Mumbai, Universities, Airlines win in National Hockey

Jalandhar, Oct 22: Continuing their winning spree, Mumbai spanked Madhya Pradesh 5-1 to brighten their hopes to qualify for the quarterfinal knockout stage of the Dainik Bhaskar-Tracer 62nd Senior National Hockey Championship being played at four venues in Punjab today.

With this win, Mumbai now have nine full points from three outings.

In today's matches at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium here Mumbai defeated Madhya Pradesh by 5-1 in their Pool C encounter, while Combined Universities handed out a 10-4 drubbing to Bihar in a Pool A encounter.

In another match played at Bhaini Sahib, the star-studded Indian Airlines thrashed Rajasthan 5-0 in Pool E.

At the three matches in Amritsar, Chandigarh mauled Uttaranchal 20-0 in a Pool-B encounter while Patiala defeated Pondicherry in Pool B and Orissa prevalied over Hyderabad 3-1 in Pool-D.

Mumbai took time to settle down and had to wait for 27 minutes to open their account through a field goal scored by Jadhav who guided the ball into the MP goal from the right flank. Mumbai were content with 1-0 lead in the first half.

However, after the interval, Mumbai pressed hard and in the 49th minute, Jasdev Singh put them 2-0 ahead. The winners registered their third goal in the 59th minute through Rajeev Thatkar. In the 62nd minute Mumbai were awarded a penalty stroke and Manish Rahi converted it with ease to give Mumbai a 4-0 lead.

Against the run of play, Madhya Pradesh forced a penalty corner in the 64th minute and Gulam Mohammed reduced the margin by converting it. At the fag end of the match, Mumbai's Shakti Thakur completed the rout with a fine field goal (5-1).

Meanwhile, the match between young Varsities XI and Bihar saw as many as 14 goals being scored with Zavier Gidh geeting hattrick for the former. Bihar forged ahead in the fifth minute when Ashok Rajak converted a penalty corner. However Universities neutralised the lead in the 19th through Harshpreet Singh ( 1-1).

Sunder Singh again put Universities ahead in the 34th minute (2-1) and three minutes later Parminder Singh consolidated it to 3-1. In the very next minute Gurpreet Singh scored a field goal to make it 4-1. In the 46th minute Bihar's captain, Xavier Gidh got the second goal for his team (2-4). Universities retaliated through Yadwinder Singh in the 49th minute to make it 5-2. In 50th minute Xavier Gidh scored his second goal for Bihar to reduce the margin to 3-5.

Harshpreet struck for Universities ( 6-3) in the 54th minute and then Jagjit Singh scored two quick goals in the 56th and 61st minutes to widen the gap.

In the 59th minute Parminder Singh scored for Universities to make it 9-3. Xavier Gidh completed his hattrick by scoring in the 64th minute ( 4-9). One minute before the hooter Varinder Singh Vicky hammered the last nail into the Bihar's coffin to make it 10-4.

At the GNDU campus in Amritsar, Chandigarh handed out a 20-0 thrashing to Uttaranchal, after leading 11-0 at half time. The match was postponed on October 20 due to rain and was listed for today.

For Chandigarh, Navdeep hammered five goals followed by Amar Allayapa who got four. Roopinder and skipper Gagandeep got a brace each.

In the second match at Amritsar, Orissa got past Hyderabad 3-1 after leading by a solitary first half goal. Orissa took the lead in 23rd minute through Binay Kujur and in the first minute after the breather, Severam Barala made it 2-0 for Orissa. Hyderabad reduced the margin in the very next minute through Azhar Ullahi. In the 54th minute, Banmali Xess scored a fine field goal to make it 3-1 in favour of Orissa.

In the last match at Amritsar, Patiala scored their second successive win, defeating Pondicherry 4-0, after leading 2-0 at half time. For the winners, Pawan Bassi got a brace while Sandeep (jr) and Gurwinder singh scored one goal apiece.

In the lone match at Bhaini Sahib, star studded Indian Airlines, led by Dhanraj Pillay, drubbed Rajasthan 5-0, after leading 4-0 at half time. Dhanraj Pillay put Airlines ahead in the eighth minute with a field goal and in the 15th minute international Samir Dad made it 2-0. A minute later Vikram Pillay made it 3-0 with a fine field goal.

Dhanraj Pillay got his second goal of the match in the 31st and in the second half Sair Dad too got his second goal when he scored off a penalty corner. Airlines who got a walkover in their first match, now have six points from two encounters.

UNI