On day one of the 11th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship 2021, Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu began on a positive note for Hockey Haryana, Hockey Chandigarh, Hockey Karnataka and Hockey Punjab as all four teams recorded convincing opening day wins over Telangana Hockey, Hockey Andhra Pradesh, Hockey Mizoram and Kerala Hockey respectively here in Kovilpatti.
Hockey Haryana ran out 12-2 winners over Telangana Hockey in the opening Pool C encounter which set the tournament underway. Goals from hat trick hero Deepak (9', 40', 51'), Pankaj (5'), Ankush (13', 22'), Amandeep (13', 52'), Rohit (14'), Amit Chahal (15'), Deepak (27'), Pankaj (43') earned Hockey Haryana their first win of the competition. Captain Santhosh Nenavath (31') and Dharamveer Chand Bhavani (23') pulled two goals back for Telangana Hockey. In Pool D, Hockey Chandigarh recorded a 23-0 victory over Hockey Andhra Pradesh thanks to goals from nine different scorers in the team. Raman led the goal-scoring exploits with five goals (33', 38', 39', 55', 58'), while Sumit (7', 31', 46', 47'), Rohit (2', 6', 34'), Gundeep Singh (10', 36', 60'), Captain Rahul (42', 43'), Inderpal Singh (28', 59'), Harpanthpreet Singh (18'), Pratham Sharma (24'), Gurkirat Singh (57'), and Paramvir Singh (60') were also in amongst the goals.
In the second Pool D encounter, Hockey Karnataka defeated Hockey Mizoram 24-0. Chiran Medappa led the charge for Hockey Karnataka with 8 goals to his name (2', 24', 28', 30', 39', 42', 45', 56'), while Captain C.B Poovanna (5', 41', 50', 51'), Rahul C.J (18', 32', 60'), Prajwal Ravi Bijawad (35', 37'), Lekkala Hitesh Rao (53', 58'), Bharath Mahalingappa Kurtakoti (17', 43'), Vishwas G (10'), Desh Poovaiah A.A (16'), Majji Ganesh (41') also got on the score sheet.
In Pool E, Hockey Punjab got off to a blistering start, defeating Kerala Hockey 13 - 0. Amongst the scorers for Hockey Punjab were Sanjay Kumar (8', 14'), Amritpal Singh (24', 41'), Rajinder Singh (41', 55'), Jaspal Singh (12'), Ravneet Singh (13'), Simranjot Singh (23'), Gurpreet Singh (30'), Ajaypal Singh (34'), Bharat Thakur (53') and Arshdeep Singh (58'). Tripura Hockey forfeited their Pool C match against Hockey Bengal, while Hockey Arunachal forfeited their Pool E match against Hockey Maharashtra, awarding both teams a 5-0 win by default.
( With inputs from ANI )
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