JAMMU: Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli won their respective group matches on the opening day of the Fifth Hockey India Sub-Junior Boys’ National Hockey (Division-B) Championship which began at K K Hakku Stadium, here on Wednesday.
While Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Hockey Rajasthan made it one-sided contests against their opponents, Assam and Madhya Pradesh faced some resistance from their opponents before their emerged triumph.
In the first match of the day, Assam defeated Bhopal 3-1. It was an intense clash from the beginning of the game where both the teams fought to take the first lead. After a powerful struggle, it was Assam who struck the first goal coming from the stick of Arjun Bhagat in the 24th minute of the game.
In the 32nd minute, Assam bagged their second goal, a penalty corner, converted by Manish Sahani. After the breather, Bhopal strived hard to gain momentum in the game and scored their first goal in the 54th minute through Yasir Jafri’s field effort. Hereon, an intense battle was witnessed by both the teams as one team was trying to equalize but the other team was looking at increasing the goal margin further. The spectators viewed another goal by Assam Hockey as they went on to win the match 3-1.
In another Pool A match Dadra and Nagar Haveli secured a convincing win over Goans Hockey making it 18-0. It was the outstanding performance Kawalpreet Singh, who contributed most of the seven goals which helped his team win the game with a huge margin. In the early eighth minute Dadra and Nagar Haveli opened the account through Dheeraj Vats who capably converted a penalty corner and thereafter there was no stopping.
The second goal was scored by Nilesh Kathoute in the 11th minute. With more energy and aggression, Gurbinder Singh surged ahead and scored three field goals in the 19th, 21st and 28th minute taking the score to 6-0. However, trailing by six goals, Goans Hockey did not disappoint themselves and continued to attack the opponent’s D but all their efforts went in vain. Before going into half time Dadra and Nagar Haveli Association added two more goals and ended the session at 8-0. The second half was the same story as Dadra and Nagar Haveli continued its onslaught as they added 10 more goals and took the win 18-0 over Goans Hockey.
The third another one sided match of the day Rajasthan outplayed Kerala 9-0. Rajasthan ensured to be in form from the initial moment itself scoring their first goal in the second minute with a penalty corner perfectly converted by Sahil Tiwari. Without giving a chance to the opponents to retaliate, Rajasthan bagged their second goal coming from Parveen Singh in the seventh minute. Goals continued to rain in from Rajasthan with two more field goals in the 19th and 23rd minute by Arvind Tanwar and Urmil Kumar Sharma respectively.
Keeping the second half of the game aggressive, Parveen Singh from Rajasthan once again sneaked into the opponent’s half with a field goal in the 46th minute and created a difficult situation for Kerala. Keeping up with his brilliant performance, Parveen Singh once again entered the opponent’s D in full confidence in the 49th minute and smashed a fantastic field goal.
Maintaining his goal spree, Parveen Singh earned a penalty corner for Hockey Rajasthan in the 51st minute of the game and was the centre of attraction by now. With a perfect co-ordination the Hockey Rajasthan stole the show scoring another two field goals in the 54th and 67th minute coming from Parveen Singh and Himanshu Sharma respectively. With this, the match concluded announcing a triumph for Hockey Rajasthan thrashing Kerala Hockey with a massive 9-0 score.
The final match of the day was won by Madhya Pradesh beating Puducherry by a convincing margin of 6-1. Displaying good efforts in the initial minutes itself, Madhya Pradesh started the proceedings in the 10th minute of the game when Vijay Yadav converted a penalty corner for the team. In the 19th minute Madhya Pradesh bagged their second goal coming from Risabh Anand Kuswaha.
Hockey Puducherry looking to retaliate managed to do it in the 32nd minute with a penalty corner which was earned by S Surjith. By the end of the first half Madhya Pradesh keeping their momentum in the game scored another field goal again coming from Risabh Anand Kuswaha in support of the team. Hockey Madhya Pradesh continued to score with brilliant skills and in the 49th minute Danis Khan beautifully converted a penalty stroke. Keep high the spirit of the team, Risabh Anand Kushwaha score two more field goals in the 52nd and 54 minute helping the side made it a big win.
Earlier, the championship was declared open by Minister for Sports, Imran Raza Ansari in the presence of Working President of the Hockey J and K, Additional Director General of J and K Police (Armed), S.M Sahai, Incharge Secretary of the State Sports Council and Director General of Department of Youth Services and Sports, Navin Agarwal in well attended function. The minister encouraged the young hockey players in their endeavour to excel at the international level.