Danish and Co off to a flying start at nationals
LUCKNOW: There was some good turnout of fans to watch young guns, including former India forward Danish Mujtaba on the opening day of the senior men’s national A division hockey championship here on Thursday, and the simple reason for this was a good weather, result of a light drizzle in the morning.
Barring a few games, including one of the runners-up Punjab and Sindh Bank, the results on day one of the 11-day event were on the expected lines with defending champions Railways nothing up a big win of 9-1 against Odisha, fans had enough reasons to enjoy a good game of hockey, especially when home team turned up for the last game of the day.
Amidst cheers from stands, Danish-led side didn’t show any mercy to Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy while scripting 4-1 win at the Padamshree Mohd Shahid hockey stadium.
Determined to stage a comeback in the Indian side after recovering from injury even through the development group of 24, Danish was more in the role of a game planner.
He fed team mates with accurate passes, and even dribbled and raced the ball well in the rival’s penalty circle from the very start of game. He anchored the first goal, pushing the ball for Sarwar Mohd Faiz in the fourth minute (1-0).
Drag-flicker Dewakar Ram (28th) and Arjun Yadav (37th) had a goal each in the next two quarters, before MPHA shot one back through Mohd Talib, minutes before the third quarter (1-3). An infringement inside the circle in the 49th minute allowed UP to race ahead then and Dewakar made no mistake in sounding the board with a quick hit to the left of the custodian.
There were frantic actions in other matches of the day as everyone looked trying hard to impress Hockey India’s highperformance director David John and national selector BP Govinda, who were present in the stands.
At the Major Dhyanchand stadium, Hockey Chandigarh defeated Namdhari XI 4-1 in Pool D, whereas in other match of Pool D, Comptroller and Auditor General of India played out a 2-2 draw with Association of Indian Universities. In pool B, Air India Sports Promotion Board scored 2-0 victory over Hockey Gangpur-Odisha, whereas in Pool C Hockey Punjab notched up an emphatic 5-2 win over Hockey Karnataka.
There were some tough time for Punjab and Sind Bank in Pool B as they came from a goal down to defeat Hockey Haryana 2-1. But Railways in Pool A were almost unstoppable to Hockey Odisha while scripting 9-1 victory.