Indian Army beats Maharashtra to keep its chances alive; Indian Navy sinks CBDT
Its forwards haven't stepped up to a great extent, though the defence has been saving grace. To be fair, it has played well within its limitations.
Requiring a victory to stay alive in the competition, Army huffed and puffed to a 2-1 win over Maharashtra in a Pool-A contest at the SDAT-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Wednesday.
Army will make it to the playoffs provided SAI-NCOE (Bhopal) loses or draws with defending champion and table-topper Indian Railways on Thursday. NCOE will enter the semifinals in place of Army if the former defeats Railways. Meanwhile, host Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu has been knocked out.
Later, in a Pool-B tie, Indian Navy impressed with a 4-1 victory over Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), thanks to a brace each by Selvaraj and Ajinkya Jadhav.
Navy, which has entered the last four with three straight wins, will take on former champion IOC in its last group match to decide the group topper.
After a drab goalless first quarter, Maharashtra opened the scoring in the second through a penalty corner strike by Ganesh Patil.
Within few minutes, Army equalised through a strong counter-attack from the left flank. A swipe by Mohd. Alishan from the backline found Pradeep Singh Bisht, who deftly deflected it home.
Maharashtra returned stronger in the third quarter with attacks that rattled the Army defence. First, Arjun Hargude's strike from the top of the circle saw Army 'keeper Senthamizh Arasu come up with a fine save. A few minutes later, a withering backhander by Taleb Shah missed the post by a whisker.
With seven minutes remaining for the hooter, Army found the winner when Niraj Kumar Singh took a little time before unleashing a reverse hit after receiving a pass from Rajant Singh.
The results: Pool-A: Indian Army 2 (Pradeep Singh Bisht 29, Niraj Kumar Singh 53) bt Maharashtra 1 (Ganesh Patil 21).
B: Indian Navy 4 (Ajinkya Jadhav 17 & 35, K. Selvaraj 33 & 36) bt CBDT 1 (Mehkeet Singh 33).
Malaysian National junior team 3 (Azimuddin Shakir 29, Muhd. Handzalah 47, Muhd. Adam Asyraf 59) drew with Karnataka 3 (N.M Surya 7, Bhrath Mahalingppa 18 & 32).

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STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD We have identified him (Shubman) as our leader and we have to put all our weight and energy behind him as our leader and the Test captain of the country and back him. He is a good batter, a stylish player, a valuable asset. And these are things that should help us back him as a leader. You have thrown a player into the deep end, give him an opportunity to swim and be around to help. Let's not wait for him to fail, let's be there to help him succeed because that is essential. He is India's leader. He is not leading some other country. Let's talk about the overall ongoing Test series now. The Leeds loss was a gut punch, the loss at Lord's was a heartbreak. India could very well have been 3-0 up, with the series in the bag currently. Would you agree with that? Chopra: Absolutely. The Leeds Test was a match that India should have won. 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Even in the first Test (at Leeds). That is where your experience comes in. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Also Read | Jadeja deserved his own Headingley 2019 moment at Lord's, but India just could not muster enough resolve Even if you are an unsung hero and not given your due, you be that strong force in the side. You could have played a lot faster, dominated better. And here I am not talking about the last two hours of the Lord's Test. I am not even going there. I am talking about the first Test, also the first innings of the third Test. He (Jadeja) is one of the stronger pillars of the Indian team and people do acknowledge that. You will not write down an Indian team (playing XI) without Ravindra Jadeja's name being there. Would you agree that this England team is very much beatable in their own backyard? Also going by what happened at Leeds and at Lord's – what would you, the cricket analyst, say are the areas Team India should focus on with two must-win Tests left to play? 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This is a man who is consistently performing in domestic cricket and (then) we say that we are rewarding people from domestic cricket. In terms of what changes the Indian team makes – are they willing to play a Kuldeep Yadav, if the conditions remain very similar to what they were like at Lord's? It's warm there. We have just seen the (Indian) women's team play a match at Old Trafford (4th T20I vs England women). It will be a good batting track, so would you want to play another spinner? If another spinner has to be played then you will have to drop a batter. Also Read | India camp rocked by injury crisis: How team combination could change after Nitish Reddy, Arshdeep Singh blow In the last Test the team couldn't chase down a target of 193 with nine batters. So, the team management will have to be comfortable making that call of going with one less batter and one more bowler. And who will that batter be who misses out? Do I go with Karun Nair? I think Karun batted really well. Barring the dismissals he has had, I think he has batted really well, going by the kind of shots that he has played. But somebody has to make way for another bowler in this line-up. Kuldeep Yadav is yet to play a Test under Shubman Gill's captaincy. Image: Reuters A hypothetical question now, because I don't understand why he hasn't been tried out yet. If Arshdeep hadn't picked up this left thumb injury in the nets and was available to play, would you have picked him in the playing XI in Manchester? Chopra: Arshdeep is someone I would have played in the first Test match (itself) just because of the different angle (that he creates as a left-arm pacer). I did not understand why Arshdeep was not played. He has played county cricket. He is also coming into his own. As a bowler you take time to understand conditions, etc and mature. Why was a left-arm seamer not played ahead of a right-arm fast bowler? But maybe Arshdeep wasn't fully fit (earlier – before his thumb injury), maybe he wasn't bowling at his best in the nets, maybe he is not giving the team confidence – we don't know. It all depends on what the management is planning. India haven't played a Test at Manchester since 2014. They have also never won a Test match at this venue from the first Test they played in 1936 till the one in August 2014. A lot has changed at the ground since 2014 of course. Your take on what the fans can expect from Team India in the fourth Test at Old Trafford…. Chopra: It's always had a good batting pitch. We saw that in the T20I that the girls played also (vs England women recently). What the fans can expect is again a very true surface. There has to be a little bit of juice in it for it to last five days. I don't think they will make a surface which will assist the spinners, because England also have to bat on it. Also, I don't think that they will make the pitch very spicy, because again both teams have to bat on it and anybody could be batting on it on Day One in the first couple of hours. It should remain a very true surface to score runs on. It could well be another battle of the batters, with the bowlers toiling hard to get those 20 wickets.