Maharashtra sign off with impressive win

Pune: Odisha moved closer to qualification, while Maharashtra brought cheer to the home crowd signing off with a win to earn their first points on Day 5 of the 9th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship 2019 (Div ‘A’) at the Sports Authority of India, Western Training Centre, in Aurangabad on Thursday.

The day was also highlighted by three stand-out individual performances that included hat-tricks. Leading the feat was Nabin Kunjur (Steel Plant Sports Board (4 goals), Aamid Khan (Hockey Maharashtra) and Vashu Dev (Hockey Himachal).

Odisha in Pool-D pole position
In Pool-D, Odisha held on to a first-half Bhima Ekka (14th) penalty-corner to overcome Sports Authority of India 1-0. In the clash of two unbeaten teams of the pool, Odisha (7 points) logged their second win to inch ahead of SAI (6 points) suffered their first loss.

Later, in the same pool, Steel Plant Sports Board (SPSB) had Nabin Kunjur (9th, 27th, 35th, 58th) convert four penalty corners to help his team down Punjab & Sind Bank 4-2 for their first win. Punjab and Sind Bank scored early via Harkawalbir Singh (3rd) and Angadbir Singh (11th) to lead early before SPSB took over the scoring.

Maharashtra impress
Maharashtra rode on a hat-trick by Aamid Khan to sign off their Pool-C campaign with a 4-2 win over Karnataka. The win was Maharashtra’s first, which also earned their first points. Aamid’s three-in-a-row ‘trick was the second of the day.

Maharashtra opened the day through Aamid (11th) who added two more in the fourth quarter - one off a penalty corner (50th) and later a field goal in the 49th minute. 
Prajwal Moharkar (56th) completed the tally. Karnataka (1 point; 3 matches) had N.M Surya (41st) and V Suresh (59th) reduce the margin.

Jharkhand beat Mumbai
Jharkhand handed Mumbai their third successive loss winning 4-0 to complete their Pool-B fixtures. 
A brace by Susaran Dodray (16th, 43rd) and a goal each from Samrat Kunjur (23rd) and Deepak Soreng (44th) made Jharkhand’s day.

Jharkhand (6 points) put them in third place. The second place in the pool will be decided on Friday. Manipur (6 pts), Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy (4 pts), Haryana (9 pts) have already qualified.