Chennai : There were a few moments to relish and applaud in the first set of matches that were completed in the Independence Cup hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Saturday. Basically, the contests remained as trials, spasmodically heart-warming but lacking efficiency in crucial areas like finish.

That the Seniors sailed over the Development team through a penalty corner and stroke for a 2-1 win perhaps underscores the inconsistency of the frontline.

Everyone in the squad enjoys a national star rating. But there was precious little to portray the team played as a unit that combined well.

Tejbir Singh, for instance, displayed good trapping and turn of speed. But the rest, including the seasoned Gagan Ajit Singh, were imperfect. In the mid-field Prabodh Tirkey and Vinaya were hard working and so was Dilip Tirkey.

On the other side, skipper Raja produced a devastating reverse flick early on to stun goal-keeper Adrian D'Souza but faded thereafter. Sardara Singh endeavoured to put a bit of fizz into the attack as did Sandeep Micheal coming in after a fairly long lay off.

Raghunath scores

The best of the lot was full back Raghunath who held on gamely in the defence and scored the equaliser. Actually, his earlier penalty corner drive crashed against the cross piece and bounced back.

After being unsuccessful in two tries, Sandeep slotted in a penalty corner. Late in the match the Seniors earned stroke when goal-keeper Srejesh obstructed Sardara Singh. Gagan converted without a fuss.

A discordant note was then yellow card for Vikram Kanth by umpire Mohammad Muneer.

TN XI has it easy

Earlier, Tamil Nadu displayed greater cohesion and craft to keep the Juniors in the leash almost throughout. True, there was a modicum of resistance with goal-keeper Choubey thwarting a few attempts in the early phase.

But once the goal fell through a stroke by Muthukumar, the Juniors wilted under the pressure mounted by the combined thrusts of Aswin from the middle and former international Jagan Senthil from the flank.

Tamil Nadu's mid-field work also deserves some commendation. Muthukumar and Gopinath were prominent in their tackles, keeping the usually swift forwards like Daler Singh and Sarwarjit Singh moving.

If the Juniors failed to forge ahead it was largely on account of the sharpness displayed by goal-keeper Shanmugasundaram. Some of his saves were spectacular, including one penalty stroke in the dying minutes.

Jagan Senthil produced a stunner of a shot midway through and a fine workout involving Gopinath and Venkatesan ended in the former finding the target for the 3-0 lead. At this point goal-keeper Choubey was substituted by Jaswinder Singh but that did not deter Tamil Nadu enlarging the margin through Venkatesan in a penalty corner exercise.

A 4-0 lead at half-time was doubtless daunting but the Juniors came back strongly in the second thanks to penalty corners slotted by Bikramjit Singh. It is a pity he flunked the stroke.

Ms. Apoorva, Member Secretary, Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, inaugurated the tournament.

The results:

Tamil Nadu XI (Muthukumar, Jagan Senthil, Gopinath, Venkatesan) beat India Under-18 2 (Bikramjit Singh) HT 4-0.

India (Sr) 2 (Sandeep Singh, Gagan Ajit Singh) beat Development team 1 (Raghunath). HT 1-0.

Sunday's matches: Development team v India Under 18 ( 3 p.m.); India (Sr) vs Tamil Nadu (4-30 p.m.).

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