1st win for Sashastra Seema Bal in hockey championship

Sashastra Seema Bal won their first match of the tournament when they edged out Hockey Madhya Pradesh 5-4 in the Senior Men National Championship 2018 (B Division), here today.
Naveen Kumar (17, 30), Vinay Vishwkarma (18), Ashutosh Kumar (43) and Agandeep Singh (43) scored goals for SSB while Meet Singh Thakur (18, 48), Sushil Maharashi (20) and Prakash Singh Rawat (33) scored for Hockey Madhya Pradesh.
In the opening match of the day, Sports Authority of India defeated Telangana Hockey with a comprehensive 8-0 margin in Pool A to secure their second consecutive victory of the competition.
Pravakar Minz (15, 41), Manish Sharma (3), B N Sridhar (26), Pramod (28), captain Harshal Sharma (41), Mangra Bhengra (44) and Abhishek (60) scored for SAI.

In the second Pool A match of the day, Assam Hockey defeated Tripura Hockey 5-0 to register their first victory of the competition.
Goals for Assam Hockey were scored by captain Harvir Singh (38, 42), Junaidul Islam (4), Niranjan Boro (58) and Papumoni Saikia (60).

In a Pool B match, Canara Bank produced a great performance to win their third consecutive match of the competition to defeat Hockey Andhra Pradesh 4-1.
Canara Bank scored twice in the 12th and 23rd minutes to take a 2-0 lead but Hockey Andhra Pradesh pulled a goal back in the 35th minute through Venkata Sree Balaji Aripeneni.

However, Canara Bank scored twice again to secure a 4-1 victory. Nikkin Thimmaiahs brace (23, 37) and a goal each from G N Pruthviraj (12) and K P Somaiah secured the win for Canara Bank.
In another Pool C encounter, Food Corporation of India registered their second victory in three matches when they beat Chhattisgarh Hockey 9-2.
Central Industrial Security Force and Vidarbha Hockey Association played out a 3-3 draw in Pool B which meant that both the teams remain winless in the competition.
Vidarbha Hockey Association looked like they would run away with the match as they took a 3-1 lead but Central Industrial Security Force scored two goals in the last ten minutes to play out a 3-3 draw.

Goals for Central Industrial Security Force were scored by Niraj Yadav (28, 50) and Prince Kerketta (57) while Vidarbha Hockey Associations goals were scored by Akbar Khan (12), Arif Shaikh (41) and Naresh Telang (43).