Airlines, Manipur keep winning

CALCUTTA, NOV. 28. Star-studded Indian Airlines led the favoured sides which won their matches against arguably easy opponents to keep alive the contest in Pool E league qualifier in the 60th National hockey championship in Imphal on Tuesday, according to information reaching here. Indian Airlines thrashed Orissa 5-0, Bengal beat Nagaland 4-0 while host Manipur drowned Assam in a deluge of goals for a 13-0 scoreline.

The victories keep Indian Airlines and Manipur jointly on top of the league table with full nine points each but the former enjoys a healthier goal average. Bengal is not far behind with six points from two wins.

On Tuesday, Airlines found the goal early as scored in the 10th minute through Virender and Olympian Mukesh Kumar enhanced the lead in the 27th minute. Rajneesh Mishra converted a penalty corner in the opening minute of the second session to put Orissa more on the defensive.

Keeping up the intensity of the assaults, the airlines team inflicted another blow with Brojen Singh scoring the fourth goal in the 39th minute. Bimal converted a penalty corner in the 58th minute to complete the tally.

Bengal struggled in the first session which remained goalless but a super-session of 10 minutes gave Bengal all its four goals against Nagaland as Kishore Kujur (39th), Paulus Soy (42nd), Stephen Kujur (48th) and Rajat Minz (49th) struck.

Manipur had Santa Kumar, who scored five goals including a hat- trick, doing most of the damage against Assam. Chittaranjan scored three, Birjit Singh and Dijen Singh shared four goals and Uma Shankar accounted for the remaining goal.

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Section  : Sport
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