RSPB, Punjab, AISPB, PSPB in national hockey semis

Lucknow  :  Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), Hockey Punjab, Air India Sports Promotion Board (AISPB) and Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) on Thursday advanced to the semi-finals of the 8th Hockey India senior men national championship (A Division).

The losing quarter-finalists were Punjab & Sind Bank, Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG), Hockey Odisha and Hockey Chandigarh.

In the first quarter-final, defending champions RSPB defeated Pool B runners-up Punjab & Sind Bank 2-1 in a highly competitive match at the Padma Shri Mohammad Shahid Synthetic Hockey Stadium. 

Sheshe Gowda gave RSPB the lead in the second minute from a penalty corner in the 2nd minute, before Karanpal Singh doubled the lead in the 45th minute. 

Geet Kumar reduced the deficit to one for Punjab & Sind Bank in the 57th minute making the scoreline 2-1. However, time ran out for Punjab & Sind Bank to force an equaliser.

The second quarter-final saw Hockey Punjab defeat CAG 5-5 via penalty shootout after the 60 minutes of play resulted in a 1-1 draw. 

AISPB also made their way through to the semi-finals as they came from behind to defeat Hockey Odisha 3-2. It was Hockey Odisha who started the match on the front-foot as they scored in the second minute through Ashok Lakra. 

However, two penalty corner conversions from Mohd. Faraz in the span of four minutes (29th and 33rd) saw AISPB take a 2-1 lead.

Hockey Odisha struck a minute later in the 34th minute as India international Nilam Sanjeep Xess converted a penalty corner. But a winner from AISPB in the 50th minute saw Faraz complete his hat-trick of goals and grant his team a 3-2 victory.

In the last quarter-final, newly-promoted side PSPB defeated Hockey Chandigarh 3-0.

Harjeet Singh scored in the 13th minute for PSPB, from whom set-piece specialist Gurjinder Singh scored twice in the 32nd and 49th minutes to seal the last four place.