Waiting for the final stroke

Finalists RPA still await their competitors, as the semi-final match between BEG-VPA has been kept on hold

Avinash Rajput

A heroic performance by Rajesh Pillay Academy (RPA) goalkeeper Franklyn Fernandez help his team defeat Central Railway (Pune division) 3-1 in the Late Olympian Joe Phillips Invitational Hockey tournament at the Ammunition factory ground here on Saturday. The encounter went on to the tiebreakers where RPA skipper Franklyn Fernandez led from the front to see his team enter the final round. He made two astonishing saves which shattered all championship hopes of Central Railway who were looking in a good form. Manpreet Singh, Vinod Shingade and Rahul Gawade scored a goal each for RPA whereas Akhilesh Singh was the lone scorer for Central Railway. “It was a semi-final encounter and was obvious that it would be a pressure game. We were under more pressure as one of our main strikers got injured in the first half,” said Franklyn Fernandez.

The other semi-finals, which was to decide the fate of Vikram Pillay Academy (VPA) and Bombay Engineering Group (BEG) was kept on hold as the sudden-death stroke which was supposed to be taken by VPA was stopped due to bad light.

The full time play was locked on 1-1 after both the teams put up a good show and gave each others custodian a nightmarish run. Yuvraj Walmiki gave VPA an early lead after converting a solo goal in the 6th minute. The BEG strikers managed to penetrate VPA defence but failed to finish with perfection. Rohit Dungdung equalised in the 24th minute and gave BEG a fair chance to comeback into the game. VPA goalkeeper made some brilliant saves in the last two minutes of the game which took the match into tiebreakers.

Both the teams made flawless conversion in the tiebreakers. Vikas Pillay, Yuvraj Walmiki, Devendra Walmiki, Narad Bahadur and Vikram Pillay scored for VPA. Ajay Kujur, Sukh Bahadur, Balwinder Singh, Rohit Dungdung and Sourabh Singh score for BEG taking the game into sudden-death.

Rohit Dungdung scored yet another goal for BEG followed by Vikas Pillay who levelled the score. Ajay Kujur scored the seventh goal for BEG and the match was stopped due to bad light after BEG custodian Jaswinder Singh informed the umpires. The sudden-death will continue on Sunday afternoon after which one of the team will take on Rajesh Pillay Academy in the title clash.