International Yuvraj Walmiki, the spearhead of the Central Railway attack, will have to produce another stellar performance as the local challengers will be locked in battle with defending champions Army XI, Delhi in the semi-final of the 11th PMC-Bank Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup All-India Hockey Tournament at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Yuvraj Walmiki
The first semi-final to be played at 2.30 pm will be contested between ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation), Delhi and Air India, Delhi.
The nippy forward Walmiki who has been in Impressive form having scored already scored 10 goals, five of which were scored during their 6-4 win against South Central Railway in the last pool-B match on Monday. He will have to conjure up the same kind of magic and lead Central, the lone Mumbai team left in the fray, to victory against the sturdy and fitter Army side and for a place in the final.
Walmiki has received excellent support from teammates Aafan Yusuf, Anup Walmiki, Ajaz Qureshi and Moh Nizam and they are capable of troubling any team on their given day.
The Army team have been slow starters, but they rely heavily on their fitness and stamina to turn the tables on their opponents like they did in the previous encounters. Centre forward Chandan Aind, who has also shown great scoring abilities, will shoulder the burden to lead from the front.
Chandan has also proved successful with his penalty corner conversions which could be a big worry for Central.
Anoop Topno, Binay Bhengra and Gurpreet Singh have combined nicely with Aind and they form quite a lethal attack which could carry them to another final.
Meanwhile, ONGC who have comfortably won all the four Pool-A matches by convincing margins are the strong favourites against the former champs Air India who are not quite the same kind of team as in the past.
ONGC have played pleasing, attacking hockey and have clinically dissected their opponents defence. International Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Pramod Kumar, P.P. Macheiah, Sumit Kumar and Amit Malik are all quite dangerous inside the circle and Air India goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza will have to be very alert to deny them from finding the goals.
The Air India attack revolves around the experienced Shivendra Singh who will look for support from Sumit Topo and Pawan Kumar to take the fight to the ONGC camp and try to snatch a win.