Air India crush Gujarat 15-0

Air India crush Gujarat 15-0
Press Trust Of India

Chennai, February 15: Defending champions Air India outclassed Gujarat 15-0 to enhance their chances of making the quarterfinals in the National Junior hockey championship today.

In Group C matches, Uttar Pradesh defeated Manipur 3-2 while Orissa beat Namdari 2-1.

Hamzmuztaba top scored with five goals for Air India, while Sanjit Kumar and Toshan Tete (four each) and KKS Parihar and Deepak Kumar (one each) were the other scorers.

In the Orissa-Namdari match, the first half remained barren. Orissa who held an upper hand for a brief period, drew first blood in the 53rd minute through Binay Prakash Kujur but four minutes later Gurcharan Singh (57th min) found the equaliser. Orissa continued to raid the rival citadel and scored the winner through Anil Kumar Ekka, with their ninth penalty corner in the 62nd minute.

Manipur went into the lead through Chitaranjan Singh in the very first minute of play against Uttar Pradesh. UP’s Mohd Fahad found parity (32nd min) and the team were one-all during the break.

Crossing over, Manipur increased the lead through Dijen Singh (45th). But SHV Mishra equalised off a penalty corner in the 62nd and Sanjiv Kumar Singh (66th min) put the issue beyond doubt for Uttar Pradesh.

In Group E Punjab beat Delhi 4-3. At half-time the teams were level 1-1. Gabbar Singh (14th minute), Jugraj Singh (39th and 52nd) and Gujrant Singh (64th) scored for Punjab while Prabhakar Singh (33rd), Bikramjit Singh (43rd and 68th) were the scorers for Delhi.