Air India emerge Champions of the 3rd Hockey India Senior National Championship 2013

New Delhi, 10 June 2013: Air India upset reigning champions Punjab 6- 2 to lift the 3rd Hockey India Senior Men National Championship 2013 played at the Major Dhyan Chand Polygrass Hockey Stadium in Pimpri, Pune on Monday.

Air India played to a plan using short passes to completely dominate the proceedings. Joga Singh passed to Sameer Dad who made no mistake to put the ball into the goal, in just two minutes after the start of the game. Affan Yousuf found the mark with a superb back hand flick to take up Air India to a 2-0 lead.

Air India got their first penalty corner in the 20th minute, when Pradhan Somanna moved in on aerial pass but Goal keeper Baljit Singh made a good save. Pradhan missed another opportunity in the 22nd minute when he missed an open goal chance .Punjab defender Preetinder Singh was instrumental in saving Affan Yousuf shot in the 30th minute.

In the second half, a pass by Joga Singh deflected into the goal by Sameer Dad to go up 3-0, in another five minutes Affan Yousuf ran from the flank whacking a goal to take up Air India 4-0.

Vikram Pillay hit deflected by Joga Singh took Air India to 5-0. In the next minute Deepak Thakur found the first goal for Punjab. Pradhan Sommana scored a goal in the 58th minute with a reverse hit to make it 6-1 for Air India.

In the 68th minute Punjab converted a penalty corner through Deepak Thakur.

Meanwhile, Karnataka defeated Haryana 3-2 to finish third in the championship. For Haryana, Damandeep Singh scored an opening goal in the 28th minute while Karnataka leveled the score in the 33rd minute through MG Poonacha.

Karnataka took 2-1 in the 46th minute with the field goal scored by Nikkin Thimmaiah but few minutes later Yudhvir struck for Haryana from a goalmouth scramble following a left-wing move helped to level the score 2-2. In the 70th minute, SK Uthappa converted penalty corner which helped Karnataka to win this match.

Results

Final- Air India 6 (Sameer Dad 2, 39, AffanYousuf 3, 42, Joga Singh 53, Pradhan Sommanna 58) beat Punjab 2(Deepak Thakur 54, 68)

3/4th Position- Karnataka 3(M.G. Poonacha 33, Nikkin Thimmaiah 46, S K Uthappa 70) beat Haryana 2(Damandeep Singh 28, Yudhvir 52)