M Jr Nationals: 2015 edition commences

Mysore (Karnataka), 1 April 2015: The 5th edition of Hockey India Junior Men National Hockey Championship 2015 commenced today in Mysore, Karnataka and is scheduled to go on till 12th April 2015. The opening day of the Championship today, saw five back to back matches between ten teams, aiming to start their run on a winning note.

The inaugural day witnessed a thrilling match where Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd (Pool A) defeated Goans Hockey 10-0. The second match observed Vidarbha Hockey Association of Pool A registering their first win 3-2 win over Hockey Uttarakhand. In another league match of Pool B, Delhi Hockey blanked Tripura Hockey by a huge goal margin of 12-2. In the second match of Pool B, Hockey Puducherry trounced Hockey Gujarat 14-1 to mark their first win. In the last match of the day, Bengal Hockey Association beat Hockey Andhra Pradesh 7-2.

In the first match of Pool A, Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd. drubbed Goans Hockey with a huge goal margin of 10-0. Mumbai Hockey Association was on a high in the entire match as they did not allow the opponents to score a single goal. The match saw its first goal being scored in the 18th minute when Kunal Bhandary through a field goal took the early lead for his team. This started the goals for the team as teammate Atish Shirke scored the second goal in the 21st minute going on to double the lead for his team. Just before the end of second half, Mumbai Hockey Association scored their 3rd goal in the 27th minute and it was Kunal Bhandary again who added the second goal to his personal tally. In the second half Mumbai Hockey Association added another 10 goals before taking the win over Goans Hockey. 39th minute they added the fourth goal through a penalty corner and in the 43rd minute it was Kunal Bhandary again who scored for his team and taking the score to 5-0. Another 4 goals were added in the 45th, 47th, 49th and 51st minute. The last goal was scored by Suraj Shahi in the 67th minute wherein he successfully converted through a field goal.

In another Pool A match, Vidarbha Hockey Association registered their first win as they took on Uttarakhand. In a close nail biting match it was the former who kept its nerves and won the match by 3-2. While almost the first half of the game went dull and dry, it was Vidarbha Hockey Association who finally broke the shackles in the 29th minute. Shakeen Shaikh scored a brilliant field goal and giving his team the much required opening goal for his team. At the end of first half Vidarbha Hockey Association was leading the game 1-0. The second half of the game proved to be more intense for both the teams as the teams made desperate efforts to reach the net. Vidarbha Hockey Association’s Shadab Khan and Rahul Kalakoti scored two consecutive goals in the 50th and the 51st minute of the game taking the lead to 3-0. In endeavour to open their score card, Uttarakhand stood successful and scored a goal through a penalty stroke through Captain Manoj Tamta in the 67th minute which was closely followed by another goal by Siddharth Miyan who penetrated the ball in the net in the 68th minute and managed to double the lead. But unable to score the equaliser goal, Vidarbha Hockey Association won the match with a close margin of 2-3.

The third match of the day between Delhi Hockey and Tripura Hockey was another exciting clash as the former scored 12 goals to the latter’s 2 goals and going on to seal the game on their name. When it seemed the first half might just end goalless, Delhi Hockey scored their first goal in the 29th minute coming from the stick of Rizwan Khan. Not satisfied with just one goal Rizwan Khan helped his team double the lead in the 35th minute when a penalty corner helped them score the second goal. With scores at 2-0 on Delhi’s favour, Tripura Hockey started looking to score. But Delhi Hockey had different plans as just two minutes into the second half, the team added their third goal in the 37th minute coming from the stick of Arun Kumar. In the 43rd and 48th minute, Delhi’s Mohit Anand scored a brace, taking his team’s score to 5-0. Delhi added two more goals in the 54th and 58th minute coming from Neeraj Kumar and Narender respectively. The very next minute Tripura Hockey scored their first goal when Sheetal Prasad score through a field goal and the score read 7-1. Delhi counter attacked and next minute they added their 8thgoal through Arun Kumar. Tripura scored their second goal in the 62ndminute coming again from the stick of Sheetal Prasad. With scores at 8-2, Delhi Hockey scored 4 more goals to their tally coming in the 64th, 66th, 68th and 69th minute.

