Rajasthan holds Bengal

Bengal 1 Rajasthan 1

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, FEB. 10. Bengal was held to a 1-1 draw by Rajasthan in a Group-G league match of the National Junior hockey championship at the police hockey stadium in Begumpet here on Saturday.

Despite long spells of domination, Bengal failed to score with Rajasthan defending stoutly for the major part of the match.

Although Bengal is considered one of the favourites in this group along with host Hyderabad, it was Rajasthan which took the lead only four minutes after the start, scoring through Jeevan Singh who latched on to the ball just inside the Bengal territory and raced along the left flank before working his way into the striking area and deftly finding the mark with a reverse flick.

Bengal equalised in the 11th minute after a good series of passes between Paulus Soy, Rajan Lakra and Stephen Kujur.

The first attempt by Lakra saw the ball rebound off the goal- keeper Davinder Singh's pads but Kujur was at hand to bang the ball in.

In the first half Bengal had four penalty corners while Rajasthan had only two.

In the second session also Bengal continued to dominate and forced six penalty corners but lack of co-ordination at the finish prevented the team from scoring. Joseph Ekka, Stephen Kujur and Renal Singh caught the eye during Bengal's attacks while for Rajasthan Dilip Meena, Jeevan Singh and Vishnu Saini put in a lot of hard work but to no avail.

Karnataka's Sandeep Micheal is all set to score past Jammu & Kashmir goal-keeper Paramveer Singh in the 31st National Junior hockey championship in Chennai on Saturday.

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Section  : Sport
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