Mumbai drubs Vidarbha

By Our Special Correspondent

Bihar 3 -- Himachal Pradesh 0

Mumbai 8 -- Vidarbha 1

HYDERABAD, FEB. 12. Mumbai showed its class with a fluent 8-1 victory over a hapless Vidarbha while Bihar also put up a good display to get the better of a fighting Himachal Pradesh, 3-0, in the two Pool-H matches played in the Junior National hockey championship at the police hockey ground here on Monday.

The Mumbai side displayed admirable teamwork and individual skills. At the forefront of Mumbai's fine performance were the squad's key players Vikram Pillay, Vijay Alphonso and Junaid Jada. Pillay was an important play maker in midfield and his speed and control enabled him to punch holes in the Vidarbha defence which was well exploited by his teammates.

Alphonso proved to be a dangerous player on the left wing as he repeatedly darted in to exploit the gaps. His anticipation and marksmanship were a constant threat to the Vidarbha defenders. Junaid Jada also showed an uncanny ability to be at the right spot at the right time and the rivals were hard pressed to contain him.

The combination that these players formed along with their teammates was too much for Vidarbha to handle. But it must be said that Vidarbha never threw in the towel. The team fought back gallantly despite the mounting deficit and launched several good counter-attacks one of which paid dividends late in the match.

Vikram Pillay scored the first goal for Mumbai in the eighth minute and in the 14th minute Shivendra Singh deflected a long hit from Sunil Singh into the goal to make it 2-0. A minute later Alphonso scored after getting the ball from Shivendra Singh. At half time the score was 3-0.

In the second session Mumbai pumped in five more goals. The scorers were Alphonso, Junaid Jada (fifth and sixth), Vikram Pillay and Shivendra Singh. In between (after Mumbai's seventh goal), Vidarbha got a consolation goal when Akbar Khan got a long pass from midfield and finding himself unmarked, he had no trouble in banging the ball home.

In the other match of the day Himachal Pradesh fought hard but could not prevent Bihar from chalking up a 3-0 victory. Alois Kerketta (10th), Debendra Ekka (22nd) and Enom Zozo (58th) were the scorers for Bihar.

Deepak Kumar of Air India (centre) beats Bhopal goal-keeper Gulrez Sherkhan hands down for his team's second goal in the Junior National hockey championship, in Chennai, on Monday.

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