Pune: Maharashtra strikers crushed a sedate Tripura 8-0 to open its account in Pool G on a high note on the opening day of the 1st Hockey India Junior National Men’s hockey Championship at the Balewadi Complex turf on Sunday.
On a day when Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab pulverized their opposition with huge goal margin, Maharashtra’s win over Tripura was low-scoring given that the host got so many scoring chances, but equal number of fouls spoiled their day. Harjeet Singh (6th, 28th), Upendra Pillay (11th, 56th) and Nitin Kumar (16th, 60th) scored two goals apiece while Ankur Patel (21st) and Shivkumar Renjarla (33rd) were the other scorers.
The day overall was a goal feast as 71 goals were recorded in five matches, which included Uttar Pradesh’s one-sided 20-1 result over Kerala.Earlier, Mandeep Singh fired a quintuple after opening the scoring against Puducherry leaving the team from south in a state of daze as Punjab goals rained in before the northerners won 16-0 in a four-team Pool H match.
Mandeep opened his account in the 3rd minute of the game and pumped in four more in a row as he completed the first hat-trick of the championship before even bettering that.The Punjab striker’s other goals for the quintuple came in the 4th, 7th, 12th and 21st minutes. He went on to score two more, in the 27th and 69th minutes to immediately go to the top of the charts in the top scorer’s list.Puducherry was no match to Punjab, who never let go any loose ball and kept on pushing for more. Eight more players added their names to the scoring chart after having led 9-0 at the half-time.In Pool G, Himachal Pradesh announced its intentions with a thrashing on Jammu and Kashmir 11-0 after leading 3-0 at the half-time.
Tarandeep Singh scored a hat-trick during his four-goal effort for Himachal—all goals coming off through field efforts. Tarandeep’s three goals in a series came in the second half, in the 60th, 64th and 66th minutes, while he scored the first one in the 22nd minute off a penalty corner after Balram Kumar had provided a perfect start to their match against J and K, which even struggled to get into the scoring region.
Balram scored three, while Harmandeep Singh sounded the board twice, the 7th minute goal was penalty stroke conversion while in the 30th minute he converted a penalty.Uttar Pradesh recorded victory by biggest margin when they thumped Kerala 20-1 in a match that saw yet another player finishing with seven goals, but Siddhat Shankar was unlucky not to get hat-trick against his name.
Scoring all seven goals through field efforts, Siddhat scored the third goal for his team before virtually taking over from the rest of the strikers. In between his seven goals, other Uttar Pradesh players went on a goal binge leaving Kerala clueless from the start.
Chandan Singh had opened the scoring in the sixth minute through penalty stroke and he went on to score four in all. Imran too found the target four times, but it was Dipak Yadav who fired three goals in a row for the third hat-trick of the day—the goals coming in the 46th, 52nd and 55th minutes.
For Kerala, Rejin VR scored the consolation goal in the 27th minute making the score-line 3-1, but the southerners found no more openings later on.In Pool E, Jharkhand took time to gain touch but later on they pounded goals by dozen to beat Assam 12-3.
Anil Xaxa opened the scoring in the 2nd minute, but their second goal came in the 16th minute as Assam resolutely defended their citadel. Xaxa, Sukhvinder Singh and Dharma Barla scored two goals apiece, while Rajin Kandulna let in three, as Jharkhand pushed Assam on to back-foot.
While other matches were totally one-sided, Assam gave some measure of resilience by scoring three goals through Amit Chandra 38th, Shabkar Patil 50th and Kamaluddin 59th minutes.
RESULTS
Pool-E: Jharkhand: 12 (Anil Xaxa 2nd, 30th, Sukhwinder Singh 16th, 48th, Dharma Barla 24th, 51st, Rajin Kandulna 28th, 63rd, 69th, Mangra Bhengra 37th, Ranjan Lakra 58th, Dilbar Toppo 67th) beat Assam: 3 (Amit Chandra 38th, Shabkar Patil 50th, Kamaluddin 59th).
Pool-F: Uttar Pradesh: 20 (Chandan Singh 6th, 36th, 67th, 69th, Sagam Singh 7th, 29th, Siddhat Shankar 9th, 24th, 28th, 38th, 43rd, 65th, 66th, Imran 25th, 33rd, 57th, 59th, Dipak Yadav 46th, 52nd, 55th) beat Kerala: 1 (Rejin VR 27th).
Pool-G: Himchal Pradesh: 11 (Balram Kumar 5th, 24th, 25th, Harmandeep Singh 7th, 30th, Tarandeep Singh 22nd, 60th, 64th, 66th, Vinod Kumar 31st, Sitender Antil 33rd) beat Jammu and Kashmir: 0.Maharashtra: 8 (Harjeet Singh 6th, 28th, Upendra Pillay 11th, 56th, Nitin Kumar 16th, 60th, Ankur Patel 21st, Shivkumar Renjarla 33rd) beat Tripura: 0.
Pool-H: Punjab: 16 (Mandeep Singh 3rd, 4th, 7th, 12th, 21st, 27th, 69th, Gaganpreet Singh 24th, Amanjot Singh 28th, Varun Kumar 31st, Shivlochak Singh 54th, Sukhdev Singh 61st, Jatinder Singh 64th, 66th, Ajit Pandit 65th, Sukhmanjit Singh 70th) beat Puducherry: 0.