The final match of the 8th Hockey India junior men national championship 2018 (B Division) took place in Bhopal at the Aish Bagh Hockey Stadium on Saturday which saw Karnataka earning themselves promotion to the A Division as they beat Bihar 5-4 in an entertaining encounter.
The final match saw Karnataka take an early lead in the 5th minute through Pavan Madiwalar which was cancelled out three minutes later by Bihar’s Sachin Dungdung (8’). Bihar then took the lead in the 10th minute through Johnson Purty but Karnataka equalised in the 13th minute through CS Shamanth.
The two teams played well in the opening half and scored a goal each as Pavan Madiwalar (27’) scored his second goal for Karnataka while Bihar’s skipper Anand Kumar Bara (35’) scored for his team.
The second half saw Bihar take a 4-3 lead after 46 minutes through Sanchit Horo’s goal but Karnataka struck back in the final 11 minutes to score twice through BN Chelsea Medappa (59’) and Pavan Madiwalar (65’) and seal the victory.
Whereas, the 3rd/4th classification match saw Coorg defeat Andhra Hockey Association 4-3 in another close encounter here in Bhopal. Coorg went into the half-time break with a 2-1 lead as MP Ashik Uthappa (6’) and F Noel Robinson (15’) scored for them while Siva Boya (10’) scored the goal for Andhra Hockey Association.
The second half saw both teams score two goals each which meant that Coorg won the match 4-3. Goals for Coorg were scored by F Noel Robinson (41’) and skipper B Yathish Kumar (66’) while Loknath Uravakonda (61’) and Jaswanth Kumar Yamala (68’) scored for Andhra Hockey Association.
