikhil Poojary, looked threatening from the wings but the strikers didn’t complement his efforts as the Indians failed to get the lead.
Robin Singh’s shot hit the bar and Md. Rafique’s header just missed the net by a small margin in the added time to end the match 1-1. India were crowned the champions of the tournament.
With this draw, India’s nine-match winning streak came to an end. Constantine’s men would next face Macau in the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers on the 5th of September.