Namdhari XI beat Gujarat 9-0 in national hockey

Namdhari XI, Bihar, Mumbai and Uttarakhand took a step ahead by winning their respective matches of the fourth Hockey India (HI) National Championship (Division B) at the Major Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium here Friday.

In Pool A, Namdhari XI registered a facile 9-0 win over Gujarat. Namdhari XI went all out from the start when Bhagat Singh Dhillon scored two goals (5th, 15th minutes) by converting penalty corners. This was followed by field goals of Santa Singh (27th) and captain Kuldeep Singh (29th), taking the score to 4-0 at halftime.

The second half saw Namdhari XI scoring another five through Udham Preet Singh (37th, 54th) and Avtar Singh, Mehkeet Singh and Gurjant Singh scoring a goal each in the 50th, 54th and 68th minute, respectively.

Later, Bihar scooped away a match from Rajasthan 4-2 in Pool A. Bihar dominated the first half with a 3-1 lead whereas the second half saw a decent struggle from both. Nevertheless, Bihar got a chance to strike another goal and took the total to four and Rajasthan were held at two.

Bihar's Sankalp Raghav converted two penalty corners (12th, 21st) and another two field goals were stroked in by Naveen Minz (23rd) and Bhim Kumar (54th). Ankit Kushwah (13th) and Amit Yadav (59th) struck for Rajasthan.

In Pool B, Mumbai registered a comprehensive 13-0 win over Goa. Manprit Singh Chahal scored four goals (11th, 28th, 61st, 62nd), Harjit Singh three (33rd, 56th, 63rd) while Ambika Pratap Singh scored two (50th, 63rd) among four other scorers.

Uttarakhand defeated Jammu & Kashmir 5-3 to register their second consecutive win in Pool B. Prakash Mehra scored twice while Amit Aswal, Manoj Tamta and Vijay Pal contributed a goal each in Uttarakhand's win. Amrinder Singh, Sunil Kalsotra and Amarjeet Singh scored a goal each for Jammu & Kashmir.

Result:

Pool A: Namdhari XI 9 beat Gujarat 0; Bihar 4 beat Rajasthan 2

Pool B: Mumbai 13 beat Goa 0; Uttarakhand 5 beat Jammu & Kashmir 3.