The hero of the opening day was the 30-year-old inspector from Border Security Force (BSF) Sarabajit Singh who scored the first hat-trick of the championship pumping nine goals to help Punjab rout Rajasthan 18-0, while FCI steam rolled Vidarbha 9-0 after leading 2-0 at half time.

A complacent Railways down by a goal to underrated Bihar outfit rallied not only to wipe out the defecit but also went on to score a 5-1 win after both the teams shared one goal each, at lemon break.

The underrated Orissa side sprang a surprise by scoring a 7-0 victory against Haryana while hosts Hyderabad scoring one goal in each session beat Nagaland 2-0.

TheHyderabad-Nagaland match was played at the Gymkhana grounds as the floodlight was not good enough. In the 15th minute of the first session Hyderabad scored the first goal when a raspsing drive following a penalty corner was deflected through the stick of ZA dara. Three minutes before the long hooter, Manoj Singh with a powerful hit completed the tally for Hyderabad (2-0) following a corner.

At the Police Hockey Stadium, Orissa played a slow game and lead 1-0 at half time scored by Sushil Kujur. Soon after the break the unassuming Orissa side went on to score six more goals. Sushil Kujur, Anil Prafula Ekka scored two goals each while Nageshwar Topno and Roshan Tete scored a goal each.

Results

Group A: Indian Railways 5 (Ajinderpal Singh 1, Brijnev 1, Chander Pal 1, M Ekka 1, Navsheer 1) bt Bihar 1 (J Jojo 1). Punjab 18 (Sarabjit Singh 9, bt Rajasthan 0

Group B: Indian Post 4 (Nirmal Singh 1, Aftabuddin 1, Siraj-ul Haq 2) bt Gujarat 2 (Anand Soudhker 1, Shashi Gorde 1). Hyderabad 2 (ZA Dara 1,Manoj Singh 1) bt Nagaland 0.

Group C: FCI 9 bt Vidarbha 0

Group D: Orissa 7 (Sushil Gujur 2, Anil Praful Ekka 2, Nagesh Topno 1, Roshan Tete 1, Severan Kumar Birla 1) bt Haryana 0