UP Red retain K D Babu title

Lucknow, Feb 2 (UNI) Holders Uttar Pradesh (Red) retained the title of the All India K D Singh Babu sub junior hockey championship, beating Cheema Academy, Batala (Punjab), 2-1 at the Dhyan Chand stadium here today.

UP Red pocketed a cash prize of Rs 20,000, while Cheema Academy collected Rs 15,000.

UP (Blue) got the third place and a cash prize of Rs 10,000.

Fourth placed Chhattisgarh got the Gyan Singh Fair Play trophy.

Former UP chief secretary A P Singh gave away the trophies.

Shivraj Rajbhar of UP (Blue) was declared as the best player of the tournament and man of the match award was bagged by Batala's skipper Simranjit Singh.

In the final, UP (Red) started aggressively, but Batala defence was too good to thwart their moves. The first half remained goal-less.

After the change of side, UP team became more aggressive and got the penalty corner in the third minute of the play, which was converted into goal by Amarjeet Yadav, who was later rewarded with a clock by Devendra Dhyan Chand, the son of hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.

The lead was consolidated by Sandeep to 2-0 eight minutes later.

Batala's Yuv Raj Kohenoor reduced the margin in the dying moments of the game.

Earlier, UP (Blue) beat Chhattisgarh 4-1 after leading 2-1 at half time. For the winners, Manish, Ravi, Sanjay and Ajay scored one goal each and for the losers Brij Minz was the successful scorer.

UNI