The second matchday of the 9th SBT GV Raja Football Tournament 2012 produced two stalemates as Punjab Police – CRPF and Trivandrum XI – South Eastern Railways matches, both ended in a 1-1 draw. Even though there were only to goals in each match, there was no limit to the excitement in both the encounters.
Punjab Police 1-1 CRPF
In the early kick off, Punjab Police began the match with sheer domination over the Reserve Police Force from Jalandhar. Punjab’s right winger Harjinder Singh was lively throughout the first 45 minutes. In the 5th minute, he played a diagonal to forward Vijay who shot over the goal. Harjinder had go himself from 30 yards in the 13th minute producing a save from CRPF keeper SD Shyam.
Punjab’s early domination almost bore fruits in the 18th minute as Jaswinder Singh’s cross found Rohit in the box whose shot hit the left post after having blocked by the keeper. CRPF had to wait until the 20th minute to find their first and only effort on goal in the first period as a long ranger from Hashib Ahamed was turned over for a corner by Punjab keeper Kamal Preet Singh.
Punjab Police continued to dominate, but it was only in the 43rd minute in which the moment occurred. CRPF’s Amumacha Singh brought down Jaswinder inside the box and referee pointed to the penalty spot. Punjab captain and their central defender Shiraz Hassan stepped up to take the penalty and he made no mistake to strike it home.
CRPF was a changed team in the second half, defensively better organised and passing the ball around way more confidently. Amumacha looked more and more dangerous from the midfield and he redeemed himself for his mistake in the 71st minute by scoring the equaliser for CRPF.
There was more drama to the game as CRPF won a penalty four minutes later, but S Oram who took to the penalty spot missed the target. The score remained 1-1 at the final whistle.
Trivandrum XI 1-1 South Eastern Railways
Local favorites Trivandrum DFA XI produced a spirited performance in their opening match as they looked the better of the two teams against SE Railways who were coming from a 4-1 defeat against SBT. Railways began the match emphatically as they opened the scoring through Surjith Kar in the sixth minute from an Azad Ali cross.
TDFA XI settled down quickly and went in search for the equaliser. Midfielders Joshy and Mervin looked lively and the performance of the striker Rajesh needs a special mention. Getting into some excellent positions and making some great runs, Rajesh was at the end of several goal efforts. He found the equaliser for the Trivandrumites in the first half injury time as he got to the end of a corner and slashed the ball in.
Both teams looked to have run out of gas in the second half, but Trivadrum looked more likely to score, But the score remained 1-1. SE Railways now have a point from their first two games. They will now play Indian Navy in the final group match.
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 21 September 2012. The database copy of this article was lost; it was recovered in 2026 from the Internet Archive's saved copy of the live page.