Poisar Pirates clinched the top honours in the inaugural MRHL (Mumbai Rink Hockey League), which was played under floodlights at the Malad Gymkhana. In the title clash, Pirates produced another disciplined team effort to record an authoritative 5-1 win against UK United to lift the glittering trophy and the top cash award of Rs 75,000.
Poisar Pirates team pose with the Mumbai Rink Hockey Leaguechampions’ trophy along with Chief Guest, Dhanraj Pillay, a 4-time Olympian, and Namdev Shirgaonkar, Executive Council Member, IOA.
Young goalkeeper Karan Thakur was impressive and made a series of fine saves which included three running penalty strokes attempts from UK United international star Yuvraj Walmiki. Complimenting Thakur’s fine efforts was the seasoned defenders of Madan Vishwanth and Enrico Piperno. The experienced duo, were rock solid in defence and completely blunted the rival attack spearheaded by Yuvraj and Anup, who managed to score their lone goal.
Upfront, Pirates potent striker Rajat Sharma continued to fire and hit the target three times while his partner and skipper Girish Pimpale chipped in with two goals to complete a deserving victory.
A consistent Rajat, who was the leading scorer with 18 goals in 5 games, was declared as the ‘Player of the Tournament’ and received a cash award of Rs 8,000. Goalkeeper Karan, who won the ‘Man of the Final’ award of Rs 2,000, also won the ‘Best goalkeeper’ prize of Rs 5,000. He had earlier in two previous games, also bagged the Man of the Match’ awards of Rs 1000 each.
Olympian Dhanraj Pillay, who was the Chief Guest at the finals, is flanked by Rajat Sharma (left), who won the ‘Player of the tournament’ award and Karan Thakur, who was declared as the ‘Best goalkeeper of the tournament’,
Pirates received the trophy and cash prize from Chief Guest, Dhanraj Pillay, a four-time Olympian. UK United received the runners-up trophy and cash award of Rs 50,000 while Third place winners Wadala Wanderers got Rs 25,000.
Results: Result : Posiar Pirates 5 ( Rajat Sharma 3, Girish Pimpale 2) bt UK United 1 (Anup Valmiki) . Man-of-the-match: Karan Thakur.
3rd Place: Wadala Wanderers 8 (Boon D’Souza 4, Victo Singh 3, Snedon Menezes) bt Mumbai Phantoms 5 (Vikas Pillay 2, Leonard Pereria, Joshua Vessaokar, Savio Nayak) .