Assam players congratulate Chingle Sana Singh (second from right) after he scored the equaliser against Punjab at M. Tayebulla Hockey Stadium on Saturday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Feb. 10: Hosts Assam opened their men’s hockey campaign in the 33rd National Games here, defeating defending champions Punjab 5-3 in a Pool B match at M. Tayebulla Hockey Stadium here today.

It was the second day of upsets for Punjab after they went down to Meghalaya 1-2 in their campaign opener football match at NF Railway Stadium here yesterday.

In the last fixture of the day, Punjab won the toss and were dominant in the first session with international Gagandeep Singh striking with a field goal in the 10th minute. However, the visitors squandered several more opportunities in the first half.

C.S. Singh of Assam restored the parity, cashing in on a penalty corner in the 32nd minute to keep the match evenly poised at breather. In the second half, Punjab found the lead again through Satwinder Singh’s stick in the 54th minute.

However, the celebrations in the Punjab bench was shortlived as Th. Brojen Singh equalised for Assam through another penalty corner the very next minute.

International Samir Dadfashioned the lead for the hosts with a 57th minute field goal, which was equalised by Gagandeep Singh off a penalty corner in the 61st minute.

Two minutes later, Samir struck again, ensuring the lead for Assam, which was further consolidated by another field goal by Sanjib Singh in the 65th minute.

In the earlier matches today, Services got the better of Maharashtra 2-1 in the men’s lung opener while Delhi blanked Tamil Nadu 2-0 in the second tie of the day.

Chandigarh played a 1-1 draw with Orissa in the third match of the day.

However, the match witnessed a controversial marching order to Jujjar Singh due to which the fate of the match remained undecided.

Officials said the tournament committee would meet over it later tonight. In other disciplines, hosts Assam went down to Kerala in women’s volleyball campaign opener.

Cycling

Assam opened their medals tally with bronze in both men and women’s 1,500-metre team time trial in cycling. The men’s team comprised Aimson Singh, Jayanta Singh, Vikram Singh and Amit Sabrewal, while the women team comprised Himajyoti Gogoi, Abhina Kumari, Sunita Devi and H. Dinita Devi.

The Manipur women’s team of Rameswari Devi, N. Chauba Devi, H. Tombiana Devi and Y. Anita Devi clinched the women’s gold. Punjab, who bagged the first gold of the National Games in the men’s event, bagged the silver. In men’s track, Andhra Pradesh bagged the silver.