The cautious first-half game suddenly turned serious after BSF struck unexpectedly, minutes into the second session. FCI, a pack of skillful players with two internationals in Navbir Singh and Amar Negi, fought hard and restored parity, but BSF's Marinus Lakra, left unmarked inside the circle, pushed home the winner with five minutes to go off a cross from Kuljinder Singh to subdue FCI.

In other matches, Orissa defeated Jammu and Kashmir 2-0, Uttar Pradesh downed Gujarat 3-1, Hyderabad conceded the advantage to go Dutch with CISF (2-2), Rajasthan were again whipped, by Bihar 4-1, and favourites Airlines won against Maharashtra 8-2, after leading 5-1 at the lemon.

Much was expected of FCI aftertheir superb show against Mumbai, and they did not let the small, eager crowd down. The closest BSF came to scoring was midway when Harbhajan slid one to the speeding Habil Topno, who in turn pushed it to Ekka, lurking nearby. The forward took a quick swipe but the FCI keeper Rahul was equally fast to pad it away.

BSF surged ahead in the 47th minute when Harbhajan found the target receiving a pass from Amrit Lakra. FCI's equaliser came off a calculated move in the 51st minute. Snatching the ball in the middle, Kiro sped to right and sent in a cross which was well connected by Prabhakar. With one-all, the teams raised their level to corner full points and BSF succeeded in that mission five minutes from close when Marinus Lakra scored off Kuljinder's pass.

Easy for Airlines

: Airlines had another easy round. But they came into their own only after conceding a goal. For the favourites, forwards Brojen Singh, Mukesh Kumar and Sameer Dad scored two goals each while Riaz and Dilip Tirkey scored theother goals.