Striker Pratik Koli exhibited superb finishing touches by slamming home four goals to power high-flying Air India into the finals of the 110th RCF-Nadkarni Cup football tournament, organized by RCF Sports Club under the aegis of MDFA. In a lop-sided semi-final encounter, Koli was at his brilliant best as Air India proved too strong in their 7-0 demolition of Century Rayon at the RCF Colony ground, Chembur on Thursday evening.
Last year’s runners-up Air India started in whirlwind fashion and with not much of resistance from their rivals they made merry to score at regular intervals. Opportunistic striker Koli hit the target in the 14th minute of play and then added two more goals in the 16th minute and the third on the stroke of half time as Air India went into the break with a solid 3-0 advantage.
On resumption, Air India continued to attack relentlessly and hammered in four more goals to completely dismantle their opponents. Prakash Thorat scored the fourth goal in th 58th minute before Koli once again got into the scoring act with the fifth in the 70th minute. Later, Air India scored two quick goals through Shravan Shetty (84th minute) and Sunny Thakur (85th minute) to complete the rout and charge into the final.
The second semi-final of the RCF-Nadkarni Cup will be played between PIFA Colaba SC and Mumbai FC Under-19 on Saturday, February 18.
Meanwhile, Income Tax outplayed State Bank of India 6-1 in a MDFA Super Division League match played earlier.
Results – RCF-Nadkarni Cup (semi-final): Air India 7 (Pratik Koli 14th, 26th, 45th, 70th, Prakash Thorat 58th, Shravan Shetty 84th, Sunny Thakur 85th) beat Century Rayon 0.
Super Division league: Income Tax 6 (Alviro Fernandes 7th, 50th, Camilo Noronha 11th, Madan Taklikaar 24th, Pawan Rawat 78th, Rahul Poojary 80th) beat State Bank of India 1 (Aniket Shingwan 45th).