Nilakanta scores twice as Manipur storms into quarterfinals of Senior Men’s National Hockey

Nilakanta converted a stroke in the dying minutes for Manipur to beat Bengal and earn a spot in the final eight, on goal difference, at the Senior National Men’s Championship.

Nilakanta Sharma (Red jersey-8) Manipur Hockey scores against Hockey Bengal during at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu

Manipur drew with Bengal 3-3 in a Pool E match of the Hockey India 13th Senior National Men’s Championship here on Thursday, topping the group and entering the quarterfinals on better goal difference - 19 to Bengal’s 14.

It was a riveting contest with both teams -- with two wins each in the group -- going all out for a victory. Bengal fought back brilliantly from a 0-2 deficit to equalise 2-2, and was leading 3-2 before India player Nilakanta Sharma converted a stroke in the dying minutes.

Manipur was in the driver’s seat leading 2-0 at the end of the first two quarters. Bengal came into its own in the third quarter as it attacked relentlessly on both flanks and earned three penalty corners, which however, couldn’t be converted.

Bengal appeared undeterred and continued to mount a wave of attacks. Nitish Neupane deflected in a cross from the sidelines by Dhananjoy Meetei and then Rajendra Oram scored off a penalty stroke to make it 2-2.

Bengal went into raptures when Nitish deceived a defender to sweep one past the ‘keeper Birjit Charoibam Singh. The joy was shortlived as Nilakanta scored off a stroke to ensure Manipur reach the knock-outs.

The last list of group matches will be on Friday before the quarterfinals on Saturday.

The results:

Pool E: Manipur 3 (Ningombam Jenjen Singh 2, Nilakanta Sharma 25, 60) drew with Bengal 3 (Nitish Neupane 48, 56, Rajendra Oram 54); MP 13 (Mohd. Nizamuddin 5, 16, 36, Shaun Glen Gladwin 6, Akshay Dubey 12, 25, Arjun Sharma 18, 21, Satyam Swamy 29, Himanshu Naik 46, Sourabh Pashine 50, 55, Swapnil Kawadkar 57).

Pool F: Chandigarh 6 (Maninder Singh 3, 19, 42, 51, Vishaljit Singh 9, 11) bt AP 2 (Pramod Siva Galla 28, 54).