Hockey: Haryana enter quarters

Haryana entered the quarterfinals of the 63rd Rangaswami Cup Senior National Men’s Hockey Championship after crushing Karnataka 3-1 at the Aishbagh Stadium here. With this, Haryana has become the sixth team to book a berth in the quarterfinals.

The other teams which have already entered the last eight are Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Punjab and hosts Madhya Pradesh State Hockey Academy (MPSHA), Bhopal.

For Haryana, Kulbhushan and Sandeep Kumar converted penalty corners in the 23rd and 37th minutes respectively.

However, Mudappa of Karnataka hit a brilliant field goal in the 57th minute to reduce the margin.

Later, the players of Karnataka tried their best to equalise the score but could not do so despite good moves and passes.

Naveen Antil of Haryana struck a brilliant field goal in the 68th minute and completed the tie for his side.

In another fixture, Delhi trounced Pondicherry 5-1. For Delhi, Virendra Sharma scored first goal in the 28th minute but within two minutes Pondicherry equalised through Prasanna.

In the second half, the Delhi players cut loose and hit four goals in a span of 11 minutes through Virendra, Mohit, Pradeep Kumar, Piyush and Sarvan in the 56th, 59th, 60th and 67th minutes respectively.

In other matches, Jharkhand humiliated Tripura 7-1 and Madhya Bharat beat Andhra Pradesh 6-1. — PTI