Uttar Pradesh survived a gallant comeback from Maharashtra and prevailed 6-5 in the penalty shootout to enter the men’s hockey final of the 36th National Games at the Dhyanchand Hockey stadium here on Monday. It will meet Karnataka, which dumped national champion Haryana 3-1, in the title clash.
Sitting pretty with a cushion of a three-goal lead in the third quarter, Uttar Pradesh saw Maharashtra claw back and level the scores when five minutes remained for the final hooter.
In the shootout, Maharashtra trailed UP 0-2 but managed to level the scores and it boiled down to the last set of penalty strokes. Uttar Pradesh’s Lalit Kumar Upadhyay converted his attempt while UP goalkeeper Prashant Kumar fouled attacker Venkatesh Kenche and conceded a penalty stroke. However, Prashant made amends by saving the penalty stroke taken by Pratap Shinde.
Maharashtra did all the hard work in the first quarter but failed to break the UP defence. UP relied more on counter-attacks and scored against the run of play in the 22nd minute when Sumit found space inside the box and scored with a reverse flick from close. The goal transformed the UP side which settled down to play with more confidence. A penalty corner variation saw UP increase the lead in the 30th minute through Sunil Yadav. Manish Yadav’s drag flick put UP 3-0 ahead in the 37th minute.
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UP lowered its guard a bit and Maharashtra seized the opportunity to launch a fight back. Aniket Gaurav scored twice (40th and 47th minutes) in the space of seven minutes to start the revival. As UP played for time, Maharashtra pressed hard for the equaliser.
The relentless pressure exerted by Maharashtra forwards finally yielded the third goal when Sayyad Niyaz Rahim scored off a quick counterattack to push the match into penalties.
In the other semifinal, Haryana was playing catch up after it conceded an early goal. A well executed penalty corner drill saw Abharan Sudev deflect the ball in from close for the opening goal in the fourth minute. Karnataka unsettled the Haryana defence with precise moves mostly from the right flank. But Haryana survived and scored the equaliser through a fast counter-attack when Kohinoor Preet Singh slotted in in the 17 th minute.
Karnataka played with more freedom in the second half and went ahead in the 47 th minute when Nikkin Thimmaiah drilled a shot from inside the D. Four minutes later, another quick move initiated by the hardworking Sunil left the Haryana defence in tatters and Harish Mutagar tapped in to complete a fine win.
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