Pune: Kiro brothers Xess and Albin scored on either side of the half-time as Jharkhand laboured to 5-1 win against Tamil Nadu and qualified for the quarterfinals from Pool E, in the 1st Hockey India Junior National Men’s Hockey championship at the Balewadi Complex synthetic turf on Tuesday.
In the three-team pool, this was second win for Jharkhand that enabled them to top the group with six points. In other matches, Himachal Pradesh set up an interesting contest with Maharashtra after winning 4-0 against Tripura in Pool G, while Punjab beat Uttarakhand 9-1 and Manipur defeated Puducherry 5-1 in the Pool H matches.
Sukhvinder Singh opened the account for Jharkhand in the seventh minute of the match when he converted a penalty corner. Captain Xess, who controlled their movers with his sleek passes from the middle, made it 2-0 in the ninth minute before Anil Xaxa fired Jharkhand to 3-0 up in the 30th minute.Not to be undone, Tamil Nadu played defensively for most part, but in patches showed some glimpses of their attacking style.
Tamil Nadu’s consolation goal came through M Dhileepan four minutes before the half-time. But on changing the ends, Jharkhand left no opening for TN to make inroads. Rajin Kandulna beat three defenders before letting the ball into the post in the 54th minute and Albin Kiro scored two minutes before the final whistle.
Himachal Pradesh’s 4-0 win took them to the top of the Pool G with six points and plus 15 goal average; while Maharashtra has plus 14 goal average and identical six points. When the two teams meet on the morrow, both Maharashtra and HP will look for a simple win as a draw will spoil the host’s chances.
Sitender Singh (18th), Prashant Kalsh (30th) and Tarandeep Singh (33rd) scored in the first half, but as Tripura put up some resistance, only one goal came in the second essay. Vinod Kumar’s field effort in the 43rd minute was the last goal of the match that saw Tripura sending a strong signal to Jammu and Kashmir, whom they meet in the league match for the 3-4 place in Pool G. There were two matches in Pool H and after Manipur scored over Puducherry, the equation became clear—Punjab needs to win against Manipur to move ahead comfortably.
Uttarakhand will play Puducherry and should they win and Punjab loses, it will come down to goal average wherein Punjab somewhat has an edge. Mandeep Singh and Sukhmanjit Singh scored three goals apiece while Ajit Pandit, Talwinder Singh and Varun Kumar too found the target in Punjab’s 9-1 win against Uttarakhand. In the second match in this pool, Manipur bested Puducherry 5-1 with Jenjen Singh producing a brace.
RESULTS
Pool E: Jharkhand 5 (Sukhvinder Singh 7th, Xess Kiro 9th, Anil Xaxa 30th, Rajin Kandulna 54th, Albin Kiro 68th) beat Tamil Nadu 1 (M Dhileepan 31st).
Pool G: Himachal Pradesh 4 (Sitender Singh 18th, Prashant Kalsh 30th, Tarandeep Singh 33rd, Vinod Kumar 43rd) beat Tripura 0.
Pool H: Punjab 9 (Mandeep Singh 4th, 13th, 36th, Sukhmanjit Singh 8th, 28th, 67th, Ajit Pandit 42nd, Talwinder Singh 54th, Varun Kumar 55th) beat Uttarakhand 1 (Abhishek Mishra 22nd). Manipur 5 (Suras Singh 17th, Jenjen Singh 21st, 34th, Devshar Singh 32nd, Anil Singh 59th) beat Puducherry 1 (Thalabathithileeban 49th).
Wednesday’s Fixtures
Pool F: UP v Bihar – 8 am; Pool H: Uttarakhand v Puducherry –10 am; Pool G: Maharashtra v Himchal Pradesh – 12 noon; Pool H: Jammu and Kashmir v Tripura – 2 pm; Pool G: Punjab v Manipur – 4 pm.