Sub-junior Men National C’ship: Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab & Haryana enter semis

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh started the day of the 4th Hockey Sub- Junior Men National Championship (Division A) by winning over Manipur followed by Punjab beating Maharashtra with 8-0.

In a Pool C match played between Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, the game saw an exciting clash of both the teams where the former won the match with a mere goal margin of 6-5. The main attraction of the game was Suvran Khandkar who scored four goals singlehandedly and made a striking entry to the field by giving the opening goal to Uttar Pradesh in the very 5th minute. This was soon answered back by Ibung Singh of Manipur in the 20th minute levelling the scores by 1-1 on board in the first half.

In the second half, Uttar Pradesh made a strong comeback when in the 43rd and 46th minute; Abhilash Gupta and Suvran Khandkar successfully converted the penalty corners. Manipur did not let the pressure to get to them and Captain Dhananjoy Singh converted a penalty corner in the 50th minute taking the scorecard to 3-2. Uttar Pradesh’s Arif Mohd retaliated with a field goal in the 53rd minute followed by another goal in 55th minute coming through Suvran Khandkar taking the lead to 5-2. Keeping up its competitive spirit, Manipur’s Dhananjoy Singh pierced in a field goal in the 59th minute reducing the margin to 5-3.

It was Suvran Khandkar again for Uttar Pradesh, who contributed another goal to its team in the 62nd minute. Moving towards the end, the game got much tighter when Manipur’s Thoungamba Metei and Dipu Singh made no mistake and stroked in two consecutive field goals in 66th and 67th minute respectively and taking the score to 6-5. Eventually Manipur lost the match due to the single goal difference, while Uttar Pradesh took the team to a win.

In another Pool C match, Punjab went down fighting and swiped Hockey Maharashtra with a score of 8-0 on board. Inderjit Singh scored a field goal in the 10th minute for Punjab followed by another goal in the very next minute which came through the Captain Kawaljit Singh closing the first half of the game with a score of 2-0.

The second half of the game even did not go better for Hockey Maharashtra as the entire half of the game went dry without even a single goal score for them. Adding further goals to the account, Punjab’s Harmeet Singh notched a goal in 44th minute and within a span of 4 minutes, it was Punjab again who gripped three goals coming through the stick of Kawaljit Singh, Mehkeet Singh and Amanpreet Singh in 46th, 47th and 50th minute, respectively. With full plans of dominating the game, the captain along with the team mate Amanpreet Singh stroked in two goals in 57th and 65th minute, giving the game an interesting win by 8-0.


In a Pool D match, Haryana defeated Mizoram by 3-1. Haryana completely dominated over Mizoram today. Mandeep Mor scored the first goal Haryana by successfully converting the penalty corner in the 13th minute of the match. Mizoram gave a good fight to Haryana and did not let them score any further goals till 29th minute. In the 30th minute, Mandeep Mor again got a penalty corner chance and successfully converted it into goal taking 2-0 lead over Mizoram by the end of the 1st half of the match.

In the second half Mizoram looked charged up a tried to improve the attack but soon in the 40th minute Haryana’s Abhishek scored another goal through field goal and took the lead to 3-0. Mizoram did not lose the hope and kept on attacking Haryana. In the 49th minute, Lallawmawma finally succeeded in scoring first goal for Mizoram through field goal and narrowed the lead to 3-1. Mizoram maintained the attack and also defended and did not let Haryana score any further goals till the end of the match. Haryana won the match by 3-1 on the scoreboard.

In another pool D match, Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy beats Chandigarh Olympic Association by 7-2.


Results of the day-

Pool C- Uttar Pradesh Hockey 6 Suvran Khandkar (5, 46, 55 and 62 min), Abhilash Gupta (43 min) and Arif Mohd (53 min) Vs Manipur Hockey 5 Ibung Singh (20 min), Dhananjoy Singh (50 and 59 min), Thoungamba Metei (66 min) and Dipu Singh (67 min)

Pool C-Hockey Punjab 8 Inderjit Singh (10 min), Kawaljit Singh (11, 46 and 57 min), Harmeet Singh (44 min), Mehkeet Singh (47 and 65 min), Amanpreet Singh (50 min) Vs Hockey Maharashtra 0

Pool D- Haryana 3 Mandeep Mor (13 min, 30 min), Abhishek (40 min) Vs Mizoram 1 Lallawmawma (49 min)

Pool D - Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy 7 Ravi Panche (12 min, 35 min, 52 min, 59 min), Alishan Khan (24 min, 42 min), Harshdeep Kapoor (65 min) Vs Chandigarh Olympic Association 2 Maninderjeet Singh (52 min, 55 min).