National hockey: Second win for Punjab, Haryana

Bangalore, Sep 24 - Minnows took a beating as defending champions Haryana and Punjab notched up their second victories with big wins in the preliminary league of the senior men’s National Hockey Championship here Monday.

Odisha, who had drawn 2-2 with Tamil Nadu in their first game Sunday, topped the scoring spree routing Kerala 17-0 in Pool G with as many as 11 players helping themselves to goals.

Haryana, who struggled to beat Bhopal 2-1 in their opening game, drubbed Bengal 8-0, scoring through Didar Singh (2), Arjun Antil, Bharat Chikara, Naveen Antil, Gagandeep Singh, Karamjit Singh and Sardar Singh for their second win in Pool A.

Punjab, who had beaten Jammu and Kashmir 12-1 Sunday, had it easy against Chhattisgarh in Pool C as Akashdeep Singh (5), Gurjinder Singh, Sarvanjit Singh (3), Ravipal Singh (2), Gurjinder Singh and Talwinder Singh scored.

Meanwhile, debutant Bhopal picked up their first points when they beat Maharashtra 2-1 with Affan Yousuf netting both goals while Narad Bahadur reduced the leeway for the vanquished.

Also recording their second win were Air India in Pool E as they outclassed Rajasthan 9-0 following up on their 4-1 success against Madhya Pradesh late Sunday night.

Late Sunday night, Air India defeated Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy 4-1 in a Pool E game with veteran Prabodh Tirkey converting two penalty corners while Samir Dad and Vikas Pillay scored one apiece. Vikas Choudhary pulled one back for MP.

The results:

Pool A: Haryana 8 (Didar Singh 2; Arjun Antil 1; Bharat Chikara 1, Naveen Antil 1, Gagandeep Singh 1, Karamjit Singh 1, Sardar Singh 1) beat Bengal 0.

Bhopal 2 (Affan Yousuf 2) beat Maharashtra 1 (Narad Bahadur 1).

Pool C: Punjab 12 (Aakashdeep Singh 5; Ravipal Singh 2; Sarvanjit Singh 3; Gurjinder Singh 1, Talwinder Singh 1) beat Chhattisgarh 0.

Services w/o Arunachal Pradesh.

Pool E: Air India 9 (Sameer Dad 2; Prabodh Tirkey 1, Sandeep Singh 1, Somanna Pradhan 1, Birendra Lakra 1, Arjun Halappa 1, Vinaya Vokkaliga 1, Own Goal) beat Rajasthan 0.

Air India 4 (Prabodh Tirkey 2, Samir Dad, Vikas Pillay) beat Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy 1 (Vikas Choudhary).

Madhya Pradesh 9 (Nilakanth Sharma 2, Shakir Hussain 1, Arman Qureshi 1, Sarfaraz Khan 1, Raju Singh 1, Nizamuddin Mohammed 1, Amit Kumar Singh 1, Vikash Choudhary 1) beat Nagaland 2 (Keduneizo 1, Mohd Asif 1).

Pool G: Odisha 17 (Sunil Toppo 2, Deepak Kullu 2, Mikhal Barla 2, Aijub Ekka 2, Bipin Kerketta 2, Amon Tirkey 1, John Toppo 1, Ignatius Toppo 1, David Minz 1, Stanislav Minz 1, Dilip Toppo 1) beat Kerala 0.