SPORTS

Air India down IA, lift Shastri hockey title
M.S.Unnikrishnan

New Delhi, December 3
Star players may not guarantee you the title. But good hockey would. Air India, Mumbai played good hockey to humble the star-studded Indian Airlines 3-1 to lift the 13th Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey Tournament Trophy at the Shivaji Stadium on Tuesday.

After a barren first half, Air India struck home three goals through captain Vikram Pillai, Pundalik Bellary and Sandeep Michael while Dilip Tirkey blasted in a penalty corner to get the consolation goal for Indian Airlines.

Indian Airlines, packed with over half a dozen India players, including Indian captain Dilip Tirkey, mercurial forward Dhanraj Pillay and goal-keeper A. B. Subbaiah, had the mortification of finishing the second best in the span of a fortnight at the Shivaji Stadium. Punjab Police had humbled them in the title clash of the Nehru Hockey Tournament with a close victory recently, in which Dhanraj Pillai’s hot words with the umpires, had hogged the spotlight.

Indian Airlines could have tilted the match in their favour, had they cashed in on their chances, but they not only frittered away half a dozen penalty corners, but also a couple of easy scoring chances from close range. Air India, on the other hand, seized their chances with alacrity to score three brilliant goals to lift the Shastri Hockey Trophy for the first time.

The first half produced fast hockey, but no goals, with Indian Airlines calling the shots most of the time. But they failed to utilise the three penalty corners they earned while Air India just about missed the mark off their first penalty corner, when Kishore Kumar pushed the ball wide, and made a hash of their second penalty corner. But the tide changed dramatically in Air India’s favour when captain Vikram Pillay despatched a rebound into the goal, after Anil Aldrin’s hit, off their third penalty corner, in the fourth minute, came back from the keeper.

The Air India goal spurred the Mumbai men into an aggressive and energetic mode, and eleven minutes later, they added a second goal when the hard-working and speedy play-maker, Kishore Kumar, setup a perfect pass for Pundalik Bellary to give the finishing touch.

Indian Airlines, desperately fighting back to salvage their honour, mounted a series of counter attacks, with Dhanraj Pillay marshalling the attacks from the middle, as Mukesh Kumar was not allowed much leeway on the right flank. And they finally succeeded in finding the mark, off their seventh penalty corner, with Tirkey doing the honours after the entire Air India defence, goalkeeper and all, moved up, leaving the goal virtually unguarded for poaching.

The 2-1 score line at the 17th minute made the battle stiff, but Air India consolidated their position with yet another goal when Sandeep Michael’s lightening push, to a flick from the right by Kishore Kumar, beat Subbaiah under the Indian Airlines goal all ends up (3-1). Indian Airlines made desperate attempts at the closing stages, but without any luck.

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa gave away the prizes.

Anuj Jain stars for Gyan Bharti
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 3
A fine all-round performance by Anuj Jain (59 and 2 for 15) and deadly bowling of 3 for 33 by Sarbjeet Singh helped Gyan Bharti South Delhi Cricket Academy defeat Hooty Hill by 17 runs during their Australia tour match.

Scores: Gyan Bharti Academy: 176 all out in 43.5 overs (Anuj Jain 59, Shashi Kant 34, Imran Khan 3 for 24, N Miller 3 for 49, Andrew Fisher 2 for 5). Rooty Hill Club: 159 all out in 45.2 overs (M Bursa 41, Mathew Turner 51, Sarbjeet Singh 3 for 33, Senam Trikha 2 for 22, Anuj Jain 2 for 15).

Cambridge beat St Giri

Cambridge Foundation beat St.Giri School by 143 runs in a league match of the first St. Giri Under-15 Cricket Tournament.

Scores: Cambridge Foundation: 250 for 4 in 30 overs (Saurabh Sehgal 88, Gurpreet Singh 41, Mayank Gopalan 27, Gagandeep Singh 2 for 46, Himanshu Deswal 2 for 33).

