Pune: Valmiki brothers scored two goals apiece as Maharashtra won their second straight league match to inch closer to the quarterfinal place from Pool G in the 1st Hockey India Junior National Men’s Hockey Championship at the Balewadi Complex turf here on Monday.
Taking time from the delayed Junior National camp, Anup Valmiki and Devendra Valmiki showed why they were picked for the camp as their efforts made the difference between Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir. Maharashtra won the game 6-0.
In other action; Assam rallied to beat Tamil Nadu 4-3 in Pool E; Bihar thumped Kerala 19-0 in Pool F and Uttarakhand edged past Manipur 5-2 in Pool H.
Striker Nitin Kumar, who recently played in the German league, opened the account for Maharashtra in the second minute of the match before Anup made it 2-0 in the ninth minute.
He was at it again in the 23rd before his cousin brother took over and fired a brace in a space of four minutes. In between, captain Vikram Yadav scored on a pass from Rubean Kedari despite the home team having reduced to 10 men after Anup was shown green card for repeated foul.
Moon Hazrika and Ankit Pant scored winning goals for their respective teams as Assam and Uttarakhand dished out an interesting hockey fare on the second day of the championship that saw some serious sport being played rather than the goal-binge that was on show on Sunday. The day overall ended with 40 goals scored taking the two-day tournament count to 111.
Tamil Nadu opened against Assam much on the expected lines when M Dhileepan struck a brace to give his team 2-0 halftime lead. S Rajesh Kannan fired in a field goal in the 46th minute as Tamil Nadu led 3-0 before Assam, which tested the choppy waters against Jharkhand on Sunday, came into form with 20 minutes remaining in the match.
Shabkar Patil opened the scoring in the 51st minute and then Mohammed Rataul Ansary (55th minute) made it 2-3 before Rajesh Boro found the equalizer in the 59th minute. Two minutes from close, Moon Harzika let in the winner for Assam when he converted a penalty corner for a deserving 4-3 win for Assam.
The day began with Uttarakhand sending Manipur in a tizzy after the north-easterners had taken a confident 2-0 lead within 10 minutes of the start.
Dayananda Singh shot back-to-back goals in the 5th and 7th minutes off penalty corners to give Manipur early lead. But, Manipur’s lead came under fire when Prabhakar Nautiyal (19th) and Basant Bhardwaj (25th) revived Uttarakhand’s hopes. Inspired by the show, Narendra Singh went berserk and found target off a field effort and then made it 4-2 in the 58th minute off a penalty corner.
It was a fine goal in the 61st minute from Ankit Pant that took the match beyond Manipur’s grasp.
The third match of the day saw Kerala going down again by a huge margin against Bihar after having lost to Uttar Pradesh in the similar fashion on the opening day.
Junas Herenj scored five goals and captain Ansalem Hemrom struck four as Bihar, which arrived only on Sunday made hay under the welcome sun. Sanjay Herenj, Kamal Lakra and Noel Dodray too joined the party, pumping in three goals apiece as Bihar won 19-0 after having led 8-0 at the halftime.
Kerala thus became the first team to exit the championship.
