Maharashtra sign off with win
Hockey Odisha moved closer to qualification, while Hockey Maharashtra brought cheer to the home crowd signing off with a win to earn their first points on Day 5 of the 9th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship 2019 (Div ‘A’) at the Sports Authority of India, Western Training Centre, here on Thursday.
The day was also highlighted by three stand-out individual performances that included hat-tricks. Leading the feat was Nabin Kunjur (Steel Plant Sports Board (4 goals), Aamid Khan (Hockey Maharashtra) and Vashu Dev (Hockey Himachal).
In Pool-D, Hockey Odisha held on to a first-half Bhima Ekka (14th) penalty-corner to overcome Sports Authority of India 1-0. In the clash of two unbeaten teams of the pool, Hockey Odisha (7 points) logged their second win to inch ahead of SAI (6 points) suffered their first loss.
Later, in the same pool, Steel Plant Sports Board (SPSB) had Nabin Kunjur (9th, 27th, 35th, 58th) convert four penalty corners to help his team down Punjab & Sind Bank 4-2 for their first win. Punjab and Sind Bank scored early via Harkawalbir Singh (3rd) and Angadbir Singh (11th) to lead early before SPSB took over the scoring.
SPSB (4 pts) moved into third position, Punjab and Sind Bank (0 pts) remain at the bottom after their third loss.
Hockey Maharashtra rode on a hat-trick by Aamid Khan to sign off their Pool-C campaign with a 4-2 win over Hockey Karnataka. The win was Hockey Maharashtra’s first, which also earned their first points. Aamid’s three-ina-row ‘trick was the second of the day.
Hockey Maharashtra opened the day through Aamid (11th) who added two more in the fourth quarter – one off a penalty corner (50th) and later a field goal in the 49th minute. Prajwal Moharkar (56th) completed the tally.
Hockey Jharkhand handed The Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd. third successive loss winning 4-0 to complete their Pool-B fixtures. A brace by Susaran Dodray (16th, 43rd) and a goal each from Samrat Kunjur (23rd) and Deepak Soreng (44th) made Hockey Jharkhand’s day.
Hockey Himachal led by a second half hat-trick by Vashu Dev (53rd, 56th, 58th) saw off Services Sports Control Board 4-3 for their first win in Pool-A. While Vashu’s feat was a first, SSCB who led by a huge 3-0 margin after Manip Karketta (18th), captain Rahul Rajbhar (20th) and Manjeet (21st) scored ended up conceding fourgoals in a span of six-minute after Charanjeet Singh (35th) opened account.