UP and Air India lose in quarterfinals
Former national hockey player Shahid Parvez and his family, including his wife and son, have been watching almost all the matches of the Senior National Hockey Championship for the last one week as they have a passion for the game.
They come to the ground every morning and go back just before the Iftar even while following the rituals of Roza (fast). For them, Thursday was a disappointing day for them as their favourite teams Air India and hosts Uttar Pradesh lost in the quarterfinals.
Former runners-up Uttar Pradesh go down meekly to last year’s runners-up Punjab, whereas former champions Air India went down fighting to Punjab & Sindh Bank 3-4 in penalty shootout. In other two quarterfinals in the morning, defending champions Railways beat Comptroller Accounts General (CAG) 3-1, before Chandigarh outplaying Mumbai 4-3 in a thriller.
Despite dominating the first two quarters, a young Uttar Pradesh side, lost their steam and succumbed to the pressure of playing against a top team like Punjab, which had seven wellknown faces of Indian hockey, including captain Gurbaj Singh.
Playing before a moderate crowd at the Padamshree Mohd Shahid Hockey stadium, UP men could have challenged Punjab, had they successfully converted as many as three open net chances in the first two quarters. Punjab after drawing the first blood through Baljinder Singh in the 28th minutes, never looked back and shot three more goals through Dharamvir Singh (31st), Amanpreet Singh (46th) and Gurjant Singh (49th).
Former India stars Arjuna Halappa and Shivendra Singh plotted Air India’s first goal as Mohd Umar didn’t miss the pass and shot the ball home in the 24th minute (1-0). But a minute before the lemon time, Gaganpreet Singh struck the equalizer (1-all).
Halappa’s hit on a penalty corner chance in the 60th minute bounced back after hitting the side bar, and this proved crucial for the side, which even after taking 2-0 lead in the shootout, lost the battle as P&S men converted last three chances into goals at ease, whereas Air India men missed all three. For champions Railways, it turned out to be a cake-walk as they dominated the proceedings from the word go. Shesha Gowda (30th), Yuvraj Walmiki (36th) and Affan Yousuf (37th) netted for the side, whereas Gurpratap Singh struck the consolation goal for CAG. Contrary to this, Chandigarh had to struggle a bit before brushing aside Mumbai. Damanjit Singh (7th, 58th) and Damandeep Singh (28th, 32nd) shared four goals between them, whereas Amit Goswami (50th), Vikram Yadav (56th) and Mayur Patel (59th) reduced the margin for Mumbai. On Saturday, Railways will take on Chandigarh in the first semi-final at 3.00 p.m., whereas Punjab meet P&SB in the second semi-final at 5.00 p.m. The final and the hard-line matches are slated for Sunday.