Tamil Nadu, Haryana in National hockey semifinal
BHOPAL: Tamil Nadu and Haryana entered the semifinals of the 63rd Rangaswami Cup Senior National men’s hockey championship played at the Aishbagh Stadium.
Tamil Nadu defeated last year’s runner-up Delhi 3-1 while Haryana trounced SAIL 3-0 in a one-sided match on Wednesday.
Chandigarh and Mumbai have already qualified for the last-four stage, defeating their respective rivals’ hosts Madhya Pradesh and Punjab Wednesday morning.
Now, Tamil Nadu will take on Haryana while Mumbai will clash with Chandigarh on Thursday.
For Tamil Nadu, B Laxman scored a brilliant field goal in the 27th minute to give his side 1-0 lead but Amit Lochan of Delhi equalised it through a penalty corner in the 40th minute.
Later, the Tamil Nadu players played an attacking game which helped them to hit two more goals through A Arun and V Vinod in the 47th and 55th minutes by converting penalty corners and ensured their team’s victory by 3-1.
Till breather, Tamil Nadu led 1-0.
In another quarterfinal, Haryana players dominated the game right from the beginning and with the help of good moves and passes, struck two goals in the first half.
Kulbhushan Vashisht scored the first goal in the 16th minute through a penalty corner while Munish Rana put the ball in the net in the 29th minute.
In the second half, Somvir of Haryana hit another brilliant goal in the 63rd minute and gave his team an unassailable lead of 3-0.
At the end of the first half, Haryana led 2-0.