July 26th & 27th , it was all happening at the FootBrawl Rink at Mega Mall Oshiwara where NSportz Football Premier League Inter Corporate Rink Football Tournament was being conducted. 15 teams across the geography of Mumbai were competing across 4 groups with the top two in each group qualifying for the quarter finals amidst extreme weather conditions. While people prayed for rains on the first day, they were praying for the sun to come out on day 2.
The highlight of the league stage was a match where one team played with only 2 players (as the rest of the team had not arrived beyond the permitted scheduled time) vs. 5 from the opponent team for almost the full first half & still managed to hold the fort largely conceding just one goal. With the arrival of the remaining team in the second half, the score line changed dramatically with an emphatic victory for the first team. In all the24 league matches, only 1 match was drawn but most matches were still closely fought. The drawn match turned out to be a heart breaker for team Fullerton who narrowly lost out to HSBC by a goal difference of just one goal in terms of qualifying for the quarter finals. The quarter finals had some gripping games with the best being between HSBC & Sony which went to penalties. In the sudden death it was finally team HSBC which held its nerve & scored the solitary penalty goal which gave it entry into the semi finals. The other eventful game was between team Vodafone & eClerx with eClerx coming back from a 0 -2 deficit at half time to win with an emphatic full time score line of 7 - 2. Another closely fought game was between Emirates & Bank of America (BOA) . BOA which had not conceded a single goal in the entire league matches won the close battle 2 - 1 knocking Emirates out of the competition. Team Piramal were ruthlessly efficient in their match against Packt Publishing with a 6 - 0 verdict. The first semi final was a close clash of the bankers between BOA & HSBC with BOA winning by a narrow margin of 1 - 0. Much fireworks were expected in the second semi final between Piramal Enterprises & eClerx but eClerx were hampered by an injury to one of their key players and the end verdict was 7 -0. The finals were between the best teams of the tournament Piramal Enterprises & BOA and was a closely fought affair though the eventual score line of 3 - 0 in favour of Piramal Enterprises would indicate otherwise. Team Piramal Enterprises were the worthy champions outclassing all opposition in the tournament. All in all it was enjoyable affair for all stakeholders - participants, referees, organizers, volunteers & the support staff over the 2 days. |
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