All-Jalandhar semis in Liberals Hockey
It will be an all-Jalandhar affair in the semifinals of the 36th Liberals All-India hockey tournament with EME, Jalandhar, showing the door to Air Force, New Delhi, 4-1, Punjab Police, Jalandhar beating Western Railway 2-1, Punjab & Sind Bank, Jalandhar, trouncing CRPF, New Delhi, 6-0 and BSF, Jalandhar, ending the winning spree of giant killers Hawks Ropar 4-2.
EME demolished the Air Force defences and forged ahead 1-0 in the 3rd minute with a penalty-corner goal by center-forward Biju who connected to a rebound to sound the board.
EME captain Avtar Singh led assault and played a perfect pivotal role to upset the Air Force defence time and again. He scored with a powerful flick following a penalty-corner in the 12th minute to put his side 2-0 ahead. Gujinder converted a penalty-corner in the 19th minute to score the 3rd goal for EME.
Inside-left Solomon split the Air Force defence with accurate stickwork in 43rd minute to score the fourth. Inside-right Varinder converted a penalty-corner in 56th minute to score a consolation goal for Air Force.
Last year’s runners-up Western Railway, Mumbai, were ousted by formidable Punjab Police by a solitary second-half goal in a hard-fought encounter. The Railwaymen initiated an attack from the right wing in the 10th minute but the centre from outside-right Manish was not properly connected to by Mohammed Tariq.
Crossing over goalless, the policemen initiated a few good moves which fizzled out inside the circle. They finally went ahead in the 58th minute through inside-left Harinder Singh an accurate pass from centre-forward Jaskaran Singh and made no mistake to beat the goalkeeper Saurabh Singh.
Defending champions PSB toyed with the hapless CRPF. Parminder Singh, Daler Singh, Karamjeet Singh and Mandeep Singh scored a goal each while centre-forward Sumeet Singh converted two penalty corners.
In the last match, BSF Jalandhar stopped Hawks Ropar in a closely-contested and charged encounter. Hawks gained 1-0 lead in the 12th minute through Navjot Singh.
BSF regrouped their and equalised in the 25th minute through Harpinder Singh. Raising their game, BSF surged ahead in the last minute of the first-half when Harpinder scored again off a penalty-corner.
The Ropar lads fought hard while the policemen were reduced to eight men after a brawl in front of the Hawks goal. Ropar used the opportunity, equalising in the 49th minute with Navjot sounded the board again.
BSF, once back to full strength, earned two penalty strokes in the 59th and 68th minutes and captain Varinderjeet Singh made no mistake to give a 4-2 win to his side.