Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, May 16: Chandigarh Olympic Association (COA) will take on Hockey Patiala in the finals of the ongoing All India 5th Sub Junior National Hockey Championship at KK Hakhu Astroturf Stadium, here today.
Earlier, the first semifinal clash between Chandigarh Olympic Association was a close contest till half time, but the second half saw Chandigarh Olympic Association dominating the session and going on to win 7-4.
The first semifinal between Chandigarh Olympic Association started with Dadra & Nagar Haveli Hockey Association taking the first advantage in the 11th minute as Kawalpreet Singhy scored through a field effort. Chandigarh Olympic Association bounced back in the 26th minute to equalise as a penalty corner was struck hard by Sanjay ensuring the scoreboard was equalised 1-1. Just before going into the break, in 33rd minute saw Dadra & Nagar Haveli taking the lead again through Nilesh Kathoute’s field goal. Coming back into the second half, Dadra & Nagar Haveli increased the score difference further to 3-1 when in the 37th minute Gurbinder Singh struck a beautiful field goal leaving the opponents stunned. Chandigarh Olympic Association realising that the game was slipping from their hands struck hard with four consecutive field goals coming in the 38th, 41st, 45th and 51st minute and taking the score to 5-3 in their favour. Wanting to get a grip on the game again Dadra & Nagar Haveli scored their 4th goal in the 65th minute but it was all lost for them as Chandigarh Olympic Association slammed two more consecutive goals and taking the game 7-4 in their favour.
In the second semifinal, Hockey Patiala beat Hockey Madhya Pradesh by a huge margin of 7-0 with the help of Captain Baljeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh’s brilliant braces. Patiala dominated the match from the first minute and earned a penalty corner at the 5th minute of the match. Patiala’s Parteek Sharma took the shot and hit the ball hard into the goal-box to take the early 1-0 lead for his team. Inspired by the first success, Patiala team continued their aggressive attacks against their opponents and Rahul and Gurpreet Singh two back-to-back goals in 25th and 32nd minute of the match respectively. Leading by three goals, Patiala again managed to earn a penalty corner in 47th minute, which was perfectly converted by Harinder Singh. Taking control of the match, Patiala’s skipper Baljeet SIngh took the charge from the front and scored spectacular brace within two minutes (50th and 51st minute) of the match. In the 64th minute, Gurpreet stroke back and scored the seventh goal for his team. With spectacular team performance, Patiala won the match by 7-0 and reached the final.
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