Santosh Trophy: Kerala emerges champion

Kerala beat Bengal via the tie-breaker to claim its sixth Santosh Trophy title at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Sunday. In a keenly-contested final, Kerala missed umpteen chances to let the match remain undecided at 2-2 after extra time.

However, the Satheevan Balan-coached side rode on two saves by keeper V. Midhun to win the penalty shoot-out 4-2 and emerge champion after 14 years.

Kerala banked on its robust gameplan to keep Bengal at bay in the first half.

The host showed aggression but Ankit Mukherjee and Jitin Murmu failing to capitalise on good chances.

While Kerala marked the Bengal players tightly, the home team valued ball possession.

Nevertheless, Kerala showed its perfected art of scoring off counter-attacks. S. Seesan precise long ball set up an unmarked M.S. Jithin, who ran unchallenged into the Bengal box before beating goalkeeper Ranajit Majumder in the 19th minute. Bengal's steady moves earned it a few opportunities but hit a compact wall built by Rahul V. Raj, Vibin Thomas and S. Lijo.

Dead-ball specialist Tirthankar Sarkar's aerial attempt was collected by Midhun and Bidyashagar Singh's effort from close was saved by an alert G. Sreerag.

Kerala found a few more chances, but Jithin Gopalan could not connect one from the edge of the box and V.K. Afdal shot over the bar to waste a superb move crafted by P.C. Anurag on the right and M.S. Jithin on the left.

A wasteful Kerala allowed Bengal to fight back in the second half as Anurag missed a sitter after receiving a fine pass from M.S. Jithin.

Bengal’s efforts bore fruit in the 68th minute. Substitute Rajon Barman worked his way up on the right, squared it up inside the area for Murmu to strike high into the net.

Even as Bengal maintained pressure, Kerala had its chances. However, Jithin Gopalan could not score off a rebound while Afdal hurried on a shot and the action stretched into extra time.

After Bengal lost Barman to a red card for crashing into the rival ’keeper while crafting a move, Kerala scored through Thomas. He rose high to head in a Jestin George cross from the left.

Tirthankar's low left-footer free-kick from just outside the box beat Midhun in the dying moments to take the match into the shoot-outs.

The result: Kerala 2 (M.S. Jithin 19, Vibin Thomas 116) bt Bengal 2 (Jiten Murmu 68, Tirthankar Sarkar 120); Shoot-out: [Kerala 4 (Rahul V. Raj, Jithin Gopalan, Jestin George, S. Seesan) bt Bengal 2 (Tirthankar, Sanchayan Samadder).