In the clash of two of the most organised institutional teams on the domestic circuit, Punjab & Sind Bank managed to knock out a star-studded Air India 3-2 in the penalty shootout and enter the semifinals of the men’s National hockey championship ‘A’ division here on Thursday.
With the teams tied 1-1 at the end of regulation time in the quarterfinal, PSB came back after missing the first two shots to find the target thrice while Air India paid the price for waywardness despite being stronger on field for a large part of the match. The likes of Armaan Qureshi, Mohd. Umar, Mohd Raheel, Arjun Sharma hit wide and out of position often.
Veterans Arjun Halappa, Shivendra Singh, A.B. Cheeyanna, Ajmer Singh and Adrian D’Souza stood out with their commitment and brilliance. In fact Shivendra, doubtful for the game after suffering food poisoning a couple of days before, and Halappa proved there was no substitute for experience.
One of those moves from the left put Umar in position to slot the ball in the 24th minute but the lead was cancelled when Gaganpreet Singh’s weak push five minutes later bounced off goalkeeper D’Souza’s pads into the net.
The second half saw Air India piling on the pressure, Shivendra and Halappa constantly finding their way into the PSB circle, but could not get the final touch. In contrast PSB, relying more on counters, came close to scoring in the fourth quarter but were thwarted by Ajmer and D’Souza who took the game into penalties. But the youngsters faltered, once again.
In another quarterfinal, last year’s runner-up Punjab registered an easy 4-0 win against host Uttar Pradesh.
The Punjab side, with as many as eight players with international experience, was dominant all through against an inexperienced UP side.
In the morning session, defending champion Railways beat CAG 3-1, courtesy two goals in as many minutes by former India internationals Yuvraj Walmiki and Affan Yousuf.
Chandigarh managed to edge past a fighting Mumbai side 4-3.
The results (quarterfinals): RSPB 3 (Affan Yousuf, Yuvraj Walmiki, Sheshe Gowda) bt CAG 1 (Gurpratap Singh); Chandigarh 4 (Damandeep Singh 2, Damanjit Singh 2) bt Mumbai 3 (Mayur Patil, Amit Goswami, Vikram Yadav); PSB 1 (Gaganpreet Singh) bt Air India 1 (Mohd. Umar) (3-2 in shootout); Punjab 4 (Baljinder Singh, Amanpreet Singh, Dharamvir Singh, Gurjant Singh) bt Uttar Pradesh 0.
Semifinal line-up: RSPB vs Chandigarh, Punjab vs PSB.
