NEW DELHI, November 12: Lyallpur Khalsa Sr Sec School, Jalandhar, ousted a fighting defending champions St Ignatius High School, Gumla, 1-0 to set up a title clash with Birsamunda Vidyapitha, Rourkela, in the semi-finals of the 17th Nehru sub-junior hockey tournament. Birsamunda got past Sat Guru Partap Academy, Ludhiana, 2-0.The match between Khalsa and St Ignatius teams was a keenly contested one with both sides fighting hard to score. But since both sides were equally matched, none could open account in the first half.In the second half, Khalsa boys took early control and created some good moves from the right flank. They found luck in the 44th minute when Rajwinder Singh ran down from his right flank dodging defenders on the way and pushed the ball to Joga Singh waiting at the goal mouth to tap the ball in.Bouyed by the 1-0 lead, Khalsa launched a fresh offensive. Surjan Singh created two good moves for them but none could be converted. A direct penalty corner hit by Khalsa boys was saved by Ignatius's Jacarius Bhengra on the goal line. Ignatius boys had a good chance to equalise in the 51st minute when John Minj passed from the right to unmarked Ruplal Xalxo whose deflection went out.Rosan Minz of Birsamunda Vidyapitha, in the 16th minute, opened the account against Sat Guru Pratap Academy. He ran down from the right to the Sat Guru striking circle and put the ball in the rival citadel. In the 42nd minute he created a similar move but before he could take a shot he was brought down. The penalty stroke which resulted was converted by Anthony Hemburm.In the men's section, Air India defeated FCI (North Zone) 5-2. M Fahad (3) and Shakir Khan (2) scored for Air India while Rakesh Singh and Prabhkar reduced margin for FCI.
