Mumbai (MHAL) lads displayed plenty of confidence and went on to emerge champions of the Hockey India 6th Junior Men (B-Division) National Hockey Championship 2016.
The winning Mumbai players along with coach Ibrahim Mulla and manager Amrit Kiro are seen in a happy mood after defeating Hockey Maharashtra in the final
In the final, MHAL (Mumbai Hockey Association Limited) edged out Hockey Maharashtra 6-5 via the sudden death penalty shootout duel after the scores were level 3-3 (half-time 2-2) at the end of regulation period, at the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel International Stadium, Raipur, Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.
Mumbai captain Prince Chaurasia, leading by example notched a fine hat-trick by scoring all the three goals, including the equaliser for Mumbai. Hockey Maharashtra got their goals through Taleb Shah’s penalty stroke conversion, a field effort by Ajinkya Jadhav and through Ganesh Patil’s penalty corner.
In the crucial penalty shootout, the Mumbai boys held their nerves to come out trumps and clinch the title. For Mumbai, Motiram Shirke, Prince Chaurasia, Shakil Qureshi and Naresh Katoute successfully converted in the tie-breaker, while Tausif Qureshi failed to convert with the fifth attempt. Maharashtra missed from the first try taken by Taleb Shah, but scored from the remaining four through Ajinkya Jadhav, Rahul Shinde, Gaurav Aniket and Ajit Shinde. In the sudden death Motiram and Naresh made no mistake for Mumbai while Maharashtra scored one through Ajinkya but from the next Ajit was unable to score which ensure MHAL clinched the issue in their favour.
Final results: MHAL 9 (Prince Chaurasia 4, Motiram Shirke 2, Naresh Katoute 2, Shakil Qureshi) beat Hockey Maharashtra 8 (Ajinkya Jadhav 3, Taleb Shah, Ganesh Patil, Rahul Shinde, Gaurav Aniket, Ajit Shinde) via the sudden death penalty shootout. Full-time – 3-3, tie-breaker – 4-4.