Hockey tourney: ASC Jalandhar, EME Jalandhar storm into final

Patiala, December 24

On the penultimate day of the 41st GS Bains Liberals All-India Hockey Tournament here today, ASC Jalandhar and EME Jalandhar won their respective semi-finals to march into the finals that will be played tomorrow at 2 pm.

Hawks Roopnagar who displayed excellent hockey in their previous encounters ran out of steam and went down fighting 4-0 to ASC Jalandhar. With Armymen attacking from both the flanks went ahead 1-0 in the 9th minute through the hard hitting forward Shreyas GR when he entered the circle after dodge past Daljit and Sukhvinder of Hawks Ropar.

Hawks tried to slow down the game and packed their defence to prevent any damage to their goal. The teams crossed with Hawks lagging 1-0 behind. ASC went into an attack after the breather and earned penalty corner in the 42nd minute AM Chittiappa took the custodian S Sharma by surprise and almost hit in to the goal but the goal line save by left back Daljit Singh was deflected by Anand Nag into the goal to make it 2-0 in favour of ASC.

As Hawks appeared dazed, ASC took full advantage to make the score 3-0 in 50th minute when S Toppo collected a rebound from goal keeper’s pads near the goal line to push the ball into the net. Armymen maintained their tempo and Anand Nag completed 4-0 tally for the winners.

EME Jalandhar stroked out Northern Railway, New Delhi, 5-3 after remaining tied at 2-2 in full time. Displaying clinical hockey, Northern Railway started the proceeding on a positive note. Gurjant Singh opened the scoring for Northern railway (1-0) after he penetrated into the brittle defence of EME and beat goal keeper with a reverse hit. Looking subdued EME defence time and again allowed the Railway forwards to enter the scoring circle in which the star forward Talvinder Singh played an important role. Railways increased the lead to 2-0 with a 56th minute goal by Talvinder Singh who hoodwinked the defence with a straight hit from the top of the circle. When the match was poised for an easy win for the railmen, the army team started raiding the railway fortress. The move paid off when prolific scorer Biju Singh darted his way into the circle in the 61st minute and hit the ball straight into the top corner of the net (2-1). EME equilised in 68th minute when Jerum Kujur cut into the circle before unleashing a shot.  The match having ended in a 2-2 draw tie-breaker was used to decide the result in which only Jasjeet Khullar could score for Northern Railway while Biju Singh, Amit Saini and Solmon Herenj were successful for EME which gave them a 5-3 victory and entry into the finals. — TNS