Uttar Pradesh registered third consecutive win in the 4th Hockey India Senior Men National Championship 2014 (Division A) after beating Karnataka 2-1 in a nail biting match of Pool C here today.
The hosts are now sitting at the top of the table.
Both the teams gave a tough fight to each other in the first half but none were able to score in the limited chances that they got.
The second half started with Uttar Pradesh increasing pressure over their opponents and in the 58th minute it was Diwarkar Ram who converted a penalty corner to help his team take the lead.
Jharkhand immediately went on the attack and came back into the game within seven minutes by converting a penalty corner through B P Chingappa to level scores.
In the 68th minute, B S Biddappa of Uttar Pradesh scored through a field goal.
In another Pool C match, Jharkhand defeated Hockey Odisha 3-0.
While the first half did not see any goals being scored, in the second half Jharkhand tasted success in the 48th minute when Prakash Kerketa scored a goal.
Jharkhand netted the ball twice more in the 53rd and 58th minute.
In a Pool A tie, Services Sports Control Board overcame Andhra Pradesh 5-2.
In the last match of the day, Haryana defeated Tamil Nadu 3-1 in Pool D.
Results:
Pool C - Uttar Pradesh 2 Diwarkar Ram (58 min), Hamza Mujtaba (68 min) vs Karnataka 1 B P Chingappa (65 min) Pool C Jharkhand 3 Prakash Kerketta (48 min), Markus Topno (53 min), Anup Topno (58 min) vs Hockey Odisha 0.
Pool A - Services Sports Control Board 5 Sanjay Singh Yadav (12 min), Rana Pratap (19 min), S Arumugam (23 min), Lovedeep Singh (26min), AP Siraju (53min) vs Andhra Pradesh 2 Ramesh Krishna (42 min), Sampath Kumar (46 min).
Pool D - Haryana 3 Jitender Saroha (25th, 35th min) and Damandeep (65th min) vs Tamil Nadu 1 V Vinod Rayer (69th min).
