The Tribune: Jalandhar boys enter semifinals

West Central Railways, Jabalpur, EME Jalandhar, CRPF, Jalandhar, and BSF, Jalandhar, won their respective matches in the quarterfinals of the GS Bains Liberals All India Hockey Tournament at the PPS Nabha hockey grounds.

West Central Railways defeated SAI Hostel, Kurukshetra, 2-1, EME, Jalandhar, ousted CISF, New Delhi, 4-3. CRPF overwhelmed J&K Police 6-0 and BSF, Jalandhar, edged out SGPC academy 1-0 to march into the semifinals.
In the first quarterfinal, West Central Railway overcame a stiff resistance from young SAI Hostel, Kurukshetra, to register 2-1 win and make it to the semifinals.

The railway men gained 1-0 lead in the 19th minute when fullback Hasibuddin converted a short corner with a full-blooded shot. The SAI boys equalised (1-1) in the 34th minute when Sher Singh collected a pass from the right flank to sound the board. The all-important goal came in the 37th minute when Railways’ forward Nadeem Beg scored after side-stepping a bunch of defenders.

In the second match, CISF took 1-0 lead in the second minute of the game when Harish Sharma pounced on a stray ball in the circle and pushed it past goalkeeper Anil Kumar. EME forced five short corners however goalkeeper Veer Bahadar prevailed under the bar. After the half-time, EME equalized (1-1) in the 48th minute as Biju Singh deflected the ball into the net dodging fullback PP Sangha. The game was decided through penalty shootout in which EME was successful through Gurjinder, Avatar and J. Kujur while CISF convert twice through Neeraj Yadav and then N Razak scored the third goal for the losing side.