Hockey India Junior Men National Championship

Day five of the 11th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship 2021, Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu saw Hockey Karnataka and Hockey Maharashtra secure wins over Hockey Andhra Pradesh and Kerala Hockey respectively, while Hockey Bengal shared the spoils with Telangana Hockey in a hard-fought draw.

In the opening match of the day in Pool C, Hockey Bengal and Telangana Hockey played out an exhilarating 4 – 4 draw to take away one point each from the match. Saif Khan (17’, 31’, 36’) led the charge for Hockey Bengal with a hat-trick and Sanjay Yadav (38’) scored one goal. For Telangana Hockey, Akshay Thimmapuram (23’), Raju Talla (30’), Captain Santhosh Nenavath (51’), and Dharamveer Chand Bhavani (57’) added to the score sheet.

In Pool D, Hockey Karnataka defeated Hockey Andhra Pradesh 7 – 0 to secure all three points. After Captain Poovanna C.B (2’) opened the scoring, Bharath Mahalingappa Kurtakoti (35’, 52’) and Chiran Medappa (51’, 55’) followed up with a brace each. Desh Poovaiah A.A (28’) and Lekkala Hitesh Rao (54’) also scored one goal each.

In Pool E, Hockey Maharashtra edged out Kerala Hockey 2 – 0 to earn a narrow victory. Aditya Lalage (40’) and Tejas Chavan (44’) got on the score sheet for Hockey Maharashtra.

Earlier in day four, Hockey Chandigarh secured a convincing 7 – 0 win over Hockey Mizoram. Inderpal Singh (20’, 39’) scored a brace, while, Sumit (17’), Captain Rahul (22’), Gundeep Singh (28’), Surinder Singh (40’) and Rohit (52’) chipped in with one goal each.

In Pool B, Hockey Madhya Pradesh defeated Hockey Uttarakhand 5 – 0 thanks to goals from Shubham Lahoriya (19’, 34’), Shwetank James (31’), Captain Aditya Chhetri (54’) and Tirth Upadhyay (52’).

Tripura Hockey forfeited their match against Hockey Haryana, giving the latter a default 5 – 0 victory, while Hockey Arunachal also forfeited their match against Hockey Punjab which resulted in a default 5 – 0 victory for Hockey Punjab.