Karnataka rally to beat plucky Vidarbha

Jalandhar, October 21 (UNI) Karnataka struck two goals in the last seven minutes to down plucky Vidarbha by 2-1 in a pool C match in the Dainik Bhaskar-Tracer 62nd Senior National Hockey Championship at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium here today.

Hosts and favourites Punjab continued their winning spree as they routed Bihar in Pool A fixture for their second successive victory.

From two matches, Punjab have gained six full points.

In other preliminary league fixtures, Chhattisgarh got the better of Maharashtra by 2-1 in a well contested pool A match and Mumbai earned full points against Manipur whom they beat by 3-1. Vidarbha put up a good fight against Karnataka before going down fighting.

They could have won the match but Karnataka had other ideas. They struck two goals in the last seven minute to change the result of the game.

It was Vidarbha who drew the first blood through Rahul who scored in the seventh minute from the right flank( 1-0). Despite forcing nine penalty corners, Karnataka displayed poor penalty corner conversion technique having failed to convert any of them. However, Karnataka were able to restore parity in the 63rd minute throug Arumugam who scored a field goal (1-1). Maintaining pressure, Karnataka snatched the match-winner in the very next minute through Laxman Rao.

In pool A, Chhattisgarh took lead against Maharashtra in the fifth minute with penalty corner conversion by Kunal Kanaojia ( 1-0). Nine minutes later Kunal against converted a penalty corner to give his team a 2-0 lead. In the 27th minute Maharashtra forward Amul Musale reduced the margin by scoring a field goal( 1-2). There was no scoring in the second half.

In another Pool C encounter Mumbai defeated Manipur by 3-1. In the 15th minute Ashish Gonsalues netted a field goal for Maharashtra (1-0) and four minutes later K Hera restored parity for the Manipur (1-1). In the 22nd minute Vikas Pillay sounded the board for Mumbai (2-1). In the 53rd minute Mumbai captain Stanley Fernandes converted a penalty stroke to complete the tally (3-1).

With this victory, Mumbai earned six points from two outings.

Playing before the home crowd, Punjab dominated the proceedings as they mauled Bihar by 7-0. Draf flicker Jugaj Singh scored two goals in first session. His goals came in the ninth and 17th minutes. In the 19th minute, Ranjodh Sngh scored a field goal from a measured pass from Olympian and former Indian captain Baljit Singh Dhillon (3-0). In the 29th and 32nd minute, Jarnail Singh of Punjab scored two field goals (5-0). On resumption, Punjab added two more goals through Rahjodh Singh (42nd) and Jarnail Singh (63rd).

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