Banks, MVHA in title clash

MUMBAI, AUGUST 14: Combined Banks XI and Mumbai Veterans Hockey Association XI MVHA qualified for the final of the Veterans hockey tour...

MUMBAI, AUGUST 14: Combined Banks XI and Mumbai Veterans Hockey Association XI MVHA qualified for the final of the Veterans hockey tournament. The former scored a comfortable 2-0 victory over Tata Sports Club and the latter edged out Mahindras 2-1 at the Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate, today.

Combined Banks, their ranks packed with several regular players of the league, were generally on top against Tatas. Their forwards combined to a nicety and were constantly fed by centre-half Seby Noronha. They could have put the issue beyond doubt in the first-half itself, but some near misses after they had taken the lead in the fifth minute proved their undoing.

Right-winger Santan Pinto gave the Banks the lead. He scored following a goalmouth scramble. Santan then set up S Lappikar after a good run and a cross back from the goalline, but the latter8217;s angular shot went wide off the far post. Lappikar, however made amends in the second-half when he scored from close range.

Earlier in the evening, goals by AfraLopez and Ramesh Pillay in a three-minute spell in the second-half spelt doom for Mahindras. Francis Caldeiro scored a consolation goal for the jeepmen.

Seeds have it easy

It was a sedate start to the Otters Club all-India open squash tournament for juniors, as seeded players were into their stride from the first round itself, going through without raising much of a sweat.

Second seed Bikram Uberoi and Parth Doshi, one rung lower, went through with straight-game victories over Harjinder Singh and Tarun Verma respectively. While Bikram won 9-1 9-0 9-0, Parth went through without dropping a point.

Results seedings in prefix

Boys Under-19: 2-Bikram Uberoi bt Harjinder Singh 9-1 9-0 9-0; 3-Parth Doshi bt Tarun Verma 9-0 9-0 9-0; 4-Mihir Kapoor bt Vijay Jhangra 9-4 9-3 9-4; Taran Machra bt Vikram Apte 9-1 9-0 9-1; Deepak Yadav bt Sachin Obaid 9-1 9-0 9-6; Vishal Kapoor bt A Singh 9-6 9-5 9-0; U-17: Gaurav Nandrajog bt Satbir Singh 9-0 9-1 9-1; Aditya Manjrekar bt KaranBatra 9-1 5-9 4-9 9-2 9-3; Supreet Singh bt M Sudhir 9-0 9-0 9-0; Cyrus Appoo w/o Ashwin Bhosale; Anurag Gill bt Rhea Bhandare 9-2 9-2 9-3; Shahid bt Marcus 9-1 9-2 9-0; Deepak Yadav bt Rachita Vora 9-1 9-2 9-0; Jaikiran Juneja bt Bipin 9-6 9-1 9-1; Karanpal Sethi bt Siddharth Shanbagh 9-3 9-0 8-10 9-4; Yogin Thakur bt S Sankarney 9-0 9-0 9-1; Raahil Shah w/o K Batra; Vikram Apte bt Kabir Kapoor 9-3 9-3 4-9 7-9 9-4; U-15: Siddharth Sakraney w/o J Ranney; Cyrus Appoo bt Ishar Sakranney 9-1 9-1 9-3; S Lokhanwala bt K Thadani 9-0 9-1 9-0; G Jatin bt S Aditya 9-4 9-7 9-4; Satbir Singh w/o Vikram Sharma; Bhagat bt Mohammed 10-9 9-5 4-9 9-6; Arun Sharma bt Sudhir Mohandas 9-3 9-3 9-0; Yogin Thakur bt Siddharth Shanbag 9-7 9-7 3-9 9-2; Raahil Shah bt N Rajani 9-1 9-3 9-3; Ritesh Sharma bt Bipin Batra 9-1 7-9 5-9 9-6 9-4; Gautam Kalani w/o Sadiq Madraswala; Kabir Kapoor bt Rushabh Vora 3-9 9-2 9-1 4-9 10-8; Aditya Manjrekar bt V Yadav 9-0 9-1 9-0; Rishabh Singhvi bt Manek Mathur 9-1 9-0 9-1; U-11: PManjrekar bt U Pranav 0-9 9-3 9-2 9-1; Varun Dattani bt Nikita Emannuel 9-2 9-3 9-0; Vikram Malhotra bt Ishan Balwani 9-1 9-1 9-3; Veer Seth w/o Sandeep Singh.