Roundglass lead Hockey League points table

Sports Authority of India (SAI) National Centre of Excellence, Sonepat, and Roundglass Hockey Academy (RGHA) continued to be the top two teams of the Punjab Hockey League (U-21) being played at Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium here.

While the RGHA recorded a commanding 5-2 victory over PIS Surjit Hockey Academy, Jalandhar, to lead the points’ table, the Sonepat team followed at second with a commanding 5-0 victory over Ghumanhera Risers Hockey Academy.

In the opening match of the day, drag flicker Amandeep Singh scored a hat-trick in the RGHA’s win while Gursewak Singh and Gurwinder Singh scored the other goals for the side. Surjit Hockey Academy had taken the lead in the first quarter through Kushal Sharma, but the local team scored four back-to-back goals to take the game away from their opponents. Kushal scored one back in the final quarter, and Gurwinder’s goal in the 59th minute sealed the match for the hosts.

SAI-Sonepat, meanwhile, thrashed Ghumanhera Risers 5-0 to maintain their second spot in the table. Nitin, Ritesh Pandey, Ankush, Mannu Malik and Sunil scored for the winners.

SDAT Hockey Academy came back from a two-goal deficit to level the scores and then secured a bonus point after winning the shootout against SGPC Hockey Academy, Amritsar. Diljeet Singh gave the SGPC the lead in the first quarter and Jagjit Singh doubled the advantage in the 31st minute. The SDAT bounced back strongly in the final quarter and drew level with goals from C Shibi Yuvaraj and J Arun. In the shootout, Arun converted his penalty and then converted a penalty stroke to give his side a 2-1 victory, while Jagjit Singh was the sole drag flicker to convert for the SGPC, as winning team goalie S Karthikeyan saved four penalties, including three strokes.

Namdhari Hockey Academy edged past Naval Tata Hockey Academy 1-0. Yuvraj Singh was the lone scorer who struck in the 22nd minute.

After the Round 5 of the tournament, the RGHA has 14 points, while SAI-Sonepat with 12 points and Namdhari Hockey Academy followed with 12 and 8 points, respectively. Naval Tata Hockey Academy, Jamshedpur (7 points), Surjit Hockey Academy (6 points), SGPC Hockey Academy (5 points), SDAT Hockey Academy (5 points) and Ghumanhera Risers Hockey Academy, New Delhi (3 points), occupy fourth to eighth places, respectively.

The Punjab Hockey League is a first-of-its-kind junior hockey competition launched by the RGHA and Hockey Punjab to nurture young talent and strengthen grassroots hockey in India.