Defeat Chandigarh by 4-2.
Champions Hockey Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh outpaced Chandigarh 4-2 to win the 13th Junior National Hockey Championship in Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium here.
Shreyas Dhupe (17’, 46’), Mohd Konain Dad (25’), and Ali Ahmad (52’) scored for the winners, while Sumit (9′) and Surinder Singh (31′) reduced the margin for the losers.
Earlier Haryana overpowered hosts Odisha 3-1 to finish third in the competition. Shubham (4′), Captain Rohit (28′), and Prikshit Panchal (51′) scored for Haryana. Odisha’s lone goal came from Akash Soreng (53′).
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“The aim was to perform well by keeping possession, and look for the counter without committing more than two players. We worked on our formation and receiving under pressure and putting pressure on opponents before we arrived in Rourkela and I feel that helped us a lot. All teams that participated had some really talented players in their squad, and I feel the title was decided based on the performance and luck of each team on the day,” said Madhya Pradesh Coach Mangal Vaid.
Chandigarh Coach Gurminder Singh opined: “The team played very well throughout the Championship, we worked on our set-up and penalty corner before coming to Rourkela and it panned out well for us seeing that we made it so far in the end. All the teams we played against were good, it has been a great learning experience for the boys.”
Bronze medal winner Haryana team coach Bharat Singh was happy with his team’s performance. “I had confidence in our team to give a good account of ourselves during the course of the Championships, we practiced penalty corners before arriving and it turned out to be the driving force that got us the bronze medal,” he said.
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