After a long day of hockey, with 8 matches on the run, the qualifying rounds come to an end at Astro Hockey Turfs.
With a very early start time, the first match to be played for the day was played between Mercantile and Kegalle teams. Entering the hockey turf at 6.45am, the energetic players were off to a quick start. Mercantile managed to get into the score board within the first 10 minutes of the game. This start ended up with them scoring 19 goals against Kegalle while the latter were struggling score at least one goal. It was a slam down by Mercantile.
Surely the tremendous performance by Mercantile in the first match itself earned them a spot in the quarter finals rounds, yet the second battle between Mercantile and Colombo was also breathtaking. At 5-1 Mercantile managed to continue the winning spirit limiting Colombo at 1 goal. This ended Colombo’s spell while securing the spot for Mercantile in the quarter-finals.
Air force and Matara were two other strong teams who had similar final scores in their first matches for the day: 06 – 00. Air Force managed their victory over University team and Matara battled down Gampaha. In comparison though both the games reached similar endings Air Force had an easy edge over University compared to that of Matara. Gampaha was a team who had a tight grip of the game yet the second half changes the game around.
Kandy played three matches for the day, being the team to play most number of matches. Entering the turf at 8 in the morning to battle it out with N.S.H.A, Kandy were the ones to play the last of the day too. Kandy was off to very good start with the match against N.S.H.A. winning with a final score of 6-1. Yet Kandy struggled a lot in the second match against Wennapuwa. This was still a victory on to Kandy, scoring one goal in the final minutes of the game. Since then the Kandy spell faded with time.
The last match saw Kandy unable to score any goals vs Schools. Considering the long day they were still very strong at their play. by the half time itself Schools scored 5 goals against Kandy. The second half of the game was another intense round with Schools going on to score 3 more goals wrapping up with a 8-0 victory.
The quarter finalists of the Men’s’ Senior Nationals are Army, Matale, Mercantile, University, Police, Air Force and Schools.
