Lucknow: In the 42nd All India KD Singh “Babu” Men’s Invitation Prize Money Hockey Tournament, UP XI captured the title after 30 years. CAG Delhi was the runner-up and Indian Oil was third.
The 42nd All India KD Singh “Babu” Men’s Invitation Prize Money Hockey Tournament was organized from 04 to 12 October 2024 by the Regional Sports Office, Lucknow under the aegis of Sports Department, Uttar Pradesh at Padmashree Mohd. Shahid Synthetic Hockey Stadium, Vijayantkhand, Gomtinagar Lucknow.
The Hard Line match was played between Indian Oil and Mumbai Customs, in which Indian Oil won the match 4-2 and secured the third position in the 42nd All India KD Singh Babu Men’s Invitational Prize Money Hockey Tournament.
In the very first minute of the match, Indian Oil’s team’s Gurjinder Singh converted a penalty corner into a goal and opened his team’s account with a score of 1-0, in response to which Mumbai Customs’ Iktidar Ishrat scored a field goal in the 5th minute of the match, bringing his team’s score to a 1-1 draw. From the Indian Oil team, Vikramjeet Singh scored a field goal in the 14th minute, Afan Yousuf in the 15th minute and Gurjinder Singh in the 19th minute of the match converted a penalty corner into a goal, making the score 4-1 for their team.
From the Mumbai Customs team, Roshan Minj scored a goal from a penalty stroke in the 56th minute of the match, making the score 2-4 for his team. This score remained till the end.
Final Match
The final match of the competition was played between UP XI vs CAG Delhi. In which UP XI defeated CAG Delhi by 4-3 goals and won the title of 42nd All India K.D. Singh Babu Invitation Prize Money Men’s Hockey Tournament after 30 years. From CAG Delhi team, Manish Yadav converted a penalty corner into a goal in the 9th minute of the match and opened his team’s account with a score of 1-0, in reply to which from UP XI team, Ashu Maurya also scored a goal from a penalty corner in the 12th minute of the match and brought his team to a 1-1 draw.
From CAG Delhi team, Aamir Khan Pathan scored a field goal in the 20th minute of the match and made his team’s score 2-1. After that the players of UP XI team gave a strong performance and Ashu Maurya scored a goal from penalty corner in the 31st minute of the match, Rahul Rajbhar scored a field goal in the 33rd minute of the match and Ajeet Yadav scored a field goal in the 47th minute of the match, making the score of their team 4-2. CAG Delhi team again retaliated and Manish Yadav converted a penalty corner into a goal in the 56th minute of the match, making the score of his team 3-4.
Ashu Maurya scored two goals from penalty corners. This score remained till the end and UP XI won the title of the 42nd All India K.D. Singh “Babu” Men’s Invitation Prize Money Hockey Tournament. Chief guest of the competition Engr. Avnish Kumar Singh, Member Legislative Council, Uttar Pradesh Lucknow, gave cash prizes of Rs. 2,00,000.00 to the winning team UP XI, Rs. 1,00,000.00 to the runner-up team CAG Delhi, Rs. 50,000.00 to Indian Oil for third place, Rs. 20,000 to the best hockey player of the competition Ketan Kushwaha, Rs. 10,000 to the best goalkeeper Prashant Chauhan, Rs. 10,000 to the best fullback Roshan Ikka, Rs. 10,000 to the best forward Aafan Younus and Rs. 10,000 to the best half Ganesh Majhi in the 42nd All India K.D. Singh “Babu” Men’s Invitation Prize Money Men’s Hockey Competition.
On this occasion, Devendra Singh, great grandson of Dada Dhyanchand, Sujit Kumar, Mukil Shah, Imranhul Haque, Devesh Chauhan, Ranjana Gupta, Nisha Mishra, Khurshid, Avinash Shrivastava, Lata Chaudhary, Vivek Soni, Ranjit Raj, Anoop Yadav, Ravikant, Ashok Kumar, Nishit Dixit and other eminent citizens were present.
In the end, Ajay Kumar Sethi, Regional Sports Officer Lucknow thanked the chief guest, special guest, players, journalists, senior citizens and spectators.
