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Services, Bombay score big victories

Formidable Services and Bombay started off their campaign in rousing fashion, raining goals against their opponents in league matches of the Tata's 30th Junior National Hockey Championships on the opening day in Bangalore today.

Services thrashed lowly Maharashtra 14-1 in Pool 'D', while Bombay, spurred by a hat-trick from Asad Khan, toyed with Himachal Pradesh before winning 6-1 in Pool 'B'.

In another match in Pool A, Pondicherry sped past Rajasthan 5-1.

For Services, forwards Basu Horo (34th, 38th and 57th minutes), Ajay Kumar (9th, 50th and 62nd), B Barla (1st, 43rd and 66th) and substitute Devki Nandan (59th, 61st and 67th) scored three goals apiece, while skipper, international Cyprian Aind (39th) and substitute Arun Minj (45th) accounted for the other two. For Maharashtra, Sachin Shelar scored when he convered a penalty-stroke in the 40th minute.

Four superb goals by Asad Khan, the first hat-trick of the championship, saw Bombay race to victory. Asad found the target twice in each half, scoring in the 16th, 19th, 40th and 49th minutes. Captain Viren Rasquina (41st) and Sunil Singh (53rd) were the other scorers for Bombay, who led 2-0 at half-time. Harpinder Singh pulled one back for HP eight minutes from the final hooter.

Bombay should have won by a bigger margin but they failed to convert any of the nine penalty-corners that came their way.

UNI