Chennai: Manipur Hockey Association scored a stunning last-minute goal to salvage a draw against Shashastra Seema Bal on the opening day of the 9th Hockey India Senior Men’s National Championship (Division B) at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Monday.
Trailing 2-3 in the dying minutes, Manipur was facing a defeat in its opening fixture. With no more than 30 seconds left, Manipur’s Hemam Amarjit passed one from the left flank to Mani H Singh, who slotted it into the goal to register a thrilling draw.
The day, however, belonged to SSB’s Kumar Naveen, who scored a hat-trick. The most impressive part in the hat-trick is that all the three goals were scored within six minutes in the third quarter.
In the first quarter, Manipur’s Shurenshangbam Suresh Singh scored a field goal to give his team an upper hand in the contest. From then on the match was evenly poised as both the teams gave a good fight, SSB though missed some chances to score, maintained possession in the opponent’s half and denied them any scoring opportunity.
No goals were scored in the second quarter. However as soon as the third quarter started, within a minute, SSB earned a penalty corner and Naveen found the bag of the net with his drag-flick to equalise the score. In the 33rd minute, SSB earned a penalty stroke and once again Naveen scored in it to take the lead. Once again in the 36th minute, Naveen registered his hat-trick by converting a penalty corner to give his team an unassailable 3-1 lead. However, in the 40th minute, a penalty corner was awarded to Manipur and Suresh Singh scored his second goal of the match in it.
With no more goals until the 59th minute, SSB looked set for a win, before Mani H Singh scored in the last minute to end the match 3-3.
Earlier in the day, Central Secretariat beat Gujarat 20-1 to register a whooping victory. Similarly, Bengaluru Hockey Association defeated Tripura 20-1.
Results
At ICF
Pool C
Central Secretariat bt Hockey Gujarat : 20-1
Andhra Pradesh drew with Madhya Pradesh : 2-2
Pool D
Bengaluru Hockey Association bt Tiripura Hockey : 20-1
At Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium, Egmore
Pool A
Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy bt Hockey Bihar : 9-0
Telengana Hockey bt Hockey Uttarakhand: 5-3
Pool B
Hockey Jharkand bt Hockey Jammu ; Kashmir: 6-2 goals
Sashastra Seema Bal drew with Manipur Hockey: 3-3 goals