Prabodh’s golden goal takes ‘Johar’ Jharkhand to the Friday Final

A timely penalty corner conversion by ever-green Prabodh Tirkey in the second half of the extra time gave the hosts Jharkhand a chance to strike gold in the Ranchi National Games.

Jharkahand now will meet Punjab which overcame Services in the other semis, on Friday

The semifinal match, which was called off due to disturbances yesterday, was played in the wee hours of today, where Prabodh cornered the glory.

The match started with Maharashtra converting the penalty stroke — the award of which by umpire Ragu Prasad triggered the disturbances — and thus posting first goal of the first semifinal.

However, Jharkhand equalized shortly to take the match to the extra-time. After first extra time spell went without goals, Prabodh rescued Jharkhand with a indirect penalty corner conversion.

Hockey at Ranchi has been a grand success, with its power to draw full crowd, spilling over 12,000 which is almost double size of the stadium capacity.

As we already reported, Punjab has won the other semis, thus on Friday the crowd will be in for a grand treat of a battle royal for the coveted gold.

Maharashtra team:

VIKASH PILLAY (Captain),
ALDEN DSOUZA (Goal Keeper),
TYRON PEREIRA,
DIWAKAR RAM,
V.S. VINAYA, TUSHAR KHANDKER,
MD. AMIR KHAN,
MANDEEP ANTIL,
KANCHAN,
VIKRAM PILLAY,
LALIT UPADHYAY,
JAYESH JADHAV,
YUVRAJ WALMIKI,
VIKRAM YADAV.
PRAMOD KUMAR,
ADRIAN DISOUZA.

Jharkhan Team:
BIMAL LAKRA (Captain),
DINESH EKKA (Goal Keeper),
WILLIAM XALXO,
INOCENT KULLU,
PRABODH TIRKEY,
BERENDER,
BELSEZER HORO,
BIKAS TOPPO,
ROSHAN MINZ,
BERENDER LAKRA,
MANJEET,
SHASHI TOPNO,
MATHIAS MINJ, SUMAN,
SUMIT TOPNO,
JOHN.