Negi's scorcher takes Ahbab to DSA semis - DELHI SPORTS

Riding on a solitary second-half goal scored by experienced Subhash Negi on a stunning free-kick aided Hind Ahbab FC, to become the first team to make it for the semi-finals of the SAIL-ONGC Delhi Soccer Association Senior Division League championship, to get past defending champions Indian Air Force (IAF) New Delhi in a crucial group B encounter played at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Thursday.

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Subhash Negi scored the all-important goal off a scorching free kick that brushed past an IAF defender on its way into the goal. The first half witnessed formidable IAF team squandering number of opportunities to surge ahead, as their strikers A Edwin and Manish Negi wasted all the goal-scoring opportunities much to their and team’s dismay.

Ahbab, who got qualified for the super league in a dubious manner, weren’t lucky enough twice to extend their lead, as Subhash Negi and Irfan Khan’s shots hit the cross bar on both the occasions to deny them a sure goal.

After gaining the lead Ahbab shifted their gears and adopted the much more attacking approach instead of going for defensive tactics and maintaining their lead. The strategy put their opponents on the back foot as IAF changed their goalkeeper Anil Kumar and brought in experienced Aurbindo Bandopadhay, who rose well to the occasion and thwarted their rivals’ efforts.

With this win, Ahbab now has nine points from four matches, while defending champions couldn’t be able to qualify for semis as they have only one from their three encounters.

IAF will play Trackon-Garhwal Heroes in their last league match on 15 January. On Saturday title contenders Osian’s-New Delhi Heroes, who is unbeaten in the league so far, will take on Trackon-Garhwal Heroes. Osian’s New Delhi Heroes have six points from two matches while Trackon-Garhwal Heroes have three from two.

* BSF, Sikkim and Bengal advance to last 16

Hosts Border Security Force and Sikkim have qualified into the pre-quarter finals after ending the top two teams from their pool in the 56th BN Mullick All India Police Football Tournament here on Friday.

Another title contender, Bengal defeated Jammu and Kashmir 2-1 in their last league encounter to qualify for the knock-out stage.

Both BSF and Bengal have been unbeaten in the preliminary round and are likely to make it to the semi-finals.

In the other matches of the day, Mizoram overcame Orissa 2-0 to advance to pre-quarters, while Punjab faced some tough time before edging past Uttrakhand 1-0 to go through.

SSB, Assam Rifles, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Nagaland, RPF, Assam Police and CISF are the other teams to make the grade for the knock out stage.

* North Zone ranking TT begins today

The top most table tennis players of the country will be seen in action fighting it out with each other to make their mark in the 2007 National Ranking table tennis championships, for North Zone, starting on Saturday at the Student Gymkhana here in the All India Institute of Medical Science campus.

Subhajit Saha is the leading contender in the men’s section, while among the ladies National champion Mouma Das tops the list, followed by the inter-institutional champion Neha Aggarwal.

The five-day meet will conclude on January 16. The total prize money for the event is Rs 3,30,500. The qualifiers start on Saturday while the main draw gets underway on Sunday.

As per the press release issued by TTFI secretary MC Chowhan, the meet will be all singles events and will held in the following categories: Men’s, women’s, youth boys’, youth girls’, junior boys’, junior girls’, sub-junior boys’ and sub-junior girls.

The stars in fray will include Subhajit Saha and Soumyajit Roy of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), Amal Raj of Railways and Pathik Mehta of Air India among men, and Mouma Das, K Shamni and Mantu Ghosh of PSPB and Neha Agarwal of Delhi among women.

RANKINGS

Men: 1. Subhajit Saha, 2. Soumyadeep Roy, 3. A. Amalraj, 4. Pathik Mehta, 5. Shubham Chakraborty, 6. Jignesh Jaiswal, 7. Sayanpal Roy, 8. Sourav Chakraborty.

Women: 1 Mouma Das, 2. Neha Aggarwal, 3. K. Shamini, 4. Mantu Ghosh, 5. Poulomi Ghatak, 6. Divya Deshpande, 7. Kasturi Chakraborty, 8. Mansi Bhagwat

* Akhil strikes twice

Akhil Mehra struck a double blow as Sanskriti School beat Banyan Tree School 2-0 in the ONGC Cup Hind Kishore inter-school football tournament played at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Friday.

In the other match, Kishalay netted the match-winner to guide Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj, to clinch a 1-0 victory over Laxman Public School.

* Gaurav scalps four

Deadly bowling by Gaurav Sharma (4 for 11) helped Ravindra Public School beat RP Academy by five wickets to enter the semi-final of the 8th All India Shakuntla Devi Dogra Memorial cricket tournament played at the Chilla Sports Complex here on Friday.

Gaurav was awarded Man of the Match. In the second match played at the Bharat Nagar ground, Sahara Samay Academy beat Young Friends Club by 47 runs in the league. Manu Sharma put in a fine all-round performance, scoring 34 runs and picking up three wickets for the winners.

Brief scores: RPCA 83 all out in 18 overs (Vineet Ranjan 32, Manik Tandon 30; Gaurav Sharma 4/11, Raman Sachdeva 3/22) lost to Ravindra Public School 87 for 5 in 15.5 overs (Ravi Sengar 34 n.o, Ashish Yadav 30).

Sahara Samay 156 all out in 35.5 overs (Manu Sharma 34, Sanjay Sharma 32; Swaraj Kohli 5/39, Sumit Poria 3/29) bt Young Friends Club 109 all out in 38.2 overs (Devender Kumar 31; Manu Sharma 3/21).

* SRV Group post victory

A fine knock by Hemant Dogra (80) enabled SRV Group to beat Malik Sports by 11 runs and enter the quarter-final of the 12th Sahibzada Ajit Singh Cricket tournament played at Sri Gobind Singh College of Commerce here on Friday.

Brief scores: SRV Group 185 for 7 in 35 overs (Hemant Dogra 80, Subhash Chaudhary 28 n.o) bt Malik Sports 174 in 34.1 overs (Akash Gehlkot 48, Ravi Solanki 28; Dharmender 3/40, R Madan 2/34).

* GG Dutt in Sandeep Suri quarters

The Goswami Ganesh Dutt team registered an 88-run victory over Ekta Cricket Club and entered the quarter-final of the Sandeep Suri Memorial Cricket tournament played at Satyawati College here on Friday.

Brief scores: GG Dutt 261 all out in 40 overs (Agnesh Surya 59,Lakshya Mohan 41; Shashi Bhushan 2/19) bt Ekta Cricket Club 173 all out in 33 overs (Amit Sharma 33, RajuBhatt 31; Rubal Singh 3/24).