In MBA while juggling between so many other things the desire to play mostly remains subdued. But when it comes to football matches between college faculty, alumni and students, then all students even sacrifice Sunday morning’s sleep to enjoy it. A week before RUSH-IIM Ranchi’s first Sports and Cultural Fest, the students have sent waves of fun and excitement with this ‘teaser match’. It was time for the alumni and faculty to shake off the dust and accept the challenge posed by the students. The Alumni and International Relations Committee in collaboration with Sports Committee of IIM Ranchi organized this event.
The first match was played between the ALUMNI team and the PGP team. Alumni’s connect with football was quite evident through the dribbling and passing shown by them. Soon they scored the first goal of the match. Another brilliant attempt by them was foiled by an acrobatic save by the opposite team’ goalkeeper. The PGP team were not behind for much time as they sored the equalizer after 7 minutes. A lot of action followed this with both teams vying for the winning goal. It was only in the 2
nd half when the PGP team was able to sneak the ball past the goalkeeper. Alumni team fought back with renewed effort. The energy level just kept on increasing and as the match was close to its end there came the equalizer from the Alumni. Two rounds of attack from each side could not decide the fate of the match so it was time for the penalty shootout. Here again the competition was neck to neck. With 3 goals scored by each team out of the 5 attempts, the result of the match was still hanging in the air. Finally the Alumni team emerged as winners with a superb goal followed by a brilliant save in the knockout.
The students got another chance with the match between Faculty and PGP. The cheers from the crowd were louder in this match for obvious reasons! The faculty surprised one and all with some exciting display of football. This time the PGP team was successful in scoring the first goal. The Faculty team came back strong with the equalizer. The game saw some exciting moves and passes throughout the rest of the game but the score line remain tied at 1-1. Finally in the penalty shootout the PGP team sealed their victory.
After this came the third and the final match. Alumni team took on the Faculty team. Maybe they had some unfinished business! The veterans on both the sides made it a point to showcase all the talent they were known for in their heydays. Some close misses and some fabulous shots electrified the atmosphere. The crowd was on their feet and was not ready to miss even a glance. An exciting match saw good number of goals being scored from both the sides. Finally the faculty team got home with 3 goals as opposed to the 2 goals scored by the Alumni team. And with this the games came to an end with the faculty posing proudly with the victory pose. Soon they found themselves surrounded by the rest two teams with the same victory sign! Surely this was a victory for all.
This was a day and an opportunity to be cherished for a long time. Vikas Hirani, Rajeev Gupta, Anshul Anand, Kanishka Poddar, Venkat Raman were present among the alumni. At the end, the students were excited to share their thoughts with the alumni and the faculty.