7th Hockey India Sub-Junior Men National Championship: Bengaluru sneak past J&K

Bengaluru: Hockey Bengaluru on Monday warded off a late resurgence by Hockey Jammu & Kashmir to post a 5-4 win in their match at the 7th Hockey India Sub-Junior Men National Championship at the KSHA Stadium.

Pegged back in the 13th minute after J&K’s Manik Sharma converted a penalty corner, coach Dominic Savio’s boys rallied to take a 4-2 lead in the first half. Prem equalised three minutes after the opener while Punith J Padmanabha gave Bengaluru the lead in the 20th minute through their own penalty corner
Umashankar, who scored twice against Kerala Hockey in their previous match, added two more before a lapse of concentration saw Prabjot Singh pull one back with a field goal.

Ten minutes after the break, Prasanth Kumar Ramaji converted another penalty corner to make it 5-1. J&K came back strongly in the last few minutes of the second half as Gagandeep Singh (Sr) scored twice in succession, but Bengaluru survived the late onslaught to win.

Despite Bengaluru’s win, Hockey Rajasthan look set to qualify for the semifinals from Pool D after a 7-2 rout of Hockey Himachal.

Results: Pool D: Jammu & Kashmir 4 (Manik Sharma 13, Prabjot Singh 28, Gagandeep Singh (Sr) 60, 68) lt to Bengaluru 5 (Prem 16, Punith J Padmanabha 20, Umashankar 22, 26, Prasanth Kumar Ramaji 45); Madhya Pradesh 5 (Gaurav Tripathi 34, 64, 70, Shwetank James 52, Abdul Rahman 64) bt Kerala 1 (Athul Shaju 11); Rajasthan 7 (Vijendra Singh Rathore 6, 8, 59, 61, Kamlesh Kumar 18, Aniket Rawat 38, Pankaj Godara 68) bt Himachal 2 (Vishal Kumar 40, Dhananjay Prajapati 53) Pool A: Uttarakhand 1 (Mitesh Singh 50) lt to Mumbai School Sports Association 3 (Rajveen Singh Dhariwala 6, Arvind Yadav 31, 56)