Hockey Himachal and Delhi Hockey came from two goals down to win their respective matches at the Senior Men National Championship 2018 (B Division), here today.
In the opening match of the day, Hockey Himachal rallied to defeat Kerala Hockey in a nervy Pool F encounter 3-2.
It was Kerala Hockey, which took a 2-0 lead after 41 minutes through D Sarang (11′) and Vineeth Muraleedharan (41′). However, Hockey Himachal went on to score three quick goals in the span of seven minutes to win the match 3-2.
Naurvi Ram (53′, 56′) scored a quick brace for Hockey Himachal while Arman (60′) scored the winner in the last minute of the match.
Delhi Hockey also came from two goals down to make a stunning comeback as they defeated Major Port Sports Control Board 3-2 in Pool G. MPSCB scored two goals in the first 15 minutes through Leonard Pereira (6′) and Ainul Haq (15′).
However, Delhi Hockey produced an inspired comeback in the second quarter to equalise the scores as Amit (22′) and Mukul Sharma (28′) scored for them.
Delhi Hockey then snatched the lead in the Pawan Singh Chauhan in the 44th minute, which proved to be the winner for them.
In a Pool F match, it was Punjab National Bank who started their campaign with a win as they scored a 9-0 victory over Hockey Madhya Bharat. The victors started the match well as they scored two goals each in the first two quarters to maintain a 4-0 lead till half-time.
Punjab National Bank scored another four goals in the third quarter to kill Hockey Madhya Bharat’s hopes of making a comeback. Goals for PNB were scored by Gagandeep Singh Sr.
(15′, 17′), Pardeep Mor (8′), Gagandeep Singh (28′), Summit Toppo (35′), Satender Dalal (39′), Gursimran Singh (43′), Naveen Antil (44′) and Sanjay (60′).
In a high-scoring encounter in Pool H, Hockey Coorg overcame the challenge put in front of them by Hockey Jammu & Kashmir as they defeated them 6-4.
Hockey Coorg started the match well as they scored four quick goals in the first quarter itself, but Hockey Jammu & Kashmir gave them a tough time in the second and third quarters as they scored three goals to make the scores 4-3 in Hockey Coorg’s favour.
In the last Pool match for Central Secretariat, they maintained their clean slate as they won their fourth consecutive match, beating Telangana Hockey 8-3 in Pool A.
PTI
