Title - RCF Nadkarni Cup: Mumbai Customs put it across Central Railway in semis

Mumbai Customs moved past a sloppy Central Railway (CR) 4-2 in the second semifinal of the RCF Nadkarni Cup at the RCF Ground on Tuesday. In a closely-contested match, CR drew first blood with their captain Karim Sheikh converting a penalty kick in the 17th minute. However, a fumble by CR goalkeeper Pradeep Kumar gave MC’s Hekmat Singh a second shot at the goal, which he successfully converted to equalise in the 29th minute.Just at half-time, a brilliant run by Francisco Salin gave Customs a 2-1 lead. MC continued to dominate the game and manoeuvre the CR defence in the second half, with Mathias Coutinho giving them a 3-1 lead 10 minutes into the second half. Sheikh gave CR a glimmer of hope with his second goal in the 76th minute, but another shot by Customs’ Vaibhav Karpe shortly before full-time sealed the deal and took them to the final with a 4-2 win.Both teams criticised the standard of refereeing in the match. “We would’ve won the game 4-0, but I think the referees wanted to make the match more interesting by giving them (CR) penalty kicks,” said an angry MC coach Conrad Pereira.Sheikh, on the other hand, said the referees got intimidated due to the constant abusing by Customs players and coaching staff, and hence decided against fouling their players in the second half.Customs will now face an in-form Dodsal FC in the final on Thursday.Pereira admitted they will need to play a much better game against Dodsal if they are to clinch the cup. “Dodsal have some great players in their side and are one of the best teams in the tournament. It will be a very tough match for us, but the boys are up for the challenge,” he said.Stopwatch: Mumbai Customs 4 (Hekmat Singh, F Salin, M Coutinho, V Karpe) bt CR 2 (Karim Shiekh 2)