Hockey championship commences in Pune

After the Women’s Championship saw goals galore, the second Hockey India 5-a-side Senior National Championship 2017 (Men) also commenced on Tuesday at the Shiv Chhattrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune.

The Men’s Championship also started with eight teams playing out their first match of the tournament, which saw a total of 53 goals being scored in the exciting shorter format of hockey.

In the opening match of the Men’s Championship, hosts Hockey Maharashtra beat Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu 5-0 in their Pool A encounter.

Hockey Maharashtra started the match well as they raced to a three-goal lead inside the first period and scored another two at the start of the second period to maintain their authority in the match.

Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu tried to score a consolation goal but were not successful. Goals for the hosts were scored by Vikram Yadav (11’, 12’), Devinder Walmiki (6’), Tyron Pereira (7’) and Aniket Gurav (8’).

In the second match, Hockey Karnataka beat Uttar Pradesh Hockey 12-6 in a high scoring Pool A encounter.

Hockey Karnataka were off to a quick, attacking start as they scored eight goals in the first 14 minutes of the match to wipe away all hopes of their opposition.

Uttar Pradesh Hockey also came back to score six goals in the last 12 minutes but it was not enough as Hockey Karnataka won 12-6. Goals for Hockey Karnataka were scored by G. N. Pruthviraj (6’, 12’, 27’), Pradhan Somanna (4’, 12’), Somaiah K.P. (10’, 20’), Mohammed Raheel Mouseen (28’, 29’), Abharan Sudev. B (13’), Ponnanna C.A. (13’) and Veeranna Gowda S (14’) while Sumit Kumar (21’, 25’, 26’), Ajay Yadav (22’, 29’) and Raj Kumar Pal (18’) scored for Uttar Pradesh Hockey.

In the third match, Hockey Haryana narrowly beat Hockey Punjab 8-7.

The game saw goals evenly scored in all the three periods with Hockey Haryana leading by 2-1 at the end of the first period.

However, the goals started to come in thick and fast in the last two periods. While goals for Hockey Haryana were scored by Jagwant Singh (4’, 21’, 25’, 28’), Jasbir Singh (6’, 12’, 14’) and Sher Singh (29’) , Punjab’s goals were scored by Jarmanpreet Singh (11’, 12’, 23’), Hardik Singh (14’, 30’), Kunwardilraj Singh (7’) and Sarabjit Singh (27’).

The fourth match of the day saw Hockey Odisha beat Hockey Jharkhand 9-6 to register their first victory.