National Hockey: Narrow win for Haryana

Bangalore, Sep 23 - Defending champions Haryana opened their campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Bhopal in a Pool A match of the senior National hockey championship that commenced here Sunday.

Bhopal took the lead with a 10th minute goal by Affan Yousuf, but Haryana bounced back to score twice through Didar Singh (20th) and Mandeep Antil (51st) to pick up three points.

In contrast, Punjab drubbed Jammu and Kashmir 12-1 in Pool C with Talwinder Singh scoring three goals while Kerala were the other big winners with a 11-0 decision against Gujarat in Pool G.

In Pool C, Chhattisgarh received three points after their scheduled opponents Arunachal Pradesh failed to turn up at the venue.

The results:

Pool A: Haryana 2 (Didar Singh 20, Mandeep Antil 51) bt Bhopal 1 (Affan Yousuf 10); Puducherry 7 (Kamala Kannan 5, 17, 43, 59, Karthigeyan 12, Jairaj 13, 53) bt Maharashtra 2 (Irshad Mirza 64, Vijay Tapa).

Pool C: Punjab 12 (Gurjinder Singh 9, Prabhdeep Singh 15, 43, OG 24, Talwinder Singh 25, 59, 61, Ravipal Singh 26, Akashdeep Singh 30, Sarvanjit Singh 50, 67, Vikramjit Singh 56) bt J&K 1 (OG 42). Chattisgarh w/o Arunachal Pradesh.

Pool E: Rajasthan 6 (Naresh 14, 17, 54, OG 48, Harpreet 62, Jaisham 68) bt Nagaland 1 (Keduneizo 29); Air India v Madhya Pradesh.

Pool G: Kerala 11 (Muhammed Murthla 2, 16, 47, 62, E. Sarin 6, 52, 57, S. Adarse 15, Joshan George 24, S.S. Vishnu 60, 63) bt Gujarat 0. Odisha 2 (Amit Rohitdas 12, Mikhal Barla 18) drew with Tamil Nadu: 2 (Rupinderpal Singh 38, 43).