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Rediff.com  » Sports » Punjab, Haryana win hockey golds

Punjab, Haryana win hockey golds

December 21, 2002 19:03 IST
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Punjab and Haryana won the men's and women's hockey gold medals respectively at the 32nd National Games.

In the finals, at the Begumpet grounds in Hyderabad on Saturday, Punjab drubbed Maharashtra 3-1 while Haryana thrashed Jharkhand 4-0.

Earlier, in the morning, Services trounced Karnataka 4-1 to pick the bronze medal.

Maharashtra had won the bronze in the women's section yesterday, beating Chandigarh 2-0.

The Punjab-Maharashtra final match turned out to be one-sided with Punjab holding sway for most of the match. Punjab went ahead in the sixth minute when Kanwaljeet Singh's carpet drive found the mark off the first penalty-corner his team received.

Punjab had Maharashtra's star forward Dhanraj Pillay tightly marked with at least four players around him most of the time but had to remain content with just a solitary goal lead at half-time.

On resumption Punjab went 2-0 up almost immediately. An error by Maharashtra goalkeeper Ryan Sequiera, the hero of the semi-finals, cost his team the goal. A shot taken by Daljit SIngh from outside the circle was padded away by Sequiera when he could have easily let it roll into the goal since no Punjab player had touched the ball inside the circle.

This gave the Punjab forwards the opening they were looking for and following a goal mouth melee Ajit Pal Singh put the ball into the goal in the 37th minute.

Maharashtra then went on an all-out attack and forced two penalty-corners within two minutes. From the second penalty-corner, in the 45th minute, Girish Pimpale pushed the ball to Pillay, who had come to the left of the field. He relayed the ball back to Pimpale, who, from an acute angle, scored to put Maharashtra back into the match.

However, Punjab, taking advantage of Maharashtra's weak defence, increased their lead to 3-1 in the 50th minute through Gagan Ajit Singh.

Maharashtra then tried hard to get back into the match but the Punjab defence proved too strong for them and the match ended in a 3-1 win for Punjab giving it a gold medal, while Maharashtra had to be satisfied with a silver.

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