Young striker helps team beat Don Bosco in Aga Khan hockey
Our Lady of Dolours (Marine Lines) rode on 12-year-old Bhimbahadur Batala’s brace to beat Don Bosco High School (Borivli) 3-0 in the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) inter-school U-16 Aga Khan tournament at the MHA-Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate yesterday.
Our Lady of Dolours’ Bhimbahadur Batala at the MHA-Mahindra Stadium yesterday. Pic/Suresh KK
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Bhimbahadur scored for the Marine Lines outfit in the 17th and 25th minutes. Earlier, Thakulla Tikaram converted a penalty in the ninth minute. Bhimbahadur’s father Kul Bahadur Batala migrated to Mumbai from Nepal in 1983. Two years later he was employed by Bel Heaven, a popular building near Bombay Hospital and looked after their water supply.
Bhimbahadur, a class VIII student, who is the youngest of four siblings started playing hockey two years ago and is coached by Marzban Patel, popularly known as Bawa. “I accompanied my cousin to Churchgate to watch him play an inter-school match. I expressed my wish to play the sport to Bawa. He agreed, but only on the condition that I wouldn’t miss practice. Now, I want to work hard and be like my idol Dhanraj Pillay,” said Bhimbahadur.
Meanwhile, Our Lady of Dolours coach Patel lauded Bhimbahadur’s efforts. “Unlike some other kids, Bhim is a very dedicated and skillful player. He is ready to work hard and has been a consistent scorer for us,” said Patel.u00a0Our Lady of Dolours will play Children’s Academy (Malad), who thrashed St Anne’s (Malad) 5-0 yesterday, in the semi-final today.
Other results
Don Bosco (Matunga) 5 (P Noronha, K D’Souza, G Prabhu, S Monteiro, S Andrade) bt St Stanislaus 3u00a0(L Mergulhao, K Barnes, R D’Souza) via tie-breaker; St Andrew’s (Bandra) 7 (A Shaikh 4, S Gupta 2, S Shaikh) bt St Paul’s (Dadar) 1 (S Singh); Children’s Academy (Malad) 5 (J Parmar 2, T Turki, Y Pitwa, H Fadikar) bt St Anne’s (Malad) 0.u00a0
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