Haryana and Odisha played out an exciting 4-4 draw in a Pool H game of the 12th men’s National hockey championship in Bhopal on Saturday with the game swinging either way before the two domestic heavyweights settled for sharing the honours.
Amandeep scores four
Pankaj and Deepak scored two goals each for Haryana while Amandeep Lakra starred for Odisha, scoring all four goals through penalty corners. In fact, six of the eight goals in the game came through penalty corners as the two teams firmed their hold on the top-two positions in the pool.
The other games were one-sided affairs with little surprise. Uttar Pradesh thumped Chhatisgarh 7-0 in Pool B, Karnataka trumped Uttarakhand 9-1 in its opening Pool C game and Maharashtra beat Kerala 7-1 in Pool D.
The match between Manipur and Himachal in Pool G was forfeited with the former not appearing at the venue, giving Himachal a default 5-0 victory.
The results:
Pool B: Uttar Pradesh 7 (Dharmendra Yadav 2, Manish Sahani 2, Arjun Yadav, Suraj Singh, Mohd. Sadiq) bt Chhattisgarh 0.
Pool C: Karnataka 9 (B.P. Somanna 2, Y.M. Pranam Gowda 2, Harish Mutagar, B.N. Chelsea Medappa, B.M. Likhith, S.P. Deekshith, I.R. Nachappa) bt Uttarakhand 1 (Shahanawaz Hasan).
Pool D: Maharashtra 7 (Taleb Shah 2, Romesh Pillay 2, Aditya Rasala, Harish Shindgi, Suraj Shahi) bt Kerala 1 (P. Premkumar).
Pool G: Himachal 5 bt Manipur 0 (forfeit).
Pool H: Haryana 4 (Pankaj 2, Deepak 2) drew with Odisha 4 (Amandeep Lakra 4).
