Mumbai, November 5: Goalkeeper Santosh Pelnekar's brilliant save in the sudden death penalty shootout helped Western Railway beat Bank of India (BoI) 6-5 in the second semifinal of 9th Mini Rovers Cup football tournament at the Cooperage today.

The railwaymen will now take on 1995 champions Murmagoa Port Trust, Goa in the final on November 7.

The tie-breaker was enforced after 90 minutes produced no goals. Both teams converted the allotted five spot kicks to bring on sudden-death penalties. Pelnekar diving to his left, punched away Anton Saldanha's kick to seal the issue for Western Railway.

For the winners, Ritu Kothiya, Inam-ul-Haq, Sameer Shaikh, Felix Joseph and Sandesh Pelnekar converted spot kicks.

The experienced Kaushik Pal, who replaced Felix D'Souza in the second half, scored from his sudden-death attempt.

For BoI, George D'Lima, Cardoz, Navin Kotian, Michael Furtado and Arun Menon found the target.

The match, devoid of thrills, saw little or no attacking play. The first organised offensive came as late as in the 27th minute. Railway moved on the right with Sameer Shaikh initiating. His forward pass to Felix at the top of the box was wasted as the latter's weak shot was collected by Kiran Shetty with little effort.

Three minutes later, BoI made their first move. Cardoz put Saldanha through in the striking area. Saldanha dribbled past two defender before powering a right foot shot which went over the bar.

Just before half-time, the bankers very nearly conceded a goal. Shashi Shetty effected a goal mouth save in the 40th minute. Railway's Haq sent a corner low and Sunil Mishra tapped it in the goal after custodian Shetty was beaten in the air.

BoI almost scored in 43th minute. Trevor Carvalho took a corner and floated deep into the striking area.

George D'Lima's powerful header was saved on the goalline by forward Sandesh Pelnekar when custodian Pelnekar was caught wrong footed.

One of the best saves of the match came in the 75th minute when BoI's Rakesh Udupa, positioned near the goalline, curled the ball from the right but Pelnekar equal to the task as he lunged and punched it away to safety.

On the counter attack following immediately, Mishra gave a through pass to Daya on the right edge of the area. Daya, intelligently, back-heeled to Mishra, whose powerful right-footer went wide of the post.

BoI coach Shriyan N Devdas brought in Arun Menon and Carlton Trinadad in the second-half as substitutes but the changes proved ineffective and the match strayed into the penalty duel.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.