Pune: Host Maharashtra rode on Aishwarya Chavan’s third minute opener and Devinder Walmiki’s brace to beat giant-killer Karnataka and win unique mixed tournament, in which eight states entered their teams in an event conducted on trial basis, in the 2nd Hockey India 5-a-side Senior National Hockey Championship at the Boxing Hall of Balewadi Sports Complex on Saturday evening.
Mixed 5-a-side hockey is being considered for Olympic entry in coming summer games given that the International Olympic Committee intends to go ahead with its 2020 Gender Parity agenda.
Maharashtra, playing in front of a motely crowd made full use of the opportunity after having stormed into the final with a win over Punjab and defeated Karnataka 4-3 after Aishwarya Chavan opened the host’s account in the 3rd minute.
Walmiki’s brilliance
Devinder Walmiki left no room for Karnataka to rally as he struck in the 4th minute, but the visitors did reduce the gap thanks to captain Somanna Pradhan’s 13th minute strike.
Vikas Pillay scored in the 14th minute put Maharashtra 3-1 ahead, but Somanna fired two goals in a space of three minutes to give the hosts some jitters.
But Vikram Yadav struck home the deserving winner in the final minute to send the crowd into cheers.
UP meets Haryana
In the Men’s quarterfinals played late on Friday evening, Uttar Pradesh defeated Odisha 8-6 to set up Sunday semifinal face-off against Haryana, who edged past Tamil Nadu 5-3 in a scrappy display of hockey.
Uttar Pradesh rallied brilliantly after Suman Kujur had put Odisha ahead in the 6th minute as Gopi Sonkar scored the equaliser in the very next minute before Sumit Kumar slotted in first of his five goals to put Uttar Pradesh ahead in the 8th minute.
Sumit Kumar scored three more goals, which came in the 12th, 21st, 24th and 27th minutes. In between Ajay Yadav scored (25th) to nullify Suman Kujur (6th, 16th and 19th) and Rakesh Tete’s (17th, 29th) efforts.
Haryana on the other hand played subdued hockey, against a lowly Tamil Nadu before scoring 5-3 win. Jasbir Singh (2nd), Vishal Dahiya (8th, Munish Rana (8th), Harpal Singh (17th) and Sher Singh (23rd) were the scorers for Haryana.
Tamil Nadu trouble title favourites Haryana a bit as RS Sunil Murthy (4th), R manikandan (7th) and M Hariharan (24th) peppered goals at regular intervals.
Results:
Mixed tournament:
Final: Maharashtra 4 (Aishwarya Chavan 3rd, Devinder Walmiki 4th, Vikas Pillay 14th, Vikram Yadav 30th) beat Karnataka 3 (Somanna Pradhan 13th, 20th, 23rd)
Semifinals: Karnataka 3 (PA Pavithra 14th, Mouseen Raheel 20th, Somanna Pradhan 21st) beat Haryana 2 (Harpal Singh 5th, 15th).
First round:
MX1: Haryana 10 (Harpal Singh 5th, 13th, 19th, Sher Singh 9th, Rani Rampal 12th, Aujla Hartaj Singh 18th, 27th, Navneet Kaur 20th, Jasbir Singh 24th, 29th) beat Jharkhand 3 (Simta Ming 11th, Noyel Topno 13th, Sunil Xaxa 16th).
MX2:Karnataka 4 (GN Pruthviraj 1st, Mouseen Mohammed Raheel 9th, Somanna Pradhan 12th, KP SOmaiah 19th) drew with Odisha 4 (Theophil Kujur 11th, Nilam Sanjeep Xess 17th, 18th, Suman Kujur 20th).
MX3: Punjab 5 (Gurjit Kaur 7th, Ramandeep Kaur 10th, Hardik Singh 10th, Reena Rani 26th, Jarmanpreet Singh 28th) beat Uttar Pradesh 3 (Preeti Dubey 12th, Sumit Kumar 12th, 14th).
MX4: Maharashtra 5 (Devinder Walmiki 4th, 10th,11th, Tyron Perera 19th, Aishwarya Chavan 22nd) beat Tamil Nadu 2 (RT Raghuram 8th, RS Sunil Murthy 29th).
Men:
Quarterfinals: Uttar Pradesh 8(Gopi Sonkar 7th, 20th, Sumit Kumar 8th, 12th, 21st, 24th, 27th, Ajay Yadav 25th) beat Odisha 6 (Suman Kujur 6th, 16th, 19th, Rakesh Tete 17th, 29th, Theophil Kujur 27th).
Haryana 5 (Jasbir Singh 2nd, Vishal Dahiya 8th, Munish Rana 8th, Harpal Singh 17th, Sher Singh 23rd) beat Tamil Nadu 3 (RS Sunil Murthy 4th, R Manikandan 7th, M Hariharan 24th).
Semi-final line-up:
SF1: Karnataka v Maharashtra
SF2: Uttar Pradesh v Haryana
