DAV, Nehru College set up Nehru hockey title clash

The golden boy Ajay Kumar scored the decisive goal for the defending champion DAV College (Jalandhar) as they sneaked past Sri Guru Gobind Singh College (SGGSC), Chandigarh 2-1 to set up the tile clash with Jawaharlal Nehru PG College, Bhopal, who defeated Jalandhar’s Lyallpur Khalsa College with a convincing 3-1 margin in respective semifinals of 15th SAIL-Nehru Champion Colleges hockey tournament played at the Shivaji Stadium here on Thursday.

Both the Jalandhar and Chandigarh outfit were locked 1-1 at the end of regulation period. Then came the moment when Ajay came up with a fine golden goal strike just seconds before the whistle of first half’s extra-time.

Ajay made inroads in to the striking circle after running past Chandigarh team’s defence and produced a fine drive from the left that beat the custodian as well as defender Jaswinder Gill sounding the board.

The Jalandhar side clearly dominated the first half. They shot ahead thorough a penalty corner taken by Lakhwinder Singh drag-flick that ended up into the left of the post beating rival goalkeeper all ends up.

However, on resumption, the Chandigarh team pressed hard in quest of an equaliser and their fighting qualities producing some worthwhile moves paid dividends soon as they restored parity through Rajesh Kumar, who converted the team’s first penalty corner into goal.

The Chandigarh team deprived of a sure goal on Mukul Bhargav’s stunning reverse hit after being put away nicely by rival goalkeeper Jaswinder Singh during extra-time.

Bhopal College in final

In the other semifinal, Jawaharlal Nehru PG College (Bhopal) rallied to beat Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar with a 3-1 scoreline.

Jalandhar team that shot ahead in the fourth minute thorough a penalty corner converted by Bikramjeet Singh. The Bhopal side equalised through Arif ten minutes later. Both teams were 1-1 at the stroke of lemon break.

On changing the ends, Irfan Ali and Juver Ahmed struck tow rapid goals in a space of four minutes to ensure the place into the finals.