Manipur remain a beacon of hope

Last year,they scored only one win from three matches. This time they have won all three of their games.

While all other teams from North East mostly come to the nationals to make up the numbers – and swell the rival teams goal tally and pride there is one side that comes to compete. And Manipur kept the regions flag flying as they edged out a talented Association of Indian Universities (AIU) team 4-3 in a Group H game to make it to the round of eight. In the football crazy part of the country,its in Manipur that hockey has found a foothold,and to an extent even flourished. They have a rich tradition of the sport there,having sent players like Thoiba Singh,Tikken Singh,Brojen Singh and now Kothajit Singh to the Indian team.

Mens hockeys progress slowed down in the 2000s but the things are looking up again. Last year,they scored only one win from three matches. This time they have won all three of their games.

In a pool that also had Andaman and Nicobar and Bihar,Manipur,coached by Tikken,were always favourites to go through,but AIU made sure it was not a cakewalk. Manipur took the lead through Jayanta Kumar Meitel in the 17th minute and two minutes later Gangamba made it 2-0. The collegians fought back to equalise through Barkat Singh (25th) and Hansraj (32nd). Soon after the resumption,Manipur went ahead with Gangamba sounding the board,but the lead lasted only six minutes as Barkat put the teams back on level. However,Meitels 55th minute strike proved decisive as Manipur managed to hold off AIU.

UP goes down

Story continues below this ad

In another match at the MEG astroturf,Indian Railways defeated a spirited Uttar Pradesh 3-1 to make the last eight from Group F. The first half was closely contested with Railways taking the lead through Sanjay Bir Singh in the 15th minute only to see it negated by UP’s Chandan Singh’s goal. Sanjay was on target one minute before half-time while Victo Singh scored in the 42nd minute to effectively put UP out of the game and tournament.

Earlier,hosts Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh registered big wins over Delhi (9-0) and Mizoram (15-3) respectively to stay in the hunt for the quarter-finals. Both teams face off on Saturday,with Karnataka needing to only avoid a defeat in order to advance,thanks to a far superior goal difference.

Results: Group A: Bhopal 2-0 Bengal; Gool B: Karnataka 9-0 Delhi,AP 15-3 Mizoram; Group D: Jharkhand 15-0 Goa; Sashatra Seema Bal 5-1 Uttarakhand 1; Group F: Indian Railways 3-1 Uttar Pradesh,Assam 6-0 Tripura; Group H: Manipur 4-3 Association of Indian Universities 3,Bihar 6-0 Andaman & Nicobar.