Mumbai beat Karnatka, take 1-0 lead in 6-test series

Mumbai, January 22: Hosts Mumbai beat neighbours Karnataka by 4-2 in their first match of the U 21 six match series which commenced here at the MHA Mahindra Stadium here today. Mumbai were sitting pretty at half time having scored three goals only to encounter an aggressive Karnataka in the latter session.

They weathered the storm due to some smart work under the bar by Sudhir Dixit to run out deserving winners. A new concept of a bilateral series mooted by both the states has a prize money of one lakh rupees for the winner and fifty thousand to the second best team. A trophy in the name of two greats Balbir Singh Grewal (railways) and M.P.Ganesh has also been instituted for this event, an annual feature.

Mumbai swarmed their rivals citadel from the word go which rattled the visitors. MOM for Mumbai Abung Singh made a good attempt for the winners in the eight minute only to be denied by Karnataka custodian Jagdeep who became too busy thereafter thwarting the rival attacks. But he was forced to let his citadel down in the eleventh minute.

Victo Singh who mesmerized the rival defence sent in a strong cross for his captain to dive full length forward and connect the ball at the far post for a brilliant goal. Karnataka kept back pedaling but were saved when centre half Ashish Shirodkar hit a nice reverse hit which went inches wide. The next minute Victo Singh broke through but Jagdeep rushed out and blocked him in time.

Karnataka fell into arrears further as a 25th minute penalty corner was converted by Sandeep Singh with a low powerful drag flick to the right of Jagdeep. Within two minutes Devender Walmiki scored from a melee. Narad Bahadur moved swiftly from the left and served a minus ball and Devendra struck after Jagdeep failed another forward initially.

Mumbai managed to keep Karnataka at bay with Sudhir Dikshit rushing out in time to foil rival captain Mohd.Rafeeq and then keeping out a chest high drag flick from an extended penalty corner on the stroke of half time. The visitors fell behind further with Victo nailing a shot after getting a square pass from Muthanna.

A disjointed Mumbai defence allowed the losers space and time but they failed to utilize the chances Nitin Thimmaiah converted their first penalty corner and Biju scored with a fierce driven from the right to beat Sudhir Dikshit hands down.

The keeper had earlier thwarted Nitin twice to impress in his first major outing. World Cupper Omkar Singh – Double and Olympian and Arjuna Awardee M.M.Somaya were the Chief Guests on the day.

Tomorrow, the same teams will play their second test, and also Air India ‘B’ will take on F United in the Senior Division.