Champions Gangpur-Odisha taste defeat

Defending champions Gangpur-Odisha tasted a 1-3 defeat in their opening game against Sports Authority of India (SAI) at the 7th Hockey India Sub-junior National Championship (Division A) on Wednesday.

In their Pool A game here at the hockey stadium, Ankush was the stand-out performer for the SAI outfit, netting in a brace, while Vishnukant Singh scored the other goal for the side.

Though Gangpur-Odisha took the lead in the 25th minute through Deepak Ekka, the champions couldn’t hold on as Ankush drew SAI level in the 28th minute. He later added another one in the 34th minute as SAI went into half-time with a slender lead.

Post the break, Vishnukant ensured that his side came away with three points from the tie, sounding the board in the 54th minute.

Later in the day, in a Pool ‘B’ encounter, Punjab registered a comfortable 4-0 win over Patiala.

Sudarshan Singh opened the scoring for Punjab in the eighth minute while goals from Jaspreet Singh (44th minute), Rahul (47th minute) and Rajinder Singh (66th minute) helped Punjab put the game to bed.

Results: Pool A: Odisha: 4 (Matiyas Dang 18th, Sushil Dhanwar 35th, 42nd, 68th) bt Andhra Pradesh: 0; Gangpur-Odisha: 1 (Deepak Ekka 25th) lt to Sports Authority of India: 3 (Ankush 28th, 34th, Vishnukant Singh 54th). Pool B: Haryana: 8 (Sachin Malik 6th, Sunny Malik 7th, 39th, Amit 20th, 32nd, Rohit 40th, 49th, Pankaj 51st) bt Tamil Nadu: 0. Pool C: Punjab: 4 (Surdarshan Singh 8th, Jaspreet Singh 44th, Rahul 47th, Rajinder Singh 66th) bt Patiala: 0. Pool D: MP Hockey Academy: 5 (Shreyas Dhupe 6th, 27th, 63rd, Aniket Varun 47th, Shailendra Singh 49th) bt Delhi: 1 (Rahul Gharai 21st).