Chhattisgarh defeat Andhra Pradesh, 7-4 at MHA’s Junior Boys’ National Championship: Hockey News
Chattisgarh junior men’s hockey team defeated Andhra Pradesh by 7-4 in the U-17 Junior Hockey National Championship that is being held at the MHA Stadium, Mumbai on May 29, yesterday.
This match was played under Pool C and was the second consecutive win for Chhattisgarh, allowing them into the next knock-out rounds of the tournament.
In the opening ninth minute of the match, Andhra Pradesh opened the score when Kathik T shot a goal into the net at 1-0, after dominating the field for more than half the time.
Chhattisgarh’s strikers threatened their opponent team a number of times with a rush into the circle and vibrant passes amongst each other. Resultantly, they received their equalising goal when Nilesh made a rebound to Koghesvar Bag’s shot that was previously
denied by the Andhra’s goal-keeper, Chandra Shekar, locking scores at 1-1.
Andhra gave an immediate reaction to this attack by restoring their lead within the next two minutes when Yerri Swamy delivered a strong shot from the right side into the goal.
Soon, Chhattisgarh was back in the game when they received a penalty corner that was taken up by Bag. His attempt seemed to be wasted when Shekar denied the shot. However, an in-time rebound hit by Jubair Khan made the day with an equaliser at 2-2. Hereon,
the match had a turning point when Chhattisgarh received another penalty corner that paid off well with a lead score in the 24th minute. The score became 3-2 with Chhattisgarh’s Shah Rukh's drag-flick attempt to convert the corner into a score.
Within the next four minutes, Shah Rukh reappeared at Andhra’s defensive circle to take up another penalty corner. This attempt turned fruitful because Sumit Patle’s hit had contact with Andhra’s defender over the goal-line.
In the second half, Andhra’s players tried to match up the score with an aggressive approach and succeeded in reducing their trail to one goal in the first minute. This goal was attempted by their team captain, V Sri Ranga.
However, Andhra failed to match-up the pace of Chhattisgarh’s attacks and were beaten down by 7-4 until the second half concluded.
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