Hockey: Navy, Central Secretariat to clash in final

Indian Navy, Mumbai, would clash with Central Secretariat, Delhi, in the final of the 14th PMC Bank-All India Guru Tegh Bahadur hockey tournament Tuesday.

In the semifinals, Navy overcame Air India 9-8 via the penalty shootout after the two sides finished on level terms 5-5 at the end of 70 minutes play.

Later, Central Secretariat rallied from a two-goal first half deficit to edge past local outfit Central Railway 4-3 in another keenly contested semi final clash at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium.

Goalkeeper B Sanjay and midfielder cum drag-flick specialist Jugraj Singh played stellar roles in steering the sailors past Air India in the first of two semi final contests.

Both Navy and the young Air India outfits dished out a pleasing brand of attacking hockey that ended in stalemate.

In the crucial penalty shoot-out, Navy goalkeeper Sanjay made two vital saves as he foiled the attempts from Rajkumar Pal and skipper V S Vinaya to give the sailors the advantage.

Rajat Sharma did not let down his goalkeeper Sanjay and the Navy men as he beat Air India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh from the final attempt to seal the sailors' victory.

Earlier, Jugraj had a very successful outing as he scored from four of the five penalty corners they earned. Ajinkya Jadhav got the other goal for the sailors in regular time.

For Air India, junior international Raheel Mohd scored two goals, while Sharda Nand Tiwari, Joginder Singh and Arjun Sharmas late equaliser kept them in the fight.

However, in the penalty shootout, Navy managed to score through Ajinkya Jadhav, Pratik Singh, Pawan Rajbhar and Rajat Sharma, while Air India could only convert three through Uttam Singh, Jaspreet Singh and Abharan Sudev.

In the second semi-final, Central Railway's Rajendra Pawar opened the account in the first half when he successfully converted a penalty corner.

Minutes later, Railway's skipper Yuvraj Walmiki scored a field goal and at half time Central Railway led 2-0.

After the change of ends, Central Secretariat reduced the deficit to 2-1 after Shariq scored via a penalty corner. And then Jayesh Jadhav pumped in another goal to make it 2-2.

Even as the match was poised for a penalty shoot out, Central Secretariat scored two quick goals via Aman and Jayesh Jadhav to make it 4-2.

Central Railway pulled one back with Pawar scoring his second goal of the match to reduce the leeway to 3-4.

But the local team failed to find the equaliser and Central Secretariat advanced to the title clash.