Western, who have so far collected a lone point, cannot be written off as they meet whipping boys Bank of India in the their last Pool A match and only a tall victory and a defeat for Tatas against MVHA can see them through.

Tatas had a major share of the exchanges against Western. But although they troubled the rival defence in a sustained manner, Vijay Kannan in the Western goal was not called upon to do anything out of the ordinary, except on a couple of occasions.

In both the goalmouth actions, Nasir Khan was the Tata forward to cause flutters against the Western 'keeper Kannan. But Nasir's first attempt was confidently padded away by Kannan. The second was hit wide by Nasir.

Tatas took thelead in the 28th minute. A defensive lapse in the Western circle saw spearhead Gilbert Lobo capitalised on the mistake by scoring an opportunistic goal from close quarters.

Western too rallied to score the equaliser in a lucky manner. Tata goalkeeper Clarence Roberts, who could have padded away a cross from the right, failed to do so and Western left-winger Shiv Dutt made the most of the opportunity to tap home.

Earlier in the evening, MVHA scored their eight goals against Bank of India through Benjamin Fernandes (2), Ossie D'Souza (2), J Ekka, Ronnie Patel, Peter Dharmai and D Bara.

In the game played in the morning, Combined Banks struck on four occasions without any reply from Reserve Bank. Santan Pinto, Martinez Fernandes, Balu Kulal and MG Bhosle were the goal-getters.