Formidable Begumpur annexes inaugural Dhyan Chand Sports Day Cup

In a match that went down the wire, established school outfit Begumpur GBSSS struck a stunning goal to win the First Dhyan Chand Sports Day Cup at Shivaji stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.

The new competition in Delhi was jointly organized by the 50-year old Nehru Society and the city based hockey NGO, One Thousand Hockey Legs.

Though Begumpur established a clear two goal lead after its main winger Braj Gopal converted a stroke, bemusing rival goalie Jaseem Md, unforgiving Saket came with a lightening goal through the stick of Vikrant close to first half, after his brother Sonu set up the move from the right flank. With half time score standing 2-1 in favour of ultimate winners, a cracker of the second half was expected, and it was.
Midway through Saket GBSSS came with another stunner and equalized.

Even as the match was meandering towards a draw, came that stunner, a self goal. All rounder Abhisek Rana sprinted past from right and sent a strong diagonal, which Sushil Chauhan tried to stop but bounced into the goal. The umpire appeared a bit confused at the beginning, but moments later signaled the goal, which turned out to be the Cup decider.

Hardworking Pawan pleaded for no-touch, but the umpire stood his decision and thus the two days of exciting hockey event came to the fitting climax with Begumpur GBSSS annexing the Cup, presented by Sardar Bhupinder Singh in fond memory of his late son.

Earlier, of all the teams, Saket 2 met their seniors in the first semifinals, while Begumpur 2, again a junior side, clashed with their seniors in the morning Semifinals.

While Begumpur struggled to get past their juniors, though ultimately they won 3-0, the juniors of neighbourhood Saket buckled under the pressure of their seniors, going down to 6-1.

12 teams took part in the two-day event, three teams each in four pool, the pool topper making it to the semifinal.

As expected both Begumpur and Saket seniors made it to the grade with two clear wins, Begumpur juniors and Saket juniors too emulated their seniors with same number of wins to make it to the seminfinals from Pool C and B respectively.

What came as a surprise was Begumpur 2 winning senior side Anglo-Arabic and then defeating another senior side Ashok Vihar. Mohit Kumar, young and up-coming goalie of the Begumpur side did a favour to their team with an immaculate stopping of Rehan sSr.’s penalty push. And then ever-energetic Kishen Singh, star of the Junior side, came with a last gasp goal to seal -0 victory against Anglo Arabic.

School teams from Shahpur Jat, M.B. Road, Khanpur, Mehrauli and Ashok Vihar took part.
Triple Olympic goldie Balbir Singh senior gave away the trophy and medals to the winning teams in the presence of Kukoo Walia, the brain behind the concept of Dhyan Chand Sports Day Cup.

The beaming Secretary of the Nehru Society announced the event will be held annually, and with more teams on board.

Good gesture for the schools who long for tournaments.