The much-awaited exhibition hockey match between Odisha XI and New South Wales (NSW), Australia, was played here at the Biju Patnaik Hockey Stadium on Sunday which was witnessed by a record crowd of about 20,000.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the match. The crowd witnessed competitive hockey match but was little disappointed since the home team Odisha XI was defeated by the New South Wales by 2-3 goal margin.
Chief Minister Patnaik said his Government is committed for the development of sports in the State. "We have already organised major sports events like Asian Athletic Championship and Champions trophy etc. and we are going to organise the Men’s Hockey World Cup during last week of this month," Patnaik said.
As a different gesture, Patnaik also hit a penalty stroke with Olly mascot as the goalkeeper and the crowd was euphoric when the ball reached the goal box.
A close contest between the two teams was witnessed from the beginning of the match. Although Odisha got its first penalty corner in the first quarter of the match, goal scoring opportunity was missed narrowly. The stadium went euphoric when Odisha XI scored in the second quarter and got the lead by the end of second quarter.
The NSW however came back strongly in the third quarter by scoring two goals in a span of ten minutes and took the lead of 2-1 by the end of third quarter. Odisha team had come back well with levelling the score with 2-2 in the fourth quarter but the NSW scored the winning goal, in the last minute of the match and became the winner.
State Sports and Youth Services Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera, hockey legend Dilip Tirkey, Raghunathpalli MLA Subrat Tarai etc. handed over the prizes to the players of both the teams.
Later, Chief Minister Patnaik attended another function at Uditnagar parade ground and laid foundation stones of some projects.