National Men`s Hockey: Chandigarh, Mumbai enter semi finals

Bhopal: Chandigarh and Mumbai entered the semi-finals of the 63rd Rangaswami Cup Senior National Men`s Hockey Championship being played at the Aishbagh Stadium.

Chandigarh defeated hosts Madhya Pradesh State Hockey Academy (MPSHA), Bhopal 7-5 in a nail biting finish through penalty shootout while Mumbai defeated Punjab 4-2 last night. For Chandigarh, Harmanpreet scored the first goal in the eighth minute to give a 1-0 lead to his team but Upendra Pillai of MPSHA equalised it through a brilliant field goal 15 minutes later. After five minutes, Gurjant Singh of Chandigarh gave a 2-1 lead to his team through a field goal that became controversial.The MPSHA players objected to this goal following which tension like situation arose between the two teams. Seeing this, Technical Committee for the tournament announced that the goal was a clear one. But soon, MPSHA equalised the score 2-2 and game ended a draw in the stipulated time.Later, 15 minutes additional time was given for a golden goal but both teams failed to score any goal in sudden death leading to extension of the match to penalty shootout. Chandigarh players converted all the five penalty shootouts into goals while MPSHA captain Shailendra Bundela missed his team`s third attempt thus leading to its exit from the tournament. PTI