West-earn title

As the game started,it was apparent that the Navy side,in an all-white outit,had done their homework. Despite Western holding a greater degree of possession and leading in the attacks,the railway men were held at bay.

A key factor for the Navy‘s success in defence was chiefly down to their midfielder,Gorish’s performance. Donning jersey number seven,Gorish did well to keep a hold on Sana’s exploits,as he man-marked the international with great effect. While Sana was allowed to collect passes made to him,he was made to work very hard to launch an attack. Gorish stuck to his man and effectively reduced the threat Sana posed.

However,what the Navy had not expected was an equally spirited attacking mentality from the rest of the Western players. Leading the charge was Jay Karan,whose pace deceived the Navy backline on several occasions,leading to strategic penetrations into the opponent’s D. Kunaujam Suresh,playing on the right side of defence constantly threatened his opposite number by storming down the flanks and his consistent crossing.

Amit Gowda clearly enjoyed the weather as he did not hesitate throwing in a slide tackle on several occasions,all with great success. Finally there was the captain himself,Kuldeep Singh,who dominated Navy’s forwards and provided well thought of scoops to his own forward line.

Shortly before the half-hour mark,a penalty corner for the railwaymen resulted in Navy’s number two,Sajit Lakra stopping the goal bound shot with his foot on the goal-line. Umpire Javed Shaikh recognised the infringement and awarded the orange-jersey bearing side a penalty stroke. The skipper himself stood up to take the stroke and successfully placed his shot past Navy goalkeeper,Vikash,making the score 1-0 to Western,who held the score till half-time.

Given the fact that Navy now had to get back into the game,a change in strategy resulted in Gorish being relieved of his man-marking duties. That,however,seemed to have backfired as Chinglensana was now a free-man and ran riot around the Navy defence. The India international made the most of the confusion in the D to sprint from the edge of the shooting area before coolly slotting his shot through Vikash’s legs in the third minute of the second half.

The deficit was reduced barely a minute later as Faheen Khan was well positioned to deflect Jaspal Singh’s low cross into the Western D past the goalie. With the score at 2-1,the game seemed poised for a exciting finish until Chinglensana again stepped up to score for his side. This time,from a penalty corner. He powered his shot low to the keeper’s right making the score 3-1. Within five minutes,Chinglensana was at it again,this time as a provider. A low cross from the right flank struck the post and rebounded off the keeper,leaving an unmarked Stanli Minz to drive home from point blank range.

As Western Railways tired towards the end of the game,Heera Singh’s close range cross was converted by Faheen Khan,earning him his,and Navy’s second goal. Navy continued to attack but were foiled by Western’s defensive units,led by their captain.

Player of the tournament: Devinder Walmiki (Central Railway) cash award of Rs 7,000

Best goalkeeper: Avdhut Solankar (Central Railway)

Best defender: Kuldeep Singh (WR)

Best midfielder: Ksh Wangamba (UBI)

Best forward: Usaf ur Rehman (UBI)

*all received a cash award of Rs 3,000 each.

MHAL selection trials from Thursday

The Mumbai Hockey Association Limited has short-listed 41 players for selection trials to pick the Mumbai team,which will participate in the All India Surjit Memorial Hockey Tournament,to be held in Jalandhar from October 9-18,2013. The players will have to attend the trials which will commence from Thursday at the Mahindra Stadium,Churchgate. After the team is selected the players will attend a preparatory camp before their departure to Jalandhar.

Short-listed players – Goalkeepers: Lincoln Taites,Avdhut Solankar,Manjeet Singh,Sudhir Dixit,Kapil Bhojane,Karan,Sourabh Singh; Defenders: Joshua Vessaokar,Conroy Remedios,Dhananjay Singh,Rahul Devkar,Anand Rai,Nikhil Pardesi,Kuldeep Singh,Arun Beck,Harjeet Singh,Roshan Singh Keisham; Midfielders: BK Muthanna,Narad Bahadur,Vishal Pillay,Manpreet Singh,Waseem Khan,Vinay Shukla,Sankalp Raghav,Anurag Sharma,Ksh Wangamba,Amit Gowda,Chinglen Sana,Sanjib Barla,Ruben Kedari,Vinod Nair; Forwards: Boon Dsouza,Shashi Topno,Ajaz Qureshi,Vinod Kumar,Jay Karan,Ashish Pal,Yuvraj Walmiki,J.P. Kusha,Thokchom Kiran Kumar,Irshad Mirza.

Central Railway beat UBI,finish 3rd

Central Railway left it to the last four seconds of the game to score their winner against Union Bank of India (UBI),winning the game 2-1 in the 3rd-4th place playoff match of the Super League. JP Kusha opened the scoring for UBI,before Davinder Walmiki equalised,followed by Deepak Lakra’s winner.