Punjab and Sind Bank beat PDHA

The Pune District Hockey Association (PDHA) went down fighting to a sturdy Punjab and Sind Bank Academy in the pre-quarter-final match of the 35th Junior (under-20) National Hockey Championship for boys and girls, organized by the Pune District Hockey Association under the Indian Hockey Federation. The match wss played at Major Dhyanchand Ground, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nehrunagar on Friday.

The Punjab Academy got off to a solid start scoring twice in the opening two minutes. In the first minute, Jaspreet Singh worked his way down the right and with a measured square pass set up Rajnish Kumar with the simple task of a tap in and in the next minute Jaswinder Singh sounded the boards with a firm drive from the edge of the striking circle.

Despite these two early setbacks, the nippy PDHA lads did not lose heart. Instead they regrouped and took the fight to their rivals and managed to reduce the margin in the 12th minute when Vinit Kambale beat PSB goalkeeper to give his team a hope of a fight back.

The Punjab made to fight hard by the youngsters from Pune did well to get an insurance goal in the 64th minute through the efforts of Jaswinder Singh.Earlier in the morning, a fitter and better organized Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Orissa, cut down to size a much a much stronger and bigger build Chandigarh Academy as they romped to 5-2 victory in a keenly contested pre-quarter-final match. The Orissa applied themselves better in every department as compared to their opponents to emerge worthy winners and advance to the quarter-finals.

SAIL rocked the Chandigarh citadel in the very sixth minute when Mikhail Barla scored from an indirect penalty corner drill to put his team in front. A further 15minutes later Chandigarh goalkeeper Harjot Singh fouled Ignatius Toppo and umpire A S Negi awarded SAIL a penatly stroke which was easily converted by Deepak Kullu to double the lead.

But just SAIL appeared to be taking the match away, the Chandigarh rallied strongly as they hit back scoring twice in as many minutes through Gurjant Singh (27th minute) and Kawaldeep Singh in the next minute to restore parity. But on the stroke of half-time, SAIL regained the lead (3-2) when Jitendra yadav tapped in the rebound after goalkeeper Harjot blocked Ignatiaus Toppo’s try from the right.

The Orissa side continued in the same vein on resumption and increased the margin when Barla’s feeble hit from the right saw goalkeeper Harjot’s move in the right direction but he could not prevent the ball from rolling into the goal. For the second time in the match Harjot committed a deliberate foul, this time he brought down Sunil Topno and once again Kullu made no mistake from the penalty spot.

Pre-quarter-final results

Boy’s – SAIL 5 (Sushil Xalxo 6th-PC, Deepak Kullu 21st-PS, Jitendra Jadav 34th, Sushil Xalxo 51st, Deepak Kullu 69th-PS) bt Chandigarh Academy 2 (Gurjant Singh 27th, Kawaldeep Singh 28th).

Punjab & Sind Bank 3 (Jaswinder Singh 1stmin, 64th) bt PDHA 1 (Vinit Kambale 12th).