Lucknow Nawabs and Delhi Dazzlers registered wins in the opening lower division encounters of the first Premier Hockey League (PHL) here Friday.

While Lucknow Nawabs defeated Bengal Tigers 4-2 in the opening encounter of Tier II, Delhi Dazzlers beat Imphal Rangers 6-4.

Gurcharan Singh scored five goals, including a fine hat-trick, for Delhi Dazzlers.

Delhi coach Rajinder Singh introduced Navbir Singh midway through the first quarter of 17 and a half minutes and he changed the whole complexion of the game.

It was Imphal Rangers who took the lead in the third minute through a field goal from M. Chittaranjan, but Delhi converted their first short corner through Raju and went ahead a minute later when Gurucharan shot home a field goal to open his account.

Early in the second quarter, the Rangers came back strongly with Chittaranjan adding one more to his name off the team's second penalty corner.

But it was Gurcharan who stole the limelight scoring the next three goals in the 22nd, 26th and 32nd, the last coming from a field effort.

Then, old war horse Brojen Singh showed glimpses of his skills as he scored a brilliant goal off a cross from the right to make it 5-3. But later, Tomba Singh took a ball on the body while trying to guard an open goal after an onrushing Rangers goalie Robindro Singh was beaten.

The resultant penalty stroke was converted by Dazzlers' Gurcharan to make it five goals for himself and 6-3 for Delhi.

Tomba's short-corner success in the 69th minute could only reduce the margin for Rangers, for a final result of 6-4 in favour of Delhi Dazzlers.

Bengal Tigers took the lead through Anil Ekka in the 15th minute, but the Nawabs restored parity immediately, when Kamlesh struck in the 28th minute.

Nawabs then took the lead through a brilliant reverse-hit goal by Imtiyaz Ahmed in the 34th minute, a minute before the end of the second quarter.

Kamlesh then scored his second goal for the Nawabs, five minutes into the third quarter, and skipper Rajneesh Mishra's direct hit off a set-piece drill made it 4-1 in their favour.

Arbind Kumar's strike, a minute from end, helped the Bengal Tigers pull one back with 4-2 but it was no consolation.

After the initial hiccups, the Lucknow team fell in groove while the Bengal Tigers struggled to combine and failed to pierce the Nawabs' strong defence.