Junior Men National C’ship: Karnataka beat MHA 3-2

Chennai: Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd was left behind with three excellent strokes by team Karnataka registering a hard fought 3-2 win on the field on Day-4 of the 4th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship 2014 (Division A) played in Chennai today.

In a Pool B match, Karnataka initiated the interest point of the game in the 19th minute of the game through a field goal by M D Rahell. A successful penalty corner by Mumbai Hockey Association’s Vinay Valmiki in the 38th minute levelled the scores at 1-1. Another successful penalty corner coming from Karnataka’s Pruthviraj this time, in the 47th minute helped the team take the lead again but a quick reply by Mumbai Hockey Association’s Rajendra Pawar in the 53rd minute tied the game again. The last goal of the match came from M D Rahell, as late as in the 63rd minute and proved to be the team’s winning goal as Karnataka registered a hard earned 3-2 win.

In a Pool D match, Hockey Maharashtra opened the account for the match when Razik Shaikh made no mistakes in converting a penalty corner in the 28th minute and took the lead by 1-0 but ultimately lost the game to Bhopal 2-1. It was Bhopal’s Amir Ur Rehman in the 37th minute who stroked in the equalizer as a field goal and it was Shanhnawaz Khan who sneaked in the winning goal for the team with just five remaining on the clock and stole the show away from Hockey Maharashtra.

In another Pool B match of the day, Hockey Odisha and Himachal Pradesh played another tricky match of the day where the former went on to register marginal 2-1 win over Himachal Pradesh. As early as in the 7th minute of the game itself, Hockey Odisha’s Sunil Ekka sliced in field goal and got the team a 1-0 lead over Himachal Pradesh, which was levelled out by Himachal Pradesh’s Amandeep Singh in the 35th minute. The second half of the match saw a good defensive play by both the teams but Sanjit Toppo managed to sneak past and penetrate the winning goal for Hockey Odisha in the 58th minute of the game.

In the last match of the day, Pool D’s Sports Authority Of India pounded Chhattisgarh with a magnificent 7 goals to 1. The blows by Sports Authority Of India started in the 9th minute itself with the help of Navdeep Singh’s successful penalty corner followed by Pankaj Mishra and Saurabh Kumar in the 19th and the 27th minute both as field goals contributing in the team’s 3-0 lead by the end of the first half. Chhattisgarh’s Wasiullah Khan stroked in a lone goal for the team in the second half of the game in the 38th minute whereas, Sports Authority Of India’s Sandeep Kumar managed a hat-trick by piercing goals in the 44th, 53rd and 59th minute back to back and became the highest scorer of the match. The last goal in favour of Sports Authority Of India came in the 66th minute through Ankit Mishra’s field goal and helped the team register a glorious 7-1 win.

Results of the day-

Pool B Hockey Karnataka 3 M D Rahell (19 and 63 min), Pruthviraj (27 min) and Vs. Hockey Mumbai Association 2 Vinay Valmiki (38 min), Rajendra Pawar (53 min)

Pool D Hockey Bhopal 2 Amir Ur Rehman (37 min) and Shanhnawaz Khan (65 min) Vs. Hockey Maharashtra 1 Razik Shaikh (28 min)

Pool B Hockey Odisha 2 Sunil Ekka (7 min) and Sanjit Toppo (58 min) Vs. Himachal Pradesh 1 Amandeep Singh (35 min)

Pool D Sports Authority Of India 7 Sandeep Kumar (44, 53 and 59 min), Navdeep Singh (9 min), Pankaj Mishra (19 min), Saurabh Kumar (27 min) and Ankit Mishra (66 min) Vs. Chhattisgarh 1 Wasiullah Khan (38 min)