Kaith twin saves seal Mohun Bagan’s dramatic comeback win vs Bengaluru

Kolkata: Vishal Kaith’s twin saves in the tiebreaker helped defending champions Mohun Bagan make a splendid comeback from two goals down to edge star-studded Bengaluru FC 4-3 (2-2 after full-time) to reach the Durand Cup final for a record 30th time here on Tuesday.

After an intense shooting in the tiebreaker where both teams were locked three-all, a composed Kaith, who had also stood tall under the bar in their tie-breaker win over Punjab FC in the quarters last week, thwarted the strikes of Halicharan Narzary and Aleksandar Jovaovic to seal the match.

The record 17-time champions Mohun Bagan will face NorthEast United FC in the summit clash here on Saturday.

Jason Cummings, Manvir Singh, Liston Colaco and Dimitri Petratos, who stood-in as skipper after Subahsish Bose’s 30th minute injury, struck the other four goals in the tie-breaker.

Bengaluru FC’s three strikes came from Edgar Mendez, Rahul Bheke and Pedro Capo.

Bengaluru earlier went ahead through goals by legendary Sunil Chhetri (42nd) and youngster Vinith Venkatesh (50th).

Bagan made spirited comeback through Dimitri Petratos (68th), and Anirudh Thapa (84th).

On a day when Howrah and the western part of the metropolis turned into a ‘war zone’ due to clashes between police and protesters over the rape and murder case at the

RG Kar Medical College, normalcy returned to Salt Lake Stadium as Bagan finally got to play at the venue.