Maharashtra hold Haryana, stay in hunt for quarters

Maharashtra held defending champions Haryana to a 2-2 draw in Pool A to remain in contention for a place in the quarter-finals of the second senior men's National Hockey Championships in Bangalore, on Wednesday.

Haryana, who had already entered the last eight round after registering wins in their first three matches, were the first to score against Maharashtra through a field goal from Bharat Chikkara in the 17th minute.

Maharashtra, who so far had just one win under their belt defeating Bengal 3-1 on Tuesday, drew parity in the 25th minute through a penalty corner conversion by Narad Bahadur as both the sides went into the breather on level terms.

After the change of ends, it was Maharashtra's turn to open the scoring as they succeeded in taking a 2-1 lead when Irshad Mirza successfully converted another penalty corner.

Stunned by the goal, Haryana came all out attacking and found the equaliser in the 58th minute through a penalty corner strike by ace mid-fielder Sardar Singh.

In other matches of the day, Indian Universities had to toil hard to hold a formidable Bihar 1-1 in their first outing in Pool H, while Delhi overwhelmed Himachal Pradesh 5-3.

After losing their first match, Seema Samraksha Bal (SSB) kept their chance alive by mauling Goa 14-0 in Pool D.

Results:

Group A: Haryana 2 (Bharat Chhikkara 17, Sardara Singh 58) drew with Maharashtra 2 (Narad Bahadur 25 Irshad Mirza 48).

Group B: Delhi 5 (Avtar Singh Mann 4, Rajesh Kumar 25, Pawan Singh Chouhan 49) bt Himachal Pradesh 3 (Balram Kumar 65, Abhishek 33, Mohit 43).

Group D: SSB 14 (Kishore Lakra 4, 15, 20, 27, Ajit Singh 14, 51, Joychandra Singh 23, Pradeep Kumar Singh 35, 53, 69, Surchandra Singh 39, L Suresh Singh 41, Noacha Singh 42, Romi Kumar Singh 44, own goal) bt Goa 0.

Group H: Manipur 16 (Jayant Kumar 2, 1, 45, 60, Romen Singh 7, 68, Hera Singh 10, Chattaranjan Singh 20,61,69, Ganbama 25,53, Amarjit Singh 37, Kiran Kumar Singh 44, Abung Singh 54, Dayananda Singh 58) bt Andaman and Nicobar 0.

Bihar 1 (Mohammed Riazuddin 27) drew with Universities 1 (Gurpreet Singh).