Manipur, MP gain victory in opening matches of Senior Men's National Hockey Championship

Manipur and Madhya Pradesh (MP) emerged winners in separate matches against Bihar and Andaman & Nicobar respectively, as the the Senior Men's National Hockey Championship commenced with lopsided matches on November 4. 

Madhya Pradesh scored a whopping 29 goals, defeating Andaman & Nicobar; while Manipur, in another one-sided game crushed Bihar 19-1 in Pool H. 

Cyril Lugun (9’,21’, 52’), Ningombam Jenjen Singh (19’, 23’, 50’), Laishram Dipu Singh (26’, 36’, 39’) and Bhakar Ningobam (41’, 53’, 55’) impressed with hat-tricks.

In the Pool C match featuring MP, a flurry of goals came from Yousuf Affan (8’, 21’, 30’, 39’, 42’, 55’) as he scored a double hat-trick. Mohammad Zaid Khan (2’, 16’, 46’, 49’, 51’) was also lethal with five goals and Akshay Dubey (9’, 10’, 14’, 58’) found the back of the net on four occasions. Mohd. Nizamudding (4’, 6’, 50’) and Mohd Umar (15’, 40’, 44’) struck hat-tricks for MP.

Apart from MP and Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Chandigarh and Tamil Nadu also won their respective opening round matches.

The action commenced with a Pool F match that saw Uttar Pradesh defeat Kerala 6-0. Arun Sahani (3’, 52’) led the attack with a brace while Chandhan Singh (21’), captain Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (32’), Shibam Anand (55’) and Faraz Mohd (57’) also contributed with goals.

In Pool D, Karnataka beat Uttarakhand 10-0. 

In another Pool D clash, Chandigarh registered a 5-0 victory following a forfeit by Tripura.

In the final match of the day, Tamil Nadu got the better of Andhra Pradesh 7-0. Captain Karthi S (16’, 57’) scored a brace while Selvaraj Kangaraj (21’), Dhilipan (38’), J Joshua Bendedict Wesley (40’), Manojkumar (41’) and Mareeswaran Sakthivel (49’) struck a goal each for Tamil Nadu. (With PTI inputs)