Pune Hockey Assn trounce Jharkand

Hosts and tournament debutants Pune District Hockey Association (PDHA) dished out a disciplined performance to seal a deserving 7-4 win against Jharkhand in a crucial group match in the 35th Junior (under-20) National Hockey Championship. The tournament is organised by the PDHA (Pune District Hockey Association), under the auspices of the IHF (Indian Hockey Federation) at Major Dhyanchand ground, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nehrunagar on Monday. Once again it was the trio of Vinit Kambale (3 goals), Deep Patel (2)and captain Pramod Shingede (2) who delivered the goods for PDHA to ensure that they qualified for the pre-quarter-finals having won both their matches in this pool. They had earlier defeated Goa 5-1 in their opening league match with Patel and Shingede scoring a brace each and Kambale netting one.

Despite their comfortable victory and qualifying for the next round, PDHA’s chief coach, Olympian Ajit Lakra remained realistic about the result.

“Overall I am satisfied that we won and advanced to the next stage,” he said. “But the boys need to put up a better performance as the competition will be much tougher in the pre-quarter-finals. They also have to rectify the mistakes which they committed in this game.”

Earlier, SAIL (Steel Authority of India) recorded their third successive win in Pool A’ as they romped to a 6-0 win against Kerala to join PDHA and Madhya Pradesh State Hockey Academy from Pool “E’ in the next round.

Uttarkhand, riding on a hat-trick from B Bhardwal, managed to force a 4-4 draw with Hyderabad in a Pool E excounter.