Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Hyderabad, March 18: Defending champions Railways peaked at the right time and played a near-flawless game to end Border Security Force’s march in the PSB & SBI 59th National Hockey Championship today. In the first quarter-final, Railways knocked out BSF 4-1.
Railways struck twice in each session. As expected, Brijnev, Ajinderpal, Mukhtiar, Sunil and Anwar combined well and their manoeuvring up front rattled the BSF defence. In defence, Chanderpal, Jagmohan and captain Ekka were outstanding, negating BSF’s raids with timely interceptions and neat clearance.
Railways were off to brisk start attacking from the flanks and opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Ajinderpal knocked in a penalty, after being sold a dummy by Sunil off an indirect variation.
Railways increased the lead in the 17th minute following a move, schemed and executed with precision.
But the securitymen bounced back, scoring a superb goal six minutes from half time. Picking a loose ball, Habil Topno moved up and tapped it to anoverlapping Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan dashed to right and banged in an angular shot.
The teams stepped on the pedal after the lemon, and it was Railways who seemed to be in full steam. A brisk bout of passing saw Anwar relaying the ball to the unmarked Brijnev, who found the gap to put it in.
With ten minutes to go, Railways sealed the match with the fourth, when Lalit deflected in a powerful shot from right off Ajinderpal.
Wins for PSB, Air-India
Hyderabad, March 18: Punjab and Sind Bank began their campaign in pool I on a triumphant note with a 3-0 win, but the manner in which their combination struggled to co-ordinate would have definitely left them disappointed, especially considering their opponents Universities, were one they were familiar with.
Air-India, PSB’s challengers for the quarterfinal berth from the pool, notched up their second successive big win, handing out a 13-1 defeat to MP.Olympian Sanjeev Kumar and junior international Baljit Singh Chandi were effective in the earlyphases of the match for PSB. Baljit Singh Saini played his role in the mid-field to perfection on the right flank.
In the 21st minute, Sanjeev scooped the ball home in a goal-mouth skirmish, the lone success PSB had in the first session. PSB increased the margin of victory through strikes by Chandi (60th) and Bhupinder Singh (65th). But an injury to Sanjeev on the back of his head, which required three stitches, made the latter session, too, not very lucky for PSB.
Results: (Pool H): Bengal 8(Rajat Minz 3, Kishore Kujur 2, Cyril Ekka, Mangra Munda, Suman Toppo) bt Kerala 0; (Pool I): Air-India 13(Rajesh Chauhan 4, Edward Aranha 3, Deepak Thakur 3, Cornelius D’Costa, Kishore Kumar, Davinder Kumar) bt MP 1 (Richard Lal); PSB 3 (Sanjeev Kumar, Baljit Singh Chandi, Bhupinder Singh) bt Universities 0; Bhopal 8 (Md Shakir 4 (including a HT); Iqbal Ahmed 3 (HT); Hameedullak ) bt Manipur 2(Hemanta Singh, Gunamani Singh).
Friday’s matches
Services vs CRPF (H); Bengal vs Assam (H); Karnataka vsMadhya Bharat (G); Air-India vs Universities (I); Tamil Nadu vs Patiala (J): Pondicherry vs PSB (I).
