UP boys go down fighting in quarters
LUCKNOW :Finally, it was the end of the road for favourites Uttar Pradesh at the 7th Sub-Junior National Hockey Championship 2017 (Men) A Division on Thursday as they went down fighting to Odisha 3-5 in quarterfinals via a shoot out at Bengaluru.
In a tense and fiercely contested encounter, the two teams were inseparable after full time. It was Odisha, who started off stronger, quicker and with more purpose. Ajay Kumar Ekka gave them the lead in the 10th minute, a goal that was followed by Sushil Dhanwar’s in the 31st minute, to take them into the break two goals to the good.
In a surprising twist though, Uttar Pradesh came out of the break fresher, and looking way more dangerous. They took advantage soon enough, scoring via Akhtar Ali (48th) and Saurabh Anand (58th) to draw level (2-all).
Odisha latched up their defence soon enough though, and the despite a host of attacks, neither could break the deadlock at full time. In the subsequent shootout, Odisha triumphed 3-1 to move into the semi-finals.
Earlier, Sports Authority of India beat Haryana 3-2 in the first quarterfinal of the day. Ankush gave Sports Authority of India the lead in the fifth minute with a smartly taken goal. It took almost half an hour for another goal to arrive, Haryana equalising through Aryan Kadian in the 29th minute.
Within a minute though Ankush scored his second for SAI (2-1), captain Sunny Malik restored parity for Haryana minutes before the break, converting a stroke into goal (2-all). In the 59th minute Rimanshu scored the match-winner.
In other two quarterfinals of the day, Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy edged out Punjab 4-3 in a high scoring, high action thriller, whereas Chandigarh beat Karnataka 7-0 to book the last semi final spot.