Mahindras held the upperhand throughout. But Army XI, who finished runners-up in Sikkim Governer's Gold Cup, fought hard to hold off their rivals for a major part of the match. After repeated efforts, Mahindras finally made a dent in the Army XI defence when Samshi Raza scored in the 86th minute.

Army had themselves to blame as they muffed up a golden chance to equalise when they had earned a penalty two minutes later. In the 88th minute, Arockia Nathan was brought down by Pandey inside the box. Irupaya Raj's shot was saved by diving Mahindra goalkeeper Mark Masceranhas.

Earlier, despite dominating the show throughout, East Bengal failed to score. The absence of good strikerwas strongly felt by East Bengal as they got enough opportunities to score -- from flag-kicks to long rangers -- which none could convert into goals. Prominent among the misses was an angular shot by Emmanuel Opoku in the 50th minute, which a diving PSEB goalkeeper Jatinder punched out to safety. In fact, it was Jatinder who was the star for PSEB, effecting many saves.

PSEB too had their share of chances. In the 59th minute on a flag-kick by Parminder, Sandeep Saini sent in a strong grounder which was stopped by East Begal goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey. The ball rebounded but there was no PSEB player around to take the shot and EB defenders cleared it away.