St. Giri School: 107 all out in 24 overs (Vikas Dalal 22, Bhupender Yadav 21, Ankur Gupta 3 for 24, Harman Gill 3 for 21). Saurabh Sehgal was adjudged the man of the match.

Turf Sports Cricket

BSES Rajdhani Yamuna Power Limited beat Deaustche Bank by seven wickets in a league match of the first Turf Sports Management Cricket Tournament at the Gyan Bharti School ground.

Scores: Deaustche Bank: 128 all out in 23.2 overs (Raman Deep Singh 28, S Bajaj 25, Sunil Kumar 25, Ajeet Chaudhary 2 for 14, S. Tyagi 2 for 11, S R Gautam 2 for 36).

BSES Yamuna Power Ltd.: 130 for 3 in 20.3 overs (A. Chaudhary 45 n o, R. 31, Rajnish Kataria 2 for 25).

Apex School enter semis
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 3
Apex Public School, Sant Nagar defeated Guru Govind Singh Sports School, Lucknow 4-0 in the first quarter-final match of the Subroto Cup Football Tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium on Tuesday.

Sumit Debnath scored two goals while Subroto Bidya and Sayantan

Das Roy added the other two goals. Kodlya Prasanna Banga High School, 24 Parganas (West Bengal) beat St. John Bosco School, Sohra (Meghalaya) 2-1 in a keenly-contested match. S K Siddiqui scored both the goals for the winners while Bistarred Majaw scored the consolation goal for Meghalaya.

Goans hold Nationals

Indian Nationals were held to a goalless draw by Goans in a Group B match of the Delhi Soccer Association (DSA)-SAIL Open Club Senior Division Football League Championship at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Tuesday. 

Dayal Singh College bag boxing title

The victorious Dayal Singh College boxing team

New Delhi, December 3
Dayal Singh College (Morning) emerged champions in the Delhi University Inter-College Boxing Championship, held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. Fifteen college teams participated in the championship.

Disabled cricketer gets Timex watch
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, December 3
Balwinder Singh of India, who was adjudged the Man of the Match in the first All-India Cricket Association for the Disabled series, played between India and England, was awarded a Timex watch. India won the match by 75 runs, and Balwinder Singh took six wickets.

England were all out for 86 in 22 overs against India’s total of 161 runs in 25 overs. Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala was the chief guest of the match.

Bharat Kennel Club show a big hit
Our Correspondent

New Delhi, December 3
The All-Breed Championship and Obedience Dog Show, organised by the Bharat Kennel Club at the Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj was a big hit.

It was North India’s biggest dog show. There were 350 entries of 45 different kinds of breeds from all over Delhi, Punjab, UP, Haryana, Bombay, Hyderabad and Rajasthan. The main attraction of the show was pet fancy dress show-02.

ADMINISTRATION

MC drive to collect development tax
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, December 3
The Sonepat Municipal Council has launched a vigorous campaign for the recovery of development tax from the residents of those colonies that have been regularised by the state government in and around the city.

According to a report, this step has been taken to increase the income of the council in a bid to overcome the financial crisis. The council has so far collected about Rs 32 lakh from the residents of these colonies at the rate of Rs 120 per square yard.

The civic authorities have also given a rebate of 20 per cent to the residents who had deposited this amount till November 29. The time limit for concession has lapsed and the residents of these colonies have been advised to deposit the amount of development tax at the rate of Rs 120 per square yard till the end of this month. Otherwise they will be charged Rs 132 per square yard from January 1 next year.

Meanwhile, the district and civic administration has drawn up a scheme for the parking of rehris at one place for the smooth flow of traffic in the congested areas of the city. Under this scheme, the administration has selected a place on the Sonepat-Murthal road for the parking of rehris. The rehriwalas from the bus stand and other congested places will be removed and they will not be allowed to stay on the main roads in the future.

Earlier, Mr Sujan Singh, SDM, along with the officials of the municipal council inspected the site and approved it for the parking of rehris.