Jaskaran, Araijeet star as PSB hammer Defence Accounts

Jaskaran Singh scored five goals and Araijeet Singh Hundal added four as Punjab & Sind Bank thrashed Defence Accounts Sports Control Board 13-1 in the Hockey India Inter-Departmental Hockey Championship. Punjab National Bank, CBDT and CISF also registered victories in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Jaskaran Singh scored five goals as Punjab & Sind Bank thrashed Defence Accounts Sports Control Board 13-1 in the league phase of the Hockey India Inter-Departmental Hockey Championship at the Gachibowli Hockey Complex here on Sunday.

Araijeet Singh Hundal struck four goals for PSB as the bankers dominated the match from start to finish.

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In another Pool A match, Punjab National Bank defeated ITBP Central Hockey Team 6-1.

Elsewhere, skipper S Karthi helped Central Board of Direct Taxes beat Union Bank of India 3-1 in Pool C, while Central Industrial Security Force defeated Canara Bank 8-1 in a Pool D match.

Coached by Olympian Alloysius Edwards, Punjab & Sind Bank swamped the Defence Accounts defence and scored at will. The hapless Defence Accounts players struggled to contain the swift bankers for much of the match.

Jaskaran opened the scoring in the fourth minute, but Defence Accounts held firm and denied PSB any further goals in the opening quarter.

Thereafter, there was no stopping the bankmen as they scored three goals in the second quarter to take a 4-0 lead into the break.

PSB continued to press after the resumption and added four more goals. Defence Accounts finally pulled one back in the 40th minute when Happy scored a field goal.

The goal, however, only fuelled PSB’s attack as they struck five times in the final quarter to complete a 13-1 victory.

The results:

Pool A: Punjab National Bank 6 (Gursimran Singh, Prikshit Panchal, Toshant, Naveen Antil) beat ITBP Central Hockey Team 1 (Roshan); Punjab & Sind Bank 13 (Jaskaran Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Araijeet Singh Hundal) beat Defence Accounts Sports Control Board 1 (Happy).

Pool C: Central Board of Direct Taxes 3 (S Karthi) beat Union Bank of India 1 (Babu Venkati Metkar).

Pool D: Central Industrial Security Force 8 (Govind Singh Bisht, Nithin, Fahad Khan, Mahakdeep Singh, Vishaljit Singh) beat Canara Bank 1 (Aryan Uthappa).