Victory not enough for PSB

BANGALORE May 25: The sponsors of the 58th Senior National Hockey championship - Punjab and Sind Bank were a shattered lot, despite their v...

BANGALORE May 25: The sponsors of the 58th Senior National Hockey championship 8211; Punjab and Sind Bank were a shattered lot, despite their victory. Their 5-1 over Chandigarh in the last encounter in the four-team Pool F league at the Sports Authority of India on Sunday was not sufficient to earn an entry into the last eight stage. Traditional powerhouse Services were the ones, who made it to the quarter-finals from the pool by virtue of their more number of goals for8217;.

PSB, who had made their debut in the Nationals this year as an associate member of the Indian Hockey Federation started the match with four points, needing to win the match and score atleast eight goals to pip Services who had the same number of points and had scored 21 goals as against PSB8217;s 13.

That was not to be possible despite the vigorous efforts by PSB forwards Olympian Sanjeev Kumar and junior international Baljit Singh Chandi.

Sukhwinder Singh was another forward, who was enthusiastic in assisting his more famed colleague and deservingly figured three times on the scorers8217; list. Sukhwinder regained the lead for the Bankmen in the 16th minute and went on to score the last two goals for his side in the 55th and 69th minutes.

Bhupinder Singh had given the lead for PSB in the very fourth minute of the match off an indirect conversion during the first penalty corner, which was equalised by Ajit Singh, six minutes later converting a penalty stroke.

Rajinder Singh was the other scorer for PSB, converting the side8217;s sixth penalty corner two minutes before the breather.

The victory margin was no doubt insufficient and the PSB forwards, well aware of this fact, pressed for more goals against a stout Chandigarh defence, where Ajit Singh stood like a rock.

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But the man the PSB camp would not forget is Chandigarh8217;s seasoned campaigner Narinder Singh Sodhi, whose delaying tactics killed the rhythm of the rivals. Entering the field fifteen minutes into the match, in place of Parveen, the former international seemed to have to only one policy- not to allow the PSB attackers to possess the ball. His procrastinating techniques were so procured that it only provoked the PSB forwards to commit fouls on him to snatch the ball, which was detrimental to their campaign.

Sodhi8217;s teammate J Kujur also caught the eye, but for a more positive reason. Kujur came up with some delectable moves down the right combining with Satinder Shama, but the two were unable to deliver the final punch, which could turned their efforts into goals. But that seemed immaterial for Chandigarh on a day when their sole purpose was to stop their former affiliates from advancing in the championship.

In other morning matches, Bihar beat Bhopal 4-1 in pool A and Orissa mauled MP 10-0.

Bihar scored through Victor Topno 2 Jeramias Dung Dung and Mansidh Topno after Bhopal had gone ahead through a Haseebuddin goal.

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Lalit Ekka led the Orissa scoring spree with three goals and was supported by Anuranjan Tete, Abhay Kumar, Sushil Kiro two each and Saroj Toppo.

The QF Line-Up

o Tamil Nadu vs Gujarat

o Services vs Bombay

o Air-India vs Karnataka

o Indian Airlines vs Railways

Sunday8217;s Results

Pool A: Bihar bt Bhopal 4-1

Pool B: Orissa bt MP 10-0;