Kalinga Stadium was witness to a lot of drama and plot twists on the pitch on Thursday, and even played a role in one. With the referee awarding Chennaiyin FC a penalty in the third minute of injury time as the score read 2-1 in favour of Odisha FC, the floodlights at Kalinga malfunctioned. For 10 minutes, the only light at the venue was from the hundreds of mobile phones in the stands.
As the lights finally came back, Abdenasser El Khayati took a perfect spot-kick that Odisha custodian Amarinder Singh could not save in spite of diving the right way and brought parity in the scoreline. But to the delight of the home fans, there was still time for the tide to turn in Odisha's favour as Nandhkumar Sekhar found a winner deep into injury time by curling in a cross from Jerry Mawihmingthanga past the outstretched hands of Chennaiyin goalkeeper Debjit Majumdar.
