CHENNAI: The Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) on Wednesday bagged the Chennai Hockey Association’s Super Six league title after a 1-1 draw against Sports Authority of India (SAI) at Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium. With nine points from five matches, IOB claimed the top spot, while SAI finished second with eight points.
Even though IOB has been a dominating force in state-level tournaments — they have won the Super Six championship more than 10 times — this was the first time they played with six guest players out of 16 in the squad. For the past year and a half, recruitment has been an area of concern for IOB.
Fortunately for the Mangal Kispotta-led side, the guest players have been instrumental. The list includes Senthil Krishnan R, Sunil Murthy RS, RT Raghu Ram, Saravana Kumar G (all from SAI), Saravanan and Dilli Babu P, with four of them being regulars in the starting XI. They and experienced players like V Vinod Rayer, SM Rafeeq, Amardeep Ekka helped the team score 13 goals (only six conceded).According to coach D Muthukumaran, this performance is more of a comeback for them whose last major win was the 23rd state-level meet for Rajamani Memorial Trophy in Madurai in July 2017. They finished fourth in the Indian Bank state-level invitation tournament this year.
“We have been playing with the same bunch for the last six months. Our star player Arul Stalin David did not play because of injury. But our guest players stepped up. We came into the tournament with proper practice. And we lived up to reputation this time,” he added.
In the five games that IOB played, barring the match against Integral Coach Factory (ICF), they had more possession of the ball. On Wednesday, it was evident that they went with the same plan of keeping the possession in order to create chances against the young SAI side. “We worked on penalty corner conversion and that yielded good results. Another impressive aspect was how we produced goals through set-pieces. We had the ball and created more opportunities. Overall, I’m happy.”
Result: SAI 1 (S Shanmugavel, 56’) drew with IOB 1 (Senthil Krishnan 25). MoM: F Roshan (SAI). Best GK: Vanderputt Trophy: Syed Nizamudeen Shahbaz (SAI). Best defender: MP Murugesh Trophy: Nambi Ganesh (SR). Best midfielder: V Rajasekaran Trophy: Dhanush (ICF). Best forward: Kumaravelu Trophy: Veera Thamizhan (SAI). Player of the tournament: Sathish (Central Excise). Upcoming star: K Mouneesh (Indira Gandhi Memorial).