Chennai, 19 January 2019: Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu and Central Secretariat fought their way into the Final of 9th Hockey India Senior National Hockey Championship 2019 (Men) B Division in Chennai, Tamil Nadu after overcoming stiff challenge in the Semi Finals today.

In the first Semi Final, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu beat Sports Authority of India 3-2 in a tense shootout after a 3-3 draw in regulation time. Goalkeeper M ArunPrasadh was impressive with his saves for Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu while S Manikandan scored twice in the shootout and Senthil R Nayagam scored once to help their team win. During regulation time, Sports Authority of India made a strong start with a 1-0 lead in the 9th minute through Boby Singh Dhami’s goal. V Sanmugam (16′) and V Vinodhan (21′) successive goals helped Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu take control of the proceedings. V VinodRayer had scored in the 40th minute that gave Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu 3-2 lead but Sports Authority of India made a solid comeback to score in the 25th and 41st minutes through Mohit Kumar and Rahul Kumar that resulted in a draw.

In the second Semi Final, Bengaluru Hockey Association suffered a heart-break 3-4 loss to Central Secretariat after holding the team 3-3 in regulation time. PardeepMor, DharambirYadav, Govind Singh Rawat and Imran Khan scored in the penalty shootout to help Central Secretariat win while Govind Singh Rawat (15′, 52′) had scored twice in regulation time and DharambirYadav (14′) scored a goal.

For Bengaluru Hockey Association, Veerannagouda’s double goal in the 10th and 11th minute had given his team a flying start while C Abhilash Stalin scored in the 50th minute to gain a 3-2 lead however their defence let them down in the end.