Another exhilarating match of Pool B between Hockey Puducherry and Hockey Gujarat resulted in the former defeating the later 14-1. Just five minutes into the game, P. Thiru Murugan scored the first goal of the match in the 5th minute followed by another goal in the 6th minute by P. Mahendran who successfully converted the penalty corner and doubled the lead to 2-0. Hockey Puducherry continued their scoring streak when their Captain T. Arun Kumar stroked a beautiful field goal in the 16thminute. The team escalated their scores as the fourth and the fifth goal came from the stick of P. Mahendran and T. Kaliaiyarasan in the 17th and 22nd minute respectively. Hockey Gujarat scored their maiden goal in the 23rd minute to open the score card through Shubham Yadav coming from a field effort taking the score to 5-1. P. Mahendran’s brace in the 25th and 29th minute advanced the lead to 7-1 in favour of Puducherry. With just four minutes to get the first half over, V. Veera Thamizhan added another goal to his team in 31st minute and the score board read 8-1. The second half of the game saw the raining of goals for Puducherry as they got a penalty corner which was taken by S. Muthu Krishnan and successfully converted it in 39th minute. Hockey Puducherry scored four goals in 53rd, 54th, 55th and 56th minute. With Hockey Gujarat unable to add any goals, Hockey Puducherry scored a winning goal in the 69th minute when P. Mahendran put the ball past the goalkeeper which helped them win the game by 14-1.

In the last clash of the day between Bengal Hockey Association and Hockey Andhra Pradesh of Pool C, Bengal Hockey Association were seen dominating the match as they went on to thrash Hockey Andhra Pradesh by 7-2 on board. The first half of the match saw a nail biting clash where Bengal Hockey Association scored 3 goals and Hockey Andhra Pradesh scored 1 to reduce the margin. The second half saw Bengal Hockey Association going all out to score four more goals to take their total up to 7 goals and restricted Hockey Andhra Pradesh to a mere 2 goals in the match. By the full time, Bengal Hockey Association defeated Hockey Andhra Pradesh by 7-2 on board and registered their first win in the tournament.

Results of the Day-

Pool A – Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd. 10 Kunal Bhandary (18, 27 and 43 min), Atish Shirke (21 min), Vinay Valmiki (39 and 45 min), Suraj Shahi (47, 49 and 67 min), Nitesh Kamble (51 min) vs Goans Hockey 0

Pool A- Vidarbha Hockey Association 3 Shakeen Shaikh (29 min), Shadab Khan (50 min), Rahul Kalakoti (51 min) vs Hockey Uttarakhand 2 Manoj Tamta (67 min), Siddharth Miyan (68 min)

Pool B – Delhi Hockey 12 Rizwan Khan (28, 35 min), Mohit Anand (43, 48, 58 min), Neeraj Kumar (54 min), Amit (58min), Arun Kumar (60, 66, 68 min), Narender (66min), Nitin Kumar (69 min) vs Tripura Hockey 2 Sheetal Prasad (59, 62 min)

Pool B – Hockey Puducherry 14, P. Thiru Murugan (5 and 55 min), P. Mahendran (6, 17, 25, 29, 53, 69 min), T. Arun Kumar (16 min), T. Kaliaiyarasan (22 min), V. Veera Thamizhan (31 and 54 min), S. Muthu Krishnan (39 and 56 min) vs Hockey Gujarat 1 Shubham Yadav (23 min)

Pool C – Bengal Hockey Assoaciation 7, Raushan Kumar (5, 42 min), Md Saif Khan (20 min), Ashok Kujur (22 min), Sanjay Paswan (36, 65 min), Gurpreet Singh (57 min) vs Hockey Andhra Pradesh 2, Srikanth Chemudu Gunta (26min), Kamal Rajaprabhkar (38 min)

SCHEDULE FOR TOMORROW – 2ND APRIL 2015 (Thursday)

07.30 am A THE MUMBAI HOCKEY ASSOCIATION LTD. V/S VIDARBHA HOCKEY ASSOCIATION

09.00 am A HOCKEY UTTARAKHAND V/S HOCKEY ANDAMAN & NICOBAR

10.30 am D HOCKEY BIHAR V/S CHANDIGARH OLYMPIC ASSOCIATION

12.30 pm B DELHI HOCKEY V/S HOCKEY PUDUCHERRY

02.00 pm B HOCKEY GUJARAT V/S DADRA & NAGAR HAVELI HOCKEY ASSOCIATION

03:30 pm C BENGAL HOCKEY ASSOCIATION V/S HOCKEY JAMMU & KASHMIR