HNB ‘A’ and Commercial Bank Win
Hatton National Bank ‘A’ and Commercial Bank won their respective 2nd round matches in the Mercantile ‘A’ Division Hockey tournament played on the 26th of May at the Astro Turf.
HNB ‘A’ drubbed Sampath Bank by 10 goals to 1 in the first game after leading 4-1 at half time. N.Mahara scored in the 7th and 23rd minute while Damith Bandara and R.Wickramasinghe scored in the 11th and 13th minute respectively to give them a clear lead in the first half.
In the second half, HNB ‘A’ completely outplayed their opponents to score six more goals from the sticks of U. Gunatillaka (2), N. Mahara (1), U. Fernando (1), D. Bandara (2) and D. Thilanka (1).
Sampath Bank’s solitary goal was scored by S. Ushantha.
In the second game Commercial Bank ‘A’ beat MAS Holdings by 3 goals to 1 in an exciting encounter. The winners led 2-0 at half time. J.Vithanage scored in the tenth minute off a penalty stroke and M.Sapugasgoda dribbled his way to score in the 27th minute and the third goal by S.Fabian in the dying stages sealed the game in favour of Commercial.
MAS scored their goal in the sixth minute of the second half through S.Kuthubdeen off a brilliant pass by Abeetha Fernando; the duo played a tireless game for MAS.
The ‘B’ Division 2nd round matches began with the game between Commercial Bank ‘B’ and Nations Trust Bank while Allianz Insurance met Browns Group.
Commercial Bank ‘B’ overcame Nations Trust Bank by 5 goals to 1. Commercial Bank ‘B’ went into an early lead in the fourth minute with R.Elahena netting a goal. The second goal in the 14th minute by J.Dullewa saw the score at 2-0 at one stage. NTB scored through Dennis Sirimanne in the 24th minute to make it 2-1 at half time. A hat trick of goals in the second half by Gihan Madanayake gave Commercial Bank the win.
In the second game Allianz Insurance outclassed Browns by 11 goals to 3. The winners led 3-1 at half time.
Browns opened the scoring when Thilina Ruwan sounded the board in the 2nd minute but M.Pushpakumar scored in the third minute for Allianz Insurance to equalize the score. Two more goals by L.Marasinghe and N.Rambukpotha took Allianz to the break well on top.
Allianz Insurance scored eight more goals in the 2nd half with their star player Gihan Peiris scoring four goals, including a hat trick. N.Rambukpotha, L.Marasinghe, M.Pushpakumar, and R.De Silva scored one each to give Allianz an easy victory.
Seylan Bank emerged ‘C’ Division champs by beating HSBC by 3 goals to 1 in the final conducted by the Mercantile Hockey Association played on the 26th of May at the Astro Turf.
Seylan Bank went into an early lead in the 9th minute of play when C. De Zoysa netted the goal off a pass by right extreme Chamil. J. Irshad scored the second goal for Seylan Bank as they took a 2-0 lead at half time.
HSBC with some attacking spirit in the second half saw S.Mohamed sounding the board in the 43rd minute to make it 2-1.
Seylan Bank’s match winner J.Irshad playing intelligently scored his second goal in the 52nd minute to give Seylan Bank a 3-1 victory.
