Chandigarh, Haryana top charts

Chandigarh, Haryana top charts

PUNE: Haryana and Chandigarh have impressed most as the quarterfinals phase of the 9th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship 2019 (Div ‘A’) is all set to unfold at the Sports Authority of India, Western Training Centre in Aurangabad on Monday.

With 40 matches completed in the pool stage, both Haryana and Chandigarh not only topped Pool-A and B respectively but topped statistics. Consider this: off the 180 goals scored at an average of 4.5 goals per match, Chandigarh netted most with 20. Punjab (17) and Haryana (15) followed.

Interesting, off the 116 field goals and 55 penalty corner goals, Chandigarh had 13 field goals, pipping another pool qualifier Punjab (12). Similarly, they also had 7 goals of penalty corner conversions, while Haryana (6) was next best.

If scoring was Chandigarh’s strong point, Haryana had a few highs on their part in their run-up to qualification. They logged the biggest victory downing Manipur 7-0 in their Pool-B opener and ended up with the distinction of being the only team to finish with an all-win record and maximum points.  

They also had the distinction of conceding the least goals letting in only 3.

There were two more of teams netting seven goals; Uttar Pradesh (bt Hockey Maharashtra 7-1, Pool-C) and Chandigarh (bt Himachal 7-2, Pool-A).   

Interestingly, Chandigarh was also involved in a 11-goal thriller winning 7-4 against Services Sports Control Board. Incidentally, the score line turns out to be the highest match-aggregate so far.

The pool matches which concluded Saturday were 90 percent result oriented with only six drawn matches out of 40 being recorded. Likewise, the fact that 100 players accounted for 180 goals is reason enough to show the urgency of teams.

Chandigarh and Punjab had nine scorers each showing the versatility, while Haryana had seven, Uttar Pradesh (6) followed.

Among the others…
Services Sports Control Board, Mumbai  and Punjab and Sindh Bank were three teams that finished without a point to their name.

SSCB conceded 20 goals - the most among all teams in the pool stage. Followed by Mumbai (17). 

However, between both teams Mumbai (-13) had the poorest goal-average of as against SSCB (-4).

Punjab and Sind Bank exit with honour
Discipline wise, Punjab and Sindh Bank was the only team among the 20 participating teams to go home without receiving a card! Punjab and Sindh Bank with three goals scored the least goals among all teams.

Three hat-tricks scored
There were three hat-tricks in the pool stage. Leading them all was Nabin Kunjur a player from Steel Plant Sports Board with a 4-goals in a row effort against opponents Punjab and Sind Bank in Pool-D; Aamid Khan from hosts Maharashtra with three goals against Karnataka in Pool-C and Vashu Dev (Himachal v Services Sports Control Board.)

Last but not the least, nine players scored from penalty-strokes.

PERFORMANCE
Top-3 Goal Scorers
- 7- S Karthi (Tamil Nadu)
- 6- Nabin Kunjur (Steel Plant Sports Board)
- 5- Gopi Sonkar (Uttar Pradesh)
 
Top Players: Field Goals
4- S Karthi, Gopikumar Sonkar, Mohd. Alishan (Madhya Pradesh);, Vashu Dev (Himachal), Sudarshan Singh (Punjab)
 
Top Players: Penalty Corners
- 5-Nabin Kunjur
- 4-Hashim (Chandigarh), Parteek Sharma (Punjab)

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