MUMBAI: Air India hammered Bhopal XI 20-0 to qualify as Group B topper at the 9th All India Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup hockey tournament here on Friday.

South Central Railway and Central Railway drew goalless in the second tie, both teams have one game in hand to clinch the second spot.

CR earned three short corners in succession during a burst of attacking hockey in the initial stage, forcing nine corners in all against one by SCR in the closing moments. The former (one point from two ties) face Bhopal and the latter (four points, two ties) run into AI in concluding games.

AI, which scored 10 goals in each session, got its goals through Taranjit Singh (five), M K Mudappa (four), Vinod Pillay, A.B. Cheeyana, Girish Pimpale, Len Aiyappa (two each), Mathias Minz, Ajmer Singh and Gurpreet Singh (one each).