India thrash Kenya, lift Intercontinental Cup
Mumbai, June 10: Skipper Sunil Chhetri continued his superb form, striking a brace as India thrashed Kenya 2-0 to clinch the Intercontinental Cup at the Mumbai Football Arena here on Sunday.
Chhetri, who scored in the eighth and 29th minutes to hand India a convincing victory, also equalled Argentina's Lionel Messi's tally of 64 international goals, making him the joint-second active international goalscorer behind Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo (81 goals).
With the stadium jam-packed with Indian fans, the hosts started on an aggressive note as they penetrated the Kenyan defense twice in the first minute.
The hosts took an early lead when a free kick from Anirudh Thapa was flicked perfectly by skipper Sunil Chhetri into the net.
After conceding the goal, Kenya regrouped and started to counter-attack. Jockins Atudo, who scored twice in the last match, was not too effective on Sunday thanks to some brilliant marking by the Indian defenders.
Unpetrubed by the Kenyan pressing, India continued playing offensively and as a result Chhetri scored with a superb finish just before the half hour mark to double India's lead.
Defender Anas Edathodika lofted a long ball and Chhetri beat the offside trap to chest-trap the ball before slamming an accurate left-footer low into the far corner.
The desperate Kenyans kept on creating attacks at regular intervals but were let tried down by poor finishing.
Bernard Oginga, who enjoyed a lot of ball possession, struggled to beat the Indian defenders and also received a yellow card for his efforts.
Kenya started the second half on an attacking note as Otieno Ochieng almost netted the first goal for Kenya with a viciously curling long ranger. But Indian goalkepper Gurpreet Sandhu pulled off an excellent diving save to keep out the brilliant effort.
In the 60th minute, Kenya was unfortunate to miss another chance as another long range effort from Ochieng failed to beat Gurpreet, who used both his fists to punch the ball out.
The visitors were once again was on the verge of opening their account in the 71st minute but Dennis Odhiambo failed to get past Sandhu.
There was no stopping for Sandhu tonight as the keeper saved yet again six-minutes later off Ochieng's strike.
The final few minutes saw India desperately defend their citadel and making a string of substitutions.
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Baramati plane crash: AAIB seeks specialised support to retrieve data from cockpit voice recorder
New Delhi (PTI): Aircraft accidents probe agency AAIB on Tuesday said special support has been sought for retrieval of data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 45 plane that crashed near Baramati last month.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed in the fatal crash of the VSR Ventures-owned plane on January 28.
In a statement, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said the aircraft was equipped with two independent flight recorders.
Both recorders were exposed to intense heat for a prolonged period during the accident and sustained fire damage, it said.
According to AAIB, the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR), manufactured by L3-Communications, has been successfully downloaded at its Flight Recorder Laboratory.
"The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), manufactured by Honeywell, is undergoing detailed technical examination. Assistance has been sought from the Accredited Representative of the State of Manufacture for specialised support in data retrieval," the probe agency said.
In this case, the state of manufacture is the US.
Requesting all stakeholders to avoid speculation, AAIB said it was diligently following all prescribed technical and procedural protocols to ensure a comprehensive, objective and evidence-based investigation.
It also said the investigation was being done strictly in accordance with the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 and the international standards and recommended practices of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Annex 13.
Last week, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the preliminary report on the crash of the Learjet 45 aircraft VT-SSK would be released soon.
