Kerala, the stronger side on paper and semi-finalists last time, were completely out of touch, today. Though they got more scoring opportunities than their opponents, they never gave any indication of being among the better sides in the tournament. Captain VP Shaji, and right-back Martin Mathew to some extent, were the only players who could make any mark.

In fact, Shaji created a few good opportunities which went abegging. In the fifth minute, Mathew, overlapping on the right, gave a cross to Shaji inside the Railways box. A faulty clearance by defender Amit Ghosh found Shaji still in command of the situation. However, his shot hitthe post and went out.

Twelve minutes later, Railways' midfielder Surjit Tigga snatched the ball from Kerala's Mohammed Shaque and put Prashanta Ghosh in the clear. Kerala goalkeeper Firoze Sherief was in the way to nullify the danger. A minute later, Kerala charged into the Railways box through a swift counter-move and Prasanthan was within striking range whom Tara Shanker Chakraborty came sliding to kick the ball away for a corner.

Both sides continued with their lethargic game even after changing ends. Even Mathew appeared to tire in the second half and Kerala found their right flank becoming as idle as the left. Shaji, however, kept on creating openings with accurate passes from the left.

Railways got two of their best chances in the second half. The first was a freak attempt that almost culminated in a goal. A faulty clearance by AS Firoze had Railways' Prasantha Ghosh running into the Kerala box. His shot was punched back to him by a charging Sharief. The ball hit Ghosh's body and rebounded backtowards the goal. With the goalkeeper stranded, the ball went wide by just a few inches.

Another cross by Suresh Kumar of Railways' from close to the left flag post was right at top of the Kerala goalmouth. Ghosh and Tigga rose for the ball but could not get their heads to it.

Kerala too had their chances but bad shooting again prevented the scoreline from changing. A dipping Shaji free-kick was saved by Railways goal-keeper Sumit Chaudhary. In the 39th minute, the last goalbound move of the match, saw Shaji gave a well-placed cross into the Railways box which led to a melee. Four attempts were taken by Kerala forwards, but none of them could penetrate the confused Railways defence.

FORMAT CHANGES AGAIN: From next year, all the four semi-finalists this year will be seeded into the quarter-final league. They will be joined by six teams who will qualify from six clusters. The 10 teams thus formed will be divided into two groups and the top two from each group will make it into thesemi-finals.

Gujarat in trouble: Gujarat, who conceded their match against Assam in Cluster C, might be punished by the AIFF disciplinary committee. Gujarat appealed against bad light in their game in Tezpur, which was turned down by the referee.

Not satisfied, Gujarat refused to play further, conceding the match to the hosts. At that stage, Assam were leading by a solitary goal.

Incidentally, the same game had been abandoned due to poor light the previous day.