Mumbai Hockey Academy Lift Aga Khan Cup
Pune: Mumbai Hockey Academy (MHA) got the better of local favourites Vikram Pillay Academy (VPA) 2-1 to lift the senior division Aga Khan Cup hockey trophy at PCMC stadium on Sunday. In the other finals, St. Anne’s claimed the double by winning the interschool girls’ title and the open women’s trophy.
VPA had to pay the penalty for their defensive lapses against MHA who slammed in two quick goals in a span of
four minutes to seal the fate of the local team. Suresh Singh converted a penalty corner for MHA in the sixth minute. Four minutes later, Amit Gowda gave a pass to inside-right Victo Singh to score the second goal. VPA reduced the margin in the 56th minute through Vinod Pillay from their sixth penalty corner.
That penalty corner was controversial. Play was stopped for a few minutes when umpire Sikander Jaffer disallowed a goal scored by VPA’s Shakti Thakur. The umpire changed his original decision of awarding a goal after consulting his colleague Firoz Shaikh and instead awarded a penalty corner.
Former hockey players felicitated
On the occasion of the 105th edition of Aga Khan Cup, 13 former national players were felicitated by the Maharashtra Hockey Association (MHA). They are Satinder Singh Walia, S. Xavier, Dominic Anthony, Devdas Martin, S.V. Motling, G. Salvi, A. R. Chande, Latif Shaikh, Ramchandra Lonare, Daniel Boodle and Govind Swamy Pillay.