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CK Vineeth pumped in three goals in the space of 11 minutes to complete a personal hattrick as Prayag United SC thrashed host Air India 4-1 in the Round 19 match of the I-League Football championship at the Balewadi Stadium here on Saturday.
Midfielder Vineeth played upfront for most part of the match and chanced on every ball sent to him to leave Air India defence in tatters on a balmy day when the home team missed one penalty through Elijah Junior before he scored a consolation goal, again through a spot kick.
League top scorer Ranty Martins opened the scoring for Prayag United in the 30th minute before Vineet fired three in a quick succession in a show of total dominance on the turf where they had lost to Mumbai FC only a fortnight ago.
The win boosted Prayag United tally to 30 points from 19 matches, tied with Pune FC, are playing evening match against Salgaocar SC. The loss has put Air India on notice and they will stay at No 11 with 15 points from 16 matches.
After 30 minutes of testing each other, Prayag United took the initiative and went straight into the Air India forte. Dhanachandra Singh almost put Eelco Schattorie’s side ahead, but his header hit the crosspiece and rebounded out.
It was Ranty who opened the scoring in the 30th minute when K Asif set up Vineeth, who in-turn guided the ball to Ranti, who made no mistakes in putting in from a close range.
Prayag pushed ahead again in the 36th minute when Ranti and Malsawm T Syhlo combined well to cut through Air India defence. In the ensuing corner taken by Lalkamal Bhowmick, Prayag failed to get the opening, but then Vineeth happened in the very next minute.
That goal opened the floodgates and Air India defence started showing signs of fatigue. Again Asif found an unmarked Vineeth, who lobbed the ball over Air India keeper Jagroop Singh.
Air India had hardly recovered from the blow when Bhowmick found Deepak Mondal on the right wing, and his long cross into the box was volleyed home powerfully by Vineeth, to make it 3-0 for Prayag.
Air India tried hard when Ong Lepcha sent a cross from right for Elijah Junior, whose deflection went off the side post. Barely two minutes had passed after the resumption and Vineeth completed his hat-trick on a cross from Rasaq Bello.
Air India had a few chances to salvage when Prayag’s Anupam Sarkar handled the ball in the box. But the spot kick taken by Junior went in vain as his tame drive was easily pushed out by Sangram Mukherjee.
Junior was though, given a second chance in the 72nd minute, when Rasaq apparently brought down Prakash Thorat and this time the Nigerian made no mistake and made it 4-1.
Ezeh Henry then had a good chance in the remaining minutes of the game, when he beat past Sangram but then casually rolled the ball towards an empty net. Onrushing Rasaq countered and cleared the ball.
Prayag on the other side too had a flurry of chances, but Shankar Oraon, Lalmohan Hansdah and Ranti were wasted chances in front of the goal.
