Etawah: The third day of the saw matches played out between teams from Pool C, Pool D and Pool E.
In the first match of Pool C, Hockey Chandigarh beat Hockey Rajasthan 8-3. Hockey Chandigarh opened the scoring with goals from Varinder Kumar (6’), Balwinder Singh (14’) and Markus Topno (23’). Rajasthan hit back with two goals from Mahendra Khokhar (26’) and Nilesh Singhal (29’). Chandigarh consolidated their three points with a hattrick from Harman Preet Singh (31’, 39’, 45’) and a brace from Davinder Singh ( 36’, 42’) to end up 8-3 winners. Karmbir scored Rajasthan’s consolation goal in the 47th minute.
The second game of Pool C saw a tough match between Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Chattisgarh took the lead through a PC conversion in the 7th minute via Naveen Tirkey. Telangana though hit back with a well worked field goal in the 28th minute. The goal was scored by Raj Rahul. The winner for Telangana came off a PC scored by Ramkrishna Bodigum in the 39th minute.
The first match of Pool D saw Hockey Madhya Pradesh beat Hockey Himachal 7-2. Madhya Pradesh scored the opener via Mayank James in the 7th minute, before Himachal hit back witb two goals of their own to take the lead. Himachal’s goalscorers were Naurvi (20’) and Prashant Kalsh (24’). From then on though it was an MP show as Mayank James completed his hattrick (32’, 42) and Franklin Mariyan (47’) and Arun Kumar Chadar (50’, 51’) scored the other goals to complete the victory.
The second game of Pool D saw Central Secretariat rout Kerala 11-1. Captain Gunasekar scored five goals in their victory ( 14’, 21’, 45, 48’, 54’). Kerala’s lone goal came via P Sreerang in the 15th minute.
Pool E’s first game saw Delhi triumph over Sashastra Seema Bal 3-1 in a higly competitive and evenly matched game. Delhi took the lead via Satender Kumar in the 9th minute. SSB equalised via a penalty stroke scored by Naocha Singh in the 23rd minute. Satender Kumar added another to his tally to help his team take the lead in the 36th minute and Samsher’s PC conversion in the 37th meant Delhi took home the points in the encounter.
Gujarat squared off against Tripura in a pulsating encounter in the second match of Pool E. Having taken the lead through a 13th minute goal from Rahul Batham, Gujrarat contrived to concede two PC’s in the 17th and 18th minute via Gaurav Singh’s conversions. They equalised though came in the 22nd minute via a PC of their own scored by Rahul Batham. Coming into the third quarter, Gujarat took the lead through Ashish Tadvi in the 36th minute. The goal proved to be the winner as Gujarat took home the points winning 3-2.
At the end of this round of matches the highest goal scorers of the Nationals are Satbir Singh, PNS Bank (8 goals), Gaganpreet Singh, PNS Bank (8 goals), Gunasekhar, Central Secretariat (5 goals) and Sarvanjit Singh, PNS Bank (5 goals).
