From a nondescript village to a mini-city with major sports facilities, Saifai has come a long way. For the past one month, it has been home to almost 700 hockey players from across the country, hosting the National men’s hockey championship at the Chandgiram Sports Complex here.
By Friday, that number had dwindled to approximately 40 as the tournament entered its business end.
Defending champion Railways (RSPB) and favourite Punjab set up a clash for the title after winning their respective semifinals against Odisha and All India Universities (AIU).
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It was Punjab all the way as the star-studded side — 10 of its 16 players belong to either the senior or junior National teams — overwhelmed a hapless AIU 5-0 with little effort. Scoring goals in every quarter, Punjab showed why it has been undefeated in the tournament.
Gurbaj Singh stood out.
His speed and skill apart, the ability to easily fork through seemingly closed defences and the uncanny accuracy of his passes were a delight.
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Brilliant Gurbaj
Gurbaj even scored the first two goals, both brilliant in their simplicity and execution.
The first was a simple deflection on the run and the second saw him accelerate suddenly to receive the ball on the right, run into the shooting circle and slam it home, all in a span of a couple of seconds even as the AIU defence stood wondering what hit them. Punjab was up 2-0 in the first quarter.
Thereafter, Gurbaj was content feeding his strikers and the margin of victory could have been even more had they latched on to his passes.
At least four clear chances to score went abegging. AIU tried its best to keep Punjab at bay, marking tightly and closing down the scoring angles but against a side that was amateur at best, the professionals in Punjab had little trouble.
Parvinder Singh got two of his own on counter-attacks and Gurjinder finally converted a penalty corner to round off the tally two minutes from time.
In the other semifinal, Railways relied on its experience to trounce a fighting Odisha 4-2.
With both teams trying to take the upper hand, the first quarter of the game saw momentum shifting continuously before the rising temperature slowed down the pace.
Amit Rohidas’s double strike put Railways up 2-1 at the end of the first quarter but thereafter, it was a battle of attrition.
Affan Yousuf increased the lead and Railways was content defending as Odisha kept pushing ahead and was successful in finally getting one through when Suraj Minz struck home at the stroke of the third quarter before Malak Singh did the same for Railways seconds from time to consolidate the win.
The matches, originally slated to be played in the afternoon because of broadcast compulsions, were rescheduled for early morning and late evening after the live telecast was cancelled.
The change was welcome given that temperatures here have been touching 45 degrees as early as 10 in the morning. The third place play-off would now be played on Saturday evening and the final early on Sunday.
The results:
Semifinals: RSPB 4 (Amit Rohidas 2, Affan Yousuf, Malak Singh) bt Odisha 2 (Nilam Sanjeeb Xess, Suraj Minz).
Punjab 5 (Gurbaj Singh 2, Parvinder Singh 2, Gurjinder Singh) bt AIU 0.