ONGC lifts Chief Minister’s Gold Cup

JORETHANG, 25 Nov: ONGC Mumbai lifted the All India Chief Minister’s Gold Cup here today, outplaying Air India 02-01.
Chief Minister Pawan Chamling was present as the chief guest of the final match accompanied by his Cabinet colleagues, MLAs, Chairpersons and Heads of various Departments and government officials.
Entry for the match was made free today by the organizing committee as the ruling SDF party announced to sponsor free passes for all.
ONGC scored the first goal of the match in the 15th minute itself. A cross from Sachin [22] from the right corner was beautifully converted by L. Fernandes (12) of ONGC giving it an early lead.
Air India launched a stronger attack after this but failed to score an equalizer.
In the 40th minute, Kailash Patil [13], assisted again by Sachin, beautifully netted another goal from the same right corner for ONGC. The score remained in favour of ONGC Mumbai 2-0 till half time.
The match became more interesting in the second half as Air India entered the ground with new spirit and launched another round of concerted offense. As a result, in the early minutes of the second half, Air India opened its account with a goal from skipper LN Dias [24] keeping the team’s hopes alive.
Both teams kept attacking till the end of the match. During injury time, Air India lost a good opportunity to level the score. The shot made by Air India striker missed the ONGC goal post and at the final whistle the scoreline stood at 2-1 in favour of ONGC Mumbai.
The winning team of ONGC Mumbai was awarded with the cash prize of Rs. One lakh along with the winner’s trophy while Air India received Rs. 50,000 an a trophy. The Chief Minister presented these awards to the winning and runner up team.
Earlier, the Chief Minister was accorded a traditional welcome by the organizing committee of South District Football Association. Area MLA Zoom-Salghari constituency, Madan Cintury, delivered the welcome address in which he presented a brief report on the tournament.
SDFA general secretary, Kamal Chettri, while delivering the vote of thanks stated that the organizing committee of SDFA is grateful to the Chief Minister for his support to the Association due to which the tournament was successfully conducted at Jorethang.
Students of Eklavya Model Residential School, Gangyap, St. Francis School, Jorethang, Tendong Educational Institute Namchi and Ekta Sangh of Tadong presented a welcome song and colourful cultural presentations. The paragliders greeted the finalists from the sky with a shower of flowers which was also enjoyed by the crowd. Bursting of fire crackers marked the closing of the tournament.