Railways’ winning streak continues
LUCKNOW: Defending champions Railways Sports Promotion Board continued their winning streak in the senior men’s national hockey championship, outplaying Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy 3-0, at the Major Dhyanchand stadium here on Friday. In contrast to this, runners-up Punjab and Sindh Bank had to split points with Hockey Gangpur-Odisha after playing 1-1 draw.
In a Pool A game, Railways with two quick goals through Sheshe Gowda and Malak Singh in the first quarter set the ball rolling for rivals Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy, which failed to find any openings in the match. There was some stiff resistance from the MPHA then after a change in the ends, but Gowda had his second goal in the 57th minute to complete the formality.
The tie between Punjab and Sind Bank and Hockey GangpurOdisha in Pool B witnessed some quick exchange of hits in the beginning and the two teams scored goals in the first quarter itself. Hockey Gangpur-Odisha took the lead in the first minute when Shilanand Lakra scored a field goal (1-0). However, Punjab and Sind Bank put their initial stutters aside to score an equalizer in the 15th minute as Gaganpreet Singh converted a penalty corner. Both the teams tried their best but could not find the winner as defenders of the two teams remained alert then.
Earlier, at the Padma Shri Mohammad Shahid hockey stadium, Hockey Chandigarh went down fighting to Association of Indian Universities in a Pool D encounter by a solitary goal. In fact, it was story of changed fortunes for the two sides on Friday as AIU had lost their opening game on Thursday, whereas Hockey Chandigarh had defeated Namdhari XI. A crucial penalty corner conversion through Amanpreet Singh in the 44th minute changed the AIU’s fortunes.
In another Pool D match, Namdhari XI put the disappointment of their opening day loss behind as they scored a 2-1 victory over Central Reserve Police Force to put three points on the board.
Namdhari XI started the match well as they took the lead in the 13th minute through Harpal Singh as he converted a penalty corner. Minutes later in the second quarter, Namdhari XI’s attack proved to come out on top again as they increased their lead to 2-0 as Navdeep Singh scored in the 24th minute.
After a change in the ends, Central Reserve Police Force tried to make a comeback into the game and even converted a penalty corner into goal through Saroj Ekka in the 34th minute, but Namdhari XI then made sure that they did not throw their lead away and secured a 2-1 victory.
In Pool B’s second match of the day, Hockey Haryana registered their first victory of the competition as they scored an emphatic 9-2 victory over Hockey Jharkhand.
Hockey Haryana scored two goals in the first quarter to set the momentum and followed up with another four goals in the third quarter to stamp their authority on the match.
Hockey Jharkhand did pull two goals back in the 45th minute through Vijay Xess and in the 46th minute through Jen Soreng but Hockey Haryana’s three goals in the fourth quarter saw them win the came comfortably by a margin of 9-2. A hat-trick of goals from Manpreet Singh (6’, 12’, 48’), Jonny Jasrotia (38’, 54’), Abhishek (35’), Hartaj Singh Aujla (35’), Jagwant Singh (45’) and Vinay Rana (56’).
As expected Hockey Punjab continued to dominate Pool C as they secured their second consecutive victory, beating Services Sports Control Board 3-2. The match saw Services Sports Control Board score early in the seventh minute through Sanjib Dungdung to take a 1-0 lead.