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Players struggle for the ball during the final match in Ranchi on Wednesday. Picture by Prashant Mitra
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AG Bengal emerged champions in the East Zone Inter-audit Hockey Championship that concluded at Mecon stadium in Ranchi on Wednesday afternoon. They defeated host AG Jharkhand by two to one.
Though the Bengal team looked strong from the very beginning, the Jharkhand team got a boost in the form of the home crowd’s support.
Bengal took a lead when Gurpratap Singh netted a goal in the 10th minute of the first half. Later in the first half itself, the host team levelled the score when Jayant Kerketta pushed in an equaliser.
The second half began with both teams trying hard to take a lead but Bengal’s Sundar Singh became successful in scoring the second goal to give his team a 2-1 lead in the 39th minute.
Though both teams made several advances after that, none could convert the opportunities they got. Bengal missed the chance of enhancing the lead as they failed to convert to their favour two penalty corners.
The two-day tournament had three teams from the offices of the accountants-general, Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand participating.
The teams first played on league basis. Bengal entered the finals by scoring 5 points when they defeated their Odisha counterparts by 1-0 on Tuesday. Jharkhand earned 2 points in a goal-less match against Odisha. They enhanced their tally when they met the Bengal team in the last league match played on Wednesday morning, that also ended in a goal-less draw.
Thus, with 4 points, Jharkhand qualified to play the finals against Bengal once again this afternoon and became runners-up.
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