Hindustan Times: Railways thump Odisha 9-1 in senior men’s national A division hockey championship

Defending champions Railways made a smooth start to their defence of the national hockey title with a 9-1 win over Odisha on Thursday.

Holders Railways thumped Odisha 9-1 as one-sided matches dominated the opening day of the senior men’s national A division hockey championship here on Thursday.

There was good turnout of fans and a pleasant weather, helped by a light drizzle in the morning, helped.

Barring a few games, including one involving last edition’s runners-up Punjab and Sindh Bank, results on day one of the 11-day event were on the expected lines.

Uttar Pradesh, spearheaded by former India forward Danish Mujtaba and cheered on by spectators at the Padmashree Mohd Shahid Hockey Stadium, defeated

Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy 4-1. Determined to make a comeback into the India side after injury at least through the development group of 24, Danish was more the schemer while drag-flicker Dewakar Ram scored twice.

Mujtaba set up the first goal, pushing the ball for Sarwar Mohd Faiz to score in the fourth minute. Dewakar Ram (28th) and Arjun Yadav (37th) scored once each in the next two quarters, before MPHA pulled one back through Mohd Talib. An infringement inside the circle in the 49th minute allowed UP to add one more and Dewakar made no mistake, sounding the board with a hit to the left of the custodian.

There was frantic action in other matches of the day as everyone tried hard to impress Hockey India’s high-performance director David John and national selector BP Govinda, who were present.

At the Major Dhyan Chand stadium, Hockey Chandigarh defeated Namdhari XI 4-1 in Pool D and Comptroller and Auditor General of India drew 2-2 with Association of Indian Universities. In Pool B, Air India Sports Promotion Board scored a 2-0 victory over Hockey Gangpur-Odisha. In Pool C, Hockey Punjab notched up an emphatic 5-2 win over Hockey Karnataka.

Punjab and Sind Bank faced some tough moments in Pool B as they rallied to defeat Hockey Haryana 2-1.