Railways enters semifinals

By Kamesh Srinivasan

Indian Oil 6 - Hyderabad 0

Railways 2 - CRPF 1

Karnataka 7- TN 3

PSB 2 - Air India 1

JAMMU, DEC. 10. Champions strike when it matters. Needing a win to qualify for the semifinals, 21-time champion Railways struck twice in the last 10 minutes after being down 0-1 to score a memorable 2-1 triumph over Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the National hockey championship at the K.K. Hakhu Stadium here on Sunday.

Railways topped group `I' with an all-win record, and CRPF, which needed only a draw, had to bow to the might of its opponent after giving a good account of itself all through the match.

It was Dawood Suleiman who clinched the issue for Railways in a fleeting moment of smart play, crashing home a rebound from the shot by Sunil Kumar taking the team's sixth penalty corner. Three minute earlier, Chander Pal found the equaliser with an opportunistic deflection off a sharp hit from the left by Satish Kumar. Having got the lead Railways' joy knew no bound. Its players jumped up and hugged each other as if they had won the title itself.

CRPF forced two more penalty corners afterwards, but the team was unable to spoil the victory mood of Railways this day. CRPF's inability to convert more than one of its 12 penalty corners, most of which were attempted by S.K. Vasisht, proved its undoing.

A fine execution of its ninth penalty corner in the 21st minute of the second half, with Priyo Kumar doubling up as a deflector in directing a hit by Jolen Topno into the goal, after the dynamic left-winger had played the role of a pusher, provided a ray of hope for CRPF to clinch the lone spot. However, it failed to stop the spirited Railways from scoring the two required goals.

For a team that had messed up a penalty stroke towards the end of the first half, it was a splendid recovery by Railways. Bikramjit Singh made a feeble attempt to convert the stroke-awarded by umpire Virender Bahadur Singh, after Briznev Singh had been obstructed by the defence-and CRPF goalkeeper Robindro Singh had little trouble blocking the push even as he fell to his right.

Railways had not looked like scoring a goal for the better part of the match although it forced five penalty corners, but when the moment of reckoning came, the team rose to the occasion.

Railways awaits the topper in group `III', featuring Chandigarh, Punjab, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. It will have four days of rest and recuperation before the knock-out match scheduled for December 15.

Air India puts up a good challenge

Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) which did not entertain any fight back from Air India, clinching the other qualifier's spot from group `II', with a 2-1 victory. Air India needed a draw to make the grade, but did not measure up to the task.

PSB showed a lot of purpose in every move it made, and in retaining the injured Saneev Kumar who was further injured during the course of the day, the bank team showed that it was ready to pull together bravely.

Two scoring shots off the team's second and third penalty corners, by Parminder Singh and Rajinder Singh, respectively, helped PSB take half-time with a 2-0 margin.

Air India pulled one back in the 28th minute, after a few raids, Kishore Kumar pushing home in a melee. He could have become the hero of the day, but his final shot was wide off target seconds from the hooter.

It was a good challenge by Air India, but the bankmen were far too focussed to be shaken though they came close to paying for their defensive attitude towards the end.

PSB meets the qualifier from group `IV', the league for which will start from Monday, featuring Indian Airlines, Services, Border Security Force apart from host Jammu and Kashmir.

Karnataka drowns Tamil Nadu

There was a lot of cheer for Karnataka in its inconsequential encounter against Tamil Nadu, recording a reverberating 7-3 victory after leading 5-3 at half-time. Anup Anthony, Arjun Halappa and Thanu Nanjappa were particularly impressive, scoring two goals each. Prakash Chalke netted the seventh.

Quite encouraging to its supporters was the fact that Karnataka managed to convert four of its seven penalty corners. Tamil Nadu though it played well in the first half, scoring through L. Prabhakaran (2) and Cedric D'Cruz, lacked the drive to prolong the fight any further.

Hyderabad humiliated further

Skipper Deepak Thakur found his touch, a bit too late though, as he scored four goals in a row in Indian Oil's 6-0 victory over Hyderabad, in another inconsequential match. Hamza Moztaba and Lakhwinder Singh were the other marksmen for the Oil team.

Things improve

After a spell of starting trouble, things have started rolling smoothly in the national hockey championship here.

The problem of playing with low quality balls was sorted out on the second day itself with the organisers procuring, from the Indian Airlines team, Kookaburra balls. However, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Hockey Association, Mr. Narinder Batra, was upset about the criticism in the media.

Meanwhile, spectators continued to stand and watch the proceedings from the far side as the mushrooming shamianas are blocking their view.

In the absence of a communication centre at the venue, a solitary local telephone line with a conference facility arrangement with a PCO operator, along with a fax machine, had been catering to the needs of both the local and national media. However, the fax machine vanished from the scene on Sunday along with the operator who was providing the conference facility.

Super-league table: Group I: (read as played, won, drawn, lst, goals-for, goals-against, and points): Railways: 3, 3, -, -, 6, 2, 9. CRPF: 3, 2, -, 1, 6, 3, 6. Karnataka: 3, 1, -, 2, 9, 8, 3. Tamil Nadu: 3, -, -, 3, 3, 11, 0.

Group II: PSB: 3, 2, 1, -, 11, 3, 7. Air India: 3, 2, -, 1, 5, 3, 6. Indian Oil: 3, 1, 1, 1, 8, 4, 4. Hyderabad: 3, -, -, 3, 1, 15, 0.

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