Bengal held their nerve in the penalty shoot-out to get the better of Kerala [Images] 4-2 and set up a title clash with Punjab, in the 61st Santosh Trophy National Football Championship in Gurgaon on Sunday.

In a nail-biting semi-final, neither of the two football powerhouses in the country could open the account in regulation time as well as extra-time, forcing the game into the penalty shoot-out.

Two of Kerala's spot-kicks, by R Rajesh and Jaseer Karnath, hit the upright while Bengal converted all four kicks to keep their title hopes alive.

Dipendu Biswas, Sanjeev Maria, Suman Dutta and Shyam Mondal converted for Bengal, while Lenal Thomas and N Pradeep found the target for Kerala.

In the other semi-final, Punjab defeated last year's finalists Maharashtra 2-1.

Abhishek Yadav put Maharashtra ahead in the 43rd minute when he tapped home a superb centre from the industrious Paresh Shivalkar. The goal came against the run of play as Punjab was clearly the better side till then.

But Punjab responded after the break when Baldeep Singh (61st minnute) and Parveen Kumar (68th) found the net to take the team to the title clash after two years.

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