<
>

Indian Sports highlights, Dec 16: Zaragoza's first BFC win, India fourth in Jr Hockey World Cup

Indian men's junior hockey team. Hockey India

ESPN India's daily live blog is your handy guide for everything to do with the wide world of Indian sport. We have the latest updates and analysis from the entire bouquet of Olympic and franchise sports with an Indian bent. The blog is updated throughout the day, so keep checking back to catch up on news you may have missed.

Here are all the key updates from December 16, Saturday:


ISL: East Bengal and Mumbai share spoils

Mumbai City's new boss Petr Kratky oversaw a goalless draw to begin his spell, as East Bengal showed plenty of resilience in earning a point at the Mumbai Football Arena. The hosts had the better of the position and fashioned greater chances, but were unable to breach Carles Cuadrat's backline.

The result left Mumbai fourth in the table, while East Bengal climbed to seventh.


India's hockey pain continues

The Indian men's hockey team lost their opener of the 5 Nation tournament in Valencia, Spain by a narrow margin, but were completely destroyed by Belgium tonight, who ran out 7-2 winners. Abhishek and Jugraj Singh found the net for India, as three braces from Thibeau Stockbroekx, Alexander Hendrickx and Tom Boon coupled with the opening minute goal from Cedric Charlier proved enough for Belgium.


PKL: Pune, Delhi win

Puneri Paltan were roared on by their home crowd and they stunned table-toppers Bengal Warriors by a 49-19 scoreline. The result meant Puneri Paltan climbed to third in the table, while the Warriors retained their spot at the top of the table.

Telugu Titan's fifth consecutive loss proved to be much the same story, with Pawan Sehrawat's valiant 14 points not enough as they went down 40-51 to Dabang Delhi. Naveen 'Express' Kumar grabbed 14 points too, but it was Ashu Malik's 16 pts that propelled Delhi to the win and eighth in the table.


Hockey: India finish fourth

A Sunil Jojo goal from a penalty corner was not enough for India as Spain scored three field goals (Nicolas Alvarez with two and Pau Petchame) to take third place in the Jr. men's hockey world cup earlier today. The match saw low PC conversion (India won 9 and Spain 5) but Spain's attacking play were rewarded with their field goal conversion coming up trumps. Alvarez opened the scoring before Jojo equalised but a goal in each of the last two quarters saw India consigned to a fourth place finish.


ISL: Zaragoza starts with a win

Bengaluru FC edged past Jamshedpur FC 1-0 thanks to a Javi Hernandez penalty just before half-time (44th min). Playing a 4-4-2 diamond, with Sivasakthi Narayan and Sunil Chhetri up-top, Bengaluru were the dominant side for the vast majority of the match. Jamshedpur rallied towards the end, but it was too little too late. While not exactly a very encouraging performance, three points is exactly what the new manager would have wanted on debut.

East Bengal's men side, meanwhile, will face Mumbai in the Mumbai Football Arena later today. (kickoff at 8 PM).


IWL: Kickstart get the better of East Bengal

A hattrick from Karishma Purushottam Shirvoikar was more than enough to see last year's finalists Kickstart win their second match in two, beating East Bengal 3-1. Sulanjana Raul scored a consolation for the away side. East Bengal shaded the possession but the shots attempted statistic highlights Kickstart's dominance: the winners had 17 shots to East Bengal's 6.


Adrian Luna injury update

If you're a Kerala Blasters fan (or just a fan of good football), this won't come as good news. Adrian Luna, the all-in-all magician of the Blasters has just undergone a "minor arthroscopic surgery" for a "chondral knee injury", the club announced in a statement today.

Now a chondral knee injury is an injury to the cartilage of the knee, which can sometimes be accompanied by the dreaded injury to the knee's ACL but we do not know the extent of Luna's knee injury. What we do know is that in his absence, Blasters' coach Ivan Vukomanovic is faced with quite the task. Luna is the chief creator, chief pressing trigger, and essentially his general on the pitch, and not having him around will take some coaching to manage.

The Blasters had no timeline for his return but the ISL viewer would wish him nothing but a speedy recovery, and a quick return to the pitches he lights up so often.


What happened yesterday?

  • Both the senior Indian men's and women's hockey teams began their five nation tournaments in Spain with losses to the hosts. The women lost 2-3, while the men lost 0-1.

  • Mohun Bagan Super Giant beat NorthEast 3-1 to continue their unbeaten run so far in ISL 10.

  • U Mumba beat Patna Pirates 42-40 in the first game of the PKL's Pune leg, while the hosts Puneri Paltan lost 39-44 to Haryana Steelers.

You can check all the details of yesterday's news events here.