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Rusty Bengal were lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw against 10-man Tamil Nadu in a Group A quarter-final league match of the 63rd National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy, in Chennai on Tuesday night.
Twenty-nine times champions Bengal needed a goal deep into stoppage time to grab a point after P C Riju gave the hosts the lead in the 40th minute.
Bengal goalkeeper Subhasish Roy Chowdhury bungled while collecting a long throw-in from Pradeep Kumar and Riju, who was at hand, put the ball into the net.
Bengal equalised in the third minute of the second-half added time. Tamil Nadu goalkeeper Satish Kumar deflected Habibur Rehman Mondal's volley from a Snehasish Chakraborty's corner on to the path of P C Lalwmpuiya, who headed it home to earn Bengal a point.
The hosts were done in when the impressive N Mohanraj was red carded in the 20th minute after picking up two yellow cards. The India international was a livewire on the left, putting the Bengal defence in all sorts of trouble.
His ejection hardly affected Tamil Nadu's rhythm. Playing in front of the home crowd, they used the flanks and found plenty of space down the middle to create problems for their fancied rivals.