Sri Lanka Navy impressively made their win over Sri Lanka Air Force at the 23rd Women’s Hockey Championship organized by the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation which concluded yesterday evening at The Astro Turf, Reid Avenue Colombo.
It was also their day for the Women Sailors as they made history by becoming the highest scoring team of the tournament when they beat Combined Universities by 15 points to nil in the quarter final match.
The first half of the game did not live up to the expectations of the crowd with either side not making in-roads where the half went scoreless. But because of their never giving up attitude they were more on the attacking line and managed to receive two penalties one after another but failed to convert them into goals.
It was a terrible start for the Air Force playing a solid game but not scoring a single goal for the entire match. Former Viyaja Matale sticker who played the Centre Half for Air Force was putting her best effort to score a goal but ended up scoring nothing due to a number of mistakes. The forward lines of Air Force were defending rather than attacking, which saw them scoring nothing for the entire game. Good defense by Thakshila Maduwanthi was visible in the first half.
Half Time – Navy 00 Air Force 00
The second half of the game was played in a more competitive manner. Navy kicked off the second half showing off their utmost power by suddenly engaging in an out breaking manner where they managed not to lose the ball from their site. There was so much conflict after they scored a goal but the referee didn’t blow the whistle instead gave an out pass for the Navy team.
While Air Force was playing a defensive game to avoid the strong attacking line of the sailors, they didn’t realize that they were making mistakes on their own D top which had the sailors receiving their third penalty of the game which was converted in to an unimaginable goal by the Centre Forward, Madushani Jayanetti.
After the restart by Air Force, Navy grabs the ball to attack the airwomen again but missed a fine left line goal by the Left Extreme. Nevertheless they scored their next goal in a similar manner to their first goal by the same goal scorer, Madushani Jayanetti. This time it was an unthinkable mistake by the Air Force defenders for freeing the space of their Goal Keeper and not sheltering their lines.
No one knows better than the Navy team to exercise their opposites by slowing down the game when they sensed that referee was about to bring the match to an end. However their trick was successful as the Air Force conceded that the Navy already won the game, Buddhika Gunaratne disappointed the airwomen more by scoring the final unforeseen goal at the last minute just before the final whistle.
This year Army grabbed the Third place after beating the State Services Hockey Team by 02 points to 01. Navy made a prevalent victory for Sri Lanka Women’s Hockey by becoming the highest scoring team this year which was also well noticed. Former National Captain and Centre Half, Chathurika Wijesuriya scored five goals which also includes the first hat trick of this year’s tournament.
Sources say an inquiry is also expected to be conducted about a match which ended in a ten all draw.
