The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Andhra enters semifinals

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Saturday, Feb 16, 2008
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Andhra enters semifinals

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Andhra recorded a 2-1 win over Tamil Nadu in the quarterfinal of the 4th Junior National hockey championship for boys at the Gachibowli Complex here on Friday.

It was Tamil Nadu which dominated most of the first-half with some pleasing moves by the combination of captain Shyam Kumar and Albert John, working in tandem to repeatedly test the rival defence. With the midfield manned by Ramesh, Vivek and Hariprasad doing an excellent job in keeping the Andhra forwards at bay the couple of times they threatened to score, the forwardline had always the liberty to attack consistently which also saw Tamil Nadu earn five penalty-corners in the first-half itself.

And, not surprisingly, Tamil Nadu shot into the lead in the 25th minute when forward Albert John slotted in after his teammate Vinoth Kumar’s carpet drive deflected off the post. At half-time, Tamil Nadu led 1-0.

On resumption Tamil Nadu continued to dominate proceedings earning two penalty-corners in the first five minutes when Kiran Raj, Albert John and Sivamani combined speed and skills to rattle the Andhra defence.

However, Andhra earned a penalty-corner in the 11th minute of the second-half. An indirect penalty-corner take saw Andhra level the scores.

The goal brought a spring to its forwardline and a brilliant effort in the dying seconds by Ramakrishna saw Andhra score the match-winner.

Ramakrishna picked up a lovely short pass from the left by Krishna Kishore to weave his way past a couple of closely marking defenders into the striking zone and dodge the goalkeeper Raghuvaran to score.

Defending champion Steel Authority of India Ltd. recorded a 2-0 win over Mumbai while Chandigarh Academy and Bihar recorded wins via a golden goal to enter the semifinals.

Saturday is a rest day.

The results:

Andhra 2 (Praveen, Ramakrishna) bt Tamil Nadu 1 (Albert John).

Chandigarh Academy 2 (Harmandeep Singh, Harvinder Singh) bt Punjab 1 (Jaswinder Singh).

SAIL bt Mumbai 2-0 (Amardeep Ekka, Jerom Lakra).

Bihar 3 (Deepak Kujur, Ramsingh, Binay Bhengra) bt Jharkhand 2 (Anil Xaxa, Jaganatha Oran).

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