Janakpuri-Ashok Vihar final in the Delhi OTHL Sunday League
Government Boys Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Ashok Vihar and Government Boys Senior Secondary School Janakpuri entered the grand final of the 3-month long Delhi OTHL Sunday League.
While Ashok Vihar, which came fourth in the league easily outwitted
League topper Govt Boys Senior Secondary School, Ghittorni, Janakpuri established overall supremacy in seeing off the tough challenge of Govt Boys Senior Secondary School, Mahrauli.
The final between Ashok VIhar and Janakpuri will be played on Sunday.
The first of its kind in schools hockey, the Delhi OTHL Sunday League was started in September with top 14 of the 24 schools where hockey was introduced by the Delhi based NGO Hockey Citizen Group which runs globally acclaimed project One Thousand Hockey Legs.
Earlier, Government Boys Senior Secondary School Saket engaged Mahrauli outfit for a play off and lost in the shoot out.
Though the Mahrauli School came second in the pool after playing 16 matches, it was asked to play the fifth placed team Saket in order to hand out a mild punishment for the top team for using more camp players in certain earlier matches against the stipulation.
Top 50 players are undergoing a 6-month long camp in Delhi. In order to give more chance to fringe players in the school teams, each team was allowed only to play two of their camp players in the first phase of the League.
This play off was fought with vigour and vengeance. First Mahrauli took the lead with the goal coming from Mohd. Fardeen in the 8th minute. However, Dilip, a camp player equalized three minutes before hooter. In the resulted penalty shoot out, both Anil Paswan and Ram Singh failed to convert while Baljit Singh and Sumit Sharma utilied their quota fruitfully, handing out semifinal berth to their team.
Saket also missed a stroke in the course of play.
Saket will on Sunday face Yogi Arvind Sarvoday Bal Vidyalaya in the 5th place decider.
Guddu led Ghittorni, which won 10 of its 16 matches in the League, and thus topped the pool with 54 points, gave a tough fight throughout the contest, but could not reply 15th minute field goal struck by Mohd. Kaif. Farman Ansari, Sagar Nepali and Chandra Bhusan worked in tandem upfront to equalize but the defence manned by experienced Teenu, Mohsin Ali, Mohd. Saif stood solid.
The other semifinal between two experienced teams Janakpuri and Mahrauli was an intense affair, but from the word go its is apparent who is dictating terms. Its Janakpuri team led by strapped Vikas.
Engineered by the energy of Kanhaiya Kumar Mahrauli had its moments initially with Mohd Fardeen, Abhinandan and Sumit Sharma on attack. Baljit Singh and Rupender Singh were also strong at the back. However, in a break away move, set up by camp boy Gulshan Prasad, opportunistic Dharmender found the ball home in the 13th minute.
He got the feed on the left side on line, took it to the D along side lines and unleashed a strong forehand to see the ball crahing the other side net.
Three minutes earlier, Ajay Kumar converted a penalty corner to give the ultimate winner a grand start.
These two goals were adequate for the Janakpuri team to enter the Sunday final.
Fixture for Sunday
7-8th Place: Anglo-Arabic Vs GBSSS, Khanpur.
5-6th Place: GBSSS Saket Vs YA SBV
3-4th Place: GBSSS Ghittorni Vs GBSSS Mahrauli
1-2nd Place: GB SBV Ashok Vihar Vs GBSSS Janakpuri