SAI ‘D’ is champion

BANGALORE: Sports Authority of India ‘D’ with an all-win record emerged champion of the State B division hockey league. At the KSHA stadium here on Saturday, SAI ‘D’ humbled Maratha Light Infantry (MLI) ‘B’ (Belgaum) 3-1 to top the semifinal league.

BSNL, by virtue of its better goal difference (-1), gained promotion alongside SAI ‘D’, to the A division for the next season.

MLI ‘B’ needed at least a draw to gain promotion and with a first-minute goal by Amit Kadam a contest was on the cards.

But sadly once the SAI boys settled down it was mostly one-way traffic, barring a couple of sporadic raids.

The SAI ‘D’ frontline of Mandanna and Naveen looked dangerous everytime a pass came their way inside the box and backed by a fine midfield the local boys looked compact. Mandanna levelled scores giving the finishing touches to a fine move down the left by Mallikarjun in the seventh minute and soon after the change of ends Naveen Patil came up with a peach of a goal, veering to his left and reverse hitting into the net to gain the lead for SAI.

Three minutes from the final whistle Mandanna capped a fine run with Mallikarjun to round off the tally.

The Belgaum side finished third with a -2 goal difference while Synergy SC, which drew 1-1 with BSNL in the earlier match, ended at the bottom.

Kodandapani sounded the boards in the 29th minute for BSNL following its first penalty corner, while Synergy SC snatched the equaliser, also off a penalty corner converted by Umesh in the 59th minute. — Special Correspondent