MP academy dribbles its way to junior national hockey semis

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh hockey academy secured a place in the last four of the first Sub Junior Boys Academy National Hockey Championship. In an absorbing quarterfinal played on Sunday, MP Academy defeated Olympian Vivek Singh Hockey Academy 2-1.
Teams of Roundglass Punjab Hockey Club Academy, SGPC Hockey Academy and Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Center also entered the semi-finals by winning their respective matches.Rest day has been kept in the championship on Monday. The semi-final matches will be played on Tuesday.
On the seventh day championship, four quarter-final matches were played. In the first quarter-final, MP team had to face a tough fight against the visitors Olympian Vivek Singh Hockey Academy. The match ended after the best of hockey skills and power demonstrated by both teams.
Both the teams opened their attacks on each other with the word go. However, the first success came to Jamir Mohammad of MP Hockey Academy. Jamir put the opposition team under pressure by converting a penalty corner he got in the fourth minute.
In the second quarter of the match, the players of Vivek Singh Hockey Academy attacked by adopting an aggressive strategy. In the 16th minute of the match, Anand Kumar Yadav of Vivek Singh Hockey Academy scored a field goal and brought the score to 1-1 level. However, both the teams could not score in the third quarter.
In the fourth and deciding quarter, both the teams intensified their attacks to take a decisive lead. In the 50th minute of the match, Saddam Ahmed converted a penalty corner to give the team a 2-1 lead. This lead was decisive. The team of MP Hockey Academy is participating under the guidance of head coach Olympian Sameer Dad.