Maharashtra, Services, TN bow out of Hockey Nationals
BHOPAL: Maharashtra, Services and Tamil Nadu crashed out of the Hockey India’s first men’s National Hockey Championship.
In a keenly contested match, Haryana downed Maharashtra 4-3, while Jharkhand trounced Services 2-0 and Punjab thrashed Tamil Nadu 3-0.
Maharashtra’s Rahul Shilpkar scored the first goal by netting a penalty stroke in the 15th minute. Haryana, however, bounced back through Sandeep Singh and Damandeeep Singh who scored in the 18th and 36th minute respectively.
But Maharashtra once again surged ahead with two goals within a span of two minutes.
It was Rahul who scored the equaliser in the 39th minute and then a minute later, Deepak Lakra made it 3-2 in favour of Maharashtra.
Haryana once again fought back with Sandeep restoring the parity through his second goal of the match in the 47th minute.
Three minutes later, Karmjit Singh scored the all-important goal to seal the match in favour of Haryana and show the exit door to Maharashtra.
In Jharkhand’s 2-0 win over Services, Ajitesh Roy turned out to be the star scoring both the goals.
Punjab’s Gurjinder Singh, Dharamvir Singh and Akashdeep Singh sounded the board at 53rd, 68th and 69th minute respectively to thrash Tamil Nadu 3-0.