The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Pfoklero shines under the bar

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Thursday, Apr 20, 2006

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Sport - Hockey

Pfoklero shines under the bar

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: South Central Railway's R.K. Pfoklero put up a valiant display under the bar to ensure a 2-1 victory against Indian Navy in the 44th Bombay Hockey Gold Cup tournament at the Mahindra Stadium here on Wednesday. The 22-year-old from Nagaland manned the post with aplomb as his Hyderabad-based team progressed to the next round.

Pfoklero compensated for SCR's vulnerable backline by firmly and skilfully warding off danger arising from the several forays that the Navy team initiated in the second half. The local team forced seven short corners, five in the second, but could not convert even one. The Kohima-born Pfoklero was easily the outstanding performer of the day.

SCR impressed by sticking to old-fashioned positional play, but failed to stop Navy's Manoj Lokhande from angling precisely a free hit in the 11th minute. SCR found the mark twice early after resumption. Prabhakar Singh punished a feeble clearance by the rival goalkeeper with a beefy and flat shot of the rebound. Thereafter K.K. Bharath reverse-hit to the corner to put his team 2-1 up. The Navy men strove to find the equaliser through Lokhande, Rajan Lakra and Ajay Kumar but Pfoklero baulked them.

Namdhari XI from Haryana beat Central Railway 2-1 in a second round match. Joga Singh made a solo effort and skipper Anmolak Singh converted a penalty stroke. Rashid Ali reduced the margin for Central Railway. Corps of Singals and Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) battled out for 70 minutes without scoring and the resultant tiebreaker went in favour of CoS 5-4.

Meanwhile, Bhopal XI's former internationals, Samir Dad and Altaf-ur-Rehman, came with a dazzling show to subdue a very impressive Combined Sports Authority of India (SAI) XI 10-9.

Down 2-4 till eight minutes from time, Bhopal XI outsmarted Combined SAI XI which paid a heavy price for defensive lapses. Altaf-ur-Rehman converted from the spot in the 62nd and Straj-ul-Haq struck a pile driver to make it 4-4. Both teams held their nerves converting five each from the spot in the tiebreaker, but in the sudden death, Dad was successful for Bhopal XI while Osaf Ur Rahman, the SAI XI captain, failed.

The results: SCR 2 bt Indian Navy 1, Bhopal XI 10 bt Combined SAI XI 9, Namdhari XI 2 bt Central Railway 1, Cos 0 drew with Punjab State Electricity Board 0.

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