New Delhi: Hockey Odisha battled against Sports Authority of India to win the first semi- finals of 4th Hockey India Sub- Junior Men National Championship (Division B) played at Vadodara, Gujarat while Delhi rained goals on the host Gujarat in the 2nd semi final match.
In the first semi-final match between Hockey Odisha and Sports Authority of India it was a closely contested match between both the teams with very little to choose . Hockey Odisha defeated Sports Authority of India 1-0. While the first half did not yield any goals though both the teams maintained a continuous attack on each other. Although, both the teams got their chances to score but were unable to get through the defense of each other.
In the second half, it was Hockey Odhisha who finally broke through the shackles of the opponent and a goal eventually landed through the stick of Hockey Odisha’s Pratap Lakra in the 42nd minute. This proved to be the only goals for the match helping Hockey Odisha take the lead win and the bus to the finale tomorrow.
In the second semi-final match vbetween Delhi and Gujarat, Delhi declared an obvious win with an extremely impressive goal margin of 8-0. Delhi’s Arun Kumar stroked in three back to back goals with an opening goal in 22nd minute followed by the other two goals in 24th and 41st minute. Without letting to score the opponent even a single goal, Arun Kumar played tremendously well in the first half.
Continuing to restrict the other side, Nitin Ram pierced in a field goal in 43rd minute. Followed by several other goal opportunities, Kuldeep and Mukul Sharma secured goals in 48th and 60th minute, respectively taking the lead to 6-0. Striving to fight back the entire game, Gujarat was stunned by the opponent’s amazing performance and just after a minute, another field goal was stroked in by Mukul Sharma in the 61st minute. Giving the game an exciting end, Delhi declared its proud win with its last goal that came through Aman Minj in the 67th minute.
Results of the day-
Semi Final 1: Hockey Odisha 1:
Pratap Lakra (42 min) Vs Sports Authority of India 0
Semi Final 2: Delhi 8: Arun Kumar (22, 24 and 41 min), Nitin Ram (43 min), Kuldeep (48 min), Mukul Sharma (60 and 61 min) and Aman Minj (67 min) Vs Gujarat 0
