Mumbai rout Gujarat 18-0 in concluding pool game

Mumbai maintained their red hot form, drubbing Gujarat 18-0 in their concluding Pool-B league match of the West Zone leg of the IHF Senior National Hockey Championship.

Mumbai: Formidable Mumbai maintained their red hot form, drubbing a listless Gujarat 18-0 in their concluding Pool-B league match of the West Zone leg of the IHF Senior National Hockey Championship at the MHA Stadium on Friday.

Mumbai had things much their own way and raced to 11-0 half-time lead. The home side, which has finished with an all-win record to qualify for Monday?s final, has scored a total of 57 goals in four matches. Jayesh Jadhav, Osaf ur Rehman and Ganendrajit Ningombam scored three goals apiece while Davinder Walmiki and Victo Singh scored twice in Mumbai’s overwhelming victory. Earlier, in an absorbing Pool-A league match, Vidarbha struck in the final minute through Rahul Kalakoti to snatch a thrilling 4-3 victory against Pune. Vidarbha started off on a positive note and raced to a 2-0 lead by the 11th minute. Captain S K Imran was on target in the third minute before Ejas Qureshi doubled the lead with another field goal. Pune fought back and hit the boards four minutes later through Deep Patel?s penalty corner conversion. But Sushil Kumar made sure that Vidarbha maintained their two-goal lead by scoring the third in the 23rd minute but once again Pune reduced the margin three minutes later through Jitendra Gawane. The second half saw more of midfield action before Pune managed to draw level by scoring their third goal through captain Amol Bhosale’s penalty corner strike in the 57th minute. With the match heading for a draw, Vidarbha came up with a last ditch effort and scored the winner through Kalakoti in the 70th minute. Results Pool-B: Dadra & Nagar Haveli 9 (Rohan Mhatre 2, Deepak Lakra, Naveen Kumar, Rajat Sharma, Swapnil Shinde, Kartik Sharma, Haridass, Pranav Mane) beat Goa 2 (Robert Gomes, Bhavesh Sawant). Mumbai 18 (Jayesh Jadhav 3, Osaf ur Rehman 3, Ganendrajit Ningombam 3, Davinder Walmiki 2, Victo Singh 2, Laxman Rao, Vijay Shankar Shukla, Irshad Mirza, Amit Gowda, Joshua Vessaonkar) beat Gujarat 0. Pool-A: Baroda 8 (Vijay Thappa 3, Deepak Pal, Vijay Rajbar, Ravendra Kumar, Mohammed Tabish, Jayant Kumar) beat Rural Maharashtra 2 (Rakesh Jadhav, Nilesh Ghatge). Vidarbha 4 (S.K. Imran, Ejas Qureshi, Sushil Kumar, Rahul Kalakoti) beat Pune DHA 3 (Deep Patel, Jitendra Gawane, Amol Bhosale). PTI