Odisha to face Bengal in National junior hockey final

Mysore (Karnataka), April 11, 2015: The 5th edition of the Hockey India Junior Men National Hockey Championship 2015 will see Hockey Gangpur - Odisha and Bengal Hockey Association in the Final match as Gangpur beat Mumbai by 3-1 and Bengal defeated Puducherry by 5-3 in the Semi-Final matches today.

In the first Semi-Final of the day, Hockey Gangpur - Odisha displayed brilliant hockey against Mumbai Hockey Association. It was Mumbai who scored the first goal when they earned a penalty corner in the 23rd minute and Vinay Valmiki perfectly converted it into early lead. After conceding the early jolt, Gangpur came back fiercely on the field and soon they managed to earn a penalty corner in 39th minute, which effectively converted by Pratap Lakra in the much needed equaliser. 

With the motivating 1-1 leveller, Gangpur charged with full force and Sanjay Xalco scored the second goal in the 46th minute of the match to take the score-line to 2-1. His team-mate Sibren Lakra extended the lead in the 69th minute with a marvellous goal and helped his team to win the match by 3-1.

In the second Semi-Final, Raushan Kumar’s hat-trick helped Bengal Hockey Association to defeat Hockey Puducherry by 5-3. Bengal opened the account in the very first minute of the match when they earned the first penalty corner of the match and Nitish Neupane converted it perfectly into the first goal of the match. 

However in the 9th minute, Puducherry came back in the game when Thiru Murugan stormed into opponent’s den and smashed the ball hard into the goal box to score the equaliser. In the 12th minute, 

Bengal earner another penalty corner and this time Gurpreet Singh converted it effectively in much-needed 2-1 lead. With this goal, Bengal players started playing aggressively and their star player Raushan scored two consecutive goals in 28th and 50th minutes. Trailing by 1-4, Puducherry kept trying to level the score and Thiru scored again in the 53rd minute to take the score-card to 2-4. However in the next minute (54th minutes), Roushan stroke back again and scored the fifth goal for this team after hitting the ball hard into the nets. In the 64th minutes, Puducherry managed to get success for the last time when Veera Thamizhan scored the third goal for the team. By the end of the match, Bengal registered an impressive victory over Puducherry, beating them by 5-3.

Results of the Day

SF 1 - Hockey Gangpur, Odisha 3-1 Pratap Lakra (39min-PC), Sanjay Xalco (46min-FG), Sibren Lakra (69min-FG) vs Mumbai Hockey Association 1  Vinay Valmiki (23min-PC)

SF 2 – Bengal Hockey Association 5 Nitish Neupane (1min-PC), Gurpreet Singh (12min- PC), Raushan Kumar (28min-FG, 50min-FG, 54min-FG) vs Hockey Puducherry 3 Thiru Murugan (9min-FG, 53min-FG), Veera Thamizhan (64 min-FG)

HI Press release