Odisha hammers Haryana, bags its maiden gold

Ecstatic: Odisha blew away Haryana — a team that had in its ranks both experience and youth in equal measure — to take the big prize.

Odisha hammered two-time champion Haryana 5-1, courtesy a hat-trick by Shilanand Lakra, in the final of the Hockey India-14th Senior National championship at the SDAT-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Saturday, for its maiden gold medal. For Haryana, it was its second successive defeat in the summit clash, having lost to Punjab last time. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh beat Manipur 2-1 to bag the bronze medal.  

Touted to be a close contest, Odisha, however, blew away a team that had in its ranks both experience and youth in equal measure. In the end, it was the speed allied with supreme skills that enabled Odisha to script a triumph of such a margin.

It was in the second quarter that Haryana—trailing 0-1—showed what it is capable of. Denying the forwards any space to carry out its attack. Haryana exerted immense pressure on Odisha by attacking exceedingly well, but without much success.

Full credit to Odisha’s defenders especially the rushers Kerobin Lakra and Amit Kumar Topno and goalkeeper Sahil Kumar Nayak who showed great alacrity by disrupting the penalty corners of Haryana of which it had 10 in total.

Coming back from knee surgery to find a place in the Indian team, Shilanand showed his striking skills and speed. In fact, it was his three goals in the fourth and final quarter that took the match away from Haryana. His fourth goal was a delight. From the half-line, Shilanand stole the ball from Prabhjot Singh to make a fantastic run and produce a reverse flick into the net.

Odisha’s head coach Bijay Kumar Lakra praised the team’s fitness. “Today’s hockey is all about fitness. We will not leave a single player. We will run and block anyone who tries to run.” Bijay further spoke about Sundargarh district’s contribution to Odisha hockey. “Sundargarh has more than a dozen artificial pitches and most players in our team now are from Sundargarh.”

The results:

Final: Odisha 5 (Rajat Akash Tirkey 11, Pratap Lakra 39, Shilanand Lakra 48, 57, 60) bt Haryana 1 (Joginder Singh 55).

Third place: UP 2 (Lalit Kumar Upadhyay 6, Rajkumar Pal 54) bt Manipur 1 (Moriganthem Rabichandra Singh 43).