UP in sub-junior hockey quarters
LUCKNOW : It turned out to be a “Super Sunday” for Uttar Pradesh in domestic hockey as their senior women’s almost made it to the quarterfinals of the national championship at Bhopal with a scintillating 7-0 victory over Delhi Hockey, whereas sub-junior men’s made it to the quarterfinals of the national championship at Goa with a huge 21-0 win against Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu.
Having beaten hosts Goa 8-0 in their opening match of Pool G on Friday, Uttar Pradesh continued their good run against Delhi Hockey on Sunday and scored four goals in the first half. Bramhacharimayum Sarita Devi (7th), Sonal Tewari (14th), Shreya Singh (18th, 29th), Varsha Arya (50th), Pallavi Kumari (53rd) and Vinamrata Yadav (58th) scored for the winners.
The script for Uttar Pradesh’s sub-junior men wasn’t too different at Bhopal as their 21-0 win against Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu 21-0 in Pool C helped them finish the league stage with 2-0 in win as many as matches. Now, they play their quarterfinal match on May 12.
After enjoying 6-1 win against Bengal in their opening match a couple of days back, Uttar Pradesh went on crushing Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu, taking 7-0 lead at the break. Akash Pal (5th, 32nd, 55th, 56th) and Shivam Patel (27th, 36th, 40th, 59th) fired four goals each, while Manoj Yadav (34th, 38th, 56th) slammed a hat-trick and Ajeet Yadav (7th, 49th), Mohd Zaid Khan (17th, 40th), Triloki Venvanshi (32nd, 52nd) scored a brace each. Rahul Yadav (12th), Shahrukh Ali (18th), Raza Ali (18th), Vishal Pandey (43rd) were the other goal scorers.
In other matches of Day Five on Sunday, Hockey Jharkhand, Hockey Haryana, and Hockey Manipur won comprehensively.
In the opening match of the day, Hockey Jharkhand beat Hockey Gujarat 20-0 in Pool A. Abhishek Tigga (1st, 17th, 19th, 19th, 34th) smashed five goals, Bisha Lakra (4tth, 20th, 32nd, 51st) and Amrit Tirkey (40th, 43rd, 57th) scored four and three goals each respectively while Adisan Minj (13th, 39th), Rohit Pradhan (4th), Amit Soreng (18th), Abhishek Tirkey (29th), Asim Ekka (38th), Abhishek Kujur (45th) and Rohit Tirkey (59th) were the other goal getters.
In a Pool B match, Hockey Haryana defeated Hockey Karnataka 6-1. Sunil (4th, 15th, 44th) slammed a hattrick, while Sahil (30th), Nitin Jr (34th) and Rahul (48th) also found the net for the winning side. Harshith Kumar M scored the lone goal for Hockey Karnataka.
In the last match of the day, Hockey Manipur outplayed Hockey Rajasthan 13-0 in Pool D. Kshetrimayum Borish Singh (2nd, 17th, 26th, 42nd) and Thokchom Bikramjit Singh (4th, 37th, 52nd, 55th) scored four goals each, while Sorokhaibam Sanson Singh (1st), Sorenshangbam Boris Meitei (8th), Lisham Max Singh (44th), Konthoujam Sanjit Singh (50th) and Moirangthem Benarjit (60th) were the other goal scorers for the winning side.