Hosts Mumbai, Punjab enter the semis

Mumbai, June 6: Hosts Mumbai and favourites Punjab entered the semi finals of the Junior National Hockey Championship for boy’s under-17 by crushing their rivals Chattisgarh and Tamil Nadu respectively by 9-2 and 7-0. Karnataka and Rajasthan also made it to the semis. The former prevailed 2-1 over Chandigarh while the latter staged a magnificent recovery to oust Bhopal 4-3 in an action packed encounter.

Mumbai take on Rajasthan whereas Karnataka meet mighty Punjab in the semi finals.

Mumbai showed excellent team work while outclassing Chattisgarh although they made a hash of eleven penalty corners. They converted just two, the first which gave them the lead in the 8th minute through captain Roshan Keisham. Mumbai increased the lead mid-way through the first half when Jarryd Nunes found the net. Thereafter, Mumbai went on a scoring spree through Anup Walmiki, Aditya Shirke , Ganendrajit Ranjit and Nikhil Pujari in the last ten minutes to amass 6-0 lead at the break. A fine drive by Shane Fletcher from penalty corner made it 7-0 for Mumbai. After Rajat Sharma scored the eighth goal Chattisgarh taking advantages of some slack play by the Mumbai side reduced the margin through Raja Khan and Sumit Patle. Moses Pullanthara rounded off the tally with a minute left for the final whistle.

Bhopal was leading comfortably 3-1 by the 51st minutes but let complacency creep in which finally led to their downfall. Bhopal dominated the first half as Shahanawaz Khan scored in the 3rd and 20th minutes. Rajasthan came back with Sanjay Khan sneaking in a goal in the 25th minute. Shahanawas Khan converted Bhopal’s 6th penalty corner in the 51st minute to strengthen his team’s position. But Rajasthan pulled a coup of sort by scoring in the 60th and 61st minute through Mahendra Khokhar and consistent scorer Charitra Singh Bishnoi who converted a penalty corner.

For Punjab in the inner trio of Harsahib Singh (2) Sukhdev Singh (3) and Davinder Kumar did all the damage. Gurpreet Singh (Sr.) rounded off the tally for Punjab in the 69th minute. The winners had sewn up the match with a 5-0 lead at half time. Karnataka scored through Anthony Rakesh in the 33rd minute of the play and P.A.Somanna in the 58th minute. Chandigarh who were surprisingly subdued, managed to pull one back through Gurjant Singh in the 62nd minute of play.

Brief results

Rajasthan 4 (Sanjay Khan, Manohar Singh, Mahendra Khokhar, Charitra Singh Bishnoi) beat Bhopal 3 (Shahnawaz Khan 3)

Punjab 7 (Sukhdev Singh 3,Harsahib Singh 2, Davinder Kumar, Gurpreet Singh (Sr) beat Tamil Nadu 0

Karnataka 2 (Antony J Rakesh, Somanna P.A ) beat Chandigarh 1 (Gurjant Singh)

Mumbai 9 (Roshan Keisham , Jarryd Nunes, Anup Walmiki, Aditya Shirke, Ganendrajit Ranjit, Nikhil Pujari, Rajat Sharma, Moses Pullanthara ) beat Chattisgarh 2 (Raja Khan, Sumit Patle)