Delhi Audit clinch north zone hockey title

Mohali, February 3

In the final match of the IA&AD North Zone Hockey Tournament, Delhi Audit won the title by defeating AG Punjab by 5-1. This match was dedicated to the late Olympian Sukhbir Singh Gill.

Before the start of the match, the whole atmosphere became sombre when the mother, wife, son and daughter of late Sukhbir Singh Gill entered the ground along with the chief guest, former Indian hockey team captain Rajpal Singh, and Teg Singh, Accountant General, Punjab and UT, to pay tribute to the late Olympian. All players, honourable guests and spectators paid a heartfelt tribute by observing a two-minute silence.

From the beginning of the match, Delhi Audit demonstrated aggressive play and in the fourth minute of the match, Neelam Sanjeev took a 1-0 lead by scoring a goal. In the 7th minute of the game, Vishal Singh of Delhi Audit scored the second goal. AG Punjab had not yet recovered from these two initial shocks when Delhi’s Vishal Singh scored his second goal of the match in the 16th minute to make the score 3-0. The forward players of AG Punjab tried to make a comeback several times but all their attempts were foiled by Delhi goalkeeper Ikram Khan and the defenders. Meanwhile, Vinod Yadav of Delhi scored a goal in the 27th minute of the match to give his team an undefeated lead of 4-0. The players of AG Punjab made many powerful attacks in the third quarter of the match and in the 50th minute, Amit scored a goal making the score 4-1. But by then it was too late.

Ultimately, in the 52nd minute of the game, Navneet Swarnkar of Delhi scored a goal to give his team victory by a huge margin of 5-1.

The match was conducted under the supervision of international umpires Meenakshi Sundaram and Rajesh Chaudhary. After the match, Teg Singh presented the winning and runner-up teams with trophies and awards.