Sunil Chhetri to the fore as India make it two out of two in Intercontinental Cup

Bhubaneswar, June 12

Charismatic captain Sunil Chhetri played the role of saviour to perfection once again as he scored the lone goal in India’s 1-0 win over lower-ranked Vanuatu in the Intercontinental Cup here today.

Chhetri struck in the 81st minute to settle the nerves of the Indians and send the home side into the final. India had earlier beaten Mongolia 2-0 in their opening match on Friday.

The 38-year-old Chhetri scored his 86th goal for India in his 135th international match. With six points from two wins, India are currently on top of the table. They play Lebanon on Thursday in their last round-robin league match.

World No. 101 India were clearly the better side in the first half with 62 per cent ball possession and at least a dozen attempts on goal but most of them were off target. Vanuatu, ranked 164th in the world, did not have a single shot on target in the first half.

Debutant Nandhakumar Sekar had a decent outing as he was in the thick of things in the middle of the park and was involved in several Indian build-ups. But he wasted a great chance, hitting wide off a fine through ball from Mahesh Naorem in the 36th minute. Naorem was a real threat for the Vanuatu defence as another of his measured crosses from the right found Chhetri in the clear in the 40th minute but the ball flew inches above the India captain’s head.

In the 61st minute, Naorem sent yet another fine cross, this time from the left, and Chhetri won the header but it went wide by a few feet. The goal finally came when an overlapping Shubashish Bose floated a pin-point cross from the left flank and Chhetri’s left-footed shot was too good for the goalkeeper.

Earlier, Mongolia held Lebanon to a 0-0 draw.