The Hindu : Vivek is IHF Juniors' hero

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 12, 2003

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Vivek is IHF Juniors' hero

By Our Hockey Correspondent

Bhopal XI 4 MEG 2

IHF Juniors 1 ONGC 0

IFH Juniors' skipper Vivek Gupta (second from left) celebrates his match-winning goal with his teammates in the 81st all-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament in Chennai on Friday.

Chennai July 11. To Vivek Gupta went the credit of scoring the only goal in the match for Indian Hockey Federation Juniors against the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in Pool C of the Madras Cricket Club-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Friday.

The reverse put ONGC out of contention for a place in the quarterfinals, having lost both its matches in the league.

The importance of Vivek Gupta's goal lay not only in giving the team the well deserved three points but was also a compensation for his failure to convert a penalty stroke midway in the first half.

A quick dart by Arumugam was obstructed by goalkeeper Gurinder Singh and the umpire Satish Sharma had no hesitation in showing the spot. Vivek Gupta prepared for the push, but hurried it a bit, sending the ball knee high to the right of the goalkeeper, who had no difficulty in blocking.

On the whole, it was a prosaic contest in which the Juniors enjoyed the upper hand. At least there was a clear cut dominance by the mid-field where Vivek Gupta worked like a beaver assisted well on the flanks by Jagath Jothi on the right and Birendra Lakra on the left.

In fact, Birendra created several openings for the frontline, which for all its presence in the rival zone, did precious little. Jagath Jothi combined well with winger Arumugam who burst through repeatedly but was unable to translate any of the chances apart from earning a stroke.

On the defensive for the major part, ONGC showed no urgency to hit the target. Barring a solo run by Gurpreet Singh in the first half there was nothing much from its attack which showed no signs of cohesion.

The match winner for Juniors surfaced late in the second half following a penalty corner. Navpreet Singh actually fumbled while receiving the ball, but managed to recover and push it to an unmarked Vivek Gupta. Picking the ball on the left, Vivek Gupta unleashed a blinder of a backhander that gave goalkeeper Gurinder Singh no chance.

The Juniors however surveyed an anxious moment when Ravi Bharati misdirected a withering shot from a penalty corner.

The outcome ensured a quarterfinal berth both for IHF Juniors and Air India, who have three points each in pool C.

Bhopal XI dominates

A stout-hearted performance in the second half by MEG, Bangalore, enlivened the whole atmosphere after a listless first half. The Bhopal XI dominated almost throughout forcing as many as seven penalty corners — 13 in the match. But inadequate was its finish after Aftabuddin struck in the early minutes of the match.

The MEG defence was disorganised, allowing easy passage to the hard working Bhopal forwards for which Altaf-ur-Rehman was prominent with skipper Arif Beg on the wing. But the margin could not be enlarged.

In the early part of the second half, however, Bhopal increased the lead when Asad Kamal provided the finishing touches to an excellent work out by Altaf-ur-Rehman. Just as one thought that MEG was caving without a semblance of a fight came a whiplash shot by Devadas, a backhander at that, to narrow the margin.

Suddenly, the prospect of a draw brightened with MEG applying pressure. Striker Samson Fernandez and M. Tiru caused palpable tension in the opponent's area. And when Bicksal Bhengra slammed in the equaliser about 10 minutes from end, it appeared as though Bhopal would even confront defeat.

When five minutes remained for the hooter, Athar Khan essayed a neat penalty corner hit. Even before the cheers died down, Altaf-ur-Rehman demonstrated his calibre as an international with a sinuous run through the defence and capped his effort with a wristy flick to the top of the net. It proved a fitting finale to the performance of Bhopal XI, which has three points from two matches in Pool A. Now, it has to wait for the outcome between Tamil Nadu and MEG on Sunday to determine who among the three makes it to the last eight from this pool.

Saturday's matches: ASC v Indian Railways (2-15 p.m.); Karnataka v Punjab Police (4-15 p.m.).

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