The Hindu : It's goal-keepers' day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 19, 2002

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Sport - Hockey

It's goal-keepers' day

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI APRil 18. Goal-keepers called the shots in two knock-out matches of the 40th Bombay Gold Cup Hockey on Thursday.

Bharath Chetri's confidence under the bar enabled Karnataka XI defeat a superior Sikh Regiment Centre 3-0 via the tie-breaker after the regulation time produced no goals.

Earlier Hyderabad XI custodian Murli Krishna appeared determined to block everything within range against a rampaging Western Railway before the latter sneaked home 1-0 at the Mahindra Stadium.

Karnataka XI, now in the quarterfinal, will meet the winners of the Indian Airlines-Corps of Signals match, a tough proposition considering the manner the team shaped up against SRC.

The defence came with a couple of timely saves, the halfline was non-existent and the forwardline struggled to translate ball possession into penetrative moves.

Eventually, it was left to Chetri to extend his domination over the SRC forwards in the tie-breaker, palming away Vinay Kumar's effort and then blocking Sukhwinder Singh's feeble push without much trouble. Rajpal Singh failed to convert the third stroke to ensure SRC's exit. Arun Rawat, A. Kavin and Arjun Halappa were successful for the winners.

Chetri was kept busy right through in regulation time, making an immediate impression with a dive to his right to glove away a snap attempt by Rajpal off SRC's second penalty corner.

He then put his foot out in time to clear the ball away from a rampaging Lalit Indwar.

The Karnataka XI goalkeeper's third effort came in the second half, getting into position to block a Mangra Minz hit near the right post after Manpreet Singh split the defence with a neat through pass.

SRC was lucky to see an attempt by Arun Ram on the run, off a Anup Anthony relay, crash into the crossbar and bounce out of danger. Karnataka XI found it difficult to get a clear look at the rival goal, with the army team getting the men behind the ball and employing a tight defence. Chetri's show in the goal forced the match into penalty strokes, coming up with three saves to carry his team into the quarterfinal.

Western Railway won the first match on the strength of a 18th minute penalty stroke conversion by Gursev Singh, though Hyderabad XI should consider themselves lucky not to lose by a bigger margin.

Chander Pal was a threat every time he broke through into the goal-mouth, starting with an eighth minute move. He picked up a loose ball and scooped on the run, but Hyderabad XI goalkeeper Murli Krishna padded the ball away.

The Western striker came up with another superb effort towards the end, cleverly scooping over the advancing goalkeeper, but found the ball narrowly missing the target.

Vijay Alphonso, Deepak Kumar and Prem Kumar Singh were the other Western strikers who came to scoring, the former finding a swift trap-n-hit going over followed by a reverse hit striking the goalkeeper's pads.

Hyderabad could have got the equaliser against the run of play in the 64th minute, but Western custodian Sairam Bishnoi rushed out in the nick of time to foil Chander Singh. The move came off a counter-attack, Chander relaying the ball to Anand Ratna Kumar who passed back to the former.

The results: Western Railway 1 (Gursev Singh) bt Hyderabad XI; Karnataka XI 3 (Arun Rawat, A.Kavin, Arjun Halappa) bt Sikh Regimental Centre 0 via tie-breaker.

Friday's matches: Central Industrial Security Force vs Western Rly and RCF vs BPCL.

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