Sri Lanka Army, Mercantile and Police advanced to the semi-finals as Air Force and Navy quarter-final match was put off due to bad light in The National Hockey Championship worked off at Astro Turf, from 22-24th continued yesterday.
Sri Lanka Police, Sri Lanka Army and Mercantile found semi-final births. However the Airforce – Navy match was pushed back to the next day because of the weather. Scores were 1-0 to SL Air Force.
Sri Lanka Air Force’s D Dissanayake scored off a penalty corner to give Air Force first points. Both teams battled fiercely missing a few hits to the nets at both end to no avail when bad light brought a halt to the days proceedings.
Earlier on the Mercantile team powered over the Combined University team 9-0. Anju Hewage scored one of the goals and D M Bandara slotted in three. The Sri Lanka Army beat Matale 6-0. P M Cremer netted two goals and R A Ratnaweera, C A Welagedara, U G Kumara and M B Gunawardene got in one each
The young lads from the Sri Lanka Schools team put up a herculean effect against the power-packed Sri Lanka Police team next. Though Police slammed in 4 to Sri Lanka Schools 1, it was a gutsy performance by the lads with Imad Musammil the only scorer. For Sri Lanka Police the goal scorers were Saman Jayalath (2), Thilina Perera (1) and Wimansa Anjana (1)
