Sreenidi Deccan and Mohammedan SC: Both may perish or both may live | I-League 2023-24

For every wrong move that Sreenidi Deccan made on Thursday (Feb. 29) at the Deccan Arena, Mohammedan SC had a counter-move intuitively placed beyond the former's grasp.

Head coach Carlos Vaz Pinto seemed animated on the touchline as he tried to put an errant defender off or a striker led astray past the realms of common comprehension, but his counterpart Andrey Chernyshov was deducing problems of an entirely different sort.

Had David Castaneda not been carried off, or had Mirjalol Kasimov punished enough for the challenges he made from behind, the storyline might have been different, and the Deccan Warriors would have been able to go to bed on top of the I-League table.

Alas, when the sun did set over the Osman Sagar in the nearby Gandipet, the hosts had fluffed their chances to blow away a lead they had earned almost as if by right. A 1-1 draw was all that came of the body blows the two dealt each other.

Both teams were on a winning streak, with Mohammedan SC on a two-game winning streak and Sreenidi Deccan on an even more impressive five-game winning streak, as data compiled by CSpotFR showed us before the match.

For Mohammedan, a lot of things did go right, and they will carry them with much glee into their next away game, a trip to Kozhikode to take on challengers Gokulam Kerala, who seem as hot on the trail as their Hyderabadi counterparts.

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The I-League title race is wide open

Much before kickoff, the Deccan Warriors' hopes were boosted by the fact that Gokulam were about to get beaten comfortably by Namdhari FC away from home. Although the result did end up that way, Sreenidi faltered in the dying stages of their match to allow Mohammedan to rule supreme.

The celebrations of their supporters at the Arena - many of whom had traveled from Kolkata - gave ample insight into the mindset of a club known largely to implode but also to hold their own when their backs are to the wall.

Unfortunately, all that Sreenidi can take away from this game is the confidence of pinning the Black Panthers down to a state of almost submission; only the most discerning of home supporters would have noticed the aplomb with which Chernyshov celebrated the draw with the traveling fans.

To see a mere draw being celebrated with as much gusto by the league leaders must give the Deccan Warriors, and Pinto, the assurance that they are doing something right in Aziz Nagar.