Bronze for Lankan stickers

by S. M. Jiffry Abdeen, Kandy Sport Corr.

HOCKEY: Sri Lanka won the Bronze medal at the 10th South Asian Games 2006 when they took sweet revenge to defeat Bangladesh 2-0 in the play off for the third place at hockey at the Nandimithra Ekanayake Hockey Stadium in Matale yesterday. At half time Sri Lanka led 1-0.

It was quite a refreshing performance by the Sri Lankan stickers who not only scored their first win in the tournament but also averaged their 0-1 defeat in the hands of Bangladeshis in the league segment of the championship.

The Sri Lanka hockey team adopted a completely different strategy in this match and strengthened the vulnerable areas and this paid dividends. The Sri Lanka team went ahead in the 3rd minute of play when skipper T. M. Parakrama Abeyratne scored off a penalty corner with the Bangladesh custodians being out of position.

The Bangladesh team came up with a stirring performance in the period of play which but Sri Lanka's goal keeper E.R.P. Jayasuriya thwarted their attempts with a super exhibition between the posts using his hands, stick and the pads to bring off some beautiful saves in both sessions of play. The game hotted up after the turn around with both teams going hammer and tongs to snatch victory.

An ugly incident was witnessed in the 13th minute of the second half which held up play for nearly 8 minutes.

Bangladesh's centre forward R. Mohammed Jimmy was seen advancing with the ball into Sri Lanka territory but local lad Dissanayake retrieved the ball and from behind Jimmy was seen dealing a blow on the Sri Lankans.

Umpire Suriya Prakash of India had no hesitation in ordering Jimmy off the field.

This angered the Bangladesh players including those in the bench, who argued with the officials. It took a good 8 minutes before play resumed with Jimmy being sent off the field.

Sri Lankan struck again with 5 minutes from the end through centre Mohamed Ghazzali who fared at last three defendants and dribbled into the "D" to and scooped a pass to Manju Hewage who sounded the boards.

Bangladesh will have to blame themselves for this unexpected defeat as their moves did not have the required finish.

Suriya Prakash (India) and Mohshin Alikhan (Pakistan) umpired.