After a barren first-half, Sharma, a former Churchill Brothers striker, broke the stalemate a minute into the second half, nodding in a low cross off Manjit Singh who paved way for the strike with some fine work.

Manjit, ever the opportunist, chased a long ball and won a battle against BMFC deep defender Rehmatullah Khan before sending in a cross into the goalmouth.

The second goal followed another defensive lapse. Defender Ramesh Razak's free-kick in the 65th minute went through the wall and BMFC custodian Gumpe Rime failed to collect the ball. The lurking Sharmabulged the net off a rebound to seal the victory for Mahindras.

The third goal came in the 77th minute, largely due to an exuberant burst by Mahindras. Manjit, a former East Bengal striker, was set through by medio Adeshin Sadiq and the former pulled both the BMFC stoppers to the hilt before tapping past Rime.

When the match started, expectancy hung over the ground. Mahindras saw Air-India losing to RCF; if they won, they stood a chance to lead the league point table.

BMFC created couple of good chances in the first fifteen minute but on both occasions their strikers were guilty of hitting the ball straight to the 'keeper. Mahindras 'keeper Salim Ansari brought off a good save when James Singh curled his flag-kick in the 34th minute.

Mahindras coach SS Hakim commented, ``We badly needed this win to be in the race but we still have a long way to go.'' He appreciated the performance of the team as he said, ``We played to a plan and were successful in implementing them on the field.''

His counterpartJamshed Nassiri lamented the failure of his mid-field. He said, ``Our medios collapsed. As a result there was pressure on the defence and the forwards did not get much opportunities to score.''

AIR-INDIA LOSE: In the first encounter between A-I and RCF, last year's league champions dominated the game from the beginning but failed to capitalise on scoring chances. Striker Nitin Shetty and Anthony had clear opportunities which they frittered. On the other hand, RCF played their hearts out.

In the 61st minute, they won a free-kick near the box when striker Zahid Raza was brought down by Ajay Acharya. RCF's best bet Balin Singh swirled the ball across the wall and Yousuf Ansari spilled the ball. Substitute Douglas D'Sena made no mistake in placing the ball into a yawning net.