The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : It’s child’s play for SAI

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Sunday, Jun 24, 2007
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Sport - Hockey

It’s child’s play for SAI

Sports Reporter

Makes short work of Services challenge

CHENNAI: The very few who happened to watch the contest between defending champion Services and SAI in the second phase of the St. Joseph’s-TNHA junior National men’s hockey championship wondered if this was indeed the team which won at Jabalpur last year.

Lacking in speed and imagination, and woefully under-prepared, Services capitulated to a spirited SAI 5-0 in their first match at the YMCA College of Physical Education here on Saturday.

Coached by Rajinder Singh (Sr), the man who trained the Indian senior team for three years from 2001, the SAI boys displayed admirable anticipation and alacrity. If this is the quality SAI is going to dish out, then this team is sure to go far in the championship.

Aziz scores

Fisal Aziz sounded the boards off a perfect penalty corner, which was conceived and executed without much fuss. It continued to play that way; flanks were busy, the midfield and frontline were on their toes every time.

With the second goal, SAI showed its wherewithal. Surender Singh’s brilliant run from the left saw him passing the ball to Jay Karan, who dived to his right to deflect it into the net. Shashikant’s strike made it 3-0 at half-time.

Services started on a confident note in the second session but that was not enough. Under the constant onslaught from SAI, Services was literally knocked out.

Wrong note

Like Services, last year’s runner-up SAIL, also started on a wrong note losing to Karnataka 6-3.

The quarterfinals of the first phase will be held on Sunday. Air-India will take on IOC while host Tamil Nadu will clash with Mizoram. Both the matches will be held at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.

The results: Pool ‘B’: Karnataka 6 (Mudduppa 2, Rajesh, Girish Ganapathy, Nanaiah, Vineeth Michael) bt SAIL 3 (Upendra Pillai 2, Berendra Lakra); Manipur 10 (Th. Temjit Singh, Adeba Singh 2, L. Joy Chandra Singh 4, N. Abung 2, S. Tarun Kumar Singh) bt Tripura 2 (Barnabus Nag, Deepchand Tigga).

Pool ‘D’: Uttaranchal 2 (Ramesh Kumar, Manoj Rawat) bt Rajasthan 1 (Sunil Kumar); Punjab 1 (Sanjay Kumar Bir) bt Jharkand 0.

Pool ‘F’: Orissa 3 (Deepak Ekka 2, Sunil Kujra) bt Mumbai 1 (Ajaz Qureshi); Bengal 5 (Gurdeep Singh Sekhon 2, Gaindra Tigga, Varinder Singh, Shuvankar Bhuiya) bt Himachal Pradesh 0.

Pool ‘H’: Bhopal 2 (Nadeem Baig, Juned Ansari) drew with Patiala 2 (Amritvir Singh, Kanwarjeet Singh); SAI 5 (Fisal Aziz, Jay Karan, Shashikant, Gurvinder Singh, Irshad Mirza) bt Services 0.

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