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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
MUMBAI, April 15: A goal, five minutes from time, gave Khalsa Gymkhana a 2-1 win over Fr Agnel, Vashi in the first round of the Guru Nanak Devji Hockey Tournament at the Khalsa college ground here today.
It was a variation from a penalty corner that gave the hosts the winning goal. From their sixth penalty corner, Lawrence Noronha passed it to his left for Aditya Menon to take a free run to the goal with the defence the ball to be expected to the right. Menon darted into the box with the defence on the other side and placed it at a difficult angle which gave Khalsa a clash against the winners of Bank of India and Western Railway.
From the outset, it was Fr. Agnel who were dictating the pace with their forwards Cyril Bernard, Tanveer Sheikh and Dhanraj Bahadur. They scored in the 22nd minute from a penalty corner when Shaukat Ali slammed in the goal from their second penalty corner.
But Khalsa reorganised their defence. Hardeep Singh Saini played in a more withdrawn position and with Shaju Nair andSameer Khan lending solidity to the backline, Khalsa began their resurgence.
Khalsa scored the equaliser in the 54th minute with Lawrence Naronha providing the deflection from a free-hit taken on the left.
As Khalsa pushed forward, Fr. Agnel lost the vital link between their forwards and the rest of the field. Khalsa also defended in numbers.
However, there were sporadic attempts. In at least two one-to-one situations against the Khalsa goalkeeper Lesley Subba, Ilyas Khan shot into the custodian. Five minutes from time came Khalsa's second goal sinking the hopes of Fr Agnel.
In two other matches, Union Bank won 5-0 against Rajputs and MP Trust were 4-0 winners against GM Police.
Rajputs fielded only ten men but despite their adversity showed admirable fighting qualities and kept Union Bank quiet for 25 minutes. But once Rajesh Matkari opened the scoring for Union Bank. Matkari helped himself to the second and fourth goals while Balbinder Singh and Sameer Jadhav got the third and fifth goals.
MPThelped themselves to two goals in the first ten minutes with Digvijay Naik and Shayne D'Costa scoring Salauddin Siddique and Javed Shaikh completed the rout.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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