Vikram Pillay Academy trounce Krida Probhodini

Pune, Dec 13 (UNI) Vikram Pillay Academy, taking a recourse to the tie-break shootout, today recorded a 6-5 win over Krida Probhodini Balewadi and made to the last four stage of the Dr Avinash Bhide Memorial State level hockey tournament, being hosted by the Rakshak Sports Association, at the S P College ground here.

Krida Probhodini shot through Satish Devakate, who sounded the boards in the 10th minute.

Academy boys had to wait for an equaliser till 36th minute, when Pillay converted a penalty corner. In the resultant tie-breaker, the winners scored via Chingkhei, Vikas Pillay, Victo Singh, Jayesh and Vinod Jadhav.

On the other, Krida Probhodini reduced the margin through Nilesh Wadkar, Abhay Meshrana, Satish Devakate, Vinod Shingode. Shingade was named the man of the match and was honoured by Manish Anand, Chairman of Suendra Anand Memorial Football Tournament.

The second match was also decided on the tie-breaker shootout, as Central Railway emerged winners 4-3 against Savkar Club, Kolhapur.

The rivals remained scoreless in the regulation time and settled the issue in the tie-breaker.

Prashant Kumar, Prakash Ghumre, Randeep Bhatti and Ruben Kedari converted for Central Railway, however, Vinit Nimal struck the pole.

For Savkars, Amol Pawar, Nachiket Jadhav, Kapil More, were successful. Ravi Jagtap and Ashish Chopade failed to score for Savkar Club.

The third match was also decided in tie-breakers.

MKM, Kolhapur nosed out hard-hitting SRPF (Group One) 5-4 in the tie-breaker shootout after being levelled 1-1 in the full time play.

MKM went ahead in 5th minute.

SRPF fought back and restored parity through P Salunkhe in the 31st minute. Both teams played well. In the tie-breaker once again, Sunil Supare, R Ghorpade, Tshar Kamble and Yogesh Deshpande successfully scored, only Vijay Malavade could not. Sandip Patel and Milind Malae from SRPF were well defended by the goalkeeper of MKM.

Only Prashant Bhatt and Gajanan Patil could convert. MKM finally won 5-3.

Every year, Rakshak Sports Association gives the Excellency Award for the lifetime achievement in sports. This year, Prof Neelkanth Gurav, Physical Director of S P College, will be felicitated, with the 'Rakshak Krida Gaurav' award at the hands of Patangraoji Kadam.

Former India captain Dhanraj Pillay will be the guest of honour at the finals, to be played on Sunday.

UNI