Delhi pips Chattisgarh; Bihar pound Madhya Bharath

Chennai, Jun 19: After losing 1-4 to Namdhari XI yesterday, Delhi came up with an improved performance, especially in the second half, to put it across Chattisgarh 4-2 for their first win, while Haryana strengthened its quarterfinal chances with its second straight victory in the St Joseph's-TNHA Junior National Hockey Championship here this morning.

In another match, Bihar showed no mercy in pounding a hapless Madhya Bharath 16-1 in Group A to start its campaign in style.

It was indeed a creditable performance by the young lads from Delhi who held the initial advantage, only to see trailing 1-2 at the breather. Kulwant hoisted the lead in the 11th minute, before Chattisgarh restored parity through Navid Sharma eight minutes later. Fazil Ahmed wrested the lead from Delhi five minutes before the half time.

A pep talk by the coach provided the much needed spark and the Delhi lads were a transformed lot in the second half. Delhi had the better of exchanges and had the territorial advantage for most part of the session. Munda equalize in the 48th minute before two late strikes by Mehtab and Vikas Sharma doused the hopes of Chattisgarh.

Mehtab converted a penalty stroke in the 62nd minute after he was stick-checked by a rival defender and Vikas weavered past a couple of defenders and slotted the ball home two minutes later, as Delhi trooped out with their heads high and collected full points in Group E.

In Group C Haryana, struck twice in each half, to notch up its second victory with a 4-1 win over Hyderabad. Two penalty corner conversions by Vinod Kumar (20th) and Rohit Singh (35th) saw Haryana change ends with a 2-0 lead before Sandeep Kumar made it 3-0 in the 53rd minute. Hyderabad managed to pull one back through Santosh Kumar seven minutes later, before Ved Prakash slammed the final goal for Haryana five minutes from the hooter to complete a 4-1 win.

The whipping boys in Group A Madhya Bharath suffered at the hands of Tamil Nadu yesterday. And today they were taken to the cleaners by Bihar, which won by a whopping 16-1 margin. Madhya Bharath had so far conceded 34 goals in two matches.

UNI